So when the work was done...

Quote: Nareed

It's not hard...with for the year (or whatever period).

you were right, I was bored out of my skull [tl...dr] [g]

Actually some of these things are part of normal operating procedures. For example, if you operate a meat packing plant you do carry out analyses of the work surfaces, tools and water at least twice a year. This is to check for any potential bacterial growths. You also spray insecticides and set up insect and rodent traps in warehouses fool of food and grain, even in refrigerated areas. Food does attract pests. You do callibrate your scales, as you wnat to deliver the weights asked for (less gets you in trouble, more loses you money).

The thing is you don't do this every day and you don't need to prove it repeatedly. That's absurd. I do visit the meat packing plant often for various reasons. The floor in the loading area is either being cleaned or used for loading. it's rare to see ti idel. And they do sweep and mop after every loading operation, and for that matter after unloading, too. Hygiene is a serious matter in the food industry.

YIKES! Sorry Nareed, I hate it when getting assignments at the last minute. I really hate it when I get urgent assignments because someone couldn't plan properly. I call those people "last minute motherf*ckers" and have worked for a quite a few of them.

As a side note, I'm so used to working hard on the holidays usually due to others being on vacation and dealing with the holiday "pre-vacation slack off". The pre-vacation slack off is when you avoid all possible work before your vacation. That means that rest of the people working are not only doing more work due to less people but also making for all the work the vacation goers avoided before their trip.

I just skimmed some of this...but my impression is that the Mexican govt serves wastepaper as food :)

Quote: Dfens

YIKES! Sorry Nareed, I hate it when getting assignments at the last minute. I really hate it when I get urgent assignments because someone couldn't plan properly. I call those people "last minute motherf*ckers" and have worked for a quite a few of them.

Overall we do plan properly. But the nature of government is quite different. Due to the way the laws are worded, government agencies typically take a long, long, long time drawing up the rules and submitting them for review to internal committees. By the time that's done, they need the contract NOW so they money will come from this year's budget. So they publish the requirement with "reduced times."

And then, likely as not, since the process has been safely started this year, they may defer the ruling on who is awarded what contracts for a week or two.

Not hat I'm trying to top myself, but geez, last week just about did us all in. I lost count of how many proposals we had to put together and present. All I know is that I put two of them together myself and presented them, then I delivered samples to one agency, and I put together the really important parts of two more (the "really important part," FYI and IMO, is the listing of the products with brands and prices).

Excepting Monday, which was a holiday, we regularly left work at 12 to 1 am. Worse yet I had to get up earlier than usual Thursday and Friday for presenting proposals and samples. Friday we finished at 1 am. And I still have to go in tomorrow to finish some work I couldn't do over the week (see above). I could have gone in today, but I was beat.

A quick calcuation shows a 60+ hour work week over 4 days. Ouch! No wonder I spent all Saturday watching TV, reading and napping...

Sunday I did go to the office to finish some work. I intended to settle my Vacation plans, too, but I couldn't focus on that task. So instead I cooked meatloaf (half beef, half textured soy for a change), where I misread my recipe and used too much tomato sauce... <sigh> On the plus side, the lentil soup came out very well.

Funny thing: on Monday afternoon my desk chair at home snapped as I tried to recline a bit. Long story short, I decided to replace it. I drove up to the nearest Office Max store and immediately came upon a good bargain. Back home I had a hell of a time putting it together. Again, long story short, when the back is attached to the seat by the armrests, you need two people to put the thing together. How I managed by myself is a bit of a mystery.

So, I ahve a nice chair at home again, and the boss has promised to give us the 28th as well as the 29th off (Easter or some such). Now if I can only wiggle out of two Passover seder invities, I should have a decent week for a change.

I wonder if anyone ever reads these proposals.

Its like government agencies and bus companies. The government filing cabinets and the Bus company have filing cabinets chock full of forms and test results and surveys and certifications... but if the driver is drunk, illiterate and the brakes don't work the filing cabinets are still full of 100 percent compliance documents emphasizing sobriety, literacy and mechanical soundness.

We spent much of last week putting together about 400 samples. This customer is particularly moronic, as the labels and the samples receipt need to indicate lot number and expiration date. Now, consider each product has a lot number and expiration date already printed n it. What does putting that info on a label you slap on it add anything in terms of value or convenience?

If that wasn't enough, we were about to be done yesterday at around 7 pm. So we were expecting getting off "early" for a change. But guess what? The boss suddenly realizes the company he picked for this project can't present it. So we had to strip off all the labels, print new ones, and re-label all 400 samples.

What this is, really, is a kinder, gentler version of Orwell's notion of perpetual war to destroy wealth and productivity.

Maybe you need to find a job where the work involved cooking rather than "presentation" and "delivery".