I think most, if not all people have those weeks or periods in their work when they simply must put in double the workload. Law firms have huge trails, farmers have harvest, police have riots, plow drivers have blizzards, etc., etc... I’m currently in the midst of one of those periods. I never explicitly state what it is I do or who I do it for on this blog. I don’t do this as much to protect my employer as to protect my employment. It simply would not be professional to have my name or identity attached to my place of business as I yammered on here about butt boils and strategically placed power tools. Such forthrightness would completely destroy the magic that my employer and coworkers work very hard to create. We’re all working like dogs at the moment. Double the hours in a day, fourteen/fifteen day stretches. I am neither salaried or waged. I am not paid by my employer. That responsibility falls upon our clients, for lack of a more vague term.

Unfortunately, the nature of the matter that is forcing us all to put in these ungodly hours is not going to compensate us. Quite the contrary, we (the workers, that is) are actually going to loose hundreds and hundreds of dollars in earnings. Paying the bills this month is going to be very difficult. I point out that it is the workers that are going to loose money, as our employer is actually going to make money hand over fist. But, this is the nature of what I do, and what I do typically treats me well enough, so I emotionally prepared myself to put a lot in, loose money in the process and complain to no one. All of my fellows in the workplace, also understanding the way things are, have similarly been taking this all in stride.

Until tonight.

As it turns out, my employer is so happy with the hand over fist cabbage that is lining his pockets through this event, he has decided to extend this period another week; and better yet still, is trying to hide this fact from us. I recently lost a filling the size of a football, and was looking forward to a day off in about ten days so I could go to the dentist and have this excruciating, throbbing pain in my jaw go away. I WAS LOOKING FORWARD TO GOING TO THE DENTIST. This is now impossible. No fun, fun, super awesome trip to the dentist for me next week. I’ll be too busy loosing money so my employer can become richer.

yay.

I am feeling very disgruntled at the moment, and the little gremlin on my shoulder who keeps punching me in the face every time my heart beats isn’t helping matters one bit.

Update, (7/26/06):

I’ve been crunching the numbers. As it turns out, it does not appear that this matter is actually going to cost me anything. I just isn’t going to make me anything. So in theory, I don’t have any more to complain about than a salaried worker who has to put in ungodly hours for a couple of weeks to finish a project without financial compensation, which really isn’t much if such a project is a notable exception to the rule. Sill, it is kind of annoying, as I am not a salaried worker; but this isn’t so horrible to justify being a Whiney McWhiney about the whole thing.

But the tooth still hurts like a bitch.