Work Woes

I can't seem to catch up on my sleep. Usually, I'm able to be in bed by seven-thirty. (I know... don't hate me). But there's so much else I could be doing at the new house... I tend to stay busy until eight before I remind myself of bedtime. I hope this is just a phase, because I don't want to have to start drinking coffee again.

My work life is going to start changing today. Our company is installing *Product Name Deleted* on all of our computers. It's called a workflow intelligence system. Whatever. It's Big Brother. Any program that requires me to click a button before I go for a bathroom break or to get a drink of water is intruding a bit too far. It's supposed to capture our production data in real time to create accurate estimates for schedules and KPI (key performance indicators). Since KPI is what our yearly raises are based on, this program becomes quite important. Currently, our KPI is pretty much recorded using the honor system. I write down everything work-related that I do every day and submit it to my boss on a weekly basis.

This program will record how much time I spend in each application throughout the day. I never let my internet use make me miss a deadline, but I do spend a lot of time browsing and dinking around at various websites. I'm good at managing my time, and if I don't have anything on my desk, I always volunteer to help out other departments. Regardless, though, my position does have some downtime. The production schedules don't keep everyone in every department busy at all times, and I have to wait on other areas to finish their work before I can begin mine.

I told my bosses that if I get fired because of this dang program, it's their loss. I'm the best proofreader they've had in years. My bosses responded by reminding me that they already know about how much time I spend on the internet.

It still bothers me though. It's not like I'm a big libertarian who resents any kind of authority figure telling me what to do. I have a very strong work ethic. I make sure that I do quality work and meet my deadlines. This program doesn't measure quality... and that's a factor that I feel is greatly overlooked at this company. Since quality is hard to quantify in terms of sales, it becomes an afterthought. So while other people in the company produce shoddy work and don't meet deadlines, I do my best and produce excellent work consistently and meet deadlines. This program won't measure that. Instead, I might get reprimanded for internet use, while Co-worker who is just not good at his job stays on task all the time, but still can't manage to do good work.

My boss says this program will probably just be a fad like other programs that have passed through the company before. What she doesn't understand is how expensive and intensive this program is. If it doesn't work out, someone's going to lose a job over it.

The good news is, we plan on me becoming a SAHM late in my next pregnancy. So I better get busy and get a baby cooking in the oven. That way I won't have to deal with this crap.

The point of this whole story is that I'm not going to be able to blog or browse blogs while I'm at work that much anymore. I might be able to, but it'll be sporadic. I don't want to lose this community of friendship and support I found, and it'll make me sad if I'm not able to connect with you guys on a daily basis. Luckily, we have the internet at home, but you know how it is. In the few hours of "home" I have every night before bed, there are other priorities besides blogging. Like loving The Boy. And laundry, dishes, cleaning, fornicating... you get the drift.