Time Over Time.

Last week, D**** was asking for volunteers to work the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday, leading me to believe that I would not be working because there was no way was going to be volunteering if I could have the day off. I have to take both my car and my bike to the appropriate shops.

Yesterday, I sent an e-mail to the Operations Manager asking for confirmation of how the schedule was going to be and how the time sheets were going to be taken care of because I well remember last year when I though the schedule was going to be a certain way only to learn at the last minute that it wasn't and I would have to work, necessitating canceling hotel reservations and missing out on time with my family.

Well, no surprise, it's happened again. I had no response all day yesterday from the Operations Manager but found a schedule in my mailbox this morning indicating that not only do I have to work on Monday but I am required to work a ten hour shift on the following day, supposedly to make up for the increased call volume that comes after three-day weekends.

The last time I worked a ten hour shift for that, I took one call with that extra morning hour. One. A complete waste of time.They didn't do this for the day after New Years, a day that we know for sure that there is going to be an increased call volume. Last Tuesday we took 150% of our typical call volume and no one worked extra hours. And they want us to work an extra two hours for MLK? Sure, were going to have a slightly higher call volume but nothing like what we had last week and nothing that warrants an extra two hours of overtime out of each of us. And then, those extra hours are typically going to come at the beginning and the end of the day when what we really need are extra bodies during the critical 8-10 slot in the morning. Of course that means solving their high turnover problem that has been hiring steadily since last year yet we still have the same number of empty seats.

The Operations Manager eventually responded to my rant and we had a little meeting. Not much satisfaction there. Lots of excuses about how busy things are and how they're doing their best, yadda, yadda, yadda. And, in spite of her words that I should be confident that the schedule won't have any surprises come President's Day, I am not convinced. I could hear it in the tone of her voice that she knew that she really lacked to authority to make any promises. I feel lied to.

Of course, I should be used to that by now.