It’s almost worth not taking vacation.
The reason I say this is because of the effort needed to do so. If I want to take a day off, here is what I need to fill out:
• A spreadsheet that keeps track of the days off for everybody in my unit.
• An online calendar that keeps track of days off for everybody working on the same project as me, which is a completely different set of people than those in my unit.
• An online system that keeps track of my days off, for Human Resources purposes. (I also have to remember when I do this that I have four floating holidays to use each year, in addition to my PTO, except I can only use two floating holiday during the first half of the year, and the other two during the second half of the year. If I forget to use them correctly, I lose them.)
• Another online system that keeps track of where I spend my time from a project perspective.
That doesn’t even take into account the other system where I have to put in my project time, this time at an even more granular level than the one I mentioned above.
As I said, it’s almost too much work to take a day off.
I guess you need to look at the positives of working for a large corporation. For example, you can completely lose yourself in the dizzying array of levels that make up the corporate structure, to the point where nobody really knows who you are or what you do. If you’re in the position like those in Office Space, where you have eight bosses, then you can tell each one that you are doing work for one of the others and that you can’t be bothered. I haven’t yet reached that point, but it is a goal of mine.
To be honest, I can’t think of any more positives at this very moment, but I’m sure there are a few. I guess getting paid is a good one. Also, benefits.
So I guess I'll just keep slogging on through, learning to play the corporate games as I go. It’s really not too bad. As long as I don’t want to take a day off. That’s when things get hairy.
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The alternative to this is to never work, then you find that it's almost too much bother to try and earn money. You get into the mindset of, "I think I can squeeze by a couple more days on this handful of oatmeal and box of old raisins. Maybe I'll find a few pennies in the street today!" You start to think this is easier than, say, updating your resume and handing it out and going for interviews and following up, and negotiating salaries and all the rest.
ReplyDeleteI see that you've already fallen into that rabbit hole, huh?
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I just don't have that mindset. I'm not wired for uncertainty, and if I didn't work I would spend all of my time asking myself things like, "How will I afford socks that go up to my knees and pants that go up to my chest when I'm 73 if I'm not working now?"
Stupid foresight. It haunts me.