Sleepy Friday and Work Ethics

I can't believe I'm still awake this late. It's not actually that late, but I was quite sure I would drop down into a deep slumber almost immediately after we checked out the new exhibit where we're having our wedding in a mere 21 days. I'm just that whipped.

Notice I didn't link to our wedding website. Those of you who know me, already know where that is. But I had this interesting experience today where a fellow employee mentioned finding this blog because he monitors who's linking to our company. I know this is public. I mean .. dah! But for some reason it still caught my attention. I know better than to write something that's too public. But, like a story this person told me, it wouldn't be that hard to get all comfy in blog land and maybe come home a little inebriated and write something I really shouldn't have. Anyway, this interaction today gave me pause and made me think. It's a good thing.
I'll have to figure out what the right balance is with all this.

We had an interesting project at work which started yesterday at 4pm and lasted exactly 24 hours. They put us all in mixed discipline teams and we had to do something specific, but creative. It's not released yet, so I'll skip the details.

The project started at 4pm yesterday and I had come in early that day because my ride (Punkinpie) had an early investors meeting on Thurs. I was really surprised how willing folks were to work all night. After being at work for more than 10 hours, and I felt like our brainstorming session was just rehashing the same things, I put my foot down and left. We also had plans last night. As I made my way home, I felt bad about not being dedicated enough to this company. I questioned my priorities, and I ended up bailing on my plans and staying home working on implementing one of our group's ideas. I also questioned my fit with this dot com company and exactly what "dot com" really means.

I have no problem working my tail off for a defined goal. In fact, I almost work better when I'm working on something obsessively all day and all night for some period of time. But somehow I originally didn't see the need to stay all night and work on Thurs. I'm glad I did end up working for hours last night, but it's still a weird situation in my mind. To meet our goal, I worked faster and harder than I've really worked in a long time, like years. Programmers can't work like that for very long before they lose their mind. (I think the official word is: burnout) The phrase fast and furious comes to mind.



The project delivery meeting went well and was fun. This group really is pretty amazing and funny. After the meeting was finished I left. Again today I had gone into work early because we had a 7:45am meeting to sign papers today. (We bought another house!) And I left early too. I was so tired.

I think something for me that I'll have to work on is the balance between work, life and hours. This place has a correct policy about it not being the input but output. Basically, they're saying that they don't watch your hours, instead they care about you getting your work done. And I am totally on that page. But I also feel like I should be able to get my projects finished and polished in a normal 40 hour work week. (Maybe more like the average of the hours I work over a year should be around 40 because of course things ebb and flow.) I guess what it really comes down to is that I didn't really understand the value of this 24 hour project and why it should be superseding my personal, previously scheduled life. I now see a lot more value in doing this project this way, but this same value could be attained with several weeks notice to a 24 hour project like this. I can only hope that those employees that were around before this week, had actually gotten this notice.

Cool Links for Today:
ExxonMobile and Bush Affiliates Pay Scientists to Refute Global Warming Report
Yellow Arrow - More Than Meets the Eye
The Underground Tech Scammer Life
Guerrilla Marketing Plan Gone Awry - or Has It?