You know, my work productivity slows down exponentially when I feel like I'm being "checked up on." I know I have certain things to do by certain times. I can get them done without incessant reminders because I'm professional. I sort of feel like if you're going to spend so much of your energy reminding me to do something, you should be doing that thing yourself.
Here's the deal. My job entails (and I say "entail" rather than "require" for a reason) that I drive around a lot. If I didn't have a car, the tasks I'd be assigned to would be equally demeaning, just less mobile. Instead of schlepping school supplies around and engaging in manual labor, I'd be sitting in that dusty-ass office waiting for the phone to ring. Whoopie.
If I have to run out and burn my gas to do a task, there's a 90% possibility that I ain't coming back to the office afterward. Especially being that my computer at work is so close to death that getting a document completed requires praying and holding your breath. Also, I park a block and a half away from the building. That's too damn much exercise to be making trips in and out of the office. I usually create most of my reports at home and get them to whoever needs them. It smells better here and the creepy people on the sixth floor don't pop their head into the office to bother me. The three phone calls that I didn't catch because I wasn't in the office can wait until the next day.
What I'm tiptoeing around saying right now is that I think it's bullshit that I have to fill out time sheets. Because VISTAs are on-call to serve 24 hours/day for 365 days, it's basically pointless to ask us to itemize our time spent working. I can just slap down "8 hours, 8 hours, 8 hours, 8 hours..." and know that there's no way the site supervisor can verify it. HE'S NEVER THERE. But the reality is, I don't know how much time I actually work at home. Just like I can't itemize how much productive time I have in that damned office (because it's pretty close to zero).
What am I going to do? Well, if he wants time records for the past four weeks, I'll give him some numbers. I'll pull them right out of the sky, and then ask who's signing off on his time sheets.
Posted by Tiffany at August 25, 2006 04:26 PM | TrackBack