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Bruce Byfield wrote:
>Reading this comment, I suddenly realized that a number of the people
>who find over-time acceptable are single, at the start of their
>careers, or both.
>I can't help wondering: is there anybody on the list in a permanent
>relation - especially one with children - who doesn't object to
over-time?
>Conversely, is there anybody on the list who is single or new to the
>field who does object to over-time?
As a single person about eight years into my career, I try to avoid
overtime as much as possible. When I was hired, I agreed to work 40
hours per week for XX dollars/year. I knew there would be lots of
travel involved, however, most of which is done on time outside my
regular workday, so that cuts into my personal time, especially when I
have to fly on the weekend. I knew it would be this way from the
beginning, and I'm okay with it, basically because I enjoy the travel
and I can read whatever I want on the plane, so it's *almost* like my
own time.
Now, my coworker in my same position is a single mother of two children.
She's supposed to travel as much as I do. However, I offered to take
the majority of the trips because I know that she needs to be with her
kids more than I need to be with my cats. I don't do it for the
company, I do it because I like her and help her and she'll do the same
for me if necessary.
However, I've got lots of family obligations as well, since I regularly
care for my two nieces. For me, face time with my family is way more
important than work. Luckily, I work for a really small (under 20
people) company, so even though I put family before work, I'm still able
to balance pretty well, because we all watch out for each other. I
realize how lucky I am that I am able to balance a job I love, with
family and personal pursuits. But I work to live, not live to work.
Even so, during crunch time, I will work as much as necessary to get the
job done, fortunately there's not too much crunch time here... We plan
stuff so everything goes smoothly.
But I will say, I worked lots more hours for about half the pay when I
was first trying to establish myself in the field, even though I wasn't
single at the time. My career came before anything else. As I got
older, more established professionally, and more mature emotionally, my
priorities shifted to where they are now: family, then work.
Anita Lewis
Three Rivers Systems, Inc.
Training & Customer Support
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