I don't think I'm robbing the company by any means. My reviews state otherwise. Some of us, even a lot of us, I would venture a guess, work in a fluid environment where the work load varies. I also have lined out when my break times and lunch times are, but when customer service calls me at 12:05, I don't tell them to call back at 12:30 when I'm through with lunch, I answer their question. Same thing with anyone else who walks in or calls with needs. I don't work on the production floor, where it is vital that I am there each day at the exact times, etc., either. My customers are internal ones-the Product Engineering Dept., Customer Service Dept. and Manufacturing, Purchasing, etc. I am in one of those positions where "Tribal Knowledge" of what our company does, sells, buys, how we do it, processes used, etc. is paramount. Kinda like "The Shell Answer Man". I perform all tests of our end product, its component parts (purchased or manufactured) and answer just about any question anyone inside or outside of the company might have. These questions almost always involve weighing the risk of potential reliability, liability or functionality problems. A lot of what I do involves paperwork and documentation of what I do. If I sign my name to something stating that it's approved for use, I damn well better have my rear covered should problems arise. I have become one of, if not THE, go-to guy for a large number of folks related to what we do in Product Eng. As such, my work load is very cyclic. I wouldn't say that I as an individual is unreplaceable, but my position is. In fact, we are now a conglomerate of five contract furniture manufacturers with one person-me-handling all of the ANSI testing, question-answering, etc. for all five companies. Downsized? When it was just Fixtures Furniture, owned by the man that started the business right after WWII, there was a Testing Department, with a Test Lab Supervisor, and four or five engineers and techs working in that department. Now there is just me, and four more companies added to the bill. Believe me, when I'm sitting there surfing DRN or chatting or whatever, I am also most likely banging out a test report, answering the phone with tech info, etc.
I've worked in many positions where you NEED a set number of employees, yet they are not all going full-throttle all the time. Trust me when I say that even though I might not be stressing, answering the phone, performing tests, checking my BP, or whatever, all at the same time, that my lab is in order, the floor is swept, the desk is neat, "walk-in's" are taken care of in a timely fashion, etc. It's one of those jobs where you come in, and you do what needs to be done, regardless of what it is. Some days I work late, some days I goof off a lot. Some days it's all I can do to stay awake! But it's not one of those jobs that is the exact same thing, every day, like an endless pile of code that I have to sift through and edit, that never ends. There are things that I have taken the initiative to implement, like a scheduled testing program: Nothing goes longer than a set amount of time without testing, although most of our product and the parts we buy is in an almost continuous state of flux due to cost savings efforts from Purchasing, redesign by Prod. Eng., new product in development, etc.
I didn't take any of the above as a jab at me, just trying to explain my situation. I do have a tremendous amount of freedom, and I work almost completely unsupervised. I don't let things slide, as anyone who knows me can testify to.
Plus, "I have people skills. Don't you understand that? I am good with people! What the hell's the matter with you people?" ;)