It was my second day on the job and I am still yet to do any chargeable work. What does this mean? I’m working in an engineering consultancy, where every 15 minutes of our day must be accounted for. At the end of each week, we submit timesheets, which detail how many hours we worked on each job. The client is billed for the time we spend doing their work. So if I stop for a fifteen minute chat or spend time organising my desk, it’s costing someone out there!

I admit that when this was first explained to me, it felt weird. But I’ve gotten used to the idea. This is how it was explained to the graduates:

“We are a consultancy. Our product is your labour, your skills, your time. That’s all we have. So to stay in business, we must maximise the amount of time we spend on work for which we can charge clients.”

I don’t have much room to stuff around. As a junior professional, my target chargeability is 95%. So in a 37.5 hour week, I have less than two hours to play with. This target should be achievable because I don’t have any administrative or marketing responsibilities.

I’ve already spent two days (15 hours) in unchargeable induction mode, which would normally mean I need 300 hours of straight work to meet my target. But the people around me aren’t that unreasonable. My boss has cheerfully admitted that this week is a write-off for all of us new graduates.

In many ways, it’s nice being in an environment where everyone is committed to working hard and pulling their weight. I couldn’t in good conscience work inefficiently, knowing that someone is paying $90+ an hour for my junior engineering.

Don’t worry. I expect that as I settle in, I will sneak in some fun time. Timesheets will just have to become, how shall we say it, a bit creative 🙂