Having had one ( that's ONE) appointment this morning which resulted in me being on the allotment at 1pm while the office thinking I was still on site with my normal mass of appointments, it got me wondering how many of you skive off early to either get some quality plot time, catch up with the weeds, or just chill and enjoy plot life.
For the record, I did a 56 hour week two weeks ago, a 45 hour week last week and get no overtime, no TOIL, no flexi time and no reward or even a thank you for my efforts. 1pm and on the plot? A fair exchange, methinks! ;D
I have been known to have the odd "unofficial" afternoon at the allotment. Like you, work gets way more than its pound of flesh from me so what's a bloke to do.
Anyway I reckon work gets more out of me when I'm less stressed after a bit of plot time.
Stork
i'm extremely fortunate to have a flexi-time system at work which is only about 10 mins from home, so all through the summer (remember that ?) i was home by 3.45 latest and could run straight outside for 3-4 hours or more.
I recko you were fully justified Stork! they'll reap the benefits another day !
Shock horror!! ;D When I lived at home, and was working, I did a couple of times, but working so far from home meant it was rarely worth it. Nowadays I am a part time worker/full time mum, but the oiks go back to school on Tuesday, so after work on Tuesday I will be there! WHOOPPEE!!
When I used to be travelling a lot for work, I'd often pop down the lottie for a bit of recovery time. We did lots of meetings via phone conference so as long as the once every two hours train didn't go past, no-one knew where I was. On one call before the boss arrived ( it was 3pm Friday & we were all working our socks off that quarter) I was at the lottie, T was in Wales competing at a downhill mountain biking competition, TR was at a beer festival in Dudley Zoo, & L was in a ferry port car park. We gave our full attention to the call for the hour then resumed our "ohter lives". We were lucky that the company encouraged work life balance in a real sense, so no-one would have been in too much trouble. Having been a manager in other companies, there is a world of difference between how the concept of work life balance gets implemented & I'd advocate individuals owning their own well being, as long as the work still gets done.
oops, turning into a bit of a rant.....
but I've also had to pick up the mess where people weren't given some slack and went off ill. That has far more impact than the odd hour skiving.
Agreed. We've had one lad off this week and half of last who really isn't a terribly well boy who takes a long time to recover than most, together with our boss on hollibobs for a couple of week, had to have another week off through family crisis, another on holiday, leaving one standing in as boss (so was too busy doing bossy things - genuinely - stats coming out of his poor ears) and two of us actually doing the work. The effects have been dramatic ! I'm absolutely bl**dy cream crackered and if i don't get a bit of work/life balance next week i shall drop.
I absolutely never, repeat NEVER, go to visit a client at home (I'm a Welfare RIghts Officer, not a, ahem, masseuse) knowing full well that they won't be in, especially not the ones that live within a mile of the lottie. And I would never dream of leaving boring conferences early to tend to my plants.
Which sort of links in to the sartorial elegance thread - I'm often at the plot in my work clothes. Although you might not be able to tell the difference between them and my gardening gear :-\