Saturday, September 19, 2009

Thoughts on jobs

Yes, we're talking about jobs today. You may have noticed I've been posting more sporadically for a while now. Kindergarten is kicking my butt! I crack myself up when I say that, but it's true. We are trying a homeschool approach to K this year since Austin would be a very young Kindergartner... anyway, we have some class days too and between all that and the I-will-sleep-and-eat-when-I-want-to-and-you-won't-make-me-do-it-your-way #3 child, well, Kindergarten along with life in general has been kicking my butt.

So, that has meant a lot more "prepared" foods and more eating out than I would like. I wouldn't mind it if it was healthy and cheap but it seems you can only do either healthy (and expensive) OR cheap (and inexpensive). sigh. It also wouldn't be so bad if my husband's love language wasn't food!! :(

Oh, yes, the husband. The Job has been on my mind lately. There are lots of personnel changes afoot at the dept and unfortunately Hubs has been seeing the true, not flattering side of many of the people he works with/for. It makes me so sad for him ~ it's like a whole other "job" on top of the regular "job" to muck through the politics and give people the opportunity to do the right thing. Of course lately it has seemed that most of the time they choose not to do the right thing and that really makes me sad for the work environment over there!!

Recently I had the opportunity to drive Hubs to work and drop him off. It was a surreal feeling having him get out of the car and say goodbye. I don't know why that is?!?! It felt wrong, almost like a premonition that something was going to go terribly wrong that shift. Of course, one of his superiors royally screwed him over that day so maybe that's what I was foreseeing. NOT! I'm not into all that gobbledy-gook. I think it was just a difference in driving him myself vs. him walking out our front door and driving himself. Weird. Do you ever get a weird "sense" that something wrong is up with your spouse??

Even weirder was the zillion-hour shift he pulled recently. Saying goodbye after lunch and "I'll see you tomorrow" is just bizarre.

Finally, a little poll on your department's "work rules."
  • Does your department have rules that require a minimum number of hours off between shifts?
  • Is there a maximum number of hours allowed to be worked in a 24 period or shift?
  • Of course, my favorite question: Do the powers that be actually abide by these rules?!?!? :)

8 comments:

Natalie said...

You ask some good questions, and yes, I've had the "bad" feelings before, though nothing really came of them (at least as far as I know!)

As for your "poll," all I know is that the hubs use to get awesome overtime until budget cuts switched to comp time (which has kind of fizzled since it's stupid for such a small dept to use).

He has 4 days on/off shifts but this last set of 4 off he's been home for about 2 hours because of paperwork, training, safety classes, etc... all of which he has to petition for overtime.

I had to laugh when you asked the last one because it's obvious max & min hours don't seem to work out in reality as well as they do on paper. It'll be interesting to see other departments!

Meadowlark said...

I don't think there are any "official" minimum time between shifts rules, and even if there was... well, now that the City is hemoraghing money, it probably wouldn't matter.

I will say that I'm TOTALLY for any OT he can get. We'll probably drop about $16,000 this year in lost OT because they've cut back so much.

I posted about him almost falling asleep driving 2 hours home after a SWAT call a couple of weeks ago. I think it was very poor judgement on the dept's part to not plan for such massive sleep deprivation with an over-night, hike in-hike out, dope bust. GRRRRRRRRR.

Like they care. :(

Anonymous said...

Oh to deal with the work hours we serve. There is a state max. but rarely is this enforced unless someone complains and no one complains because then you are made fun of. Plus, you are a big boy so deal with it (is what I think)

KD said...

Mr. Police Man ~ What's the state max? I can see your point if you are working 13 hours when the state max is 12, but if it's a max of 16 or 18 and the dept has you working 20 hours straight...?!?!?! I sure don't want my husband to have to pull out his gun after the 19th hour.

Or how about working an 8 hour shift, giving 2 hours off (to avoid paying you overtime) then having you pull another 10 or 12 hour shift? I know lots of cops that don't live near work -- they can't even go home, rest for 30 minutes and get back in two hours. Would you stick to your "big boy" theory on this one?

911 and the Randomness.. said...

For our department it's a min of 8hrs in between shifts. (I think OUSHA is 7.5).
Our max number to work in one day is 16. However, when the guys work a reg 12 hr shift and then a secondary job, that isn't counted together.
And yeah, the powers that be follow the rules for the most part because people here aren't afraid to grieve the heck outta contract violations. We have a kick butt union when it comes to those kinda things.

And yeah, i get those 'bad feelings' prob is they are usually accurate so my DH asks about how his day will go before he leaves. cracks me up.

KD said...

911 ~ What do you mean by "a secondary job"? A second, non-PD job or a PD overtime assignment (for example)?

Yikes remind me to come to you if I want to see into the future and know if I should stay under the covers for the whole day.

Anonymous said...

My hubs works for a small department of 4. So, no, no max or min on anything. It can be very dangerous when they enter sleep deprivation land but they just do it. I don't know if the state has any rules but if they do they certainly are NOT enforced.

I have never had a premonition of a bad day, no.

Anonymous said...

15 hour max to work in a day.. 8 hours min between shift.. and have no clue about the PTB.. we all follow the rules so we don't have to be called in to talk to the nice folks.

I have had to call around for fast relief as some units were coming up on their 15th hour.

I have also had 'feelings' and yes.. sometimes they have been true... so we are just really careful on those days...