I would like to change my work schedule so that I use a legend/key instead of entering numbers for the hours.

For example instead of entering 8 hours for an employee I would like to use the letter 'A' to signify not only the 8 hours but the 'A' is also representative of the building the employee should be at. The bldg info is not included within the employee schedule, it's really just a reference. I've created a table where different letters are equal to a certain number (ie A=8hrs, B=8hrs,...g=12hrs-different bldg's require different hours). Using vlookup I've tried to create a total at the end of each row that will calculate what each value stands for and add it together at the end in a total column. Here is the formula I have but when I use it is not giving me the result I need. Is this even possible, to have a legend whose values correspond to a number and then to create a total column based on the values from the legend? Any help would be greatly appreciated


=VLOOKUP("a,b,c,d,e,f,g,h",G43:H50,2)