They say they are going to be more mindful of Holidays, they are going to make scheduling more predictable, less weekends, plan more downtime, less overtime. They want to shift the work culture from "do whatever it takes" to "we are not machines". They acknowledge we have lives and need our personal time. They acknowledge many of us have been redlining far too long and it has come at a cost to employees personal lives, moral and productivity. I really hope this comes to pass. One of the new managers notes that one of his qualifications is that he is married and has two children, which means he needs to have a life and they need to know when he is available. I really feel like they are starting to listen to what many of us have been saying for a long time. It should have happened sooner and we should have spoken up sooner. It is gratifying to know that I wasn't crazy. I was losing myself and I bought into the work culture. I played my part. I know I did not always roll with the past culture well, especially in the last year. I felt I had to give my all to work, many times it seemed as if there was no other choice, I should have said "no" more. I kept going, hoping it would pay off. In the last year I thought I had been doing it for nothing. I felt like I was not getting payback, advancement or opportunity. Many of us felt this way. In the end they appear to be listening. Many of us now have new opportunity. I believe they realized that we were pushing back and we were not going to keep going at the past pace, change had to happen and it has begun.
This should give me time to concentrate on outside interests. I have already experienced some positives from a calmer schedule. In the last two plus months I have not had to work weekends outside my occasional routine weekend duty, overtime has reduced significantly, and soon I will have a steady shift without rotation. I actually find myself with some extra time on my hands. I believe I will have some fuel in the tank for outside interests, adventure, family and friends. Here is to change, new opportunities and life.
I think I will go throw a keg.
Words: opportunity and change
2 comments:
Best Buy started something last year along these lines:
http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/06_50/b4013001.htm
AND they saw an increase in productivity. Go figure.
interesting article johnny. i would say some of the changes we are seeing at my work place was from the bottom up. we just could not keep going and the push back from employees was becoming evident. we have try something different. i think the new plan will work. we still have to be on site but we have started to shift the culture and are getting what we want. time will tell, it is a start.
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