Work with the available resources you can control

There are two very important concepts on that statement: available and controllable.

Because really . . . what is the point of sweating yourself in trying to find solutions beyond your means and control? Believe me, one can only try so much. All efforts beyond that are totally futile.

To have a more concrete example.

Several days ago, I presented a plan to request for an additional regular full time (RFT) under my team for the simple reason that we have an increased workload (I wanted to just straight-forwardly say that we have been working our assess off and we are tired). Anyway, I have all the figures to show it.

I knew it was a long shot to request for an additional team member. We have been under strict budget compliance for over a year already. I also know for a fact that it is much cheaper to pay for OT than to hire a regular employee (complete with all the benefits). But still, I had a ray of hope that we would be heard . . after all, the numbers show it all. The team is undermanned. When my manager and I were discussing and adjusting the figures, the stats show that if each member of my team render 2 hours of OT each day for 6 months, it is actually plausible not to hire an additional team member. My reaction is what the??? Do you expect people to work extra hours for six months and not get tired? Well of course, I said it in a much, much nicer way. I even pointed out about sustainability. Do we have to tire our people?

Bottomline, after that conversation and several more days after, I asked my manager and just pointed that we could not have that additional person. I did not dare ask if the point was even raised or if it was just trashed straightaway by the higher boss.

Anyway, lesson I learned is to work with the available resources. I can not seem to control the approval of the boss. As much as I tried, the decision has been made. So what now are my available resources? well, obviously . . my team.

As such, I will no longer accept any extra projects for my team. We can only work so much.

Also, I'll look into the possibility of having other people from the two other teams in our department (there 3 teams in our department) to help us during our busiest season (especially that I saw their team schedules and they are never full to the brim).

If I can't have it my way, I have to work around with what I have.