May 20, 2013
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Working hard or hardly working?
My sister was telling me about a member of our extended family. He works for the city. He was telling my sister that they usually get an hour for lunch. But if they don’t have any work scheduled after lunch, they just take 2 hours. My brother asked him on the average, how many hours he works in a day. He said he puts in about 4 hours of work. In his previous job as a store manager for a clothing chain, he would always come in early, stay late, make sure people who were scheduled showed up for work, dealt with all the store issues and never really had a holiday off. He said it took him a few months to get used to this leisurely pace. There’s no overtime unless it’s an emergency.
I was thinking about an ex colleague of mine in the IT industry. He used to pull 60 hour weeks, worked weekends and was on call in the evenings. He moved to another IT job in the government. He is paid well and work moves a lot slower pace. He can’t go any faster because the workforce is unionized. So work is analyzed, debated, assigned before he gets work. So he works for about half the day and busies himself with self education and other things.
In some ways, I’m happy that they have a lot better work life balance than I do.
But really – I don’t know how the government & unions can continue this type of work culture.
Life isn’t fair.
Comments (34)
I spend 12 hours at work per shift. I average about 2 hours of work. I’m on Reddit, Flickr and Xanga all day, or YouTube, Autoblog… in fact I’m typing this now from work.
Other than the fact that I have to work nights and the job is in fort no where, it’s pretty sweet!
@XtremePsionic - ARRRGGGGHHHHH…. *pounds head*
No one ever said that life was. It just has a way of balancing things off. You know, the ying with the yang ?
@ElusiveWords - if you like money and can live without some of the comforts of the big city, or visiting family often… fort mc is great! even entry level jobs are close to 6 figures salary, and work 3-5 years, with some OT here and there, it’s not hard to break into the 200k a year mark.
You do have to give up a lot tho!
@Nostra_Damus - I think I got the yuck instead of ying and yang.
@XtremePsionic - I knew salaries were good there but I never really looked at them. $200K is nothing to sneeze at.
I know if I ever calculated what I actually make per hour (based on 60+ hour week), I would go into a deep depression.
I have actually given it a lot of thought of working for the government. Problem is that you usually need connections to get a job.
In US also, government and unionized people tend to be more relaxed and take it easy. There are some good people but in general somehow my impression is that they spend more time on office politics. Most of them feel we owe them a job, and there are union rules that these people are impossible to fire. I know many frustrated supervisors. One thing is that private sector tend to have more upward potential and have learning opportunities. There are pros and cons of every job and I think each one of us make our own decisions. By the way, are you thinking of government job? you will have more time to write blogs but you not have nightmare and stress to share, hehe.
Or might the question be “I don’t know how the private sector can continue this type of work culture.” ?
@stevew918 - oh we won’t want him to blog about being bored now do we!!!
@beowulf222 - it’s tough to get a gov’t job and there’s a lot of resentment about how cushy some jobs are.
@stevew918 - here’s my situation, I work a lot of overtime including evenings & weekends. It’s what we have to do to meet our financial targets. I am stressed out. On Sundays I start to get anxious already. From Mondays to Fridays, I’m pretty well glued to my desk. If I have to take my dad to appointments, I make up the lost hours. So I’m ready for a different pace of life.
@slmret - touche… there’s the other extreme where people are scared or reluctant to take vacations and work very long hours. Jobs are so easy to outsource nowadays.
@XtremePsionic - hahahaha…. I can’t imagine that ever happening.
There are so many different sectors in IT work that you would be amazed and disappointed at times about some of the stuff out there. I don’t know much except the stuff I read on slash dot.
A lot of Asians say that in government work the asians do a lot of the work and the others are a bit slacking. Asians do have high standards at times and other times asian too are slackers. I tend to be a slacker or more likely I am puzzled and just stand around smiling which infuriates people.
I’m all for unions and government, but they have a tendency to give themselves a bad rap with stuff like this. Of course, there are slackers and people who get paid while doing nothing everywhere. It gets my goat too.
an economics prof said something along the lines of these one night: it’s the government, of course they are not at optimal production
I’m doing an unpaid internship, I’m only in the office 4 days a week, but I work home games (Sundays), and b/c I manage the social media platforms of 2 entities for the club I’m always monitoring activity. I feel like the long weekend was still work since I was right on top of the game as I tracked our followers & likes & tried to increase activity on different platforms.
oh and I’m doing a night class & trying to train.
@ElusiveWords - I think the cushiness of governtment jobs has somewhat declined in recent years but is still a lot better than in the real world. Still, I think I want to become a civil servant. LOL
I don’t like the attitude in corporate roles of saying overworked workers are good workers – it just makes your whole body tense up and creates anxiety, doesn’t it? I’m actually hoping to get into a government role this year so that I can get out of this (used to be government) role. My reasoning is: I don’t know what type of work excites me me so I’m just going to look for well-paid, clerical government roles. Not only are these well-paid, they also include generous leave entitlements and generous superannuation amounts.
@PPhilip - I work 90% of the time from home so standing there and smile doesn’t infuriate anyone.
@n_e_i_l - I think there’s still a role for unions in today’s environment. Someone still needs to protect worker’s right and I don’t like to see employers take advantage of anyone. At the same time, there’s little incentive to innovate, to be more efficient and to move the non productive workers out of the workforce.
@JoeytheGenie - and you still have time to blog? Wow…
@beowulf222 - I would probably consider it too.
@stepaside_loser - and with the free time, you can writer your first novel!
Awesome work.Just wanted to drop a comment and say I am new to your blog and really like what I am reading.display shelving
Government – unions – were at one time necessary for the good of the employee. I am not sure what purpose they sever now. Don’t forget the novel you are wiriting
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I put in average of 2.5 hours a day XD
my job is just like the member of your extended family! i usually work like 2 hours a day and take 1.5 hour lunches.
After reading a few comments, I have come to a conclusion that there are more slackers here than real workers. Maybe it’s about time for me to work for the gov. and take it easy. LOL
My next door neighbor works for the local municipality and he gets to go to overseas leisure trips every quarter of the year, plus every other Friday off too.
Matt, when I read this article, I was thinking to myself whether we all should take time to invest in our own future and sanity.
http://news.yahoo.com/5-lame-excuses-preventing-finding-125341230.html
I’ll tell you how they get away with it. They are spending someone else’s money. They don’t have to worry about being profitable, they just raise taxes. Groan.
Government unions are an economic disaster. There is NO incentive for “management” to resist.
Try getting anything from the government, takes FOREVER and you have to CONSTANTLY check up on them with a phone call every single day. Don’t even bother calling after 3PM even though they close at 5PM. *sigh* Not to mention I’ve worked in the government before and it baffles me how much personal chit chat the ladies behind the desk do rather than actual work. Sad morning at home because the kids were acting up? Go take an hour walk with your boss to have some hot tea and frozen yogurt to discuss your feelings. Then I (lowly assistant) have to deal with mad clients calling every day because they can’t get what they need. LOL.
Then there are the private company workers like my husband who is up at 5AM and gets home at 6PM and works after dinner until we go to sleep around midnight. And in the middle of the night, his phone constantly vibrates with emails and texts from colleagues around the world.
Now, how do we achieve a healthy balance?
It certainly isn’t fair! Amazing differences in hours put in. Wow.
As a teacher, I put in 40 hours a week that I received pay for…then about 15 more hours before and after school and on weekends that I never got paid for.
HUGS!!!
@Fatcat723 - ah yes… my novel. Thanks for reminding me to focus on my goal.
@Wangium - uhm… you get paid for 2.5 hours or 8 hours?
@wutuwaitn4 - *jealous death glare*… what do you do?
@CurryPuffy - we’re not even allowed to travel anymore unless it is customer related.
@stevew918 - interesting article. I’ve bookmarked it so I can revisit that (I’m about to sleep).
@Toro69 - at one time, I think unions have a role to protect the workers. But overtime they’ve gotten a bit too comfortable. If gov’t employees were responsible for their own P&L, I’m sure they would behave very differently.
@ElusiveWords - I make an average salary for someone in NYC my age who has graduated from college. I work about 2 hours a day… it used to be half an hour. I go in at 10 and leave at 4 most days. I take a 1.5 to 2 hour lunch each day. I also supplement my income from other sources and that ends up being about equal to my income.
The thing is, I don’t feel good about myself at all. When I tell other people about my job situation, they are overwhelmingly envious but I personally feel stifled, trapped and stagnant. I’ve been at this job since I graduated university/college and I have never learned anything beyond what is required for my job, which an intelligent primary schooler/grade schooler can do. I am scared to death with interviewing at another job because with my title I should know a LOT more. I really don’t know what to do.
Hope that makes you feel better. Any advice for me would be appreciated, but not necessary. Thanks for sharing.
@ElusiveWords - senior web developer. being a senior, i do more of a PM role then coding
@Xx_DeUce_xX - i feel the same way sometimes. but i’m getting paid really well so i guess i can’t really complain?
i think it’s the same everywhere. it’s the same work culture here for the government employees. people certainly work harder when they are employed by private sectors. though government-run job may sound enticing, the opportunity to move up the ladder certainly not as great. this is why people still prefer private sectors. for opportunities n more money.
@Xx_DeUce_xX - I never thought about the other side of the coin. What type of job do you have and how long have you had it?
@wutuwaitn4 - take some project mgm’t courses if you haven’t yet, maybe some management courses as well.
@rudyhou - I guess it depends on what people are looking for and what they value. Job security or job advancement (I know it’s not that simple).
@Xx_DeUce_xX - willing to offer advice, not sure if you saw the question I left for you. If you want to just leave me a message, that’s fine too. Take care.