On work days, before I start work (so mornings).
I work in a hospital (business office) , and we have had a lot of upheaval in the last year. There was a change in jobs (which also entailed a change of hours for me, from 8-4:30 to 8:30-5–yes, it’s only a half hour, but the half hour is pretty significant to me (an “extra” half hour in the morning does nothing for me, but that half hour in the evening means that my children are frequently having to walk/otherwise fend for themselves vis-a-vis after school activities, dinner is later, etc.) Then we moved to our new facility which is beautiful, but there was some serious idiocy regarding parking. Employees had said we should have a garage, administration said no (“too expensive” said they).
Well, my dept and a few others not involved in direct patient care had made the move a couple weeks before patient move day. WE knew there was a serious parking problem because with the vast majority of employees still at the old facility, we were already out of space in the employee parking lot. We were there for 3 weeks, told administration, but they did nothing.
Patient move day came on a Sunday. On Monday after, it was a disaster. EVERY spot in the lot was full (including patient spots because a lot of them were taken by employees). In order to get a parking spot, I would have to leave early in order to stalk departing 3rd shift employees for their parking spots. In fact, I had to leave at the very same time that I would be leaving if my hours hadn’t changed. And of course, once I got the spot, I was now about 45 minutes early for work.
I was mad, resentful … I hadn’t wanted the hours changed, but got stuck with it because of being low on the totem pole. I didn’t want to spend an extra 45 minutes of unpaid time at the hospital.
But then I talked to my brother in law, and he said, “Oh, you have such an opportunity. I wish I had to go to work 45 minutes early” (He’s self employed–I wasn’t really happy with that.) But by the end of the conversation, I did see that I had an opportunity to fit a rosary into the beginning of my day (in the chapel).
Well, Tuesday after move day, the heavy machines came in to grade some extra parking and throw gravel down (they’re supposed to pave, but I haven’t seen that happen yet in the big lot), and eventually parking was no longer a major issue. But now it’s a habit, so I’m still going in extra early to get my prayer time in.