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pbrayWell actually I'm not in finance, I'm in I/T, but I support the finance organization, so the proverbial crap rolls down hill.
Today I showered, put on business casual attire and drove into the office, which differentiated it from the days last week, where I either logged on from home wearing sweats, or Friday, when I logged on from the Cybercafe for a change of pace. Note that work/life balance means that even though I was technically on vacation for New Year's, I still wound up working at least a couple of hours each day.
And because finance was scheduled to work on Saturday, I worked a full day Saturday as well.
January is the busiest month of the year. First there are multiple ledger runs and report generation passes as everyone gets ready to report 2008 results. Then as soon as that is finished we must move all the 2008 data to archive and initialize all of the databases for 2009. Which isn't just changing the dates and setting up new file names--major database redesigns are done at the start of the new year and all of them have to be implemented before finance starts loading budgets or forecasts later this month.
For those who have never worked in I/T or the corporate world I realize this is all inside baseball stuff, so to sum it up-- there's twice as much work to be done in January as there is in any other month of the year. And there is no extra staff, no help, just the assumption that we'll somehow find a way to make this happen, and that our personal lives can be put on hold.
But enough whining. I'm employed, and I'm grateful to have a steady paycheck and benefits, despite the havoc this sometimes wreaks.
And there are little things that brighten my day, as in the bumper sticker observed at Wegman's:
Today I showered, put on business casual attire and drove into the office, which differentiated it from the days last week, where I either logged on from home wearing sweats, or Friday, when I logged on from the Cybercafe for a change of pace. Note that work/life balance means that even though I was technically on vacation for New Year's, I still wound up working at least a couple of hours each day.
And because finance was scheduled to work on Saturday, I worked a full day Saturday as well.
January is the busiest month of the year. First there are multiple ledger runs and report generation passes as everyone gets ready to report 2008 results. Then as soon as that is finished we must move all the 2008 data to archive and initialize all of the databases for 2009. Which isn't just changing the dates and setting up new file names--major database redesigns are done at the start of the new year and all of them have to be implemented before finance starts loading budgets or forecasts later this month.
For those who have never worked in I/T or the corporate world I realize this is all inside baseball stuff, so to sum it up-- there's twice as much work to be done in January as there is in any other month of the year. And there is no extra staff, no help, just the assumption that we'll somehow find a way to make this happen, and that our personal lives can be put on hold.
But enough whining. I'm employed, and I'm grateful to have a steady paycheck and benefits, despite the havoc this sometimes wreaks.
And there are little things that brighten my day, as in the bumper sticker observed at Wegman's:
When evolution is outlawed
Only outlaws will evolve
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(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-06 02:55 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-06 03:11 am (UTC)Sympathies. My employer works on a May 1 to April 30 fiscal year, but otherwise I know exactly what you mean. B"H I don't work in IT, because it turns out one of our servers suffered a "catastrophic failure" (I'm quoting our sysadmin) on New Year's Eve and we're still dealing with the consequences. As a lowly end user, I merely have to suffer low-grade panic re: the temporary loss of all the data I had stored on that server (i.e., 90% of my working files); poor old Mr Sysadmin has to actually put the server back together* and winkle the data backups out of the recalcitrant backup tapes ...
* I put it this way because of my pet theory that the server in question is actually McGyver'd out of coffee grounds, orange peels, and rubber bands. I have no actual proof of this, apart from the way it, for lack of a better term, works.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-06 03:40 am (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-06 03:12 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-06 04:04 am (UTC)Then again, if computers and servers worked perfectly I wouldn't have a day job.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-06 04:01 am (UTC)I do however, have a custom attendance database I built a long time ago that somehow always finds its way back to me when changes need to be made to the functionality.
I'm glad I don't have to bother with IT Financial stuff. That is a real hassle.
(no subject)
Date: 2009-01-06 02:03 pm (UTC)Emphasis on the Balance
Date: 2009-01-06 11:00 am (UTC)...right?
Neat bumper sticker, tho. :)
Re: Emphasis on the Balance
Date: 2009-01-06 02:02 pm (UTC)Absolutely! As long as your personal life can be managed in increments of no more than 15 minutes a day :-)