Long day

Last night I ‘got’ to stay over and work some overtime, and it has thrown more for a loop today. 

There are a few major differences between the way OT is handled at my current job vs. the way it was handled at my previous job. 

From the good side, at least as far as our working level folks are concerned, O.T. is totally voluntary.  The current union contract does not allow for forced Over Time.  If there are not enough volunteers to do what they want done, then the work is cancelled. 

At PSNs, the Company had the power to force people in for OT…the amount of forcing depended on the Project you were assigned to.  If you were working out at the Bangor Submarine Base where the operational Tridents are considered a key National Defense Asset, or at Everett where the operational Air Craft carriers are similarly labeled, with a very rigid schedule to maintain, there was a lot of OT to be had.  Usually though, greedymotivated people who didn’t mind the OT attempted to get themselves assigned to these Projects.  On average, it was not unusual for greedymotivated technicians(like I was) to register 1000-1200 hours of OT a year.  If you didn’t want the OT, you could expect to be forced for around 120-150 hours a year.

Now, as a supervisor/manager…there were no rules to protect you.  ‘The Needs of The Project’ were the only guideline.  As a motivatedgreedy manager, I was usually able to get about 650-700 hours of OT a year(which is what I felt I needed to work to maintain the lifestyle to which I had become accustomed)…but because the body pool was smaller, even the ones that didn’t want the hours would put in about 200 hours a year.

At my new place, I am on pace to put in about 70 hours of OT this year, so, that is quite a difference.  It’s also one of the reasons I came here.  I was tired of working 650-700 hours of OT a year.  I would have had to work 300+ hours of OT a year to break even with my new salary.  So, while the old job had the ability to make more…I felt that it paid enough that I would be able to enjoy the extra 400 hours a year with my family. 

As of this time, I have not regretted that decision.

What I do regret a little bit is staying last night for a double shift, and that is the other major difference between WRPS and PSNS.  At PSNS, because they could force people and KNEW they would have a stable work crew, even for OT, they worked scheduled 10 or 12’s hour shifts for OT, holding over 2 or 4 hours to get work done.  At this job, the flexible nature of the OT work force causes them to just schedule a whole extra shift…so instead of holding over 4 hours, you hold over for 8 hours, and work a double shift. 

I’m not as young as I once was.  Because of the drive distances, last night I go home at 11:35pm, and the alarm went back off at 5AM, and I have felt tired and a step behind all day. 

I need my beauty sleep.