Do you enjoy your job?

I hate my job.

I don’t hate what it is that I do for a living, I just don’t like when I do it, and who I do it around. I work what is refered to at my company as the “C” shift, which is Sunday thru every other Wednesday 18:30 - 07:00. What I do is computer networking. The problem is that at night when the systems have very little load on them, there is very little to go wrong, plus, there are very few people around to notice and call in problems that would not be caught by automated monitoring systems.

Since there are no fires to put out, my primary responsibility becomes order fulfillment. This means that I do simple, repetitive requests that people have requested from the network group. This is the kind of stuff where you get a request, and then follow the steps required to fulfill the request. After a couple of days when you have seen every type of request there is, and have them memorized, you have exausted all of the challenge that you might find. This coupled with the fact that there are only one or two orders a shift, you can see where keeping ones eyes open for twelve consecutive hours becomes a challenge.

I have had some really bad jobs in my life, the one that I rememder the most was when I worked for the Minnesota DNR. I have never worked so hard in my life. We were always busy, and the work was physical and demanding. And sometimes, the location was really bad. Some days we worked in swamps, some days along rivers, and always outdoors, rain or shine. The catch was, it was really fun. The people who I worked with were fun to be around, and the management and supervisors were willing to let us get away with quite a bit.

Back to today. The only thing missing is the ringing bells. We have to start work presicely on time, and can’t leave until it’s after the time when we leave. We get 1/2 hour for lunch, and you better not go over.

This can work both ways.

One of the things that happen between shifts is turnover. If you haven’t done this before, turnover is the process of informing the next shift of the things that have occured on your shift, and handing over any ongoing problems. One day, the turnover ran past quitting time, so I got up and left. While I was leaving the room, one of the management types noticed, and aksed me where I was going. “Home”, I responded, and left the room.
The next day when I got in I was asked why I left before turnover was complete, and I told them that my shift was over, and it was time for me to leave. It seems that management does not like it when the shoe is on the other foot. They don’t like it when we leave early when turnover is complete, and they don’t like it when turnover runs over and we leave. The solution to this is simple, instead of using the clock for departure time, use the end of turnover. Some days it runs short, and you leave a bit early, and some days you leave a little late, but it all works out over time. The most important thing is that you have a happy employee, rather than one who is pissed off over what should be a trivial matter.

To me, these are the things that really determine if you like your job or not. As far as I’m concerned, as long as your are completing all your work and doing it well, you should be left alone. If your break or lunch run’s a little long, who cares?
This is the way that my job used to be when I worked the daytime hours. We all pretty much came and went when we felt like it. We got all of our work done, and then some. No one watched over us, and I was never told that I was gone too long on lunch, and sometimes lunch ran into the two hour range, expecially if a vendor was involved.

What it is that you like or hate about your job?

Share and Enjoy!