How were your jobs in 2008 folks? Did you see any noticeable trends where you work?
I am a manager of a large engineering team at one of the world's largest corporations. I count myself very fortunate to have one of those traditional jobs with full benefits and a pension, plus pretty good wages and reasonable job security.
I have been at the same company more than 20 years, and have split the time pretty evenly between very technical work and engineering management. My technical / management split was usually about 50/50 but it's now dwindled to about 10/90
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On the management side, in 2008 my workload increased substantially versus previous years. The company just keeps dumping more and more stuff on us managers, while continuing to reduce support staff (secretaries, accountants etc). As the organization has been "leaned down", the workload for the remaining folks has gone up. This year I have been absolutely deluged with tasks, a lot of it due to a new approach to accounting that has been inflicted on us.
I estimate that my workload has increased by at least 50% this past year, and that's on top of steady increases year by year in the past. The fallout in the managerial ranks has been harsh, as we've seen a number of heart attacks, early retirements, and breakdowns. Not everyone can handle the relentless pressure to do more with less, while juggling all the normal supervisory crapola. Those of us who are the best swimmers and manage to stay afloat, are rewarded by having more anchors thrown to us
So here I stand as the year winds to a close, bent but not broken (ignore the plaster cast)
. What gives me pause though, is whether I can sustain this pace through to retirement. This year has been frantic, and it really impacted my PhD work. I was able to keep it from impacting home life much, simply by burning the midnight oil when the rest of the family was asleep and putting family first. I hope next year I can do as well.
So how was it for you other working stiffs in 2008? Are your jobs looking stable for 2009?
These are my 3 main work objectives for 2009:
1 - Stay ahead of the endless accounting changes inflicted by our infinite number of MBAs who collectively are convinced 1+1=7.
2 - Work even harder to support our New Business initiatives and get some more work coming our way
3 - Build time machine, go back to the past and ruthlessly slaughter the idiot who inflicted E-mail on us
A Year-End Assessment of Work
Linear Mode
