Wednesday, November 17, 2004

Time, where does it go?

Commonly asked question by many, where does my time go? I truly am starting to think it is just sucked into some vortex. Recently I read on a discussion board how many people were truly bored. I haven't been bored in I don't know how long. Boredom, seriously now people.

My work obviously keeps me quite busy. So busy in fact that I haven't been around my usual discussion boards much this week. I am finding it harder to organize my time and keep track of things. I feel aged or something walking around with my to do list constantly adding things and crossing off far fewer.

Ok... and here I am 24 hours later thinking about finishing this post. Time... what a concept. I finally have a day to sit down and finish the proposal that has been haunting me for a few weeks. Why do I now have the time? Because the project managers that expect me to work on their projects around the clock, despite the fact that I have stated to them specifically how much time I can devote to their project, even though they don't listen.

Why do they even ask how much time I can spend on their project? They don't listen! I would really like to try and stick to a schedule... 20% time on X project, 50% time on Y project... but it is really hard. 20% time, that is one entire day. When I last sat down and spent one entire day on only one project is hard to remember.

It is continuing resolution time. We are waiting for budget approval from congress. Until the budget is approved we aren't guaranteed of anything. Historically speaking until you get your money, you damned well better not spend it, lest you don't actually get what you think you will. Evidently my managing group has been burnt before. So instead, they just inconvenience us all. Which forces project managers to lay off their workers, look out only for themselves and frankly just piss people off all the way around. It doesn't make for a friendly working environment when you don't know if you are going to have work from one week to the next.

I have been burnt the past few years. Everything is going great then blammo, that e-mail from a project manager telling you that you no longer can charge to the project. So you find something else to work on... or you take time off. It isn't easy for the project manager, but they could strive to do things differently on their end... mainly organize better.

So being that I have been burnt before I decided this year to look out for my own interests. I went and found other work to tide me over during the lean time. And wouldn't you know it that this is the year that my main project doesn't lay everyone off?!? So even though I have said, "I can only work 20% time on your project", the manager still expects 80% time. And he gets quite pissy when I am not over there. Hello, remember what we talked about? Just because you have a deadline to meet doesn't mean that I should bend over backwards... remember those last two years when you screwed me and I had to scramble for a project to work on?

Ok, so this blog probably makes absolutely no sense to anyone but someone in my group. I might as well be saying "blah blah blah".

How valuable is your time? How much would you pay for more time during the day? How can you possibly buy more time?



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