This week should be interesting.
Due to an incredible overabundance of work coming into our department, I have been conscripted into overtime. I have a friend, who shall remain nameless (*cough*Josh*cough*), who simply does not understand my views on overtime. Let me break it down for you.
I have been hired to do a job. Not my career, just a job. I take away very little satisfaction from what I do on a daily basis while here, since this is not what I wish to do for the rest of my life. (I'm not sure there's a person alive who *would* want to do this for the rest of their life, but I digress.) I look at the job as being nothing more than a source of money. I don't spend even one second longer in this office than is absolutely necessary. If I could run out to my car without looking like a complete idiot, I would just to shave off a few minutes. My time away from here is worth far more to me than the time I spend at the desk.
My view on money plays into this too. I'm one of those people for whom money is an object, and nothing more than an object. I have a little, enough so that I can have what I need, when I need it. As long as I have that, I'm fine, perfectly happy. To paraphrase certain lines made famous by a recent version of The Joker: I'm a man of simple taste. I enjoy Internet access, online games, and an available typewriter with paper in it. Do you know the one thing they have in common? They're cheap.
Therefore, given my view of my work, and my view of money, it naturally follows that extra time spent at my desk is a unique form of torture for me. Let me underline it one more time: I don't want to be here. The fact that they're willing to pay me extra to stay is irrelevant, since I don't want or need the money. What I want and need is to be home with my wife, or my friends if she has a class that night, healing from the day.
I hope that helps my readers to understand me a little more. I do have honest, solid reasons for overtime distaste, I'm not just whining about it to hear my own voice work.
My work days all this week begin at 6:00am. (That means I'm up at 5:00am and out the door by 5:30am.)
Monday and Wednesday I should be home by 5:00pm.
Tuesday, Thursday and Friday I should be home by 6:00pm.
That's 13 additional hours spent in the office this week, about $300 additional on the paycheck. Should I survive it, I have no idea what I'll spend the money on.
7 comments:
And that is why you married me. *laughs*
My trouble is that I hate perpetual work. I prefer projects. A start, a development, a production. Thankfully, I am working toward a career that is more or less patterned this way.
I wish we could both find work more suited to our creative bent. Or at least one where we could be comfortable and warm.
You have it worse than I do, so I'm not out to play Comparison Woes, because I know I lose.
But to me, work is work. Why would I want to do any more than it necessary?
I don't want to go into design because I'll make more money. I want to go into design because I like combining artistic assets with problem solving. The best of both sides of my brain.
We've always shared that attitude toward money. That's why we aren't anywhere close to affluent, because it isn't a "god" to us. We all have our false gods, but wealth doesn't call us too strongly.
Without the desire for more, we don't go out of our way to get more. If it comes our way, so be it.
I doubt I'll shoot for the top design house when I've graduated. That isn't what I dream of. The huge, corporate clients? Pfft. Not for me.
I'd rather help a smaller business become more than it is, or work for non-profits that promote education, art, culture, history, et cetera.
Okay, so if Target ever hired me, I'd be happy. So maybe there are a few monsters I wouldn't mind slaving for!
ANYWAY...
As far as the bonus money, why don't we put it aside and have a small holiday? We could rent that loft downtown for a few days. Even a weekend.
I think we both need to completely unplug, strip down to nothing, and free-float for a bit. Not too long, just for a short time.
Yes? No?
I think that is a big thing that differs the two of us and the two of you. We have jobs we like to do. Work is a big part of day, so why do something you despise? It's a career for us, not just a job. If occasionally one of us needs to work over or bring work home, it's not a big deal. Every job has things you don't like about it.
His overtime thing stems from 2 places. First running into rough times. If money is tight, then I think we'd both agree that any overtime opportunity that came available would be taken. We've had more than our fair share of rough times, even if you wouldn't know it by looking at us now.
The second things comes from his inability to say no, which I admit has improved dramatically the past year.
Money is a tool, it gets you where you want to be. If you have to work a little harder occasionally to get there sooner, what's the problem? It is only problem is when you stop doing it for yourself and start doing it to impress people or to fit in.
Mm. It can be a problem if you value free time over money, as I do (and I believe Jason is the same. He's always saying he'll pay more if he gets something quicker).
I'm not sure I'd ever willingly put in overtime hours. Even when I'm neck-deep in a design project and I'm into it, when the clock strikes five, I'm gone. I unplug. I will put in the time if I'm forced to, but you'd never see me offering to come in on a Saturday, for instance.
That's just how I'm wired. I think we must have some French in our family history that's manifested entirely in me. Hah!
Money is a tool, yes. Some people want that nice Craftsman with the ergo-grip and the titanium-alloy head and some of us are happy with the rusted number they picked up at the Dollar General ten years ago. A man that wants to build furniture as a pastime is going to want a nicer hammer than the bloke who might need it to assemble a new table every decade or so (when he bought the last one).
The amount one's willing to work might be based off of passion, it might be based off of less patience when it comes to amassing funds. You've said the inverse of what I did. In the ABSENCE of a desire for quick wealth, you're not going to care about putting in all those hours.
You get Jason and I on a story or an MMO, and we'll sink plenty of time into that. I think it'd take some damn amazing work to move us to enjoying OT. :)
I mean, we're talking...very creative work.
Last evening in the car, I thought of some of the types of jobs that might inspire me to labor excessive hours. I talked it out, complete with reactions! People on the highway must've thought I was insane. XD
"Ms. Mack? We represent cocoebiz and Sakuraba-san would really enjoy it if you would design his next album over."
or
"Mr. ----- is putting in his bid for the presidential candidacy. His campaign is going to focus on minimizing government and expanding upon Mr. Obama's so-called pledge for transparency. He also wants to reduce the work week to 35 hours. We want you to…"
(IRONY!)
"Dear God, why did we hire Wolff Olins to design our logo?" -Wacom
or
"So we're making a Castlevania movie, and we want you to be our art director."
I also thought of something else on my drive in yesterday, and I meant to post it last night.
I think I wouldn't mind "overtime" so much if I knew I wasn't working for someone. I've never liked having a superior to answer to, especially when they more or less have full control over your actions at work.
I've noticed that most people who gladly work overtime, either are freelancing or have a good rapport with their superiors. Or they're workaholics like my mother. She comes in early and stays late every work day, and often comes in on Saturdays.
I don't particularly admire that and I certainly don't want to emulate it. She has a powerful work ethic and I don't.
She doesn't even have a "price" because she's salary. She just does it out of a sense of duty.
I take after my father, who's a bit more mercenary. He expects to be paid for his extra work.
And that returns me to my earlier statements. I think I would be more tempted to work OT if I was offered PTO, rather than extra pay. As in, "work two hours OT today and you can leave two hours early tomorrow."
I've done that a few times, and my mother's mouth drops open. She just can't understand it. Why wouldn't I take the extra dough?
Because I don't care about it. I don't need it. I would, however, like an afternoon to take a nap, play a little more of X-game, and put the laundry away.
What is your price?
I essentially share your philosophy on work, to the extent that I can.
When I worked at Verizon, I was once asked by management if I enjoyed my job. I explained to them in no uncertain terms, if I enjoyed it, you wouldn't have to pay me to do it, so my enjoyment or lack thereof is irrelevant. You pay me to do this job, I do this job, to the best of my ability, and absolutely no more and no less. This attitude may not have endeared me to management, but it DID mean that short of unfair treatment or being forced to work overtime (or, believe it or not, worse... being forced to take time off... sometimes, I couldn't afford it, you know?), I did my job as well as I could and saved my complaining for home... usually. There were exceptions, but there you go.
I've never understood the concept of making your work your life. To me, it strikes me as... an inversion of principles and priorities. One works so that one may acquire the things one needs to survive. One works to enrich society. One takes time outside of work for personal endeavors and the enjoyment of one's life because we have progressed this part of the world to the point where we can move up the pyramid from "food shelter and water" to more ephemeral needs like companionship, camraderie, relaxation, and pursuit of one's dreams.
Money is a means to an end. I will never understand those who see money, or the acquisiton thereof, as an end unto itself. Never. By the same token, I do not understand the philosophy that a worker should "come in early, stay late, give 100%, and be proud of your accomplishments", seeing how those accomplishments are typically not something you can claim for yourself anyway, you are rarely adequately compensated (and you're not compensated at all if it's salary work), and the simple fact that there is no way to put a price tag on pursuing one's personal happiness.
I'll simply never understand anyone who would compromise their personal life for the sake of helping an employer. To help a friend, that's one thing. If you have a stake in the business, that's another. But if your only relationship to the business is a paycheck, then why is it your job, and not the job of the people making those million dollar bonuses at the top, to do the extra work?
That's amazingly well-said, Chase.
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