Overtime

It happens quickly. Within a couple days of starting overtime I begin to feel the drag of too much thinking and too little sleeping. This bout of overtime was not too bad. The rest of my world has been accommodating. Natalie is understanding. Elle misses me a bit. It could be much worse. It so happens I missed a day of vacation last Friday, but I didn't have to work the first weekend of Faire. That would have sucked.

The work I've been doing is not fun. However, I do understand what I'm doing. I think I"m doing a pretty good job of it. Of course, the back log of tasks is building up. I'll have plenty to do the next couple of weeks. This will not stop more from poring in. Hey, that's why I'm here. I won't turn the money down either.

When I used to work in the printing industry, overtime was unpaid and involved long relentless trains of plots. Stacks of huge copies of vellum or mylar. Vellum will not stack properly even if you have many copies. They stick to each other and will not fall in to line. Mylar will cut your hand to the point of stitches. A couple of people at my old job could show you the scars of trying to organize mylar jobs. Not only would they cut you, but the static electricity would shock you and make the plots stick together like glue.

At my last office job with a huge company, overtime involved being there to fix problems while a bunch of other people tried to finish up a messed up job. I was in a support role, so I didn't get a whole lot of overtime. When I did it was because something was already wrong and people were already standing around waiting for it to get fixed before they could get their job done.

Those past experiences made me hate overtime with a passion. At this job at least the overtime comes as part of the projects. I'm part of something larger, a single goal. More than likely, others are working extra in tandem with me. That helps greatly with my moral. It is good to feel part of the greater goal. If I ever am in charge of people I must remember to make sure every one feels like they are part of the same solution regardless of their specific task.