Mid-Year Review

Again, I cannot stress the accomplishment the design and production of the 200,000 square foot bus storage facility has been. Kevin has taken on major portions of the design, drawing and specification production, including calculations, internal and external coordination.  This, while we continue to push forward many other small and medium sized projects.

I have been working with Kevin for over a year now and it is a pleasure. [T]he enthusiasm and energy he brings to the office along with intelligence and professionalism.

Thanks, Boss.

Brighten Your Day

K: I like when I accidentally hit my light when answering the phone.

K: It brings me much joy.

B: Does it brighten your day?

K: Quite.

Long Work Hours and Life

I am going to print this article out and post it on my wall at home. The words are the cold hard truth. They are words to live by.

Working 80-100 hours a week simply destroys people. It’s entirely unsustainable and unhealthy, so people quit. When they quit, I can guarantee they’ll tell their colleagues why. Not only is there a high employee turnover problem, but even worse, the company will have to combat a reputation for abusively overworking their employees. The long hours end up being extremely short-sighted on both the recruitment and retention fronts.

Long hours mean no one had the guts to tell the client, “We respect ourselves and our people enough to honor their time and their personal lives so we cannot agree to your deadline.” When companies cave to clients on these matters, they lose respect and diminish their status as an equal partner. With Servant and Master dynamics, long hours are just the beginning of what the company will agree to to make the client happy.

When teams of designers and developers regularly work weekends and late nights to hit deadlines, this is either 1) known and expected or 2) not known and unexpected. Either way a Project Manager didn’t allow enough time to complete the project in a sustainable, respectful manner and/or the PM messed up the estimate very, very badly and should likely be fired.

Link - What Long Hours Really Mean, We Are Mammoth

From the touch

Ideally, today would be a day of work. The good thing is, there is an end in sight. I just don't know how or when I'll get there. I've been diverting myself with my website. Lately, with a few minor tweaks, USuMBS.com just looks a lot better. I am not sure why. Also i am nearly done getting content to every page. So that's good. I just hope the website won't get in the way of what I need to do today. Projects and homework and exam for Tuesday. Tuesday seems to be the big day. Hmm.

I guess I should get started by getting out of bed now; I am writing this from my touch.