For everyone who want to know what my working day looks like.

[pretmaker]

It has been some time since I have posted here on Nihonomaru. And I will explain the reason for it while showing one of the working days of mine. Please note that it is a “normal” working day that happens every day.
06:45 Wake up from bed.
06: 50 Showering.
07:15 Fetching a smoke outside.
07:20 Getting in the car to get to work.
07:30 Light a cigarette while driving to work.
07:50 Traffic jam, lightning another cigarette and drinking a can of cola.
08:01 Finally trough the traffic jam. Time for another smoke and listening to the news.
08:15 Arrival at the office.
08:20 Stepping inside the office.
08:25 Reading the logs of back-ups (I work for a computer company that manages networks).
09:05 Time for another smoke and a can of cola.
09:15 Time for the support calls.
10:00 Time for another smoke and a can of ice tea.
10:15 Emergency call because of a failed hard drive in Amsterdam (150 KM from the current location about 1:30 driving time if there is no traffic jam)
11:20 Emergency meeting to decide who has to go to Amsterdam to fix the server.
11:30 Simulation of the work that has to be done.
12:00 Time for a break and some dinner. (I wish… There are calls waiting for me again AND I even have to go to Amsterdam)
13:00 Getting the tools ready and getting in the car on the way to Amsterdam.
13:30 Smoking a cigarette.
13:50 Getting out of the car to take a leak at a gas station.
14:10 After walking 1 KM back I am finally back at the car.
14:15 Smoking another cigarette
15:00 Finally I am close to Utrecht. Damn traffic jams, smoking another cigarette.
16:00 Already smoked another 2 cigarette and guess what… Traffic jam because of an accident.
17:05 Arrival in Amsterdam at Redbus datacenter.
17:22 Entering the Redbus.
17:30 Walking with the guys of Redbus to the server rack.
17:45 Arrived at the server and started to shut it down so that I can check the hard drive.
18:00 Hard drive is ok. So no need to replace it. Time to put in the second CPU with cooling.
18:10 Pulling the server out of the rack and keeping the server beneath it in the rack… Pretty challenging for one man :P.
18:20 Hammering a server back into place… (until I see the button that I have to push so that the sliders are free again)
18:27 Writing out of Redbus
18:30 Verifying that the servers are corresponding correctly again for the last time.
18:32 Lighting another cigarette and driving to a gas station.
18:45 Arrival at a gas station. Filling the car and paying.
18:55 taking a leak at the same gas station while grabbing some dinner and a few drinks. Damn I had a headache from the air-conditioning that was running inside the server park. FYI, there were about 500 servers in the location where I was :).
19:15 Time to drive home. I call my dad that I am on my way and that it will take about 1 hour and 30 minutes to get home.
19:20 Lighting another cigarette. Damn it is late already…. :S
19:25 Lost in Amsterdam. Damn navigation machines. Always sending you trough grass lands and it lets you drive on roads that do not exist… (Smoking another cigarette)
19:45 Time for a pit stop with some food that I bought. Bacon and Egg… DAMN IT DOES NOT TASTE GOOD AT ALL! While eating it I enjoy some music that is on the radio. Getting out of the car to dispose of the waste.
19:55 Driving home again while enjoying a cigarette.
20:15 Finally back on the normal tracks. Enjoying the last cigarette in the car.
20:30 Home at last. Time for some REAL dinner and after that another drink.
21:10 Time to get the stuff out of the car and enjoy another cigarette.
21:25 Finally some rest. It is almost time for bed. But a little TV cannot hurt. I have not watched TV for about 2 months.
21:30 Found an interesting movie about the cold war.
23:10 Going to bed but first I need to setup the computer to display Tsuyokiss on the TV that I have patched on the computer.
00:15 Fell asleep. Need to get-up again at 06:45.

This was on a Tuesday (8-4-2008). On a Friday (4-4-2008) I had another emergency call because I had to configure 6 computers and place and patch them into the network together with 11 monitors because of a theft. Then I got home at 21:30
Normally I get home around 18:00. Sometimes it is around 18:45.

So basically that is the reason why I am not so super/hyper active on the forums. :P
Although it may seem like nothing, I can assure you that you are broken at the end of the day if you have like 40 calls and about 200 log files that you have to check for errors.
Basically a day has 24 hours. Normally one works 8 hours BUT one also takes a break of 30 minutes. So the normal working day consists of 8:30 hours. So that leaves 15:30 hours of other things. The travel time is about 45 minutes. You travel towards the office in the morning and back home in the evening so that makes 1:30. That leaves me 14 hours. Then there is some time to eat in the evening. Let’s say 1 hour. That leaves 13 hours. Then there is the time that is needed to shower in the morning and to wake up. That is about 30 minutes. So that leaves me 12:30 hours to have some fun. But we are forgetting a few things. Like unpacking the car and closing off the gates and also washing the dishes. Let’s say that those things take another 30 minutes. So that leaves me with 12 hours to spare. Of these 12 hours there is the minimal rest of 8 hours that a normal person needs. I feel like I need about 10 hours, but some people call me lazy and others are more honest saying that it is normal to sleep more than needed because you can perform better doing more work in less time. But let’s take the 8 hours. That leaves 4 hours of spare time.

What can you do with 4 hours of spare time? Watch some anime, check your mail, learn for a few certificates, program on a website…….. There is still so much for me to do and so little time.

I also have my hobbies like Nihonomaru and programming in PHP. So where is the time to enjoy your hobbies while people bug you for websites, where is the time when people call you because their PC does not work correctly anymore, where is the time to enjoy some reading or watching some anime?
This are just normal working days of mine. I am pretty used to it at this time and I am able to cope with it.

But basically I almost only have some spare time in the weekends. And believe it or not but I still have so much work to do and stuff to learn that my agenda is empty and my head is full.

So that is the reason why I am not hyper active on Nihonomaru (in case anyone was wondering :p)

So basically if you need me, pm/mail me. I get a message on my mobile when I have mail and I check for them every 5 minutes. So if some1 ever needs me then PM me and I will get back to you asap :)

So tell me how do you guys cope with long working days and what kind of work do you do and how does a day look?

[ZERO_ice]

whoa...
that’s a whole damn essay. I’m starting to get scared of being a programmer. What company do you work for?

PS: you smoke too much.

[pretmaker]

I am not a coder for work ;) I am a MCSA specialist in maintaining IT infrastructure :) I work for a company in Nijmegen in the Dutch.

If it was coding then the days would be longer but less smoking. :)

And the smoking is not as bad as you think. It is about 14 hours of working time and I smoked about 20 cigarettes. That is what you get if you are in a traffic jam :P
(And do not forget the time stress that accumulates from the traffic jam, in short, If you get late then you will have to pay more money to visit your server)

So basically that is the point :) Allot of time stuck in traffic and allot of stress because of financial pressure :)