Hey-la, another one-day weekend come and gone. Gosh, they go by so fast! I wonder why?
I have, finally, scheduled some vacation time for next month. I passed up two already-set vacation weeks earlier this year, since we had huge ongoing projects and the Layoff Fairy was hitting pretty hard. Sure, they'll pull the plug on you as readily when you are there as when you're not, but you've got a better chance to clear out your desk yourself and make sure your ex-peers know about the stuff you have been having to kick once a week to keep running. The loss of institutional knowledge means nothing to thew accountants and executive, but the to techs left behind, a few clues can make a world of difference.
But if there were/are too many of us, why am I working so many weekends?
Update
4 days ago
5 comments:
"But if there were/are too many of us, why am I working so many weekends? "
Is a puzzlement. And seems to be one many people in many industries are asking right now. (I have taken on a new class for the fall that I am barely marginally qualified to teach, because the person who WAS qualified to teach it retired, and we don't really have money to hire anyone new)
A close friend is a wrench-slinger at the local plant. They have gone back-and-forth over the years between "don't pay overtime--hire more employees" and "just pay overtime--don't hire more employees." My buddy has racked up five figures in OT alone during the first six months of 2017. Heckuva way to run a railroad.
"But if there were/are too many of us, why am I working so many weekends? "
I'm guessing because you haven't been squeezed quite dry enough yet. But that's just me.
If there is too much of anyone, it is probably executives, administrators and managers. While I admire your work ethic, the only way to get rid of infestation of bureaucrats is to give them what they want. If they lay you off, quietly pack your stuff and leave.
Remember the old joke with the punch line, "knowing where to use the hammer"?
When the operation falls apart and they start calling, offer to come fix it for a fee; say $250 or $350 an hour. The executives and administrators will have kittens but they pay it because there is no one to fix it and paying a new hire to fix it will cost more.
"Hire another technician? Nawww, tighten screws on one we've got."
That usually works okay until the "one we've got" goes hard down medically. (Ask my former employer how this works. My manager didn't want my notes on the peculiarities of every machine in my territory. I waited ten days, shredded them and never looked back. )
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