Monday, October 25, 2010

Making Happy

Writing the schedule for a business is an interesting thing: I decide where 14 human beings will spend a combined total of more than 200 hours each week. All I have to do is fill in a name and its corporeal counterpart summons itself at the given place and time. Not all shifts are created equal. Some are more enjoyable and/or more lucrative than others, so I also govern, to a point, how happy and wealthy 14 individuals are. I could tip the scales one way and make someone's schedule a dream, or tip it the other way and make it a nightmare. People say to love your work. Well, I could make an employee hate his/her work. Obviously, this isn't my goal. My goal is a middle ground--an even and fair distribution of the scheduling wealth. This isn't an easy task. I agonize over the details. Sometimes while editing the schedule, I stare at my computer screen for ages without making a single change. I try to imagine the life a certain schedule would allow and how it fits an employee. But then I also have to consider how each employee is going to fit with whomever they're going to work with. It's something I don't think I can analyze too much. It's people's lives I'm dealing with, after all, and I don't want to be responsible for any anger, malcontent, angst, disquiet, malaise, or any other deficiencies in spirit.

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