I’m not trying to come down on myself here. Its just that I have been doing this task for amount a month and a half and I haven’t been able to make much of an improvement.
I have been assigned to write our schedule. It is my job to take the previous week’s schedule and enter in all the changes in regards to what tutor is teaching which students at what time. It is a rather tedious process that is done three hours before we open on Mondays. I don’t like the timing because it basically forces me to finish the schedule in 3 hours. I asked my manager if I could do it in advance so I would have more time, but she wouldn’t go for it.
If I could work on it the previous business day, I could take my time to ensure there aren’t any errors. Since my coworkers and the kids that come to the tutoring center depend on the schedule, I think it is extremely important that the information is accurate. The problem is I’m forced to do this at pace I’m not comfortable with. Every monday I have to rush to get it done on time before we open. I can’t start earlier because I have to wait for the manager to get there at noon to unlock the door. There is also not enough money in the budget to pay me to do this slowly and carefully.
So every week I feel bad whenever there is a scheduling screwup because I know it was partially my fault. I have repeatedly suggested to my manager that she would be better off with someone who could perform the task more efficiently, but instead of listening she keeps insisting I simply magically gain the ability to do it perfectly in under 3 hours :mad:
What part of the task is time-consuming for you, the figuring out of which tutors are available to teach with students when and/or which ones should be assigned to the Tuesday 10 AM slot with Joe Student because that frees up a different tutor who is the only one capable of tutoring Susie Student at 10:45, etc etc?, or is that already done and you just have to update the data entry / make the changes?
What software are you using? (I’m assuming you aren’t doing this with a Sharpie and a big-ass piece of construction paper)
Basically, during week A various families will make changes- some kids will be quitting, others will be starting up, some might be going on vacation/changing schedules, etc. All these changes are penciled into the old schedule, then on monday mornings I go on the company intranet, look up each child’s name in the database and change what times/tables they are assigned to.
The problem is that there are a lot of changes. And looking up a kids name involves entering them in a search engine of sorts, which can take a while (it doesn’t help we have 2 kids with the EXACT same first/middle/last name/grade :smack: ). Sometimes the manager will need the schedule for something, and since we only have 1 copy that has all the changes I need to make, I basically am at a standstill with the task until she returns it to me. Having to deal with telephone calls, computer glitches, and last-minute changes also bogs me down.
When I am done with the schedule, it gets printed out and the manager scans it for errors. Making mistakes is a snowball effect, unfortunately, since every week a considerable amount of time is spent correcting errors I made the previous week, making each progressive schedule take longer.
I’m not trying to be a flake about this task. It is just simply too difficult for me to do it in the timespan of 3 hours without making mistakes or running out of time. And the additional income I make from the extra 3 hours a week is simply not enough to justify the headache anymore; I’d much rather just find a way to save 30 dollars a week somewhere else in my life than put up with this.