Does your shop force you to take breaks?

Maybe some give their job too much credit. You're not giving it enough credit. People going the extra mile DO make a difference in the product.

 

A, we don't have time sheets or clocks, so this thread doesn't really apply to me in that sense.

But, unlike Shottie, I'm the other guy: If I'm stuck on a headline or other sort of text, I get up and walk around, and 95 times out of 100, I have the perfect solution when I return. To each his own, and all that.

 

There is a reason, actually -- the law.

Like IJAG, I'm not saying what side of things I fall down on, and, I've been there, on both sides of this issue. All this really does, though, is remind people on here that they actually work in a job...not just in something they get paid for to do whatever they want, hours-wise, or any other way. Heck, I think that's even part of the real reason we rail against it so much.

The other reason is that we're just not used to it, that's all.

But this timecard/time clock issue is just how it is in the real working world. It's a fact of life.

To wit: After years of never punching a clock, and never in my life keeping track of hours in any way whatsoever beyond making sure I arrived on time to wherever I needed to be, and then, making daily deadlines, I have been out of the business (outside of some freelance work) for the past couple of years.

In every single job I have had since then, time has been an issue. And, the first time I had to actually start punching a clock? I got hit with a time-clock violation for clocking out eight minutes late (and thinking nothing of it) and with a meal exception (for working, unwittingly, beyond the time when I would have, by law, been required to take another lunch) within my first three weeks there. (Yeah, great start, I know, and, for other reasons -- mainly that I didn't like the job -- I left there of my own volition before too long).

Obviously, it takes some getting used to, and a little bit of a change of perspective, but my advice would be to just accept that that's how it is, and that that's what you've got to do. After a while, you'll actually come to appreciate the breaks, and, probably, you'll start treating your job more like the job that it is, too. It's really a bit of an eye-opening and liberating concept, actually.

In any case, railing against the policy will do nothing to help the situation, or you.

 

I think you put your finger on it right there. In the past, I liked being able to think that I wasn't just a 9-to-5er; I did the work until it was done, then I walked away from it. Now, they're wanting us to account from Point X to Point Y.

 

I'm salary. Worked 45 hours from Monday-Wednesday afternoon, tossed in a Little League game for the hell of it. Not sure how this applies here.

 

She got a promotion and a huge pay raise and is now the boss of our boss and our entire region.

 

I think this is the problem.

Rhody & I take an unbelievable amount of pride in our work and while I know that doesn't mean anything in the grand scheme of things because this industry never loves you back (If they had layoffs and wanted us gone, it wouldn't matter), I feel that we don't know any other way to go.

Call it a hero complex, call us arrogant and egotistical but for us, this isn't a job, it's a career and if you don't take pride in the work you do then you should go get a 9-5 gig at Burger King because, clearly, you have no interest in anything other than a paycheck.

 

This is what I am saying.

 

You can take pride in your work and not let work be your life.

 

What's wrong with work being your life?

For me, my life is my life. Work is a big part of it. If I do a great job at work, it makes the rest of my day/week that much better.

 

I understand what you're trying to say (I think), but this is an extremely presumptuous statement, and also, it's probably wrong in many cases.

There are plenty of people in blue-collar jobs -- even low-level blue-collar jobs -- who take pride in their work. You know, if you're going to be a ditch-digger, be the best ditch-digger you can be/work your hard/do your best, and all that...

Working in a 9-to-5 job, or at Burger King, is not always only for those who only care about making money. And, the ideas of having/taking pride in whatever work you do, and taking breaks, are not necessarily mutually exclusive.

 

OK, then make it that 10-4 overnight shift.

Seriously, I find it difficult to believe that you're offended by that after schiez has been basically called too self-important because he wants to do a good job at his profession. You really don't see the irony in that?