Saturday Duty

I am "blessed" to have work on Saturdays. I seldom go to work on Saturdays so I file them as vacation leaves. I don’t see the point of going to the office when you don’t have anything to do anyway. First, the people I deal with are mostly foreign suppliers, they don’t have work on Saturdays. Second, the people in the office are mentally absent on Saturdays, it’s hard to talk business with them.

I am one of those people who do not agree that the amount of time spent in the office is directly proportional to how productive an employee is. In fact, I would say that if an employee spends too much time doing overtime work he/she may either be milking the company for extra cash (some people have overtime pay) or is inefficient in doing his/her work.

The head of our division once confronted me why I don’t go to work on Saturdays. In response, I brought up the following points:

1. I can’t do any office work on Saturdays because most of the people that I have to deal with don’t have work. I am willing to go to work on a Saturday if he needs me to do soemthing though.
2. Our Saturday duty is only for ½ day, and I’m getting only half of my salary for the day. Whereas, the gasoline expense remains constant. So, isn’t it even more costly to go to work on a Saturday? (makes sense doesn’t it?)

Actually even the bosses don’t do anything on Saturday. In fact, my other boss locks his door to take a nap in the office. He has converted his sofa into a makeshift bed.

Today, I went to the office because I have to finish some rush work. I am again reminded of how counterproductive Saturday duty is. Instead of resting, the employees are forced to come to work and pretend to work (quite a difficult task, I assure you) . They could’ve used the whole day recharging for the following work week.