Should I take on the project?

Former Member

Heya

At work at the minute we have a new project coming up that may well be contracted out for several thousand pounds. We have two weeks to complete it and it's about 100-150 hours work. My manager has said it would be next to impossible to complete it in house in the time frame, but I believe with lots of extra hours I could complete it in then timeframe. It would solve a lot of headaches if I did do this. I am salaried however so wouldn't get paid overtime, it would be off my own back. Normally I am careful to manage expectations so wouldn't take on such an ambitious project but my annual review is in April and I'm thinking it will reflect really well for two weeks of hell.

So my question is, do you think I should volunteer to do it knowing its a risk (if I miss deadline = very sad face) with no immediate benefit but a potential longer term benefit. Hmmm. Thoughts?

Former Member

Did you actually tell your manager that you're contemplating doing it? I know they said it would be nearish impossible but are they the type to disapprove or would they admire you for trying?

Former Member

clementine_the_tangerine wrote: »

Did you actually tell your manager that you're contemplating doing it? I know they said it would be nearish impossible but are they the type to disapprove or would they admire you for trying?

My direct boss would be mothering and tell me not to bite off more than I can chew. She is very lovely to me.

The MD and general manager would a) be relieved b) hopefully be impressed.

Former Member

ShyBoy wrote: »

My direct boss would be mothering and tell me not to bite off more than I can chew. She is very lovely to me.

The MD and general manager would a) be relieved b) hopefully be impressed.

That's a massive increased work load - I know my employer probably wouldn't consider asking someone to work those kind of extra hours. Have you considered the option that they may well say no?

What else are you working on at the moment?

Do other people in the company have the time to review/verify/approve your work if you did offer it - in a lot of things it's likely that the work load issue is more than just the actual grind of getting the job done.

Former Member

you're unlikely to get anything done externally in that timeframe.

Former Member

Whether it's doable depends on how many people can work on it, I'd say. If you're thinking of doing that sort of project by yourself in two weeks then I'd say it's not likely, given how that hours estimate is probably unrealistic anyway.

Former Member

Mist wrote: »

Whether it's doable depends on how many people can work on it, I'd say.

Because if one woman can make one baby in nine months, nine women can make one baby in one month.

Former Member

It would be done internally in lieu of other tasks. 100-150 hours is accurate, doing some back of envelope calculations gives me 105 hours which is the upper estimates of time etc, but that's not accounting for 'it / I broke'. My work wouldn't be signed off per se, there isn't actually the time for that. As is the only reason we are contracting it out is because the short time frame its due in, but that's going to mean it's not cheap! I'm thinking best part of ten grand. They might surprise us though.

Former Member

Carriage Return wrote: »

Because if one woman can make one baby in nine months, nine women can make one baby in one month.

Haha can't deny this logic!

Former Member

I'd encourage you employer to have you do it, however I'd encourage you to stay well away

Former Member

Carriage Return wrote: »

I'd encourage you employer to have you do it, however I'd encourage you to stay well away

But... potential payrise?

We've got the quote in from the contractor so will have to see what MD says now... (also they have estimated 157 hours, which is rather slow)

Former Member

I raised the issue with my line manager who said, it was touching that I had offered, but that she needs to manage expectations with the MD. If the MD thinks we can always get work like this done he will pile on the workload, and she said last year she was so overworked at points it made her ill - so now she is extremely careful to give herself plenty of time with deadlines and not to do a rush job unless its a huge emergency.

In a way I'm conflicted because I've seen this attitude around the office as well - 'we could do it faster, but it will induce a lot of stress'. So its almost as if there's a conflict between the MD who wants results ASAP and the office who have to fight to keep expectations realistic (and avoid everyone having to work 60 hours every week if thats what he thinks we can do).

Reminds me of Taylor and systematic soldering a little bit. But I can understand why people do that (even the general manager) - nobody wants to be a slave to a wage. I guess for now I will just take a back seat and see what work comes my way. I've already taken over several of my line managers responsibilities this year so that should stand me in good stead already...

Former Member

She's got a really good point about managing expectations, that was one I hadn't considered. Creating a culture where it becomes seen as standard that a team can pull miracles out ofnthe bag generally means it becomes expected, and people just get ground into the ground rather than being rewarded for it.

Having worked places where stress has destroyed people, you really needing to be aiming for delivering what you should be (as a team) so that doesn't mean deliberately dragging things out - but it doesntnmean going into unpaid overtime to get something that should have been predicted done. If something emerges unexpectedly it might be another matter, but routine stuff should be done within normal working conditions and if a manager hasn't allowed for that they need to take the financial hit of outsourcing for extra manpower otherwise you'll be expected to do it every time.

I was talking to my replacement in my old job the other day, I routinely did far more (and more hours) than was within my role - and things are apparently tricky now as stuff that used to just "happen" when I was around is now having to be covered by someone else.

Former Member

Golden rule of work, never finish something too quickly. It's unlikely your boss will let you go home, but come the next week your workload will have increased because he thinks you've been slacking up until now.

Former Member

To be honest if it was one of my staff I'd see it was a bit of brown nosing and to be honest I'd wonder what they had been doing previously that meant they had time to take on such a project. Youre prob in the good books for offering, so leave it at that

Former Member

LuckyStrike wrote: »

To be honest if it was one of my staff I'd see it was a bit of brown nosing and to be honest I'd wonder what they had been doing previously that meant they had time to take on such a project. Youre prob in the good books for offering, so leave it at that

This brings up something else interesting though. As I said there is some evidence of systematic soldiering and even people in management positions such as yourself would look down on 'brown nosing' e.g. Ambition.

As is I've ended up with part of the project anyway and am taking the lead on it, with the agency assisting and doing other bits so we can meet the business needs. Maybe someone will think me working hard and trying to get the best outcome is brownnosing, but that's office politics for you.

Former Member

Its not office politics though, you quite clearly said there was an appraisal on the horizon and could lead to a payrise. People spot that a mile off.

Former Member

But I was saying that I'm not making it up just to make myself look busy, this genuinely came up as an issue recently that we needed to overcome somehow in the organisation. Hence why the third party was brought in to see what they could do. At the back of my mind I thought I could do the whole thing in house in the same time and for the same quality but just have to pull longer days and rearrange my schedule, but was largely advised here not to volunteer, for fear of being seen as you say, a brown-noser.

It's not as if I'm cosying up to my boss and buying them coffee every day either, its literally just me wondering to say 'actually, we can do this, if we pull extra hours and rearrange things'.

As it happened it ended up on my desk anyway, just with a longer deadline and the company takes the hit of the delay.

Former Member

I am by nature a workaholic so not sure i can set a good example, obviously if the conditions are right, as in personal commitments etc, allowing for overtime, I would probably go the two weeks of hell in order to hopefully set up or a the very least encourage a good review professionally and financially. Good luck