I've been leaving you hanging, I know. Time flies when you're busy. I swear I started this over a week ago, but got caught up trying to edit a few things here and there, and, well, then I gave up. For 9 days. Plus, holiday. So, yeah.
As I've stated before, what I really want to share is what things are like from this side of a strike. I'm going to try to keep in mind all the things that I learned from the 4 years in journalism class back in the day (my gosh...has it really been 10 years now?!) and remain factual and unbiased in my representations of going to work. With that being said, I'll give a--hopefully brief--synopsis of what a typical day within the past 2 weeks has brought:
*We can start as early as 7:00 am. I generally stick to the regular start time of 8:30.
*When I get in, I get any/everything extra ready for Court. I go to Court every day.
*In my department, there is someone scheduled for each and every courtroom.
*We don't have to take minutes; that's what the orders are for. *Update: started using mini's again today.
*We take care of the important things in court: custodies, quashes, and the like. In between our assistance to whomever requires it, we enter work. *Update: back to (mostly normal) in court. Didn't have time to enter work today.
*No one breaks me. I take a break when I want. They don't miss me when I'm gone.
*When court is done, I come down for lunch. Again, no one has had to break me. The latest I've been in court was almost 1:00. The earliest I've gotten out: 11:30.
*We can take as short of a lunch as we want, or the full hour. We get comp time for any time short of the full hour. My lunches are usually 30-45 minutes.
* After lunch, I timestamp, prioritize, and enter work that needs to be done.
*All my priorities get done. And I've entered all files that are coming up within the next month.
*Mine is the courtroom that has the most work, and so yes, there are several days worth of work to be done. But again, anything of priority or up within the next month has been done.
* I am now at the point of having about 4 days worth of work left to do. I'm sure it will begin accumulating again, but everyone pitches in over the weekend to catch up a bit.
*Some other courtrooms are pretty close to being current and/or are current.
*I've stayed until at least 5:30 every night. We can stay as late as 7:00 pm.
*Week one I accrued 15 hours of overtime. Week two was only 5, but I got double-time for an extra 5 hours on Friday (Black Friday).
I think that about covers a typical day...oh...except the honking and buzzers and shouting and honking and honking and honking. I swear I hear it in my sleep. It is non-stop. I guess there are sometimes work trucks out there that stay running and they put something ON the horn so it just goes...constantly...outside my window. Ibuprofin has been a more prevalent fixture in my days. I suppose it comes with the territory, though.
Overall, we're doing really well. The people who have chosen to come in are kicking butt! And those who must work regardless (managers, supervisors, and the like), well, they are friggin' machines! We may be working hard, but don't take that as a sign of weakness. Would it be nice to have everyone back and for work to proceed at a usual pace? Sure. But there are definitely some pros to this whole thing.
Someone near and dear to me said that I may want to reconsider some things that I said in my last post. But, I figure, what's said is said. I'm sure some people probably took my last comment as a real dig. And, sure, I may have said it as a dig. But many people have taken their opportunity to dig all of us who decided to work, so I don't really feel bad. One person told me that someone said to them on his/her way in, "Because of you, my child isn't going to have a nice Christmas!" And we concluded: No, that's on YOU. Nobody is forcing anyone to do anything. If, as a result of this, you can't afford to buy your child presents, I'm very sorry, but you chose not to work. I really dislike when people don't take responsibility for their own actions.
Life is what you make of it. And, consequently, so is work. I'm still enjoying my job, maybe even more than before. Heck, in an office full of (mostly) women, it sure is nice to have some peace and quiet. Err...aside from that honking. ;)
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