Working hard for my money

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This was, and probably still is, a whiny post. Sorry in advance, but since I got back from Madrid, life has been difficult. I'm deleting some of the blatant whininess, but this is an update on my work life...

I had my camera out one day last week because I was taking photos of four sheep in the back of a pickup. I thought at first they were eating or drinking since their heads were all hunkered down in the bed of the truck. Sadly, I realized they were tied on short leashes to a single pole in the back. Felt so bad for them.

About ten minutes later, I am exiting the freeway on the busy curved off-ramp to get onto the road to work, when I notice the land cruiser behind me passing the many people on the tight curve. When he passed me, I beeped. When I got to the top, he was waiting for me with his window open, so I beeped again and held my arms out like "what the hell?" The psycho then rides my bumper and then passes me, leaving about two spare inches between my car and his, while SWERVING, before that satisfied him and he peeled off like the psycho that he is. I was not even mad - just in complete disbelief that someone, who actually seemed to be in a sort of officer's uniform, would behave in that way, trying with all their might to run a young woman off the road. Unfortunately, it is (no exaggeration) a daily occurrence here.

I try daily to struggle with this "I have to be there FIRST" mentality. It is truly exhausting!

Which actually segues nicely into my next point: WORK.

I think that the last two weeks, without a doubt, have been the hardest I've had since I've been in the Middle East. I am not the type of person who gets depressed, but I am very close I think...

I returned from my Madrid trip to a small dose of chaos. My boss said "This is what happens when you go on leave...." Never mind the fact that the days I was gone were official holidays - not a single workday or even a work hour taken off. The first week of work was rough, but was nothing compared to the second week. That almost did me in. I have said repeatedly, that despite how busy I am, I absolutely love my job. This week was the exception.

One of the hardest things about working here is the complete lack of planning. Another is that there are no set standards. Anything goes. Not to mention the third difficulty: people are brought in from all over the world to work on designated projects - they aren't from here so don't understand what little process there is. The mentality is "NOW NOW NOW" and it creates a lot of unnecessary pressure, not to mention countering the purpose of starting right away: meeting deadlines. Deadlines from the beginning are unrealistic. But as a sub-contractor, we are pressured to meet them.

What people here fail to realize is that the lack of planning eventually catches up and causes even MORE of a delay. Every. Single. Time. I learned this working at Malibu- there was always someone who tried to circumvent the system and built illegally. They were almost always caught (usually turned in by their own neighbors once they had completed their construction - love the cattiness of the Bu sometimes!). Then it cost them MORE money to tear down and redo everything than if they'd done it correctly in the first place.

Anyway, (I deleted about 700 words of whining), looong story short, I had some real difficulties with our client delivering documents that are standard and generally completed before the project starts. In our case, our project started and we thought everything was fine. 10 weeks later, we were denied entry to one of our sites because our documentation was not in order. So I've spent the last 2+ weeks trying to get that together. The two weeks following my Madrid trip were really among the hardest of my career, for the simple fact that I worked very hard, to the detriment of other projects, and ultimately and zero to show for it and there was an easier solution that I was not allowed to take. Just very frustrating.

At the moment, the project has stalled and it is obvious that we are not responsible, so despite the delay, a great weight has been lifted from my shoulders and this week has been much better. I've been working hard to catch up on projects that had to wait for this to be taken care of and trying to get some much needed rest!

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Comments

[Amber]

Hang in there...
You're one tuff little Bot, and You'll persevere! Remember you can only do so much, at the end of the day, if you are doing your job the best you can (despite the politics and problems) you are not at fault for others not doing theirs. Good old CYA! :) You are loved and missed from back here!! :)

[lexispence10]

Thanks!!!
Awww... thanks! It means a lot and helps. Just a bad time I guess. It was good to chat with you yesterday though! I miss you guys!!!