Sorry for making this like my personal blog
but i needed moral support....
Its 11:26 pm where I am now( in my office)...working with colleagues on a master planning presentation project of apprx 200 sq kilometres..........havent slepet for 28 hours and 53 minutes now ..my head is clogged and my throat has been devastated by nicotine...and the b***d client wants the presentation by tomorrow.
nevermore, you have my sympathy. I can't imagine being up for 29 hours straight these days! I've been going on 4 hours sleep a night for the last week - and I'm exhausted. (I know that sounds like a lot of sleep to some, but the older I get the more charetting knocks me flat!)
Drink lots of water, that will help the throat. Take some Dayquil if you have sinus clogging - I swear they put aspeed in that stuff.
If possible, get in a nap, even a few hours under your desk. Hang in there - and keep your eye on the beer you will deserve when it's all over!
(drawing from the "...conversations..." thread) I don't want to be a dick here, but...
jeez you guys! Nevermore explicitly asked for “moral support†and everyone just descends on him – it's like that scene in Galaxy Quest where the cute little injured alien gets torn apart and eaten by his peers...
I agree completely, liberty bell! Lighten up, guys!
Nevermore, my friend from studio always went a few days without sleep before her reviews. She always ate lucky charms cereal - she'd go through boxes of the stuff (perhaps there really is something to the "magically delicious" claim). Maybe if you nibble constantly it will keep your energy up. Drink a lot of fluids.
ah, but just think of how wonderful it will feel when you finally lay down to sleep! that two minutes of consciousness when you finally give in (before passing out) is such a yummy feeling that it almost makes me want to pull an all nighter right now...
i'll show a little love, while we've all been there, we also all benefitted from a little bitching amongst friends.
and seriously, stop smoking. coffee on the other hand...
oh, and 2 whole minutes? I think I have genuinely fallen asleep on the way down.
Another time I was sleepwalking and "woke up" soaking wet from the shower, in front of the mirror, and, egad, shaving.
That one scared me.
Uh, oh! Maybe we should have an archinect alert system in place for situations like this.. We could send out an alarm for people that are stressed out and suddenly stop responding. Like right click on their name and someone will start looking for them....
Is 28 hours without sleep really that bad? I once went 72 hours without sleep before my 4th semester final design jury.. i mumbled my way through the review and it went pretty well. And in december, I went a whole 3 weeks sleeping just 3 hours a night.
This is gonna come back and bite me when i'm 50, isnt it? Ayyo.
Just remembered something.. towards the end of that nightmarish 72 hour period, me and three of my classmates (who stayed over at my place and worked on their projects), at the height of our grogginess, spent almost an hour trying to position the mouse cursor over the 'render' button and click on it. We took turns, and I *think* one of us succeeded finally.
I'm never trying that again.. it took me weeks to get the smell of stale coffee out of my room.
Has anyone noticed that we are the only profession that doesn't get sleep before a client meeting or presentation. Anybody outside of this professionn can agree to this. And the sad thing is that we are not even getting paid for it.
Come to think of it, i was never able to tell my accountant or lawyer to have my documents ready by the end of the week. They decided when it was finished.
We all have had to deal with unreasonable clients. We have all had to deal with unreasonable schedules. We have all had to deal with unreasonable budgets.
That's part of the job, until one day they come and put you in a padded cell. Look forward to it. I am.
You're right, A - I've spent three 14 hours days working on one of two cafe locations, and just learned an hour ago that tomorrow I have to meet with the landlord of the OTHER cafe location, because the one whose space I've actually been working on is unavailable for the meeting.
How much can I accomplish in the next 20 hours?!? Damnation. Is my cell ready yet?
I just hope some day lawyers take over this profession. At least they got the balls to change things and don't have this "it comes with the territory" attitude especially when It doesn’t benefit anyone
29 hours straight? That's school stuff. Those kinds of hours imply a serious waste of time and misappropriation of resources. Unprofessional. Of course, if you were in charge, nevermore, I'm sure you would have been much more efficient!
yeah I was kind of thinking, wow, i would never pull an all-nighter for an employer, ever. It points to serious mismanagement. If you put in 8 reasonably productive hours a day, and your boss makes a promise to a client that forces you to pull an all-nighter, then he needs to either hire additional help or suck it up, call up the client, and re-schedule. Then he needs to not make stupid promises again.
If you own your own business and are trying to get it off the ground and are personally willing to pull all-nighters to do that, then more power to you if that's what you choose.
I do occasionally come in weekends and work late, if I know it will help, or if I feel I haven't been productive enough and need it to meet my work goals. But the point is to estimate in advance--not just for you but for the team that is working for you--how much time something will take and plan accordingly--not to sell them out. That sucks!
Lol.. im back and Im fine.
Actually I slept for 20 straight hours after the presentation.
Im mortally embarrased for making that post..frankly..I dont even remember making that post.
well thanx guys for all your replies, read em now.
evilplatypus-the project is apprx 20 sq kilometres ( not 200 ) that typo was due to lack of sleep..Its a new township development that my firm is doing and the bastard client = Govt of India.
Its a very nice project but unfortunately its a closed door competition and i wouldnt be able to reveal more.
well it went well and we submitted the drawings and reports on time. i.e 3 minutes before the deadline..that was 5:30 the next evening after I made the post.
Thanx to the cab driver who 'flew' us there.
regarding the posts made by myriam and rspino, Yes I agree that on a professional level,pulling all nighters shows lack of management etc. but this was a diff case.
Initially we heard that we were eliminated from the competition but later on we received a phone call from them that they had decided to revaluate the bid so we had to do everything all over again and that too just at a moment's notice.
Since its the govt of india we couldnt exactly call up the client, and re-schedule.
I dont look at it as Im working for myself or for my employer ,Im working
Since its a prestigious project, we were asked by our employers to "kindly "adjust..we do get paid for overtime etc, but money is really not an issue.For me personally, i LOVE working in my profession.
Its the challenge involved that spurs us up. testing calibre.
I learnt architecture in my 5 years of college but i learnt crisis-management too .
If we can complete 20 sq kilometres of planning and present it ( considering the fact that a single A0 sheet took 2 hrs to print ! )..that too within 3 days !--and with a reasonably good design...we could someday proudly boast abt that to our wide-eyed grandchildren.
I look at it that way.
ManuG..My record for staying awake is 5 days + 23 minutes .
and i mean --CONTINUOUSLY awake.
Not an exaggeration, not a fib.
(Me +my friend working on an intercollegiate design competition..u must know NASA).
His fort fell 6 hours before mine..so for the last 6 hours or so..I was completing the design all alone.
I slept only for 3 whole days after that ( waking only in between for meals and bodily functions).
It was the weekend..fri +sat +sun and on monday I was back to college.
One day I hope to break that record ! Lol..to be Hypnos's protege not some freakin cinderella. hehehehe
thanks for your replies guys ( liberty bell )
( PS This is from experience if anyone needs it...the best stimulant to stay awake is chewing on an apple + sipping cool water)..works 3 times more effectively than coffee.
HEY nevermore, I tell people that apples + cold water is THE BEST stimulant but NOBODY listens. Infact, they laugh.
Yes, I've heard of NASA... and I wouldnt spend a single hour on it, forget 120 hours 23 minutes. Thats CRAZY. I'm sure you've done some irreperable damage to yourself, man..
ahh, I see. Glad you made it through! Prestigious competitions for an employer and a design that you believe in are a different matter. More power to you. Good luck in the competition!
I want to comment on this notion that working long hours is unprofessional but I don't have time to go into it right now because I'm going to be working all weekend. For a client, a hosptial, at which everyone on the project team is also going to be working all weekend! In a nutshell, I don't think excessive work and unrealistic deadlines are exclusive to architects any longer - all of my clients work excessive hours at their jobs. Keeping clients - both keeping them happy and keeping them, period - means meeting their needs. So if they are being asked to meet an unrealistic deadline by the powers that be, don't I end up looking like a hero becuase I help them meet that deadline and isn't that overall good?
Professional life is different these days. Eight hour days and not taking work home on the weekends is rarer and rarer in any profession. We architects just learned how to do it better in school.
I won't be able to continue this conversation because, yes, I'm on deadline all weekend. But I don't think it's a black and white argument.
NASA is great dude ! !..Its worth it just for the sheer power of rebellion ..the atmosphere and the intense competition..yea I know the results are rumoured to be rigged and all..but who cares !
>>120 hours 23 minutes. Thats CRAZY. I'm sure you've done some irreperable damage to yourself, man.. ps where do u work?<<
Kya farakh padta hai dude ?..what diff does it make bro..Life is itself a damage to the senses..
one day we are all going to go..........damaged or in showroom condition ...hahahahaha.hahahahaha.hahahahaha.hahahahaha.
I work in a Indo-uk firm ..and dont ask me its name cos if they found out they'd kill me.lol
thanx miriam
all the best for your work liberty..im going to be working this weekend too.
nevermore,looking at your profile, i cannot understand if its because of those apples or those 120 hours that have done some damage to your senses. sorry but had to mention it.
but i have to agree, as juvenile and funny nasa was (which, by the way means National Association for Students of Architecture), it forced people to churn out pretty good work in extremely restricted periods. But would i ever do it again, hell no!
You guys can all come work for me. I'm the only guy in the office who comes in for 5 days of the week, and I'm the boss. Everyone here works 4 days a week and goes skiing / boarding the other three, and we do just fine. Actually very busy but everyone has a LIFE. Its what goes on outside of work. You guys should check it out.
whistler, sadly (for people like me), you are right. somehow in a series of revelations im seeing how wastefully hard im working, and how its not at all proportional to the satisfaction i get out of it.
whistler, sounds like you've made a good situation for yourself, which is wonderful.
I can add this bit of info re: hours worked: I am at an odd place just at the beginnings of starting my own firm. My partner and I don't have enough work to really hire anyone, but have slightly too much work for just the two of us. I have had such great experiences as an employee that I can't imagine hiring someone just to pump cad at slave wages, I would want to be a good employer and offer someone a real experience. I'm not ready to make that leap yet. But if I did have an employee, we could have finished this job I'm working on with 8 hour days plus maybe a bit of overtime the last day.
So I guess I'm seeing the extended hours and major commitment as a necessary part of building up a business. Hopefully in a few years I'll be able to provide a reasonable working environment, or even one as great as whistlers!
this whole "yadda look at us not have slept for x days living for [mission x]" self-congratulatory feeling shit about it implicitly denigrating other people's organized life stuff is getting old. oh, shit, I should get some lseep.
The bliss of a professional life
Sorry for making this like my personal blog
but i needed moral support....
Its 11:26 pm where I am now( in my office)...working with colleagues on a master planning presentation project of apprx 200 sq kilometres..........havent slepet for 28 hours and 53 minutes now ..my head is clogged and my throat has been devastated by nicotine...and the b***d client wants the presentation by tomorrow.
please help.
nevermore, you have my sympathy. I can't imagine being up for 29 hours straight these days! I've been going on 4 hours sleep a night for the last week - and I'm exhausted. (I know that sounds like a lot of sleep to some, but the older I get the more charetting knocks me flat!)
Drink lots of water, that will help the throat. Take some Dayquil if you have sinus clogging - I swear they put aspeed in that stuff.
If possible, get in a nap, even a few hours under your desk. Hang in there - and keep your eye on the beer you will deserve when it's all over!
200 sq. Kilometers?
maybe stop prolonging the process by posting on archinect?
(drawing from the "...conversations..." thread) I don't want to be a dick here, but...
jeez you guys! Nevermore explicitly asked for “moral support†and everyone just descends on him – it's like that scene in Galaxy Quest where the cute little injured alien gets torn apart and eaten by his peers...
I agree completely, liberty bell! Lighten up, guys!
Nevermore, my friend from studio always went a few days without sleep before her reviews. She always ate lucky charms cereal - she'd go through boxes of the stuff (perhaps there really is something to the "magically delicious" claim). Maybe if you nibble constantly it will keep your energy up. Drink a lot of fluids.
Hang in there!
This isn't an AA meeting site.
Get some sleep.
what could possibly take up 200sq. Km?
A project in China?
suck it up. We've all been there. We all lived.
and stop smoking!!
ah, but just think of how wonderful it will feel when you finally lay down to sleep! that two minutes of consciousness when you finally give in (before passing out) is such a yummy feeling that it almost makes me want to pull an all nighter right now...
have you tried drugs?
i'll show a little love, while we've all been there, we also all benefitted from a little bitching amongst friends.
and seriously, stop smoking. coffee on the other hand...
oh, and 2 whole minutes? I think I have genuinely fallen asleep on the way down.
Another time I was sleepwalking and "woke up" soaking wet from the shower, in front of the mirror, and, egad, shaving.
That one scared me.
alright, off to bed.
okay, my 2 cents: No (and I mean no) project 200 sq km or 10 sq m is more important than your health and your personal time.
Maybe i should take this advise for myself too...
Hey guys, he's not answering! Do you think he's like...dead?
Uh, oh! Maybe we should have an archinect alert system in place for situations like this.. We could send out an alarm for people that are stressed out and suddenly stop responding. Like right click on their name and someone will start looking for them....
Is 28 hours without sleep really that bad? I once went 72 hours without sleep before my 4th semester final design jury.. i mumbled my way through the review and it went pretty well. And in december, I went a whole 3 weeks sleeping just 3 hours a night.
This is gonna come back and bite me when i'm 50, isnt it? Ayyo.
Just remembered something.. towards the end of that nightmarish 72 hour period, me and three of my classmates (who stayed over at my place and worked on their projects), at the height of our grogginess, spent almost an hour trying to position the mouse cursor over the 'render' button and click on it. We took turns, and I *think* one of us succeeded finally.
I'm never trying that again.. it took me weeks to get the smell of stale coffee out of my room.
Take a moment to be thankful for your life and everything will come into perspective.
If you can come up with the excellent verbiage "devastated by nicotine" - I'm sure you'll have no problem kicking out a little site plan.
Question: what is "b***d"? Have I missed out on some new profanity?
Good question citizen - that one stumped me too.
I think it's bastard + 29 hours sans sleep.
b***d
bland
brand
bared
bored
baked
Has anyone noticed that we are the only profession that doesn't get sleep before a client meeting or presentation. Anybody outside of this professionn can agree to this. And the sad thing is that we are not even getting paid for it.
Come to think of it, i was never able to tell my accountant or lawyer to have my documents ready by the end of the week. They decided when it was finished.
bastd...could be some sort of Ratsafarian thing.
Nevermore, do you travel with Jah?
We all have had to deal with unreasonable clients. We have all had to deal with unreasonable schedules. We have all had to deal with unreasonable budgets.
That's part of the job, until one day they come and put you in a padded cell. Look forward to it. I am.
You're right, A - I've spent three 14 hours days working on one of two cafe locations, and just learned an hour ago that tomorrow I have to meet with the landlord of the OTHER cafe location, because the one whose space I've actually been working on is unavailable for the meeting.
How much can I accomplish in the next 20 hours?!? Damnation. Is my cell ready yet?
I just hope some day lawyers take over this profession. At least they got the balls to change things and don't have this "it comes with the territory" attitude especially when It doesn’t benefit anyone
29 hours straight? That's school stuff. Those kinds of hours imply a serious waste of time and misappropriation of resources. Unprofessional. Of course, if you were in charge, nevermore, I'm sure you would have been much more efficient!
yeah I was kind of thinking, wow, i would never pull an all-nighter for an employer, ever. It points to serious mismanagement. If you put in 8 reasonably productive hours a day, and your boss makes a promise to a client that forces you to pull an all-nighter, then he needs to either hire additional help or suck it up, call up the client, and re-schedule. Then he needs to not make stupid promises again.
If you own your own business and are trying to get it off the ground and are personally willing to pull all-nighters to do that, then more power to you if that's what you choose.
I do occasionally come in weekends and work late, if I know it will help, or if I feel I haven't been productive enough and need it to meet my work goals. But the point is to estimate in advance--not just for you but for the team that is working for you--how much time something will take and plan accordingly--not to sell them out. That sucks!
Hey folks.
Lol.. im back and Im fine.
Actually I slept for 20 straight hours after the presentation.
Im mortally embarrased for making that post..frankly..I dont even remember making that post.
well thanx guys for all your replies, read em now.
evilplatypus-the project is apprx 20 sq kilometres ( not 200 ) that typo was due to lack of sleep..Its a new township development that my firm is doing and the bastard client = Govt of India.
Its a very nice project but unfortunately its a closed door competition and i wouldnt be able to reveal more.
well it went well and we submitted the drawings and reports on time. i.e 3 minutes before the deadline..that was 5:30 the next evening after I made the post.
Thanx to the cab driver who 'flew' us there.
regarding the posts made by myriam and rspino, Yes I agree that on a professional level,pulling all nighters shows lack of management etc. but this was a diff case.
Initially we heard that we were eliminated from the competition but later on we received a phone call from them that they had decided to revaluate the bid so we had to do everything all over again and that too just at a moment's notice.
Since its the govt of india we couldnt exactly call up the client, and re-schedule.
I dont look at it as Im working for myself or for my employer ,Im working
Since its a prestigious project, we were asked by our employers to "kindly "adjust..we do get paid for overtime etc, but money is really not an issue.For me personally, i LOVE working in my profession.
Its the challenge involved that spurs us up. testing calibre.
I learnt architecture in my 5 years of college but i learnt crisis-management too .
If we can complete 20 sq kilometres of planning and present it ( considering the fact that a single A0 sheet took 2 hrs to print ! )..that too within 3 days !--and with a reasonably good design...we could someday proudly boast abt that to our wide-eyed grandchildren.
I look at it that way.
ManuG..My record for staying awake is 5 days + 23 minutes .
and i mean --CONTINUOUSLY awake.
Not an exaggeration, not a fib.
(Me +my friend working on an intercollegiate design competition..u must know NASA).
His fort fell 6 hours before mine..so for the last 6 hours or so..I was completing the design all alone.
I slept only for 3 whole days after that ( waking only in between for meals and bodily functions).
It was the weekend..fri +sat +sun and on monday I was back to college.
One day I hope to break that record ! Lol..to be Hypnos's protege not some freakin cinderella. hehehehe
thanks for your replies guys ( liberty bell )
( PS This is from experience if anyone needs it...the best stimulant to stay awake is chewing on an apple + sipping cool water)..works 3 times more effectively than coffee.
HEY nevermore, I tell people that apples + cold water is THE BEST stimulant but NOBODY listens. Infact, they laugh.
Yes, I've heard of NASA... and I wouldnt spend a single hour on it, forget 120 hours 23 minutes. Thats CRAZY. I'm sure you've done some irreperable damage to yourself, man..
ps where do u work?
ahh, I see. Glad you made it through! Prestigious competitions for an employer and a design that you believe in are a different matter. More power to you. Good luck in the competition!
I want to comment on this notion that working long hours is unprofessional but I don't have time to go into it right now because I'm going to be working all weekend. For a client, a hosptial, at which everyone on the project team is also going to be working all weekend! In a nutshell, I don't think excessive work and unrealistic deadlines are exclusive to architects any longer - all of my clients work excessive hours at their jobs. Keeping clients - both keeping them happy and keeping them, period - means meeting their needs. So if they are being asked to meet an unrealistic deadline by the powers that be, don't I end up looking like a hero becuase I help them meet that deadline and isn't that overall good?
Professional life is different these days. Eight hour days and not taking work home on the weekends is rarer and rarer in any profession. We architects just learned how to do it better in school.
I won't be able to continue this conversation because, yes, I'm on deadline all weekend. But I don't think it's a black and white argument.
Hmm. I'd be interested to hear your thoughts and discuss lb. My mind is not made up.
ManuG
NASA is great dude ! !..Its worth it just for the sheer power of rebellion ..the atmosphere and the intense competition..yea I know the results are rumoured to be rigged and all..but who cares !
>>120 hours 23 minutes. Thats CRAZY. I'm sure you've done some irreperable damage to yourself, man.. ps where do u work?<<
Kya farakh padta hai dude ?..what diff does it make bro..Life is itself a damage to the senses..
one day we are all going to go..........damaged or in showroom condition ...hahahahaha.hahahahaha.hahahahaha.hahahahaha.
I work in a Indo-uk firm ..and dont ask me its name cos if they found out they'd kill me.lol
thanx miriam
all the best for your work liberty..im going to be working this weekend too.
Nevermore,
Please come into my office and shut the door.
where's your office..my love ?
nevermore,looking at your profile, i cannot understand if its because of those apples or those 120 hours that have done some damage to your senses. sorry but had to mention it.
but i have to agree, as juvenile and funny nasa was (which, by the way means National Association for Students of Architecture), it forced people to churn out pretty good work in extremely restricted periods. But would i ever do it again, hell no!
nevermore can I ask what are you being paid for this experience?
You guys can all come work for me. I'm the only guy in the office who comes in for 5 days of the week, and I'm the boss. Everyone here works 4 days a week and goes skiing / boarding the other three, and we do just fine. Actually very busy but everyone has a LIFE. Its what goes on outside of work. You guys should check it out.
whistler, sadly (for people like me), you are right. somehow in a series of revelations im seeing how wastefully hard im working, and how its not at all proportional to the satisfaction i get out of it.
whistler, sounds like you've made a good situation for yourself, which is wonderful.
I can add this bit of info re: hours worked: I am at an odd place just at the beginnings of starting my own firm. My partner and I don't have enough work to really hire anyone, but have slightly too much work for just the two of us. I have had such great experiences as an employee that I can't imagine hiring someone just to pump cad at slave wages, I would want to be a good employer and offer someone a real experience. I'm not ready to make that leap yet. But if I did have an employee, we could have finished this job I'm working on with 8 hour days plus maybe a bit of overtime the last day.
So I guess I'm seeing the extended hours and major commitment as a necessary part of building up a business. Hopefully in a few years I'll be able to provide a reasonable working environment, or even one as great as whistlers!
sameoldoctor>>im seeing how wastefully hard im working, and how its not at all proportional to the satisfaction i get out of it<<
be at ease even if you are working on a 20 sq Km design or stacking a building out of matchsticks on your pub counter.
Chill out dude..life's so short anywayz..death can come anytime.
nope, nasa is shit.
hmm...not much has happened this year
this whole "yadda look at us not have slept for x days living for [mission x]" self-congratulatory feeling shit about it implicitly denigrating other people's organized life stuff is getting old. oh, shit, I should get some lseep.
Nothing relaxes me more than an allnighter. Everything gets put into perspective. Nothing matters anymore. The nerves relax for presentations.
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