Damned Frustrating!

I have been living in Montana for about a year and a half, now. My residence is still in Texas. My house, toys, friends, family, etc. are all still there. That is my home. I am here for work.

We have tried to work out a deal where I would move up here, but it just hasn't worked out (see previous posts).

Regardless of that, one of the agreements (amongst many) for me to be up here working is that I would travel back to TX once a month to have a "down week."

Most of us in the company travel extensively. It is not unusual to have folks racking up 100,000+ flight miles or be on the road for 40+ weeks out of the year. While I am a little more static than others, with being mostly in MT, I am still technically on the road for the company if I am not at home.

The "down week" is not officially defined by our company. The understanding, though, is that folks spend time at home to take care of their affairs and spend time with their family and friends while having some time to decompress from being on the road. This does not mean that you get a week off. You still have to be responsive to emails (in a reasonable time frame), take phone calls, etc. Think of it is a reduced work-week that you get at home.

Personally, I don't have a girlfriend or wife to take care of my house and things for me when I am gone. That may or may not sound like much, but think of all the little things you do to your house or place throughout a month's period of time. You might try to imagine cramming all of that into one week while you are simultaneously working and trying to visit with everyone.

So the whole time I have been working up here I have been fairly lenient with going home. I rarely have made it home once a month. It is usually six to eight weeks before I get home. I have been pushing a little bit harder after the big fiasco that happened several months back...but I digress.

So I have a down week setup at home for the week of 08/07. This is the week after I am taking vacation down in Jamaica. An account manager for our company has a potential gig for me with an important client that also happens to be back in TX. The timing may work out well that I could do the work the same week I am already there, thus not having to incur additional travel expenses for the company, etc. So he and I call my boss and try to figure out a way to make this work for everyone. The only thing I said is that if I am to put in 40-hours that week, plus drive time to and from the site, it isn't a down week and I want another week at home during the month of August.

This did not sit well with my boss and we kind of got into it. I know it frustrates him, but I think that is because he receives pressure from the higher ups. It frustrates me because I feel like the company is not upholding their end of the agreement. Sure, they say one thing, but then expect another. How can you not have conflicts with this type of behavior?

With rare exception it seems like I always have to fight the company for my down time in TX. I do not understand why this has been an ongoing problem for over a year. I really feel like being a dick and just setting up a string of flights that would have me home the first week of every month and telling them tough shit, that was our agreement. But no, I try to help out and be a good employee and the thanks I get is for people to get pissed off at me and tell me that I am not being a team player. Fuck that. See finger picture in post below!

And they wonder why I want a contract to move up here....