Post #99,004
4/27/03 11:24:14 PM
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Boss wants me to work too damn much.
Got this e-mail from my boss: Thane, I just wanted to check in and see how the surgery went. I hope it went well.
Do you have any idea when you'll be able to come back in? We could really use you!! I responded: Aiming for Monday, but I have a feeling it's going to be tuesday. :P Feel like I got smashed in the nose with a gold brick. He kicked back: OK - just let me know. I think it's apparent how much you handle around here--kelly & chris have been swamped with requests over the last couple of days so they aren't getting as much done as we had hoped. Good luck healing! Now, this isn't the first time we've had this kind of exchange, and I've been avoiding taking any kind of vacation time for anything that's noncritical. The place I work has only 8 vacation days a year (versus the standard 10), and gives 16 combined sick days and vacation days a year - if you get sick, you get less vacation. In addition, apparently my predecessor was absent quite a bit - and I mean like 50% absenteeism, not a day or two a month - and my boss is still kinda freaked about that happening again. Any suggestions about how to simultaneously quell my boss's fears AND gain myself some breathing space as far as vacation time/sick time goes? After 9/11, Bush made two statements:
1. "Terrorists hate America because America is a land of freedom and opportunity."
2. "We intend to attack the root causes of terrorism."
Sounds like everything is going according to plan.
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Post #99,010
4/27/03 11:54:32 PM
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Heh.. not particularly perceptive kinda droid.
That "hope you get well" sounded a lot like..
"I'm sorry but.. you made me do it; it wasn't My fault; don't look at Me!"
Can't comment on the execrable excuse for a "personnel policy" - which assigns [1-n] vacation VS sick. This would have been Draconian back when I was a tyke.. how transparently has Murican Corporatocracy tipped it's hand!
Who gives a shit what your predecessor did? This lightweight (given your report of min. absences to date) cannot seem to grok the difference between Person #1 and Person #2.
And moving-on to pre-teen guilt-tripping next - pretty much demonstrates that the first impression is spot-on. Hope you find a lateral arabesque before you have to borrow my remaining 15 grains of scopolamine hydrobromide..
If you feel like shit Monday .?.
Well, you know -
Luck in dealing with the underdeveloped,
Ashton
Gawd but.. Mediocrity sucks!
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Post #99,014
4/28/03 12:24:14 AM
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Dickensian
The place I work has only 8 vacation days a year (versus the standard 10), and gives 16 combined sick days and vacation days a year - if you get sick, you get less vacation.
Sweet Jee-sus! This would not be tolerated in the Western European social democracies (hell, my own vacation+sick=38), but we must always remember: Here in America life is better than it is anywhere else in the world! (Who cares what those sissy French might do during those extra seven weeks of vacation each year? They don't have our freedom!)
cordially,
"Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist."
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Post #99,015
4/28/03 12:31:51 AM
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Whoops, clarification.
the 8 days are the 8 standard (Memorial day, Christmas, Thanksgiving, etc.), and then I get 16 "flex days" on top of that.
Not perfect, but not as bad as it sounds.
After 9/11, Bush made two statements:
1. "Terrorists hate America because America is a land of freedom and opportunity."
2. "We intend to attack the root causes of terrorism."
Sounds like everything is going according to plan.
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Post #99,016
4/28/03 12:35:00 AM
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Forget what I said, then--
America is the best of all possible worlds.
cordially,
"Die Welt ist alles, was der Fall ist."
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Post #99,025
4/28/03 3:04:09 AM
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Time to make you envious
I get 25 days a year holiday. Through the company flexible benefits scheme, I can boost that up to a maximum of 30 days.
I also get *six months* sick leave on full pay, and then another six on half pay.
Peter
[link|http://www.debian.org|Shill For Hire]
[link|http://www.kuro5hin.org|There is no K5 Cabal]
[link|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org|Blog]
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Post #99,026
4/28/03 3:04:36 AM
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Re: Time to make you envious
Oh, that doesn't include the 14 or so public holidays every year...
Peter
[link|http://www.debian.org|Shill For Hire]
[link|http://www.kuro5hin.org|There is no K5 Cabal]
[link|http://guildenstern.dyndns.org|Blog]
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Post #99,030
4/28/03 6:26:45 AM
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Sounds like I'm somewhere in the middle.
I haven't chased this up with my current employer for various complicated reasons, but at a previous job in a large corp, I got 22 days leave on top of the ten (I think) standard public holidays. I don't remember how many sick days I had - I think without a doctor's certificate I could take up to 10 with pay.
Wade.
Is it enough to love
Is it enough to breathe
Somebody rip my heart out
And leave me here to bleed
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Is it enough to die
Somebody save my life
I'd rather be Anything but Ordinary
Please
| -- "Anything but Ordinary" by Avril Lavigne. |
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Post #99,037
4/28/03 9:14:57 AM
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Can I kick yer pasty British butt? ;)
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Post #99,075
4/28/03 2:12:27 PM
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Well, as for my part... Naah, what the heck.
I assume I wouldn't even have to *make* you envious; if anyone, it's *Peter* I could try that on.
Furthermore, in order to post about my guaranteed-by-law benefits, I'd have to look up what, exactly, they are... And frankly, I just don't know. (Why should I? I trust they're there, as much of 'em as I'll ever need and more.)
All I know is, I have thirty days of yearly paid vacation -- which has *nothing to do* with whether I'm ill or not; WTF do *sick* days have to do with *vacation* days???
(Oh, and in addition, I have three weeks of paid "Fatherhood Leave", the second of which I'm just enjoying now... So it seems weird that I'm posting a lot *less* than usual here, isn't it? Heh -- sheesh, man, I can't wait to get back to work and get some rest! :-)
[link|mailto:MyUserId@MyISP.CountryCode|Christian R. Conrad]
(I live in Finland, and my e-mail in-box is at the Saunalahti company.)
Your lies are of Microsoftian Scale and boring to boot. Your 'depression' may be the closest you ever come to recognizing truth: you have no 'inferiority complex', you are inferior - and something inside you recognizes this. - [link|http://z.iwethey.org/forums/render/content/show?contentid=71575|Ashton Brown]
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Post #99,019
4/28/03 1:20:55 AM
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Try to avoid reading in the subtext
When I read the exchange I just see a boss who is willing to cut you whatever slack you need, but also is feeling swamped. I wouldn't read anything negative into that.
However I would take that as an indication that you need to have effective backup. Give some careful thought to who you can bring up to speed on various parts of your job so that if the company was unexpectedly left without you, they would not be paralyzed. This will both leave you more able to take guilt-free vacations, and also be in a position to move onto any interesting projects that happen to come up.
Cheers,
Ben
"good ideas and bad code build communities, the other three combinations do not"
- [link|http://archives.real-time.com/pipermail/cocoon-devel/2000-October/003023.html|Stefano Mazzocchi]
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Post #99,091
4/28/03 3:09:57 PM
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Seconded.
Get a backup. If not, either you'll feel too guilty to take a vacation, or you may have vacation requests denied.
Of course, you're boss should realize your value, and (in addition to paying you for it) ensure that there is always adequate coverage. Sometimes it takes a "disaster" to enlighten the boss.
Discuss it with the boss and see what happens. Becoming invaluable to the company never guarantees job security, just slavery.
[link|mailto:jbrabeck@attbi.com|Joe]
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Post #99,234
4/29/03 9:42:41 AM
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And also ...
Give some careful thought to who you can bring up to speed on various parts of your job so that if the company was unexpectedly left without you, they would not be paralyzed. As some wise[1] man once said: Never become indispensible. They won't want to promote you and have to replace you. [1] Cynical ===
Implicitly condoning stupidity since 2001.
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Post #99,239
4/29/03 10:00:10 AM
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Re: Boss wants me to work too damn much.
Uhm, yeeahhh, I'd - like - you - do - go - ahead - and - come - in - Saturday = yeahhh. Goooooooddd...
Man that's too much like "Office Space".
-drl
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Post #108,927
7/9/03 7:05:17 PM
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Re: Boss wants me to work too damn much.
OK, here's mine:
Wife went into pre-labor Sunday.
EMail everybody at work, tell them labor is starting, see you in a while.
Midwife said real labor started Tuesday. Email worked with status update.
Still going Wednesday, at which time we bailed on the homebirth and went to the hospital. Advised work.
Pitocin and epidural (if p then e) Wedesday night. (No email...)
Baby born Thursday, 4:07AM (are babies ever born at a decent time of day?)
Notify office mates later that day, as they're on the BabyBorn distro list so I don't have to do anything more than push a button.
Take 5 working-day paternity leave negotiated (heh) with boss. Come back to work Friday, not worth a shit fron not having a good night's sleep for about 2 weeks, and REALLY GIVING A RAT'S ASS about a database project I'm working on. Still, I begin to slog, and my supervisor (not my boss) asks where I was.
"Well, Dmitiry, we just had a baby."
"Yes, but why were you gone this long?"
Explain timetable.
"Yes, but 5 working days would have been Friday, so I expected to see you here Monday."
"Umm, Monday was the day I got back from the hospital, as Cathy was there over the weekend for 'observation' [there could be a whole rant here about hospitals]."
"Right, but Chief [boss] said you would take 5 days paternity leave."
"Paternity leave starts with being a parent, right? which was Thursday, so 5 working days brings me here. Really, I shouldn't even be writing code right now as I suck at it because I can't think straight. If I'd known what this would have been like I would have negotiated 3 weeks."
"When my kid was born, I was back at work 2 days later."
Yeah, and I'm sure his wife wanted to drag him around the block by his balls too. Still, that's where his priorities lie, I guess.
After I was rested, which probably took the better part of a month as resting didn't happen until we'd sort of adjusted to the new baby, I spent a lot of time undoing the shyte that I wrote during the first 2 weeks.
WWJD?
JWRTFM.
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