Things are the same at work. I have many tasks to do. There's over 110 cases of people getting hurt that I have to take care of, and I work as a *Medicare negotiator. A case has moved to the forefront. We are going to take it to trial, and I have to get the case ready by putting together a group of documents showing what our case is about, why we are suing for the amount that we are suing.
We have a client hurt badly in a car accident. Hurt so bad that he has gone years and has not worked. His injury is so bad that there's little hope of recovery, and he will go for the rest of his adulthood not working as well as living with very significant pain. There's no treatment, there's only pain medicine to make the pain tolerable. The case is worth quite a bit of money, and I have to play a significant role in what will hopefully be the case's success. Putting the documents together in a clear, cogent manner, adding up how much money they have been damaged, and putting together a narrative of what happened in the accident and the injuries suffered/treatment done. I learned how much the case was worth. It's A LOT. (I have to be deliberately vague so that if someone is looking through Google they can't say, "Oh, Vince working on (name of person)'s case!!" I would like to say how much the case is worth, b/c I was the one who helped determine it, the person to find out FIRST, but I can't do that ).
But my point is this.
How far will you go to make sure you are an EFFECTIVE worker? What will you do when your workload is overwhelming? What are the sacrifices that you would make carrying such a big workload? Would you say, "I work 8 hour a day, my usual shift, and then I'm leaving. I have a family at home that needs me."
Or, would you say, "I'll work extra. If I work 8 hours a day, I will NOT get what I MUST DO done. If I work 8 hours, I will blow deadlines, I will put cases into jeopardy!
No! I will work on cases when I go home for awhile. I will drive to work on Saturday and put in 4 hours. I must fulfill deadlines. I must do what I can for our clients so that they get the compensation they deserve for the injuries they suffered as a result of other people's negligence.
That's exactly what happened yesterday, That's what's happened week after week, Saturday after Saturday. Yesterday, I worked not my usual 4 hrs, but 5 hours on Saturday. I burned a quarter of a tank of gas to drive to work and drive home after I was done. No compensation for that. Some Saturdays, I have to pay $13 for parking, no compensation for that.
But, I got to have a piece of mind, and I will work very hard to get it. Could you imagine failing a deadline just before a trial? Could you imagine being responsible for ruining a case for someone who suffered for 5 years, spent a fortune on treating his injuries, and he gets nothing because you refused to work extra hours? So, one case see I'm not as much of a "shmuck" for paying for gas, paying for parking when I really didn't have to, when the boss has never told me to work a Saturday.
But in my view, there is no choice. Even though I work extra, I have a lawyer who points out each and every week the assignments that I'm behind in and the bad consequences if I don't start working on it, finishing the task SOON, and how it was wrong that I let it go for awhile without working on it. &, of course, I had so many other tasks to do. & he is very aware of the fact that I work until 6 pm, not 5 pm, and that I work on Saturday and that I sometimes work at home.
Yesterday, I went for broke. I worked 5, not 4, hours in Chicago. I came home took about an hour break and worked on the case until after 1 am. I cannot, I will not tell my boss the work I was assigned is "not done". Tomorrow, I want to say, "Here is the draft, check it, make revisions, take it to a copy company, bind it and then hand it into court and the opposing counsel."
Still, it bothers me all these sacrifices. My co-workers work extra sometimes, but it's the exception to the rule. When I work from 9-5, that's the exception to the rule! The mystery I don't understand is how do they do it without blowing deadlines. Their workload is very comparable to mine. Why do they take a lunch, and I set aside about 15 minutes for eating. Why do they go home around 5:15 and I go home at 6 or 6:30?
It bothers me, and I wrote to my boss an e-mail saying, I'm overwhelmed. I have too much to do. I said that I don't know the solution, It would seem like we should hire more people, but the chances of my bosses hiring more people are as likely as them jumping out the window and flying home at night. They state there is no room in the office (that's true except on Fridays) and they have no money (well I've never looked at their ledger).
So one of the bosses sat me down and we talked. The first thing she asked is "What can we do about this? We don't you to work so many hours." But I already said that I really don't have a solution. If the amount of work is as big as a BARN and there's only 6 full time people and 2 young part-time clerks to work on it, then there's no 2 ways about it, there's too much work and there is very little to do about it. & the bosses want the work to be as big as a barn, b/c if it's a small, manageable amount of work for each of us to do, then we wouldn't make enough money. We tried to come up with little solutions that might help a little. One is to repeat and re-emphasize the fact, that I can assign clerks work. Ok, I will do that, but they only work less than 20 hours a week and the 3 lawyers are allowed to assign them work, too and if they assign work, their task must be done first.
So, we are stuck. I am really stuck. That's just the way it is. Oh well..............
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*Where I live, suppose you were 65 or older (which means you're in Medicare) & you were to get hurt in an accident and it was the fault of somebody's negligence, there's several things that happen. Medicare pays for the medical bills. However, as soon as they find out our client were injured was the result of a car accident, slip & fall, or some kind of negligence, Medicare feels that they should GET BACK the money they paid for the medical bills. The injury was the fault of someone else, so that's the person that should pay, not Medicare. My job is that Medicare gets their money, but they don't get money based on mistake, like if our client has a stomach problem that has nothing to do with the accident. Sometimes, they will ask, by mistake, for money spent to treat their stomach problem or their intestinal problem. That's when I have to write a letter attached with medical records showing where they are wrong. It takes a lot of time.
