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Should I take on the project?
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
in Work & Study
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?
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?
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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.
Haha can't deny this logic!
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)
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...
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.
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.
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.