work blues
Jun. 28th, 2006 08:50 amalmost got into it bad with the boss lady yesterday. Here's a kinda-how-it-went fictionalized excerpt:
"Jeremy, your Aux* time is a little high; why's that?"
"I dunno. Too many calls last week?"
"Yeah... but...?"
"I dunno, it's always really bad."
"What can we do to impr--"
"It's not gonna happen."
"Um. ?."
"It's been 8 months, 50 hours a week now, and i'm not getting any better, no kidding! It's too much and i can't do it anymore!"
"I don't like your--"
"I'm trying, and i'm overworked and burning out, and it's been 8 months, 50 hours a week, and i just can't do it anymore! It's just not working, and that's just how it is. I can try all i want, but it's not getting any better, and it never will, so that's just that!"
And on and on. I was animated; truth be told, i was shaking with rage and nearly hyperventilating. The adrenaline kicked in and i was this close || to just saying to hell with it and standing up and walking out.
She was surprisingly cool about it, too, i must admit. I worked the rest of my shift anyway.
*AUX time: putting ourselves on hold between calls. We get ~15min/day. I've been just under the "Meets Expectations" line for a while now.
"Jeremy, your Aux* time is a little high; why's that?"
"I dunno. Too many calls last week?"
"Yeah... but...?"
"I dunno, it's always really bad."
"What can we do to impr--"
"It's not gonna happen."
"Um. ?."
"It's been 8 months, 50 hours a week now, and i'm not getting any better, no kidding! It's too much and i can't do it anymore!"
"I don't like your--"
"I'm trying, and i'm overworked and burning out, and it's been 8 months, 50 hours a week, and i just can't do it anymore! It's just not working, and that's just how it is. I can try all i want, but it's not getting any better, and it never will, so that's just that!"
And on and on. I was animated; truth be told, i was shaking with rage and nearly hyperventilating. The adrenaline kicked in and i was this close || to just saying to hell with it and standing up and walking out.
She was surprisingly cool about it, too, i must admit. I worked the rest of my shift anyway.
*AUX time: putting ourselves on hold between calls. We get ~15min/day. I've been just under the "Meets Expectations" line for a while now.
overtime?
Date: 2006-06-29 03:23 am (UTC)Here where I am it's against the law to require someone to work time past 44 hours per week. -it's generally considered full-time somewhere between 35-40 hours. If you refused regular overtime here, like of course excluding little blibs of extra help being needed for whatever blib of a reason, then you'd be perfectly following our law.
Eight months at 50 hours per week? I commend the way and the how you spoke up. I didn't hear her offer a reduction in hours as a method of improving the quality though... Hmm..
I was burnt out when I began my sick leave 2 months ago. I had all the resources in place that I could afford that, and I had a plan vaguely how to get better. All the stress had to do was come to critical point of no-longer-acceptance. I'm very happy I began my leave of absence.
Just don't do anything rash.
Re: overtime?
Date: 2006-06-29 05:19 am (UTC)