What pisses me off in the office? What must be done?
I've been working in the same company for the last 6 years, and I can say that it has been a very great learning experience for me. I never would have thought that I would get to a Project Development job, being a Philosophy graduate myself. Our company is currently operating at a very fast pace, and it can be very stressful. We begin work at 7:30am, and ideally, we could go home at 4:30pm, but that's not the case. It is oftentimes embarrassing to our other officemates if we go home at 4:30pm, or even earlier than 5pm, just because everyone has to have a share in the burden of the current task at hand.
Our work usually begins with reading e-mails, then do some paperwork, then attend meetings, then make presentations, then back to reading e-mails, then interrupted by calls, then attend meetings again... until you've realized that you are already hungry and thirsty. This is definitely not the ideal "life at the office". And so my office mates were brainstorming one day about what should be done about this kind of office routine and prevent the employees from burning out. We thought of those days we dreamed of a work-life balance, and those days in the office we cannot even send a text message or make a phone call to a friend or a family member just because we're too busy to do so. Therefore we came up with a few things to somehow make our "work-life balance" dream come true:
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1. There should be at least one day of the week we are allowed to work from home: read and answer e-mails, make and answer phone calls – while doing personal errands. This would definitely help us make more time to do our personal errands (especially when we need to go to government offices which are only open during weekdays) as well as spend more time with our family (especially for those who still have small children) while still being productive at work. We believe that one day away from the office won't make a lot of difference. Paperwork and other items of concern won't run out, anyway.
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2. There should be at least one day of week that is declared as "meeting-less" day: this would help us work on our backlog paperwork and read or answer e-mails that have been sitting on our desks for at least 2 weeks. Meetings, after all, are just simply a waste of time, especially those that run for more than an hour. Further, meetings are meant for decision-making amongst the group involved – employees should already know the background of the agenda be prepared with solutions or recommendations. <ganun meeting de avance? always ? wala nang nagagawa?>
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3. Employees should be entitled to a wellness program. Our company used to have one, but because of management decision, it was one of the employee programs that were cut from the budget. The wellness program that we are proposing is that of a provision of even a cafeteria that has healthy food options – aside from a gym and a fitness program offer. The company's number 1 asset should be the workforce – so we should be treated well and given this type of opportunity.
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4.To avoid too much paperwork, there should be limits as to the number of paperwork that an employee should handle on a certain period. Some should already be automated so we can also avoid using too much paper. We are always on-line, so we can probably view such documents and approve/sign off on them via system.
5. Employees should be rewarded with an automatic workday off when we go to work on weekends. There are times we are required to go to work on a Saturday or Sunday for so many reasons, but of course, we lose our personal time off and our time for our family and friends. This "swap" day should automatically be credited to us without the management questioning our absence for not showing up at work the first official workday after that weekend. < that is what the law requires> 3
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