Ouch! Too much work day
Oct. 31st, 2019 07:46 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragonyphoenixThe backup folding machine (puts letters into envelopes) at work is more than five years past its last-use date. That's the machine I get to use. It's OK on one-page letters but today ate (crumpled) half (49.6%) of the two-page letters. Folding, which should have taken about 45 minutes, took 3 hours and 15 minutes. I wasn't bothered that much because I'm used to it although this is the first time it's eaten half the letters.
I told my manager and she said 1) I'm doing it wrong. That I need to straighten out the letters and envelopes and 2) she just had a repairman in to look at it. Now that was frustrating. Managers at work are susceptible to magical thinking; she wants it to work so she just claims it does work.
Another place for magical thinking is in how much they think we can get done. We have what I'll call calculated quotas. They've calculated how much we can get done and there's a spreadsheet where we can put in how much we've done and see how well we're doing. We have 7 1/2 hour days and with folding, even when I do another task for an hour or two, I generally get 8 hours worth of work done. However, we also have daily quotas which is what we're expected to get done on a given day. These have nothing to do with our calculated quotas. They're based on how much there is to get done for that day. So I can be well over 7 1/2 hours on my calculated quota but nowhere near what I'm supposed to get done that day. It's so frustrating.
My boss today was saying that at her first job she was taught to always say yes to more work. Even if she doesn't have enough people to get the work done, she'll accept more work. It's up to us to just get it done.
I told my manager and she said 1) I'm doing it wrong. That I need to straighten out the letters and envelopes and 2) she just had a repairman in to look at it. Now that was frustrating. Managers at work are susceptible to magical thinking; she wants it to work so she just claims it does work.
Another place for magical thinking is in how much they think we can get done. We have what I'll call calculated quotas. They've calculated how much we can get done and there's a spreadsheet where we can put in how much we've done and see how well we're doing. We have 7 1/2 hour days and with folding, even when I do another task for an hour or two, I generally get 8 hours worth of work done. However, we also have daily quotas which is what we're expected to get done on a given day. These have nothing to do with our calculated quotas. They're based on how much there is to get done for that day. So I can be well over 7 1/2 hours on my calculated quota but nowhere near what I'm supposed to get done that day. It's so frustrating.
My boss today was saying that at her first job she was taught to always say yes to more work. Even if she doesn't have enough people to get the work done, she'll accept more work. It's up to us to just get it done.