Wednesday, March 07, 2012

IT Schedules and Life+Work

As most administrators or IT pros well know, it is difficult to sometimes work a good schedule out with your managers, especially if they are not in IT themselves. For example in smaller shops, usually the one managing IT staff is someone like the "office manager" or some other general position. What most folks will not understand is IT schedules are pretty dynamic--that is, constantly changing. It isn't like we can come into work and do the same thing every single day usually. The nail isn't always the same, and our hammers aren't always ready to work.

This is even more true if you are the only person in the department. For the most part the guys here have been pretty flexible with my schedule as their network administrator which I greatly appreciate. However I do not believe it is due to them understanding the broad IT schedule, but instead just plainly not understanding my department at all.

Recently though one of the execs made a new policy effective immediately that basically required everyone to work the same hours and come in earlier. I right away knew this would cause conflict in my schedule. So I did my best to explain to him that being confined to 6-3 or something similar would make it difficult for me to finish my work.

Here are some of the reasons:
  • A lot of maintenance work is done off-peak hours, for me later in the night from home
  • Because of the above, I stay up later, one reason I come in at 9 instead of 6
  • Regardless of the above two factors, I still get calls early in the morning or late in the evening for either staff still in the office or remote users
  • I've worked holidays often
  • I've worked during my vacation (really expected to)
Now because of these few non-exhaustive reasons, if I was required to work the standard shift of 6-3 or 8-4,; I'd have to wake up earlier for one, spend the whole day at work to satisfy execs of my 'visibility' in the office, then stay late at work or go home and continue working remotely, on top of my other work days. Now it may not seem like a big deal, but the difference to my current schedule (9-4~) is that I can decide when to leave early, when to stay late, when to pull a long night etc. This gives me much more control over my schedule which brings the benefit of feeling more satisfied with my work being done, and balancing work with life.

That 1-2 hours of extra sleep is a big help, considering I am a night person anyway. After I reasoned with the exec and also appealed to my quality of work and also a little help of Jake Messersmith PhD: http://www.shrm.org/Education/hreducation/Documents/46-3%20Messersmith.pdf

I was able to convince him to let me keep control over my own schedule (within reason). So as it is, my schedule is the same still, basically 9 to 4:30, but it isn't a rigid shift either. I can decide to come in late, leave early or the opposite depending on work requirements for the day.

Perhaps you find yourself struggling with your schedule with work and life, check out the above pdf, might help you to reason with your employer.