This is me not complaining
I remember at my early jobs (since I always had to work two to three at a time to make ends meet the way the zippers on my pants two sizes down get into the neighborhood of connecting), I used to get exhausted by 40 hours a week.
Don’t get me wrong, all told I’d still do 80 hours. But there was one job that was an 8-to-4:30 and boy did I want to die by 4:31 when I sprinted for the stairwell.
I had a hard 40 hours last week. The additional hours at the same job weren’t cake either. 😉
This week is a holiday week, which means Even Moar Cramming 10 pounds of poop into a five-pound bag. I thought, I can make it. I will pace myself.
Then I got an impossible request on an all-staff call today and I had to mute myself. Because my reply would have been fairly lethal.
It’s an impossible request because I gave away a Big Project to someone last week only to have it come running back to me today. So in addition to my Crammed Holiday Week, I have this Big Project.
So hearing about an Impossible Project — which really isn’t but I’m pretty much seething at this point being due like RIGHT NOW — not to mention a few residual cleanup items from the last two launches and starting the NEXT TWO launches, well, yams.
Truth be told, I’d rather have the project. I just wanted to have a normal crazy week instead of another batshit one. Silly Goddess.
So, in “This is Me Not Bitching” status, I will say this. There is a group of three of us. It’s always been the three of us. It’s a carryover from our last job where we worked together in ridiculous conditions. We just kind of banded together here and it’s always, always The Three of Us. No matter how many people come and go.
Anyway, I think we all drive each other crazy. But I think our loyalty is unparalleled. We can always count on each other for a few laughs. We never really bitch because we’re in the “grateful to have an income” category.
But honestly, even when I want to throw things at them on occasion, I just want to hug them afterward.
I have a funny feeling that, if this company lasts 50 more years and we are still there, the three of us will still be standing together. Or drunk at a bar together. Yes, that sounds more like it.
Anyway, I received an amazing, amazing gift from one of my boys today. Between him and my two colleagues, I can get up and do this every day.
It’s tougher some days than others, generally when I’m being held accountable for 1,000 things to everybody else’s 250. But, you know, I do it for myself and the people who need me to do it for them.
Those three are as grateful as can be. And that counts for a whole hell of a lot.