I know everyone is wondering where I've been for the past three days, and you probably assume that I've been partying like crazy. That's an easy assumption to make for anyone who knows me, but in actuality I've been working all weekend. In fact, let's see... today is the 29th day in a row that I've worked.
On the plus side, all the managers were on vacation for the 4th of July, so I was actually able to get some work done. Now that it's Monday we're back to the three hours-of-meetings-per-day routine (no joke). It's amazing to me that managers at a technology company don't understand how engineers work. Meetings suck my life force, and it can take a considerable amount of time and concentration to get back into the engineering groove; by the time I'm actually being productive again, it's time for another meeting.
So, I look forward to working on the weekends; come to think of it, I'd happily trade weekends for having Thursday and Friday off, as long as management kept a regular schedule. It's very frustrating to be kept from doing real work due to meetings and administrative nonsense, even when it's only the necessary amount of nonsense. At times like this, however, when there are [counting on fingers] 8 managers for every 3 engineers on the project, it gets to be a bit suffocating.
I've managed engineers (before all the recent layoffs) and it's really not hard to coax productivity from productive people: give them clear, unwavering directions; leave them alone; repeat.
Nothing quite like crunching for a deadline to get focus. Don't you just love how non-tech-workers stare, agape, asking "you work weekends? Voluntarily?"
As a friend of mine once observed, management doesn't really mind unproductivity as long as they get daily updates on exactly fast work isn't getting done.
Well, I get paid to work weekends -- I'm a consultant, otherwise I wouldn't do it.
The motto here seems to be "There isn't time to do it right, but there's always time to do it again." I'm sure I didn't make that up, but I don't remember where I heard it.
Exactly, that's the magic to it. If you're going to work in an industry where 60 hour weeks are the norm, at least make sure you're getting paid for your time.
My life quality improved dramatically when I made the decision to drop my salaried job. Ironically enough, I now consult for my former employer and make 50% more per hour than they were originally paying me and get paid for all the time I work. Can't argue with that.
Now, if I can just find some way to talk the IRS out of taking half of it...
Yeah, I but that's what charitable donations are for. Keeps the government's grubby hands off my money.