Our company has decided to try something new. Which considering the company we used to be is nothing short of a miracle.
They have decided that we will take a stab at "Summer Hours." What are Summer Hours? That is when you work eight and half hours (versus the seven and a half) Monday through Wednesday and eight hours on Thursday, taking only a thirty minute lunch, so that you only have to work until noon on Friday.
Sounds fantastic, right?
Until you start to look at the nitty-gritty logistics of it all. First, let's examine this thirty minute lunch. This is flat out impossible. We don't have a cafeteria. Even if you were to bring in your lunch every day - unless it's a sandwich - odds are you are going to need to use the microwave. Now if everyone is bringing their lunch in there will be a line at the microwave thereby reducing your time to actually eat said lunch. And even if you don't bring your lunch, there isn't even time to run to the MacDonald's on the corner to pick something up to bring something back to eat at your desk.
Fortunately, they have said that the individual managers have to ability to be "flexible" with how the time is worked out. As long as we are putting in the requisite amount of hours to equal the thirty-seven and a half work week hours, it should be good, if our manager is okay with it. Do not ask me why some of us only work thirty seven and a half hours per week, I do not have an answer, nor is it a question I want to raise.
Now MY manager has yet to address this issue. And knowing this manager he probably never will. So my co-worker and I have set our own hours for this experiment. We both determined that thirty minutes for lunch will NOT work for us. And we both determined that we still needed to be able to leave the office at 4:30 pm. So we did the math - it was a grueling task.
And here is where we landed - we are coming in at 7:00 am every day, taking an hour lunch and still leaving at 4:30 pm (except for Thursday). Perfect plan, right?
Until day three of arriving at work at 7:00 am.
On day three we have discovered that getting to work at 7:00 am daily necessitates either rushing through and/or discarding some of the morning routines OR having to go to bed extraordinarily early (which is saying something considering I am in the equation and already go to bed fairly early - which means I'm going to bed REALLY, REALLY early, as in it may still be daylight outside when I turn in). On day three, we have also discovered that the extra hour means for a REALLY, REALLY long day.
Considering that tomorrow is Thursday, we only have one more day of this torture before we get to Friday. The day when we finally discover if all this will have been worth it.
And? I just have to say, I'm glad I wasn't in on these meetings. The math involved in just figuring out how to type this post has made my head hurt (and I'm sure it's still off somewhere); I can't imagine having to figure this out company wide. I've also made a mental note to myself to send the lady who handles payroll a sympathy card.
It would be always a tough time in office. We have to be logged in for 9hrs. They use to take the average timing for quarterly. We would enjoy in lunch break. This is the time when we feel little bit relaxed...
ReplyDeleteI'm retired now, but we didn't have such stringent rules for work. You got it done, you made your own hours. I always arrived at 7:00am, though, because morning is when I got the most done, with nobody else around. :-)
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