Well Christian, I'm not amateur, but I guess that by all technical terms, I'm also not entirely professional either.
The truth is, I'm 80% professional, 20% amateur.
It's been this way since May. Shit be wearin' thin, my friends, shit be wearin' thin.
What in gods name are you talking about BuDaMan?
I'm talking about work, silly goose! I'm talking about work.
I work in the field of Architecture (and Architecture-related fields) and things, eh, could be going better.
My office, like much of the industry, has been on a four-day work week since May. That means a 20% reduction in pay. At first you say, oh, four-day work week sounds great. I'll wake up on Fridays, stroke my balls for about an hour, go out, enjoy the day, take care of things I couldn't during a normal work week and normal work day.
Nah-ah.
Not sure how it works with other "fields", but in "Architecture", work is never done. While I worked a normal work week, I put in a lot of overtime hours during various time periods to make deadlines. Because work is never done, there's always a reason to be at the office. The truth about "Architecture" and my kind of four-day work week is that the four days that you are paid to be there, you are paid to be working, and the fifth "flexible" day is not very flexible at all. It is implied that you be there. Without saying so, it is highly suggested to be there on a Friday.
There have never been any explicit threats that not showing up on this fifth day will result in your termination, but in this current environment it's the kind of thing you just don't fuck around with.
Management knows this - and management exploits this.
There are certain bosses and higher ups that understand there is a balance between work and play. "No TV and no beer make Homer something something." - Homer Jay Simpson. Both bosses exist at my office, and as time goes on it is becoming not-so-thinly-veiled the varying opinions between the dissenting sides.
As time progresses with no light at the end of this tunnel, constructed of shit and lined with puke, office morale is at an all time low. It's odd to see the stock market (and oil prices) climb higher and higher, while my pay remains low and compensation gets lower and lower. I'm certainly not in any case study that broker and traders are referring to to signify to them that things are "looking up".
So my beef is that I'M NOT AMATEUR. I'm not. I work, and I expect to get paid for it. Period. I'm not 80% professional, and 20% amateur. I'm all professional motha fucka!
The "good" bosses at my office know that good business cannot be sustained in this method - they know that when the market (eventually) turns for our industry, and jobs become readily available, there will be a mass exodus.
That's fine, and I look forward to that day, but the bullshit about it is that the day that happens should have been yesterday. The only motivation for me (other than doing work, and Jesus knows that isn't much motivation for me right now) to come in on a "Flex-Friday" is to simply show up. Make an appearance. It's like your best friend is having a party with people you don't like, you don't necessarily want to go, you don't necessarily have to go, but you are obligated to. There are enough people in the office that work that Flex-Friday every single Friday that it is a problem when YOU don't show up. Be there, or we'll notice.
In fact, the idiot who runs my office shows up SPECIFICALLY on Friday's to count heads. Why? She's a cunt that's why. (OR, he's a dick...) Office Space is one of my favorite movies. I can watch it on an endless loop and I will still be entertained (yet to try it), but Peter had it completely and totally right...
You see Bob... Bob... it's a problem of motivation, all right? Now if I work my ass off and Initech ships a few extra units, I don't see another dime, so where's the motivation? And here's something else, Bob: I have eight different bosses right now. . . Eight. So that means when I make a mistake, I have eight different people coming by to tell me about it. That's my only real motivation is not to be hassled, that, and the fear of losing my job. But you know, Bob, that will make someone work just hard enough not to get fired.
I have no motivation to be there on "Flex-Friday", and the typical work day (that I'm being paid to be there) is a struggle to drudge through. It's absurd that so many morons show up on "Flex-Days" to fuck up the work people do all week - seriously, the "Flex-Day" workers are about 70% idiots, and the other 30% are the ones trying to undo and fix the work they've done and ruined...
Apparently Architecture is a field in which the way to do it properly is to run profits into the red and do things once, twice, nineteen times until it's so far from right that when it comes time to ship it out, no one on the team gives a flying fuck about what it looks/performs like, they're just glad it's out the door.
This is what the extra hours are spent on.
I began studying Architecture essentially because I'm a moron. I was good at (and liked) art, and was good at math (and it came easy to me). Seriously. For being such a good mathematician in high school I don't know how my math added up to that. I should have went into Finance and taken Graphics Design courses as a hobby - at least then when I fuck up I'd still get a bad ass bonus - HoLLa!
My profession is the rich man's hobby.
With rich dudes doing this stuff on the side, how the fuck is anyone supposed to compete in this industry and make a profit? I think I'm getting ahead of myself - especially considering there are no other jobs out there that would take me - but it's really starting to bother me that I am working as a professional in an industry that only needs the cog of architecture because government agencies require an architect to stamp the drawings for construction. I digress.
"Flexible" Friday's bother me because they're not flexible at all. You can only take your "flexible" day on Friday's. Wait, I need to work 32 hours a week, which I STILL do in spades, who gives a flying fuck how it rounds out? Management, that's who. For the July 4th, and Labor Day holidays we received memo's from the evil corporate arm that is HUMAN RESOURCES. This memo stated that for our office which is on a 4-day work week, that our Flexible day would be moved to Wednesday of that week, and Friday would be a standard work day, and the following Monday would be our Holiday. This is so that we don't ALL bounce on Thursday night. Who the fuck is going to work Monday and Tuesday, take a day they weren't planning on taking, then come back two days before a 3-day weekend?! Honestly. This is the evil corporate bullshit I'm talking about. (FYI, for Labor Day, we received notification of this the Tuesday before the Wednesday the Flex-Day was switched to - these fuckers don't even play by doctor's 24-hours notice rules!)
If you are going to make a 4-day work week, fine god dammit, but don't make this 4-day mandatory/full-week implied shit.
Why do work for free when you can get paid for it?
Someone said that. Someone famous, and I don't know who, but it's awesome. It's right on the fucking target. Working for a shitty industry and a shitty firm has made me more of a Communist than I'd like to be, but dammit, I don't have money, and I'd like some. I'd also like my time and life back.
If everyone in my office refused to come in on a "Flex-Day", then the evil corporation wouldn't be able to sustain this shit for long at all. I'm sick of getting treated like an amateur. If the people rose up (with T-squares and Exacto-knives in lieu of a Sickle and Scythe) we'd bring this shit down.
Yeah.
About that?
Not going to happen. Because unlike Peter Gibbons - I AM lazy.
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