Can we use negative numbers?
I already vented about the hours I have to work in the "are you working Christmas Week" thread a while back so I won't go into that again, other than to say that I worked in I/T for over 25 years and while I had to work nights/weekends/holidays then, I've worked more of that sort of unpaid OT in the last 3 years then I did in
all of my time in I/T. Upper management says this is the 'new normal' and deal with it. I am currently not in I/T which makes it more frustrating.
Positives: pay is ok. Could be better but it is what it is. I know my job, do it well, and that's acknowledged. We still have a pension plan, in which I am fully vested.
Neutrals: insurance offered is mediocre. My immediate boss is OK - there when I need help but leaves me alone otherwise. I almost put this as a positive, but I'm going to leave it here, and state that it's a high-neutral because I've noticed some changes there.
Negatives: I know my job and do it well; this gives coworkers license to not have to think or remember anything because they can always ask me. Even if it's the same question that they asked me yesterday, last week, and at this time of year every year for 10 years. When people have been around longer than I have, in the same position, and they are asking me how to do their work, that's just wrong. I've made the observation that someone could be walking in the hall, trip, and will ask me a) should they fall or should they try to catch themself? b) if it's the latter should they grab a desk or wall or some other object? c)if it's the former, should they fall forward or backward? d) if
they fall, should they try not to get hurt? e) if they get hurt, should it be minor or serious? f)if serious, how serious?
Upper management got the bright idea to outsource a major software component we had in-house and since then my job has been made much harder. Things take longer to accomplish than when they were in-house, and the software is a bigger black-box than it was when we had a version in-house - basically we stage our data, push a button, and pray that it works so we can do the reporting we need to do. If it fails, all we know is that it failed, we report it, and get told it's been fixed at some point and redo our processing. Never get any answers because "it's proprietary." And, of course, our deadlines don't change due to upper-management's decision to use this software.
Performance-review process is a joke. We were already told in December that no one will be getting above a 3 - edict from upper management. Makes all those extra hours and going above/beyond worth it when I find out that the deadwood will get the same rating... [/sarcasm] And the problem is that I can't cut back on my effort because then
I will be the one trimmed despite the fact that a reduced effort on my part would still outperform 95% of the department.
I'm too close to retirement to pack up and start over, but if the company ever ends the pension plan, I'm taking the payout and will leave since I won't be accruing anything more towards that. Whether I work or coast into age 65 depends on how close I am.
Final assessment: 3/10 And that's me being generous.