2009-03-07

Work/Downtime

Lately I've been very busy with work. Part of my current project is being handled in Japan and it has not gone smoothly. It's frustrating when distance creates visibility and control issues. It's disappointing when company politics and policies harm schedules and progress.

For unknown reasons our company in Japan has implemented a strict policy on working hours. Employees go home at 7pm and do not work on the weekends. Locally we have no such policies and we have to bear the brunt of our customer's wrath when progress is slow. With the type of ASIC engineering work that I'm involved with, setting strict working hours does not always make sense. Our goal is to finish the project quickly so that customers can meet their time to market demands. Efficiency is easily lost because of the long runtimes of our tools. Freedom to arrange our own work schedules is highly desirable.

It's hard to keep a high level of concentration for days, weeks, and even months. Days start to run together and there is nothing to look forward to. I was able to find a few hours of relief today by having brunch with friends at Stacks. I had only been to the one in Menlo Park before but today we went to the location in Campbell. I tried the smoked salmon frittata. A friend commented that my egg was a bit hard but I thought it was ok and explained to her that frittatas were cooked in an oven unlike an omelette.

After lunch we went to see a new townhouse before going back to my friend's place. I stayed a bit to play with their guinea pig before heading back to work. I only stayed at the office around 4 hours today and received 2 calls from a coworker about the project.

For dinner I had portobello mushroom ravioli with a simple dressing. I paired it with a glass of chardonnay.

From food


I hope my project will be finished soon and I can find more downtime.

2 comments:

  1. James!! Keep up the hard work!!
    I will support you!!! Hope you can find some breaks between your projects!!

    ReplyDelete
  2. poor u ~~ rest more ba... if u can

    ReplyDelete