A Day at the Office

We usually get up a 4:00 am and go to the gym for our morning workout. At 5:30 am we try and get to the office so we can open our email, which usually has 20 emails in the in box. Most of the mail is from corporate and some is for us individuals. At 6:00 am is the morning meeting here with the electrical department. We go over the plan of the day which has always changed from the night before. This, of course, is frustrating because our paperwork is prepared ahead of time to be ready for the days inspections. Management cannot seem to stick to a plan nor can they organize very well. Our teams do really an excellent job when left to our own, but too many supervisors get excited by changing circumstances and what the Marine Commanders think should happen, plus the added pressure from the super management in Baghdad. Anyway, we have come to the conclusion in the last couple of weeks to wait until we are leaving and then I, the document coordinator, make up the needed forms and off we go. Then the real fun begins. We show up to the site and wait for the electricians to do their testing first then we follow behind and do ours, the whole time waking up sleeping Marines who had night duty, had to fly patrol, etc. The Marines and soldiers are real gracious with us and will allow us to do what we need to do to keep their lives safe at “home”. Usually we find problems with the installations and have to stop until repairs are made, although after 6 weeks of receiving bad reports about their work, the electricians and the quality is getting better. That makes our jobs better and their lives easier. After lunch we keep going until 5 or 6 pm, and then we come back to the office and do the days paperwork. Lots of nights I have been putting in 16 hours, 14 hours a day on average. So, by 9 pm I am exhausted and go to bed only to start it all over again the nest day. If it were not for Saturday’s time card turn in, I would not know what day of the week it is. I use the formula of adding 4 hours to my time to know what time it is at home, then I have to remember it is the opposite time of the day. Confused yet? I really never know either. During our travels we stop and drop off our laundry, run to the store, and any other errand we have to do. So, this is a typical day in Iraq in the QA/QC department.