The "Damn! I'm good!" thread.

[TheMalcolmConnection]

Originally Posted by Schneed10

Well, I'm certainly not a workaholic. I preach to my staff all the time that balance is important and that we make a big effort to get out by 5:00. But if you're idle during your 40 hours, the manager in me says you're not balanced, your scale leans too far to the side of not doing enough.

Now some of that is on your manager, he's clearly not filling up your day enough. But if you're not going to him and saying 'hey, I'm done my shit, you want me to do anything else?' then you're really never giving him a reason to promote you.

Maybe you're cool with that, and if that's the case more power to ya. But I like money. My balance is struck by busting my ass to do as much as I can during 8 - 5:30 - even if more than my job description requires. Then from then on it's family time. It's a work hard play hard mentality. If I'm at work I'm 100% engaged in the cause, and at home I'm 100% engaged in fun and leisure and time spent with family.

Well, I was promoted to Director of Technology at the Law School here after doing just support stuff for a while. My first year here was spent getting the customer service up to snuff and making us totally PC and Mac compatible (I hate Macs, but half the student population had them). Maybe IT is different, but a lot of times I feel like it's a testament to the staff on how quiet we are. My staff is good at communication and keeps me in the loop of what's going on. I still make sure I do support because I'd go nuts if I couldn't help people fix stuff in my new job.

Now, do I answer emails until I go to bed? Most definitely. I never let someone wait to get an answer. But when it comes to 4:30, I'm out the door. If there's an emergency, sure, I'll come back in. With the exception of just keeping abreast of new technology, this job is really hard to "make work".