At work today the secretary was preparing to be out of the office tomorrow and asked if she could give me the cash to pay the cleaning woman tomorrow. It's not a problem at all, so I agreed.
I was already thinking about it, and knew I'd better pay the cleaning woman when she finishes, and I was looking up online for a Spanish translation for "I will pay you when you finish."
Later, when I went to the secretary to collect the envelope of cash, she said "don't pay her before she's finished."
My first thought was that if I paid her all $60 up front for six hours of work, that she'd stretch out the cleaning to a full six hours, rather than whatever time it actually takes. When I told the secretary that, she said, "no, if you pay her first she'd probably take the money and go home."
It must say something about my work ethic that my vision of cheating still including actually getting the job done.
It must also say something that I'm not qualified to manage people...
I was already thinking about it, and knew I'd better pay the cleaning woman when she finishes, and I was looking up online for a Spanish translation for "I will pay you when you finish."
Later, when I went to the secretary to collect the envelope of cash, she said "don't pay her before she's finished."
My first thought was that if I paid her all $60 up front for six hours of work, that she'd stretch out the cleaning to a full six hours, rather than whatever time it actually takes. When I told the secretary that, she said, "no, if you pay her first she'd probably take the money and go home."
It must say something about my work ethic that my vision of cheating still including actually getting the job done.
It must also say something that I'm not qualified to manage people...
I'm sure you've never stretched a development to fit the project timescale.....
ReplyDeleteMind you it's all swings and roundabouts, work hard one week cleaning all the floors, the next week take it a bit easy. All good in the end. IMHO.
Me? No, never stretch out the development... :)
ReplyDeleteWell, okay... But it's a different sort of work than cleaning the office. Like you say, a lot more swings between hard work and taking it easy than low-level physical labor. And a lot more laying around at home and thinking of work than I'm sure the cleaning lady does (unless she sits on the couch and thinks, "ah, you know if I use the broom at a 30 degree angle, I can it perfectly under the server room shelf...").
But then, that's why the cleaning lady is paid by the hour for the amount of time she works, while those creating software are paid on salary. We're expected to work differently.