Chicago: The Eponymous Thread

that way you can just ask yourself "did i do this y/n" rather than "what did i do all day"

back when I had to do billable hours (which is the worst work task on the face of the earth btw) I always added 15 minutes to everything I did and, if all else failed, padded the remaining time in my day w/ like "misc. -- time management"

then one day the vp told me they just want it to add up to 40 every week so I stopped caring

Meh, it's not usually a problem b/c I keep an Excel doc open all day and keep a note pad nearby. But last week I was just like, fuck this, I know it's going to suck on Monday, but I truly do not feel like doing my time sheet.

I have certain recurring tasks, but for the most part they're all unique events.

Fortunately I don't actually have to account for all my time every day, only work I do for the firm that does not directly employ me and any billable time.

It's concerning when at the end of the a busy 8 hour day, I wind up with a total of 6 hours on my time sheet.

Oh man YES.

For me, there aren't a whole lot of unique events, but the proportion of time I devote to each event changes from week to week: one week it may be a lot of fact-checking, another week more editing, etc.

I hate having to come up with appropriate wording for billable stuff. Verbs are important.

We had a case that was being paid for by our client's (a corporation) liability insurance coverage and there were certain trigger words that caused them to reject an entry. One was "draft." Our agreement was apparently that they would not pay for "drafts" of written documents b/c they only paid for "work product" and a "draft" was not "work product," b/c it didn't get used. Or something??? It was really stupid! All writing is a draft, FFS.

Anyway, we changed "draft" to "prepare," and that solved the problem.

It's concerning when at the end of the a busy 8 hour day, I wind up with a total of 6 hours on my time sheet.

At the printing company job I had from '98 to '01, my boss had me track my time. At the end of my first week there, my daily totals averaged approx 6:00/day. He looked it over, said "good, good -- that's good productivity" and never bothered me again about my output. That was a good company to work for, until the owner ran it into bankruptcy and then went to jail.

is there such a thing as a customizable personal timesheet with sliders so you can label a task "composing and sending reminder emails" and then set the slider and it will create a weekly timesheet with the task and amt of time you spent on it?

my supe would love that but it would be a huge nightmare

I don't know what you mean by sliders, but we use timesheet software that has a list of pre-approved tasks that you just select and then type in the number of hours.

i don't know what i mean either -- we don't have any fancy software for anything where i work, so i am kind of living in medieval times

we don't even have a complete set of walls in my office

Hello! I finally re-registered. I opted for neither clever nor my old name (had to use a new email anyway). So I went with my dog's nickname which is much longer than his actual name.

wait, who else has a dog?

Kelsey!

It is a relief to have ilx back, in whatever form.

But bookmarks don't work in the sandbox afaict? Quelle horreur!

Dog's actual name is Mosley.

i'm on here. this blows. i'm saving up my good posts until real ilx comes back.

And now I'm ready to hear your DC rant.

DC rant.

DC Talk cover band iirc.

I reject any mass migration, but esp to the place where you are taxed without being allowed to choose your own representation in our "representative government"

but i do support fugazi

also bookmarks are working ok for me?

Yeah, my image of DC is basically diplomats and policy wonks rocking out to Fugazi at Ethiopian restaurants.

my insurance payments are going up by $100 per paycheck. and i already have the cheapest insurance option. i cannot really afford this. not happy about this.

Yeah, my image of DC is basically diplomats and policy wonks rocking out to Fugazi at Ethiopian restaurants.

― jaymc, Monday, November 28, 2011 5:39 PM (37 seconds ago) Bookmark Permalink

whitewashing chocolate city

I said they were at Ethiopian restaurants!

(j/k)

Yeah, my image of DC is basically diplomats and policy wonks controlling my life, talking too much, and getting in my way, more like

though i think DC no longer has a black majority? there's like reverse white flight going on there.

Nick, that sucks a lot.

League of Lecheras, your bookmarks from regular ILX are working here??

for me it's new bookmarks not working -- like I bookmark something, but then it still says I have no bookmarks.

lots of bookmarking errors spewing up too.

― stet, Monday, November 28, 2011 9:30 AM (2 hours ago)

Yikes. Nick, your insurance situation is crazy. I know ours is going up, but it's only by 3%.

no of course my old bookmarks aren't there -- it's not even the same login

i only have two new ones though
wait, three

I think I'm for real depressed about coming back to work. Like I stalled leaving the house so long I was late and walking down the hall felt like walking through a non-Newtonian fluid. And if I had to track my tasks today, I'd have at least four hours of staring out the window like the sad Paxil egg.

PS 6 hours of work out of an 8 hour day is about right. You've got to factor in eating, bathroom breaks, answering the phone/emails, interacting with coworkers, getting tea. That's why big firm billable hours are so beastly. It might look like nine hours/day but you have to be at work at least 12 to accomplish that.

i'm not doing much work today. it's quiet and my new p/t library assistant is starting tomorrow so i'm saving what i do get to train her with.

girl please this is work

answering the phone/emails, interacting with coworkers

I'm not saying it's not work, but it's also not a "task" that I would include in a tracking sheet, or something that a firm can bill to a client. If I spent 45 minutes discussing a case on the phone or with someone, I'd count it but that's about one phone call out of ten. Chatting with your colleagues about Thanksgiving for a few minutes doesn't count, but it's totally part of people's work days. Or a five minute hall stop when a coworker asks you a quick question.

What bugs me is that Liggy is my employer and she sort of contracts me out to The Idiot Firm and they pay Liggy an hourly rate for time spent doing work for TIF.

IMO, TIF should pay Liggy for 1/2 of my bathroom break/talking to the mail lady/shooing away gypsies time, which I was accounting for on my time sheet under "General" with a standing description like "various phone calls, visitors, office tasks." But TIF was insistent that it was impossible that not ALL of my time was in service of one or the other entity. TIF insisted that I document *everything*, including, for example of cleaning my desk. No joke, they expect me to figure out which firm's work was occupying the space I cleared.

Chatting with your colleagues about Thanksgiving for a few minutes doesn't count, but it's totally part of people's work days.

Exactly! I tried to explain that there should be 30 minutes of mushy times that should just be divided between the firms, but TIF wasn't having it.

you guys want to see some cool old pictures of me?
http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-ash4/381793_10150417917446445_508656444_8401104_963280147_n.jpg
http://a4.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net/hphotos-ak-snc7/383759_10150417916976445_508656444_8401095_1302267319_n.jpg
i think it's weird how the first pic looks like me but the second one doesn't at all

both at the meridian coffeeshop in williamsburg, va. color pic is approximately 2001, black and white approximately 1999/2000.

the second one doesn't look like you because you're playing bass

also that bass player is 12

first pic is the id. second pic is sir yes sir (guitarist in that pic is Clarke B. who posts on ILX about wine and artsy music)

And if I had to track my tasks today, I'd have at least four hours of staring out the window like the sad Paxil egg.

Haha, yes.

I don't know if the moment for discussion has passed, but one of the attys gave me a new perspective on work time and productivity. I was saying that some days when I spend too much time goofing off on the internet (ahem) I will stay 30 minutes late doing actual work. He said that was not right b/c as long as I got my work done, if I was at my desk being a warm body, I was giving my time to the firm (and being at the ready to react to its needs), and I was obliged to compensation for my time.

that's what i've had trouble with as a librarian: realizing that even at times when i'm "doing nothing" i'm doing something by being present and available as a resource.

gotta slow down the rate at which you actually do things because if you are always doing things, people will always expect you to be constantly DOING THINGS; difficult to sustain

better to space it out ime

When I was working directly for The Idiot Firm, Liggy was paying a flat fee for my services (~1/5 or 2/5 of my salary), but when I started working for her, we thought that she thought they would simply pay her 3/5 of my salary. But they tried to save money by having me track my time and bill them, thinking I would work less 3/5 of my 40 hours for them. Turns out I have been logging way more than that. Plus I bill them for time spent logging my hours.

On topic though, they refused to acknowledge "warm body" time, and it was tricky to discuss the matter without sounding like I spent a lot of time just sitting and breathing.

then they can let you sit and breathe at home in the bathtub

It seems that employers like to think every minute they pay for should be spent being actively involved in some productive task, but even for the most productive employee, this isn't reasonable.