Bottom of the Heap

This week and the next, there is a high possibility that I shall not be posting each day. Do Not Panic! Chances are I shall not have time to stack up posts to schedule either so there will be gaps.

To be honest, it actually feels kind of nice setting up some non-blog time. And next week will be my no reading week for TAW and I suspect this might not be such a huge problem next week either...

It is all a little unfortunate really. Both my work and family are making big demands but family has won and I am not sure that work entirely likes that! Work soooo likes to be boss doesn't it! At what point did work start to own my life?

So I thought I would look at working week times and discovered these do not include work at home, just paid work. Europe bought in a working time directive limits the working week to 48 hours maximum. France went one step further and made it a 35 hour week. The UK didn't bring in the directive, they opted out so that people can work more than 44 hours but can not be forced to do so. My contract states that by signing it, I agree to opt out of the working time directive.

If I wasn't away this weekend and was working all the overtime hours my Boss would like I would be way over the working time directive. I know some people cope fine with long work hours but I am not sure I do. Ideally I would like to work part time. When I have kids I would like to be a stay at home Mum.

I guess another thing is, some people want to maximise overtime pay. I don't, I want to do what I have to and get out of there, as quickly as possible. I don't want to have to do one extra minute I don't have to. I believe that while I am in work, I owe it to my employer to work. I do chat, a bit, but I also work very hard. I am efficient and good at planning my work, I achieve a fair bit.

Some people seem to have the goal of doing as little work as possible while at work. I can't imagine anything worse that sitting staring at a screen doing nothing. Surely pretending to be busy is just as energy consuming as working?

Thing is, all that lovely work I do benefits someone else. I get paid but what real benefits do I see? I work as hard as the managers and directors, while I am working but they get paid an awful lot more. I am just as clever as they are. I work in a dark dingy place while they have light airy offices and sea views. It is my work that supports them, they don't contribute directly to productivity, I do.

I don't like this model of work. It feels wrong. Something has to give at some point. There has to be another way for me.