This afternoon I had a site walk (on my project) with the assistant project manager and the assistant owner's rep for my project. I mentioned that a friend of mine was on vacation in Spain and the owner's rep joked that I was not allowed to take any vacations until the end of the project. I said that I wasn't able to take any vacations right now, because I don't have any money. She said "good, I'll make sure to tell your boss not to give you any raises until the end of the project." To which I replied, "and a that time he can give me a big raise and a bonus right?" "Right!"It was a light-hearted joking around, but it's scary to think of shouldering this much stress without any breaks for another year. Now, before you jump to my defense, I'll point out that I'm hoping to take a trip to India to visit a friend next May or June. And, I may plan a quickie trip after I've finished (passed?) all the AREs as a sort of celebration. We'll have to see.
4 comments:
Just a thought, but breaks don't have to necessarily mean travelling for a week or going somewhere. It could mean something as simple as taking a day during the weekend or even a half day to put everything on hold and either read for fun, sleep, do nothing, take a motorcycle ride, etc. so that you can be more effective. oh yea, and turn off the computer....
Good suggestion, Stacey. I already do that and while it's currently keeping me (mostly) sane, it wouldn't be enough in the long term.
Contrary to popular opinion, I am not actually working that much overtime. This project has cured me of that. I just deal with the work day as best as I can, then I go home and try to recover. Occasionally, I'll work an extra hour or two, but it's nothing like working towards a deadline at the end of a documentation phase. There, I can work weekends for a month or two and push through. This project is in a phase that has no intermediate deadlines or rather, the deadlines are every single day. I can't -- I won't -- work weekends for two years. So "F" it. If it doesn't get done during the work day, too bad. They're just going to have to wait.
And having weekends is why I have time on the weekends to study for the ARE or go and see family and friends. I've got the mini-breaks. I need a mega-break.
Me too, but looks like I'm spending my megabreak caring for JRs Dad....
Which means it's not a break.
Hope everything goes well in Chicago. Maybe we can plan a weekender thing in Vegas as a break in the (relatively)near future.
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