Month: November 2021

I have a colleague—let's call him "Coworker #2"—who is guilty of this shit.

He's always taking work home that doesn't need to be taken home with the excuse that "it's just easier to do it then."

He's currently on vacation in Hawaii and is answering calls from users that come to his personal cell phone—and then passing the info on to the rest of us to take care of.

What I don't understand is why he's always doing this shit; it's like he's kissing up to someone in an effort to look good. He's been at this place since the dawn of time and is as close to retirement as I am. (He could, in fact, leave tomorrow and receive his full pension, no questions asked.)

It's making me look bad because I am the exact opposite. My work-life philosophy is something I adopted at the urging of one of my supervisors twenty-five some years ago when I was slaving away as an IT tech in the basement (why are IT departments always in the basements?) of a national law firm in San Francisco: take your lunch, take your breaks, take your vacation, and above all, stay home if you're sick. I do what is expected of me, but I'm not an over-achiever. I don't stay late, I don't bring work home. I arrive at 7:30am, I take my full alotted 60 minutes for lunch, and I'm out the door (or logged off, in the case when I'm working from home) precisely at 4:30pm.

And except in very rare occasions, I don't check work email after-hours, and I silence and do not respond to any texts from my team. We aren't 24/7 support, so don't expect me to act like we are.

Ding, ding, ding! I can relate to so much of this. I swear at this point I'm counting down the days until my retirement.