You call this a Holiday Week

Seriously, for most people the holidays may be a stressful time. But for those people it is usually because they have stressful things going on in their lives or crazy family situations. They’re single and have overbearing parents, or are trying to please everyone but don’t have the resources to so. For these people though, there is normally some reprieve. Normally work is slack during the holidays, short weeks, extra time off, no dead lines, and not a lot going on. Well not for me, or any one else on my project. No we had the opposite situation.

My current client is one of those employers that actually shuts down operations for two whole weeks over Christmas and through the new year holiday. They’re whole pitch for there employees is how great of a place it is to work. Their motto (being a motorcycle company) is live to ride. Most people normally work 40 or less hours and get a lot of holiday time. They have good benefits and decent (though not great) wage. The main reason they stay on with the company is for it’s dedication to life style. That is unless you are signed on to the project run by the consultants. Though in our defense we didn’t pick the go-live date or create the schedule.

No on our project the two weeks of shut down were easily the busiest of the entire project. Most people were working 12+ days. Some people easily put in 60, 70, or even more hours. As the new system is going live Jan 2 there is no choice. The client employees got it pretty bad, but when they get poured on the consultants always get their share plus the over flow. Several nights I worked to 1am, 2am, or 3am. Every week I put in 6½ days a week. We did have short weeks though. We received Christmas Day off and New Year’s Day off. Unfortunately we still put in those 60, 70, or more hours! Just with only one less day in the week. So again I say “So you call this a Holiday Week?”

Now I really don’t feel sorry for myself. Nor do I really mind. I knew what I was signing up for when I signed on for the job. No the people I feel for are the client. Unlike most projects the majority of the project team was assigned to the project they didn’t volunteer. Second most of them are on salary so they aren’t even seeing any overtime out of the deal. Third they are loosing their 2 weeks of holiday and they aren’t getting any make up time. Finally they are putting in long weeks, have stress on their family lives, and the company has no plans to recognize their efforts. No extra pay, no awards, nothing but a small mention on the employee web page. What a joke; so much for “Living to ride!”