Last night
one of my colleagues was at the office until 1am. And I am pretty sure she was not at the office futzing around and doing nothing. I find this impossible to fathom. And not just because I have a daughter that I need to pick up from day care by 6pm.
My job is okay. It is stable, family friendly, and I have
a few co-workers that I actually enjoy. It is flexible (I work 7:45-4:30), they pay me well, and I think, for the most part, my efforts are appreciated. It is not, however, worth staying until the wee hours. 99.9% of the time I am out the door at 4:30, exactly.
I can't remember the last time I had a job or a work project that I did whatever it took to get it done, shifting my priorities, even briefly. Are my expectations too low for a job? Should I be doing something that I really want to do enough that I work until all hours (aside from motherhood)? Do I need an attitude adjustment (okay, probably)?
5 comments:
I had an interview scheduled at 5:30 last night and I was totally hating it. But in a year and a half of working here it's the first night I stayed late and I stayed over 15 minutes before I cut it short and ran out... LOL
But I used to have a job, when I was a single mother, where I stayed late every day... worked weekends, was known to leave at 2:00 in the morning... Never again!
My old job (also pre baby job) I would come in at 9am and work until 6 or 7 and normally I would work through lunch (I was suppose to be there 9am-5pm and I was allowed to take an hour lunch). I would also work some on Saturday. I was busy and there was a lot of work to do. Now that I have a 2 year old I have 8-5 job with 1 hour lunch and I don't work much more than that. My biggest reason for not working through my lunch or leaving right at 5pm is that they don't have enough work for me to do. I work in an attorney's office and our office manager is always working - but she does not have a life. She has no kids at home and her husband is only home on the weekends - so what else is she going to do. I do wonder what keeps her so busy and not me.
Well, it's kind of like LP is your job now! You do whatever it takes to get things done, shift your priorities everyday for her, and I think it's great that it doesn't seem like work!
I think it's important to love your job and want to do it well, but you should be able to get it done within reasonable hours most nights. And if you can't, the company needs to staff better or differently to figure out why the work isn't getting done. I love what I do and have logged plenty of late nights over the years, but if it was the norm - not an exception - I'd find something else.
OH Darlin'! Screw attitude adjustment! NO JOB, I repeat, no job is worth sticking around for those kinds of hours even if you love it and have nothing else to do with your time.
The fact is, that as Americans, we work way too much and end up missing out on the best things in life. That kind of spreading oneself thin is why hundreds of thousands of people suffer from all kinds of aliments and die early .... of stress. There's a reason why the rest of the world looks at us completely confused with a huge duh-huh on their faces when they hear how much we work!
Now, (hypocrite talking here) I have been known to blog until the wee hours, but that's my downtime and part of my fun.
You suck. You totally called me out on this one.
I'm going to either have to (a) live in the hall of shame; (b) delegate more work to you - in totality, not just the little discrete tasks I usually give you; or (c) accept this is my life and realize I'm not really unhappy about it.
I do think I need to stop leaving voice mails and emails late at night so none of you will know how late I work!!
(pause a moment while I stick my tongue out at you!)
Oh, and one more thing...I'm just as incredulous of women who are mothers putting in the hours and the efforts they do. I'd never say my job is as important as raising a human being...but I would say that I hope the efforts I put in helps balance it out somehow.
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