This was supposed to be about Artificial Intelligence but turned into my issue with being subjected to a 40-hour work week (poor me, I know)

Note to Reader: I will likely be working out my thoughts on this as I write it. Let’s go on the journey together.

It seems there’s a new conundrum that’s entered the villa. It’s called: 'Our bosses want us to get more work done than we’ve ever gotten done in our lives and in far less time too.’

Once upon a time, I worked on salary. ‘Twas the year 2021 and I did not yet know that being a civil engineer was a terribly bad fit for me. Ya live and ya learn. Now, I’m an hourly girly. On top of that, I’m now a 40-hour-a-week girly.

Look, I happen to enjoy hourly work. When I was an engineer, I had to specify my “billable hours” each week. As a sub-par entry-level civil engineer, my billable hours were far less than they should have been. Basically, we weren’t going to charge the client for 3 hours of work when it actually ‘should’ have taken 1 hour. Cue the final days of my time as an engineer.

New scene: I’m a ski bum and I work hourly. It was all fine and dandy when I was able to work 60 hours a week. However, it seems the industry I work within (hint: ski industry) is working to cut costs in the ever changing climate (or whatever they’re saying these days, idk don’t ask me I only work 40 hours a week) and now, ‘overtime work’ is a thing of the past.

It wasn’t the ‘time and a half’ pay that kept me working past 40 hours, though. It was the fact that there was a lot that was being asked of me, and even more that I wanted to do to prove myself as a part of the team.

I work in the marketing department for a ski resort (boooooo, carpet walker, boooooo) so all in all my job is really quite fun. I get to ski, write about skiing, take photos about skiing, and make videos about skiing. For one, how hard could it be? and two, how much time does it really need to take?

For one, I guess anyone could do it. Anyone with a phone can take a photo or video and post it to social media. Anyone who knows the language can write a caption to a post and press send. Not that those tasks are even close to ‘all I do’, but that’s at least all the general public probably envisions. So in that respect, anyone could do it and in very little time too.

Would the result be good for whoever did it? No. Might they get fired for doing a bad job? Likely.

Three years later in this line of work and I am better than ever - Skills increased, industry knowledge increased, and collaborations as a team increased. I worked 40+ hours a week for 2+ years and didn’t think for a second about how long things were ‘supposed’ to take. I just, did the things to the best of my ability and as well and efficiently as I could. And, given that I have a general knack for creative work, feel I did a pretty good job with it.

Cue: THE CUT. The meeting that ended it all. The words still echo in my mind “You must stay within 40 hours - Overtime is not accepted”.

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Update: I need to get over the 40 hour situation. That was not supposed to be the point of this writeup.

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Okay what was the point? Oh right,

THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE AN ESSAY ABOUT AI.

Ha. If this was AI writing this, it probably wouldn’t have gotten distracted from the intended point. But what about the friends we met along the way.

Maybe I’ll start fresh.

This was attempt 1. Onto the next!