Sleep is not an option, some feds say
When you took your federal job, did your game plan include getting eight hours of sleep and most weekends off? If so, Senior Correspondent Mike Causey wants to ...
We all know that sleeping on the job — with some exceptions — is not a good career move. But thanks to high-tech hand-held devices and others wonders, sleeping off the job, including in your own bed at night, may be on the way out.
Take this reader, for example:
“We were in a leadership meeting on a Wednesday at noon. We had a project due Thursday. Worked on the project Wednesday afternoon and sent it up for review around 5 p.m. Got comments back at 7 p.m. Sent some information to contractor at 9 p.m. and logged off (from home). Checked around 11:30 and the contractor had made the changes so I sent them on to the boss. There was also an earlier message from the boss that asked who I had invited to the meeting the next day. Well I hadn’t because I did not see the need. Now panicking, I am sending invites out at midnight.
Go to sleep and getting ready to leave the house Thursday morning around 7 a.m., my BlackBerry goes off — it’s the boss. ‘Did you see the email yet?’
‘The one from 7 p.m.? Yes I did and responded already.’
‘No no no, the one from this morning.’
‘No, I haven’t,’ I replied. I then received a ‘learning’ speech about how when you are doing an important project you need to keep checking your BlackBerry.
I guess sleeping is not an option, especially in the high intensity world of accounting. Oh, and those people I invited to the meeting… Turns out my guess was incorrect, so I had to uninvite that morning as well. — T at Agency X
Another reader shares this story:
“I used to stay late, if needed, and work Saturdays in special cases. But our organization works on the premise of: “It’s not what you’ve done for me in the past but what have you done for me lately. Suffice it to say I give them eight hours, and that’s it. With the impending doom and attrition, we will be doing more with less and this lesson needs to be passed on. I tell everyone not to worry; it will be there again tomorrow.” — Been there, done that!
NEARLY USELESS FACTOID
By Jack Moore
The song “Jingle Bells” was originally published in 1857 by James Lord Pierpont to be performed at a Thanksgiving concert.
(Source: Time
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Mike Causey
Mike Causey is senior correspondent for Federal News Network and writes his daily Federal Report column on federal employees’ pay, benefits and retirement.
Follow @mcauseyWFED
