The Panda Bear on Short Days, and Flex Time

The Panda Bear is at Starbucks working on her Panda Bear Blog.   She had hopped that with her new cat she would be able to work at home.   However, she is one of many people who has a hard time staying  awake when she gets home when it is dark outside.    Right now it is 5:46 pm and it is pitch black.   She can't wait for the longer days.    The Panda Bear usually finds it noticeable in March that the days are longer.

In part because of the holidays, the Panda Bear's schedule has totally collapsed.   She has fallen behind in her blogging, reading, contact with friends, relaxation practices and exercise.   The Panda Bear is looking forward to getting back to her routines

As stated in last weeks post, it was business as usual in the work place.   The Panda Bear had taken some time off from work but it was not easy to get.   The big news at the Panda Bear's work place is that they are putting in time-keeping systems for the hourly workers because her company lost a law suit that complained that people were forced to work unpaid overtime.   So now the hourly workers are going to be made to record all time worked.    It is probably caused some anguish among hourly workers because it is going to be made clear at work who is an hourly and who is an exempt office worker.

The Panda Bear is an hourly office worker which means she is supposed to get paid for overtime and she works set hours as opposed to exempt workers who are not paid for overtime but have more flexibility about their work hours.   The Panda Bear would love to work longer days and have more free time(i.e working  four ten hour days as opposed to five eight hour days).   She thinks the standard eight hour day for some kinds of work is not the most efficient for people either personally or professionally,.    According to this article in Inc, on work productivity, to do eight hours of work during the day it really takes 9.5 to to 10 hours because of needed breaks.     Also people who do certain kinds of work will be working in 60-90 minute increments.   It is hard to stop work at a certain fixed time.

However, what the Panda Bear resents most about being an hourly worker is that a worker can sometimes be doing extra work on his/her own time but the employer does not give anything back to the worker in terms of additional time off.     The Panda Bear feels new the time keeping systems will probably stop workers from working unpaid extra and make employees more assertive about not doing work off the clock.   The Panda Bear has heard from workers who are on the time clock those "few" additional work tasks that one does "off the clock" can involve a fair amount of money for the employee if the employer is required to pay for it.

The Panda Bear things that some objections to flextime and flexible work hours are that it is hard for supervisors to keep track of employees time.   The Panda Bear hopes with improved technology for time tracking employers will allow eligible hourly employees more flexible schedules.

The Panda Bear on Business as Usual During the Holidays

The Panda Bear Blog is a blog for the ordinary person who works all day at an ordinary job and feels that his/her life  is not very exciting.   It is a blog for those people who are proud to be totally average and dull and who are proud to be no where near the top one percent of the US population in terms of wealth.

The Panda Bear apologizes to her readers for not posting.   She has been extremely busy.   She and Mr. Panda busy doing some year end chores.   The Panda Bear did some decluttering as part of WOMAC(the War on Mice and Clutter).  In addition, she and Mr. Panda adopted a cat named Suzie who will joining the WOMAC team-see her picture below.  

She is an a great cat and is rubbing up against the Panda Bear as she posts.   However, the Panda Bear will write more about Suzie in a future post.  

What the Panda Bear noticed this holiday season is that there was no slow down in the working world this year.  Usually, in the US from the end of November until January 1, businesses slow down for what is known as the holiday season.   Usually, no major changes or major decisions are made during this period.  

However, what the Panda noticed this year is that there was no holiday lull and everything was moving full speed ahead.

The US holiday season can be personally stressful for some people with its emphasis on family.   The Panda Bear thinks it is hard that in US two family holidays are so close together.   However, she thinks most people in the work force liked that things slowed down during this period.

This year at the work place of the Panda Bear it was business as usual during this time period and it must have been quite stressful for people who had to prepare for the holidays.   Here is an example of what appears to be the new normal.  A friend of the Panda Bear's saw a job posting on December 23.  She applied for it and she got a request for an interview on December 27 and was interviewed on January 2.   While hiring that is going on during the holidays is probably a good thing for the unemployed,at one time this would not have happened and all hiring decisions would be made after New Years.    The Panda Bear also know several people who were given a hard time for taking time off during Christmas week where at one time most everyone would have had the week off.

To the Panda Bear this indicates that we are just living in a faster and faster world with less and less leisure.   She does not think this is a good trend.







The Panda Bear on Her Poor Time Management Skills

The Panda Bear apologizes to her readers for not posting last week.   She has been very busy at her day job.  Mr. Panda may loose his job and The Panda Bear has had to help him prepare to hunt for jobs.  The Panda Bear has also had to keep up with her career coaching sessions with her employer.   Usually, in the US between Thanksgiving and New Years there is a lull in the working world where nothing major gets done or decided at work.   However, this year as in last year the working world seems as busy as ever.

WOMAC(the War On Mice And Clutter) is in full force.    The Panda Bear's next door neighbor had a rat in her unit.  The Panda Bear believes there is one mouse in her unit that is evading capture.   The Panda Bear has decided to get a cat in her fight against this unwelcome wildlife in her apartment.   She has never had a pet before and is very excited about the prospect and is learning all she can about cats.

The days are getting so short.   The Panda Bear comes home and wants to sleep after work.  It gets dark at now at 5:00.   The Panda Bear remembers when it used to be light in the summer until 9:00.   The Panda Bear has not gotten half the amount of work she has wanted to do over the past couple of weeks. 

In addition, the Panda Bear has been drinking too much coffee, eating too much and not getting enough exercises.  The Panda Bear wishes she had some secret for getting everything done that she wants to be alas she is just muddling along.   She is a perplexed and confused Panda Bear. 

Mr. Panda has been instructed to be quiet while the Panda Bear writes this post but he is having a hard keeping quiet.   Even though it is 7:00 the Panda Bear will probably end up going to sleep.

The Panda Bear on her Foreign Readers, US Economy and WOMAC Update

The Panda Bear has done some recent posts about her wish the US companies would hire more Americans.   The economy is very bad in the US and many Americans are unemployed.  US job growth is very slow.   The Panda Bear thinks it would help create jobs for Americans if some US overseas operations could be returned to the US.       Americans are among the hardest working people in the world.   Perhaps, some foreign countries should consider moving operations to the US; Americans are good workers.

However, the Panda Bear does not want her foreign readers to think she is an American Chauvinist.   However, she does think the US needs to look after its own interest (all nations need to do this).  The United States can't help anyone if its economy collapses. She thinks US power is in decline and that the US may end up like Great Britain-no longer the dominant world power but still having some influence.  

However, the most of the Panda Bear's attention this past week has been on WOMAC (The War on Mice and Clutter).    She thought the effort to get rid of the mice in her apartment had been a success.  She did not see a mouse for about a month.   However, last week she saw a mouse.   She set out mouse traps and caught six mice over the weekend.  

The Panda Bear lives in an urban area so one really has to kill the mouse-they will just go into someone else's house if it is not killed.  Mice have germs and cause damage to property.   In addition, they very quickly multiply.

The Panda Bear has found the web sites below helpful in dealing with mice:

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/h/homeowner_resources/mice/index.html

http://www.ca.uky.edu/entomology/entfacts/ef617.asp

http://www.idph.state.il.us/envhealth/pchousemouse.htm

Sometimes in novels there is a point where several plot lines come together to make one story.  In WOMAC, several themes of the Panda Bear Blog come together.   The Panda Bear has learned through different relaxation techniques that there is no point in going into the panic about the situation.   The feeling of panic will just make things worse.    The Panda Bear needs to be calm, rational and relaxed to implement WOMAC.

The Panda Bear has tried to positively reframe her hatred of housework and home projects.   The Panda Bear has gotten to like the feeling of warm water and soap.   She tells herself these projects are connected to health as they get rid of germs.  WOMAC has been helpful in getting Mr. Panda to get rid of his clutter and extra papers (these give the mice places to hide). The Panda Bear has told Mr. Panda that there is no neutral position in WOMAC.  If he does not actively support her efforts to declutter she will assume the Mr. Panda is pro mouse and the Panda Bear has no toleration for that position.

WOMAC involves time management on the part of the Panda Bear.   The Panda Bear works full-time and finds it hard to find the time to do home projects.   However, the Panda Bear has postponed going to the gym twice a week and tries to exercise at home so she can find time for home projects.   She has learned one can't do everything at once-one has to prioritize.   Alas-even if it means giving up something good and fun for you like exercise.