Time crunch

My job is one primarily based on deadlines. We get documents in, they are date stamped, and depending on the kind of document, they will fall into a specific timeline for completion. For the past couple of months, I have been loaded. Everyone here has. And my timelines have all seemed to converge on these past 2 weeks, many on May 1. And it hasn't ended yet.

Meeting deadlines is of utmost importance around here. We miss one, and it automatically means a company can start working on something by default. It's written into the rules. The onus is on us to get shit done.

What gets me is when we don't have cooperation from the companies. It's Corporate America. It's all about the bottom line for them. Get it, get it fast, get it cheap, cut as many corners as you can. But I need to be the skeptic. I was hired to be the skeptic. And I don't give a shit about the bottom line. It's not my job to pander to the companies. It's not my job to make it easy on them.

But it is part of my job to not be "burdensome." That's the buzzword. And that's what gets thrown back at us all the time. What we're asking for is "overly burdensome," or some shit like that. It means that the information I am asking for is not pertinent to whether we should say yes or no; that it's not necessary to give for some reason. Most of the time the reason is the bottom line. And, to me, that's not a good reason. Why should we not spend the money necessary to prove that things are safe for the public? Answer: Because it cuts into the profits.

My job is to keep people safe. I have to keep reminding myself of that when Corporate America tries to tell me that I'm just being picky. I have to remind myself of that as I'm trying my damndest to finish things on time, so I don't miss anything that could cause problems later.