Surviving overtime
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In short... a massive project has fallen behind for our team (due to incompitent planning by the project manager, the development itself has not been slow), so our dev team has been bribed with a lump sum to get it done on time. The hours aren't fixed, so long as it gets done, doesn't matter when we come in, but it seems like for the next 2 months we're going to be sticking in roughly an extra 2 hours a day each every day. I don't think our regular coffee is going to cut this. This is my first job since uni and I've never done these kinds of hours over long term before, I'm sure by the end of it I'm going to feel pretty drained, so what advice do people have? Be it drinks, activities (or lack thereof) and keeping up with sleep, what can you suggest? :)
He who makes a beast out of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man
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In short... a massive project has fallen behind for our team (due to incompitent planning by the project manager, the development itself has not been slow), so our dev team has been bribed with a lump sum to get it done on time. The hours aren't fixed, so long as it gets done, doesn't matter when we come in, but it seems like for the next 2 months we're going to be sticking in roughly an extra 2 hours a day each every day. I don't think our regular coffee is going to cut this. This is my first job since uni and I've never done these kinds of hours over long term before, I'm sure by the end of it I'm going to feel pretty drained, so what advice do people have? Be it drinks, activities (or lack thereof) and keeping up with sleep, what can you suggest? :)
He who makes a beast out of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man
Phannon wrote:
This is my first job since uni
those were my hours in uni.
----------------------------------------------------------- "When I first saw it, I just thought that you really, really enjoyed programming in java." - Leslie Sanford
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In short... a massive project has fallen behind for our team (due to incompitent planning by the project manager, the development itself has not been slow), so our dev team has been bribed with a lump sum to get it done on time. The hours aren't fixed, so long as it gets done, doesn't matter when we come in, but it seems like for the next 2 months we're going to be sticking in roughly an extra 2 hours a day each every day. I don't think our regular coffee is going to cut this. This is my first job since uni and I've never done these kinds of hours over long term before, I'm sure by the end of it I'm going to feel pretty drained, so what advice do people have? Be it drinks, activities (or lack thereof) and keeping up with sleep, what can you suggest? :)
He who makes a beast out of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man
In my opinion you should not let your exercise slip. Especially if you are looking at 10 hour days sitting in a soul killing cubicle or "open work area". I'd also take at least two brisk walks a day to break the cycle. Third, make sure that you aren't just showing up to keep up appearances.
Sovereign ingredient for a happy marriage: Pay cash or do without. Interest charges not only eat up a household budget; awareness of debt eats up domestic felicity. --Lazarus Long
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In short... a massive project has fallen behind for our team (due to incompitent planning by the project manager, the development itself has not been slow), so our dev team has been bribed with a lump sum to get it done on time. The hours aren't fixed, so long as it gets done, doesn't matter when we come in, but it seems like for the next 2 months we're going to be sticking in roughly an extra 2 hours a day each every day. I don't think our regular coffee is going to cut this. This is my first job since uni and I've never done these kinds of hours over long term before, I'm sure by the end of it I'm going to feel pretty drained, so what advice do people have? Be it drinks, activities (or lack thereof) and keeping up with sleep, what can you suggest? :)
He who makes a beast out of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man
Phannon wrote:
I don't think our regular coffee is going to cut this.
You should try the Code Project Coffee ;P Regards, --Perspx
"The Blue Screen of Death, also known as The Blue Screen of Doom, the "Blue Screen of Fun", "Phatul Exception: The WRECKening" and "Windows Vista", is a multi award-winning game first developed in 1995 by Microsoft" - Uncyclopedia Introduction to Object-Oriented JavaScript
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In short... a massive project has fallen behind for our team (due to incompitent planning by the project manager, the development itself has not been slow), so our dev team has been bribed with a lump sum to get it done on time. The hours aren't fixed, so long as it gets done, doesn't matter when we come in, but it seems like for the next 2 months we're going to be sticking in roughly an extra 2 hours a day each every day. I don't think our regular coffee is going to cut this. This is my first job since uni and I've never done these kinds of hours over long term before, I'm sure by the end of it I'm going to feel pretty drained, so what advice do people have? Be it drinks, activities (or lack thereof) and keeping up with sleep, what can you suggest? :)
He who makes a beast out of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man
You need to get used to it in the IT development trade. Projects almost always run late and developers have to stick in the extra hours to make up for time. Where I work (a FTSE 100 company), they take a "risk-based" approach to testing, which means that not all the code gets tested, just those areas deemed to be of high risk (for one reason or another). I wish we, as developers, could take the same approach but I doubt if our business teams would like to see chunks of features de-scoped "because we've run out of time...". No doubt someone will tell us this happens where they work. Just ensure the Coke machine is well-stocked. And ever tried starting earlier in the morning? I regularly sit down at my work's office desk around 07:30 yet leave after 18:00 :-(
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In short... a massive project has fallen behind for our team (due to incompitent planning by the project manager, the development itself has not been slow), so our dev team has been bribed with a lump sum to get it done on time. The hours aren't fixed, so long as it gets done, doesn't matter when we come in, but it seems like for the next 2 months we're going to be sticking in roughly an extra 2 hours a day each every day. I don't think our regular coffee is going to cut this. This is my first job since uni and I've never done these kinds of hours over long term before, I'm sure by the end of it I'm going to feel pretty drained, so what advice do people have? Be it drinks, activities (or lack thereof) and keeping up with sleep, what can you suggest? :)
He who makes a beast out of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man
Just to add to your gloom, be prepared to not receive the lump sum. They'll think of some reason.
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In my opinion you should not let your exercise slip. Especially if you are looking at 10 hour days sitting in a soul killing cubicle or "open work area". I'd also take at least two brisk walks a day to break the cycle. Third, make sure that you aren't just showing up to keep up appearances.
Sovereign ingredient for a happy marriage: Pay cash or do without. Interest charges not only eat up a household budget; awareness of debt eats up domestic felicity. --Lazarus Long
Chris Austin wrote:
take at least two brisk walks a day to break the cycle
Yep. One place I used to work at, everyone did that. It was located in a nice industrial park that had a big park across the street. It did take a lot of dread of the daily grind out.
"The clue train passed his station without stopping." - John Simmons / outlaw programmer "Real programmers just throw a bunch of 1s and 0s at the computer to see what sticks" - Pete O'Hanlon
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Just to add to your gloom, be prepared to not receive the lump sum. They'll think of some reason.
Yep. We used to get paid in terms of pizzas and it was cool at first, but after a few friday's with over 4 hours of overtime (on salary with no time and a half), the idea got old fast.
"The clue train passed his station without stopping." - John Simmons / outlaw programmer "Real programmers just throw a bunch of 1s and 0s at the computer to see what sticks" - Pete O'Hanlon
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Just to add to your gloom, be prepared to not receive the lump sum. They'll think of some reason.
You left of the bit that his company would be purchased by a private holding company and all of his stock options would be voided.
Sovereign ingredient for a happy marriage: Pay cash or do without. Interest charges not only eat up a household budget; awareness of debt eats up domestic felicity. --Lazarus Long
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In short... a massive project has fallen behind for our team (due to incompitent planning by the project manager, the development itself has not been slow), so our dev team has been bribed with a lump sum to get it done on time. The hours aren't fixed, so long as it gets done, doesn't matter when we come in, but it seems like for the next 2 months we're going to be sticking in roughly an extra 2 hours a day each every day. I don't think our regular coffee is going to cut this. This is my first job since uni and I've never done these kinds of hours over long term before, I'm sure by the end of it I'm going to feel pretty drained, so what advice do people have? Be it drinks, activities (or lack thereof) and keeping up with sleep, what can you suggest? :)
He who makes a beast out of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man
Don't overdo it on the caffeine. You don't want heart conditions! 2 hours a day extra when you're really busy is nothing, 2 hours a day when you're sat on your @55 doing nothing is tough
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In short... a massive project has fallen behind for our team (due to incompitent planning by the project manager, the development itself has not been slow), so our dev team has been bribed with a lump sum to get it done on time. The hours aren't fixed, so long as it gets done, doesn't matter when we come in, but it seems like for the next 2 months we're going to be sticking in roughly an extra 2 hours a day each every day. I don't think our regular coffee is going to cut this. This is my first job since uni and I've never done these kinds of hours over long term before, I'm sure by the end of it I'm going to feel pretty drained, so what advice do people have? Be it drinks, activities (or lack thereof) and keeping up with sleep, what can you suggest? :)
He who makes a beast out of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man
Hopefully you have a decent work environment, if you can joke around with people it helps, or have a decent to good working relationship with them. I've done several 24+ hour shifts at this job, mostly installing new hardware, so it keeps you busy until its time to wait for the db to copy itself to the new box.. The worst thing for me is working late, coming in early for someone else's mistakes, it doesnt bother me at all to come in early 6, 6 30 am and stay late if i'm doing my work and can get into it. While you may not finish or may get looked down upon if people dont help each other, i would highly recomend sticking to your tasks and making sure they are perfect before you offer help or let yourself be roped into something else, i find nothing more demoralizing in a time crunch than rushing to fix someone else's mistakes. i would also highly recomend doing whatever it is you do for strees relief, or general fun, whenever you have time..i personally like to play GTA 4, anything that you dont really have to think about and can be immersed in helps me. also keep up on your sleep, or get some really good coffee.
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Chris Austin wrote:
take at least two brisk walks a day to break the cycle
Yep. One place I used to work at, everyone did that. It was located in a nice industrial park that had a big park across the street. It did take a lot of dread of the daily grind out.
"The clue train passed his station without stopping." - John Simmons / outlaw programmer "Real programmers just throw a bunch of 1s and 0s at the computer to see what sticks" - Pete O'Hanlon
Oh yeah. I picked up the habit when I was working 18 hour shifts at Samsung in S. Korea. It was the only thing I could do to not fall asleep or make an error that would do serious damage to a very expensive piece of equipment.
Sovereign ingredient for a happy marriage: Pay cash or do without. Interest charges not only eat up a household budget; awareness of debt eats up domestic felicity. --Lazarus Long
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In short... a massive project has fallen behind for our team (due to incompitent planning by the project manager, the development itself has not been slow), so our dev team has been bribed with a lump sum to get it done on time. The hours aren't fixed, so long as it gets done, doesn't matter when we come in, but it seems like for the next 2 months we're going to be sticking in roughly an extra 2 hours a day each every day. I don't think our regular coffee is going to cut this. This is my first job since uni and I've never done these kinds of hours over long term before, I'm sure by the end of it I'm going to feel pretty drained, so what advice do people have? Be it drinks, activities (or lack thereof) and keeping up with sleep, what can you suggest? :)
He who makes a beast out of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man
Phannon wrote:
due to incompitent planning by the project manager
Has the project manager been fired? I would stipulate that.
Phannon wrote:
our dev team has been bribed with a lump sum to get it done on time.
So, you're going to put in an extra 2 hours a day, assuming you'll: 1) actually get the lump sum 2) actually get done on time That's a losing situation. The company should pay you in advance for your extra work. I know it sounds ridiculous, but realistically, you will be putting in all this extra effort and something will happen to make you miss your deadline, or as someone else commented already, the company will find some excuse not to pay you. Remember, the company is making you assume all the risk. Why not have them take on some of the risk, and pay you up front? Why should you and your team take on the risk? My 2c. Which I know won't fly. Marc
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Oh yeah. I picked up the habit when I was working 18 hour shifts at Samsung in S. Korea. It was the only thing I could do to not fall asleep or make an error that would do serious damage to a very expensive piece of equipment.
Sovereign ingredient for a happy marriage: Pay cash or do without. Interest charges not only eat up a household budget; awareness of debt eats up domestic felicity. --Lazarus Long
Chris Austin wrote:
was working 18 hour shifts
Yikes.
"The clue train passed his station without stopping." - John Simmons / outlaw programmer "Real programmers just throw a bunch of 1s and 0s at the computer to see what sticks" - Pete O'Hanlon
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Phannon wrote:
due to incompitent planning by the project manager
Has the project manager been fired? I would stipulate that.
Phannon wrote:
our dev team has been bribed with a lump sum to get it done on time.
So, you're going to put in an extra 2 hours a day, assuming you'll: 1) actually get the lump sum 2) actually get done on time That's a losing situation. The company should pay you in advance for your extra work. I know it sounds ridiculous, but realistically, you will be putting in all this extra effort and something will happen to make you miss your deadline, or as someone else commented already, the company will find some excuse not to pay you. Remember, the company is making you assume all the risk. Why not have them take on some of the risk, and pay you up front? Why should you and your team take on the risk? My 2c. Which I know won't fly. Marc
Nah I get what your saying. It's been formally written and signed that most of it is guarenteed and the rest is based on an on-time delivery. The lump is a % of annual salary and split to 2 portions from there.
He who makes a beast out of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man
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Phannon wrote:
due to incompitent planning by the project manager
Has the project manager been fired? I would stipulate that.
Phannon wrote:
our dev team has been bribed with a lump sum to get it done on time.
So, you're going to put in an extra 2 hours a day, assuming you'll: 1) actually get the lump sum 2) actually get done on time That's a losing situation. The company should pay you in advance for your extra work. I know it sounds ridiculous, but realistically, you will be putting in all this extra effort and something will happen to make you miss your deadline, or as someone else commented already, the company will find some excuse not to pay you. Remember, the company is making you assume all the risk. Why not have them take on some of the risk, and pay you up front? Why should you and your team take on the risk? My 2c. Which I know won't fly. Marc
Marc Clifton wrote:
Has the project manager been fired?
Should be, if not, at least have a negative performance mark in the personnel file.
"The clue train passed his station without stopping." - John Simmons / outlaw programmer "Real programmers just throw a bunch of 1s and 0s at the computer to see what sticks" - Pete O'Hanlon
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Phannon wrote:
due to incompitent planning by the project manager
Has the project manager been fired? I would stipulate that.
Phannon wrote:
our dev team has been bribed with a lump sum to get it done on time.
So, you're going to put in an extra 2 hours a day, assuming you'll: 1) actually get the lump sum 2) actually get done on time That's a losing situation. The company should pay you in advance for your extra work. I know it sounds ridiculous, but realistically, you will be putting in all this extra effort and something will happen to make you miss your deadline, or as someone else commented already, the company will find some excuse not to pay you. Remember, the company is making you assume all the risk. Why not have them take on some of the risk, and pay you up front? Why should you and your team take on the risk? My 2c. Which I know won't fly. Marc
Marc Clifton wrote:
Has the project manager been fired? I would stipulate that.
Has that ever happened? I've seen plenty of PMs overcommit but I've never once seen anyone but the dev and support teams take the lumps.
Sovereign ingredient for a happy marriage: Pay cash or do without. Interest charges not only eat up a household budget; awareness of debt eats up domestic felicity. --Lazarus Long
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In short... a massive project has fallen behind for our team (due to incompitent planning by the project manager, the development itself has not been slow), so our dev team has been bribed with a lump sum to get it done on time. The hours aren't fixed, so long as it gets done, doesn't matter when we come in, but it seems like for the next 2 months we're going to be sticking in roughly an extra 2 hours a day each every day. I don't think our regular coffee is going to cut this. This is my first job since uni and I've never done these kinds of hours over long term before, I'm sure by the end of it I'm going to feel pretty drained, so what advice do people have? Be it drinks, activities (or lack thereof) and keeping up with sleep, what can you suggest? :)
He who makes a beast out of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man
Turn in your resignation? Those kinds of hours usually cause people to get burned out and leave a lot of companies unless its a project you really enjoy working on I remember my first job was extremely amazing and I would work a few extra hours each day and some on the weekend because it was so much fun. The idea that they're asking you to work an extra 2hrs per day and stipulating that the pay is then dependent on finishing the project is a sham. If the project doesn't get finished even when you put in all those extra work hours who's fault is that? You do work you should get paid.
Todd Smith
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In short... a massive project has fallen behind for our team (due to incompitent planning by the project manager, the development itself has not been slow), so our dev team has been bribed with a lump sum to get it done on time. The hours aren't fixed, so long as it gets done, doesn't matter when we come in, but it seems like for the next 2 months we're going to be sticking in roughly an extra 2 hours a day each every day. I don't think our regular coffee is going to cut this. This is my first job since uni and I've never done these kinds of hours over long term before, I'm sure by the end of it I'm going to feel pretty drained, so what advice do people have? Be it drinks, activities (or lack thereof) and keeping up with sleep, what can you suggest? :)
He who makes a beast out of himself gets rid of the pain of being a man
Monster Lo-Carb! :omg:
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You need to get used to it in the IT development trade. Projects almost always run late and developers have to stick in the extra hours to make up for time. Where I work (a FTSE 100 company), they take a "risk-based" approach to testing, which means that not all the code gets tested, just those areas deemed to be of high risk (for one reason or another). I wish we, as developers, could take the same approach but I doubt if our business teams would like to see chunks of features de-scoped "because we've run out of time...". No doubt someone will tell us this happens where they work. Just ensure the Coke machine is well-stocked. And ever tried starting earlier in the morning? I regularly sit down at my work's office desk around 07:30 yet leave after 18:00 :-(
DrWheetos wrote:
Just ensure the Coke machine
That's not legal. You shouldn't mention using coke for long stints on a public board. :suss: