The roller coaster work load

ditto

Are you sure? I thought I read somewhere that you can't believe everything you say;-)

I was busy for about the first 6 weeks of 2011 then BAM, I hit the wall.

The wolves are at the door, time to AMMO UP!

It is the same deal for us. It is a rush to stand around.

Same thing here. The slow week is when I have time to catch up on the office and drafting duties form the prior weeks. Just not enough work yet to hire, so for now it remains SWMBO and I.

December, January, February was the worst ever. I thought I was done. March was the busiest month in over a year.

I have started to MIG weld this item for my neighbor in my free time. Here is his video of his invention the "proplugger".

The new model is slightly different than pictured, order one now at Amazon!

see his other videos also to see how it can be used to plug sod.

Too many on the list at the moment. Too much lousy weather over the past two months has put us behind.

November, December, and January were horrid. We put two of the last three field crew on permanent layoff and me and the one party chief we did not want to lose now do all the field work.

The week after we laid the others off we started getting some work in and actually worked a couple of 50 hour weeks and then I spent a couple of weeks getting the office caught up.

Since March 1st, we've had three jobs come in, all of those were just to find corners and stake lines.

Thank God I know how to use Microstation/Geopak. I can help the engineering side out with Erosion Control and Road Design. That's the only thing keeping me from being the next on the chopping block.

each of us has their cross to bear...... for instance in Dilbertland......... man - you just can't make some of that stuff up.....

I feel the same way!!!!
Some weeks its....I hope the phone rings...
Other weeks its...I hope the phone doesn't ring!!!

workload is a moving target right now...

I'm not too far away from you and I can tell you this. People are stressed, financially. The 'official' unemployment number here has gone from 10.9% to 11.5% in just the last month. AND, those 'official' numbers are basically BS. My bread and butter has been estate S/Ds for many years. Now the chirrlin are basically telling their parents that thanks, but no thanks, we can't afford the taxes on the property either. On line GIS maps take care of a lot of the rest of the boundary work out there. Those freaks who think they have line disputes because of those maps can't afford the costs involved for consulting services. Construction and engineering surveys are prostituted out to a few select mega firms.

The good news is my SWMBO works at a vet's office. Those folks make sure those aminals are taken well care of even if they don't have a clue, or care, as to where their property corners are. PLUS, it's planting season again. Even if I don't know what might be in the rain, if any much, that falls on those plantings. If everything works out we can live for a while on those peas, beans, and okra, etc.

Best to ya all.
Take care,
Ed

I don't honestly know how it is. I'll find out next Monday when I go back to the office for the first time since March 10th. I've been working 50+ hour weeks at my part-time job for the last two weeks, and that's been fun... It was so dead before I left the second week of March that I simply couldn't deal with the boredom and waiting for an axe to fall any longer...

There's a fix for this hurry up and wait problem we're experiencing, and most of us are not taking full advantage of it. Instead of sitting around the office, we should be doing what the doctors and lawyers do when they're not working. Go enjoy your hobbies, and have the phone forwarded to your cell phone. I personally find it frustrating to be tied to my desk sitting in my office at work with no billable work to do, when I could just as easily be at the house knocking items off my to-do list. I have a cell phone, a computer, and a high speed internet connection at the house. If we need to speak face to face, I've got video conference capability from the house, and a much more comfortable chair than that 5 year old $79 Office Depot special that I get to sit in at the office.

We've introduced so many modern advances into our historic profession, and yet we still sit in our little shops waiting by the phone as if we're Andy Taylor, Sheriff of Mayberry in the 1950's expectantly waiting for one of the town's people to call with an emergency. The most technologically advanced surveyor I know graduated from college in 2006 and already owns his own business, thanks to being laid off last fall from "Corporate America". He doesn't sit in his office waiting for the phone to ring. His office phone is on his hip. If it rings, he's there to answer it, whether he's working in the field on another project, or standing in the lumber aisle at the the local big box lumberyard buying fencing for his backyard. He doesn't sit around waiting for work, work meets him where he is at. Ironically, he's made two to three times the income that I have since the beginning of the year, and I've got ten more years of experience in this profession.

If the new model for our profession is a roller coaster workload, then we probably need to adapt to make the low spots more liveable, and have enough resources on stand-by to help push projects over the peaks when we need a hand. Those who occasionally find themselves understaffed, but are not ready to hire on full time workers should consider assembling a short list of pre-qualified individuals who might be able to step aside from their own work for a short time to help on short term intensive projects. In the business world, they're called "Contract Labor or Consultants", and you need to incorporate their cost (which is typically MORE than an average employee performing the same work) into your original cost estimate for the project.

The roller coaster work load - Snoop

It's driving me nuts too.

I know what you're saying; up, down, up, down; nothing for weeks; then boom, something every day; "hurry-up', get it done, faster, faster; --- then nothing... Now - No matter how hard I try; nothing. Nothing seems to work. The more I work at it, nothing.

But dude, really,
I think it's your avatar that causing the sporadic happenings & confusion.

I'm not sure what it is; is it the black socks, the balding head, the bear chest, the pose, the sofa or the whitey tighties that's causing the issue? I'm not real sure - Well, whatever the problem I'm having is- I'm pretty certain it might be caused by such a confusing photo.

- Cognitive dissonance -

Please change the photo

The roller coaster work load - Snoop

December and January were busy, February was really dead, and March has been great. That's just the way it is.

> People are stressed, financially. The 'official' unemployment number here has gone from 10.9% to 11.5% in just the last month. AND, those 'official' numbers are basically BS.

It's amazing how many people buy into the "official" numbers without taking the time to do the research and find out how skewed they really are.

I still love the "official inflation" numbers. In my house, I measure inflation with the cost of fuel and food included as large portions of the statistical analysis. The only deflation I've seen since this depression began has been in my paycheck which has experienced double digit deflation in excess of 40%.

I'm a walking unemployment statistic with two jobs... March 22, 2011 was my official enrolment date for the third year of partial unemployment benefits. Having two jobs, I rarely get any UE benefit, but I'm sure somewhere I'm a statistic in the government's system.

The roller coaster work load - Snoop

I gotta agree.."Costanza in White" is busting so many levels of eww, it's like a karmic thunderclap.

Try this snoop...

Rick

There are those of us "still unemployed" who (at least speaking for myself), would be grateful for even occasional part time work. Contract, or (dare I say it out loud) under the table. For me, at this point, if the work was close to home, would not have to collect a higher rate of pay.... I would simply be grateful for SOME sort of income until some of this mess gets better.

I have even sent out letters to a few local surveying companies suggesting contract type work. No response. At all. It appears to me that surveying is less busy in my area than other parts of the country.

A person such as myself would have the ability to step away from the volunteer positions for a few days or weeks to fill in at a paying job, then go right back to volunteering.

Same in upstate NY, got quite a few survey friends that own their own companies and have for 20 years, there is nothing going on. I worked for an outfit for 11 years that did mostly county and state roads and bridges...well we all know that money croaked. The shovel ready meant, millin' and pavin', to make it look like something was getting done and people were working. Jobs I surveyed for the state 6 years ago are not getting built and won't. NY budget supposed to come out in a few days, and as long as there are union cuts listed, you can bet there will be no design surveys even contemplated!!!.

The NYSDOT budgetary process is a slow one.

"Downstate" (i.e., Regions 9, 10 and 11), there are projects I've been involved with that haven't been started after 8, 9 or 10 years. Soil boring layouts, topo surveys, ROW surveys, etc, done in support of design projects in the period 1994-2002 have still not been started.

In NYCDOT, one project I worked on in summer 1987 (Houston Street) didn't start until 2005 and was only finished in late 2009.