So I think we are in a tenuous situation at work when it comes to, well, the amount of work we have. The latest update yesterday morning was that we are accelerating our productivity.
That's a good thing in one sense. With these projects with this company, you never know when you'll be done and thus out of work. My rule of thumb is to take their projected end date, calculate how many work days they estimate, and cut it in half. Seriously, projects never take as long as this company says. In fact, one time we were supposed to grading these papers for about 10 days and got done in less than 4. Pissed me off so badly I thought about immediately marching back into a temp job.
But apparently this writing project won't be my typical project. We crossed the halfway mark on Tuesday and we weren't even close to getting done. In fact, as of Tuesday we were going to get done exactly when they said we were going to get done, Tax Day. That in fact would be bad because I start work at another job on the 15th. I told someone that my first day of work, but it'd be a whole lot better for me if I just didn't up and leave.
However, we are getting to be, if I may say, a bit too productive. The update yesterday (Wednesday) morning was that, based on estimates, we are now projected to finish Friday. That's great. But the curve is bending, and sharper. We are going to get done before Friday, and if we keep this up, we are going to get done well before Friday.
And I have no fucking idea if these people I work with understand that. I have seen and heard everybody's daily rate of going through papers skyrocket. Guys, we're going to work ourselves out of a job. We are now doing 17% more papers than we did a couple days ago, and I don't remember our supervisor telling us we were slacking. No, we are giving them increased productivity of our volition ... and our obliviousness too, if I'm not mistaken.
I'm doing my best to increase my work, but this is getting ridiculous. We got an update on how many papers we've graded through lunchtime, and even though I thought I was working faster, it still wasn't enough, at least according to how many we are supposed to be doing now. Yes, compared to the projections that put our end date on Monday the 15th I needed to increase my productivity. But now that we are going to finish at least a day sooner than planned, and that that date is getting closer, I think we are satisfying our masters.
I don't like how fast we're working now. These papers -- well, some of them ... OK, most of them -- are awful. Not just awful to read, but awful to look at. Shit, what happened to handwriting, man? Trying to decipher chicken scratch, and then understanding what these American public school-educated kids are trying to say, sometimes takes a long time. I feel like I've had to skip over papers just to keep up.
And that's what I truly resent, the need to keep up. We have a quota of papers, and that increased in the past 24-72 hours, probably because the supervisor saw how fast most of my co-workers are going and encouraged us to go even faster to save the company money. Ladies and gentlemen, we go faster, we we get done sooner, and if we get done sooner, we don't get paid for the days we were supposed to work.
I'm trying to work at a better pace, but this is a fight I won't win. I cannot just work at a pace I think is best because I will be slower than everybody else, and that means I might lose my job or, worse, not get hired on for another. So, assuming that I have hit the number that I was supposed to hit yesterday (Thursday) I am forced to go along, work faster and (in my opinion) worse just to keep my numbers equitable to everybody's accelerating pace as we march towards a pink slip that doesn't have to come as fast as we're making it. This sucks, and it's stupid, and it's everybody else's fault.
CAN'T ANYBODY SEE WHAT WE'RE FUCKING DOING TO OURSELVES?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
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