About my performance review

I know I'm tired, because I typed the title of this post, and then hit publish. It doesn't need words to be understood. It'll work great.

We're doing a cookout, which I'll talk about later, and I have been awake for... 17 hours now. Slightly fuzzy at this point.

Any-hoo.

I've been due for a performance review (my very first, ever) for about a month now. The deadline is approaching, and my boss mentioned it to me again today. We're both still here for a few more hours, and I asked if he wanted to go ahead and do it now, since I will be out the rest of the week. (Vacation, hallelujah!)

He said we'd just wait until I got back, and he wasn't going to start inputting them into the system we're supposed to use until Friday. He said it was mostly positive anyway, so he wasn't worried about it.

Can you tell what word my brain stalled on? If you guessed 'mostly,' you'd be right. I was trying to puzzle that one out, and figure out where I'd gone wrong, and he continued that he couldn't think of anything negative to put.

Whew. Not that it would be bad to have something to improve on, but I wasn't sure what area that improvement would come from, since I haven't had any feedback suggesting otherwise.

There's a worry solved, at least.

And I think that's all for me today, because when I'm this tired, my brain starts to spiral off in truly strange directions. For example, I'm proof reading this before I hit publish for the version with the words in, and all of a sudden, my brain decides to inform me that heffalump is a weird word.

Ok then. 

A question for the audience

Is 10:40 on a Monday morning too early to turn to drink? Asking for myself.

It's a small town

The lady from the local newspaper just called me (not the paper I worked for) and asked for Marvin's hire date. I was really confused, because I wasn't sure what that had to do with anything.

She then said it was for [Retirement Company] which was even weirder.

Then I remembered that her husband, also named Marvin, works here.

She's also apparently my neighbor.

It's a very, very small town.

Dumber than an box of rocks

I am going to say some not very nice things about someone, but this is all anonymous, and I'm sorry, but it's true.

It's also the same employee as this post, which will probably surprise no one.

I am in charge of the badge software that lets people in the doors. I now have a badge printer, and I make new ones on site, instead of sending off for them. They are standard RFID badges. My conversation(s) with this employee went something like this.

Employee: I need a new badge, mine has quit working.
Bee's: Ok. I need to get your picture so I can print you a new one. I don't have time right now, but I will get it for you sometime this afternoon.
EE: how long do they take to come in?
B: I print them on site now.
EE: Oh, ok.

Later that afternoon -
EE: Do you know when my new badge will be here?
B: I have to take your picture first. I print them here.
EE: Oh. I don't have time for you to take my picture right now, I'm about to leave. 

The next day -
EE: Is my badge coming in soon?
B: [Internal screaming] Let me take your picture and I will get it for you right now. I print them here.
EE: Oh, you do? I didn't know that. You know, they only last about six months. Then the little numbers start to come off the back and they quit working.
B: [Not sure why I'm trying, but why not] No, there's actually a computer chip in them. You probably just brush up against a magnet or something.
EE: It doesn't scan the numbers?
B: [You mean where there is no scanner on the door or barcode to scan?] Nope. It doesn't.
EE: What about that.

Not resorting to physical violence

After my barely coherent midnight ramblings in this post, I drove the half an hour back to work. It was cranking on one in the morning, I had worked all day Friday, and I was tired. The kind of tired where you turn the radio and the air conditioning both up, because you don't want to fall asleep tired. The maybe you shouldn't be driving tired.

I am proud of myself though. When the twerp at the restaurant told me I would have to wait until the next day to order for the next day, even though I was standing right there, did I smash his head into the countertop? I did not. I also didn't get to say what I would have had I been a little more with it, which is, "I would like to order now." Instead, I got to make sure I ordered on Saturday for the nasty smelly food that I can't seem to cleanse from the air in my car.

When I finally got back to work, I loaded it all onto a cart and rolled it back to the department on third shift. Who had all been to sleep fairly recently. The supervisor, Ephraim, came in, and politely asked if I was going to stay and eat. I said no, that I wanted to go home and get to bed. I then made an offhand comment about getting to do that twice tomorrow.

Well. Then Ephraim just grinned, and very sarcastically said, "Yeah, your job is so hard." And did I punch him in the throat? No. I just smiled, told them to enjoy their food, and left.

That just, as we Southerners say, burns my biscuits. Am I out on the floor working? No. And they work hard out there, I won't argue with that. But I work hard too, and just because I'm not out on the floor doesn't mean I'm not working. Also, they all make easily twice what I do. The supervisor probably makes 2.5 times more than me. And I work longer hours than he does. It made me so mad I could have spit.

From my house, to the restaurant, to work, back to my house is a two hour round trip. And I did it three times with no complaint to anyone except my mother, who doesn't count.

When I got back to my office, I did give myself thirty seconds to contemplate quitting my job. It was late, and no one was in the office. I thought about what belongs to me personally in my office (shockingly little) and how long it would take to get to my car (not long at all). I have a key to my boss's office, so I thought I could just write down my passwords and a couple of other relevant pieces of information. Leave my keys and my ID badge on the desk. And just peace out. No one would know until Monday. My boss would have been at my door, but I didn't plan that far. It was a very pleasant thirty seconds.

Then I went home, got some sleep, and turned around and made two more trips to get food, both of which were less eventful than the first. I even had two whole people (one per crew) say thank you. I feel so appreciated.

I'm sorry, what?

One of the janitors just went past my office with what I am fairly certain was a false mustache on his face. That is all.

They don't pay me enough for this

It is 12:08 a.m. and I am in the parking lot of a restaurant chain that sells wings and is open at this forsaken hour.

I overestimated how long it would take me to get here from home, where I should be now. Instead of out on Friday the 13th with a full moon. Oh, it isn't Friday anymore. Its Saturday. Because I am out late to pick up food for people that will be mad I did not get enough sauces. I am not supposed to pick up the food till 12:30, so it's the parking lot for me. The restaurant smells weird.

They don't pay me enough for this. If I could've paid over the phone, I wouldn't be in this mess. Someone who makes three times what I make could have come instead. But no. Let's drag Bees out of bed to do it. Great plan. I wasn't in bed, because I know me, and I would not have gotten back up. 

This is a little more... frank than I usually am, but it is late and I am tired.

Don't threaten me with a good time

I had a supervisor, Frank, come into my office (while I am in the middle of payroll) and tell me that half his crew is getting ready to quit. Morale is terrible.

Ok.

I'm not sure what he wants me to do about it. I did not yell at him, but I did get a little more forceful than I normally do, because stuff like this makes me hateful. I told him there's nothing I can do about it, and they're going to do what they think is best for them. It's mostly talk, but I will not be held hostage by a bunch of man babies who are upset they have to work a little overtime. No, it isn't ideal, but we are paying them very, very well for their troubles. And I'm keeping them in meals and snacks.

If they're going to quit, then quit. Fine. I will replace them and be happy to do it. Will it cause some trouble and disruption? Yes. Do I want them to quit? Of course not. But we are not going to play this game.

I will not be threatened.

This job is going to drive me to drink.

Go get me a switch

The last couple of weeks have been so, so crazy friends. This actually happened a couple of days after the events in this post, but I'm just now getting a chance to tell y'all about it. Strap in.

Let me start at the beginning. One thing that I didn't mention in that post was that my boss, Marvin, was out of town that week. So I was handling the cookout all on my own, which was fine. We'd planned for it. At several points in the week, I did get a profound sense that oh, this must be what it feels like to have children. I about told several people to go outside and get me a switch. (For those not from the South, that means a small branch to spank with.)

I wanted to do something nice for Department B, because by that time they'd been working almost a month without a day off. They'd cycled through the local restaurant offerings, and I thought about what is easily scale-able for a bunch of people, and volunteered myself to make bacon and pancakes. I've done it for a crowd before, but never by myself. How hard could it be?

Well. So I call up the grocery store the day before and warn them that I'm coming. I then proceed to purchase 100 lbs. of bacon. (That's 45.3 kg for my non American friends.) Its a lot. The checkout guy's face when I showed up with an entire buggy of bacon was something. 

So anyway, I get everything back to work, go to dinner, and decide that I don't have enough time between 10 p.m. and 1 a.m. to take a nap. I head into work at one and get started. 

This is the part where you will know if you know me in real life, because I have told this part of the story to many people. Everything on the internet said you could cook a pan of bacon for 15 to 20 minutes at 400 degrees (204 C) and it would be done. Well. The oven in the breakroom doesn't work that way. I had to crank it up to 550 degrees, and it still took 45 minutes to get one pan of bacon done. That's not a lot, especially when you're feeding about 20 people a round. I also had trouble getting the griddles for the pancakes to stay on, because I kept tripping the power strip. I finally just pushed the meal back by an hour and a half, because I wanted it to be ready. I will not do that by myself again.

Anyway, at this point it's like 4 a.m. I do not have makeup on, and I have been awake for about 20 hours. One of the supervisors asked me, completely serious, if I had been out in the sun. No, sir, that's just what my face looks like. Also, I've been running around for three hours like a chicken with my head cut off.

That meal went more or less ok, as did the others that followed. After the somewhat disastrous first attempt, I took the rest of the bacon home to cook. It worked much better, even if the house did smell like bacon grease for two solid weeks.

However. I do have some complaints about the way in which these men complimented me. Did they say, "Hey Bees, this is good, thank you." Well, some of them did. But I had not one, not two, not three, but FOUR SEPARATE PEOPLE over the three meals tell me that my cooking would make me good wife material. Thank you? If they thought I was offended by this, they would be horrified, but it's offensive. Why can't they just say thank you? If I was a man, nothing would be said about my marriageability based on cooking. It would just be, hey man, this is good. Sometimes, working in a male dominated industry is terrible.

And now, what everyone really wanted to hear about. One of the supervisors (!!!) told me that if the food was any good, he'd have to hurry his divorce along so he could marry me instead. He is easily twice my age, and a very, very strange man. Not sure on what world he thought it would be ok to say that to someone, especially someone my age. I think at that point (when I had also been awake for probably 30 hours) my brain just shorted out.

No thank you. I shudder just thinking about it. No. Just no.

*Walks out of the room, then comes back wagging finger*
And another thing!

I have been proposed to over food before, but it was for my triple chocolate cupcakes, from someone roughly my age, and those deserved it. Bacon and pancake mix (from a box) most certainly did not rise to that level.

My favorite thing

About a month ago, the guy in the stockroom forgot to order some supplies I asked for. It wasn't a big deal, but he and I give each other a hard time, so I acted like it was a big deal.

I called and asked if my stuff had come in, and he said I hadn't ordered anything. I had, two weeks before, and he missed the email. Again, it wasn't anything urgent, and he had it here the next day.

However. I go on lots of trips to the grocery store for snacks, and we have lunch for the salaried staff/visitors about twice a month. It's hard to get that stuff down the hallway, let alone across a very large plant.

I told him (and I do believe I've forgotten to give him a name) that if he wanted to make it up to me, I was going to need a cart. Just a little three shelf thing.

Y'all. I have used that thing literally every day. Whether it's for extra desk space while I'm sorting papers, or taking snacks back to Department B, I find some way to use it. It's a lifesaver. Highly recommend.

It's maddening

Just had a conversation with an employee who asked about how much vacation time he has left.

Me: Did you take any vacation in July?

EE: No, I haven't taken any in a while.

I start to pull up the spreadsheet, because I get to track all our vacation manually right now.

EE: I took some in July when we were off for the shutdown.

I am proud to report that I did not bang my head against the keyboard.

Don't give me that sass

So there is a distinct divide between the two departments at work. The perception that Department B gets treated better than A is not always untrue, which doesn't help morale. Which is in the toilet. But that's another post.

Anyway, the employees in B have been having to work weekends lately. Not optional. I have been doing my best to make it as nice as I can, and giving them perks like bringing in food and snacks.

However. The employees in A don't realize that B gets the extras because they have to be here 60+ hours a week. Well, they do, but they choose not to recognize it.

Anyway, A had to work a couple of shifts this Saturday. (Which is where I am right now, actually. And I'll be here Sunday. Yay) I was taking some snacks back to B on the cart I made the guy in the stockroom give me, which is my favorite thing. (Also another post) I had someone stop me and ask slightly snottily where their snacks were. He was fully expecting me to say that everything I had was for B. And everything on the cart was. But. I asked if he was working this weekend, and he said yes, slightly dejectedly. I told him their half was in my office, and we'd be having pizza for lunch. He looked dumbfounded.

I'm going to make everything as equal as possible, and I take great pleasure in throwing people's assumptions back in their faces. It's a win win.

The shadiest

Oh my word. Friends.

I have joked about this before on the AAM open thread, but I've decided it's true. The Hellmouth has moved, and it's moved here.

My work is like a circus. But not a normal, fun, accredited one. No. It's a shady, fly by night kind of circus. Where they still have tigers and stuff, and all the clowns look like criminals, and the people manning the rides look like they could disappear in a puff of smoke at any moment.

Everyone is so stressed, and I'm trying to manage it with snacks, but we've got people working weekends, and they are not happy about it. They've worked every Saturday since the week after the 4th of July, and have only had the last two Sundays off. They're working this Sunday though. Our corporate overlords are trying to make some greatly unwelcome changes.

It's not good. And if this one little pompous upstart VP doesn't come swanning into my office with all these "great ideas" to improve moral, I'm going to hammer him through the concrete floor and into the dirt. Yesterday he comes in at 10:30 and wants lunch for 25 people. At 11. We are in a small town. Most of the places I get us lunch from I give at least 24 hr notice to. Sometimes more. We had lunch at 12. I headed him off today, I just went ahead and called yesterday on the off chance he'd want food today. Bless his heart, he thinks I was able to get a full course Italian meal here in like an hour.

I still have to tell y'all about when I worked the overnight a couple of weeks ago. Here's a teaser for you, it involves a creepy marriage proposal. Yay.

At least there's overtime

So. I was scrolling through my phone, and passed calendar. Then I had to stop and go back. How did it get to be the 29th already? This week just flew by, and so did the month. I must have been in more of a daze then I thought.

Or. Possibly, I just hit that day at one point when swiping past it, and that's why its highlighted. Just possibly.

In my defense, I have worked the last two Saturdays. Last Saturday for about 6 hours, starting at 7 a.m., helping to clean one of the lines. (And I have a story about that for later) And the Saturday before that, I was awake for like 40 hours straight and fed everyone breakfast. Which I can't remember if I told y'all about or not. I will check.

But anyway. I am in a constant state of tired. Maybe it will slow down soon.

Ha.

What a day, what a night

Whew. Two doozies for you today. 

Our QA Manager, Speedy, is a hurricane. If I thought switching him to decaf would help, I would. He's been having some health issues, and is a chronic oversharer. They don't know exactly what's wrong with him, and they're running all sorts of tests. His office is right across from mine, and he often comes in to "check in" and tell me all about what's going on. I don't mind because frankly, I often don't listen, and am responding to emails while repeating "hmm" and "wow" at regular intervals. So he tells me they know it isn't TB, because they had him and his wife tested. (!) Then I zoned out, answered some emails, etc. 

Well. Friends, if you're ever in need of a couple of words that will make someone pay attention REAL FAST, I've got the combo for you. CDC watchlist. Doesn't matter what you're doing, you hear someone start talking about a CDC watchlist, and how they might be put on it,(!!!) you are focused. He is not, apparently, currently on the CDC's most wanted, but I'm still planning on putting him in a bubble. And is it rude to just go ahead and spray lysol directly into someone's mouth?

We had a cookout this week, and to do that, we fed all three shifts. One at 3 a.m., one at noon, and the last at 7 p.m. I came in to work at 2 a.m., after working a full day on Tuesday, and stayed straight through. So I was pretty tired by the time the afternoon rolled around. We're having trouble with one of our departments, and the new spout maker they're installing, so one of the VPs is freaking out and suggesting things that on the surface seem helpful, but are actually very impractical and unusable for various safety reasons. Anyway, he emails in a panic, and despite the fact that he name checked me twice in the email, he did not include me on it. I'm in charge of snacks. I was also, in the email, offered an intern to help with snack runs. I talked some big talk about how I could go to the store by myself, and if I couldn't, what was I doing with this job. I mentioned it to the intern's manager, and he said I couldn't have one of his interns. I repeated, several times, that I didn't need an intern.Well. I had to go to Food City anyway, because of the cookout, so I decided to go ahead and get snacks. I asked the managers that have to work over the weekend if there was anything specific they wanted, and two of them gave me the names of energy drinks. By this time, I had been awake for 16 hours, and working on 4 hours of sleep, so I was getting a little fuzzy around the edges. That's how I found myself in the energy drink isle of Food City, talking to myself. Out loud. Trying to figure out which drink was which flavor. It was not my finest moment. Shortly after that, I conscripted the manager, because my buggy was full, and made him help me. But yes. Talking to myself in the Food City. Not my finest moment.

I get to do the overnight thing again tonight through tomorrow, but I'm going home to sleep in between this time. We don't need a repeat. And let's all be thankful that none of the VPs are currently here, because when I'm tired enough to talk to myself  without really noticing that I am speaking out loud,  my filter is pretty much gone.

It never ends

So I posted on AAM's Friday open thread a preview for this week – a fire, sexual harassment, possible unwanted job changes, four different visits from vendors, and not one, not two, but three actual, literal temper tantrums.

It is now Wednesday. I cannot remember what last week caught on fire. That's bad, isn't it?

In my defense, it is currently a little before 7 a.m., and I have been at work since 2 a.m. We're having a cookout, and because I'm trying to be good at my job, I was here for the 3rd shift feed. I'm going to take just a moment to rant, and say that of the four of us that came in to work this morning, I was the only one at work after 4 p.m. yesterday, and I will be the only one working tomorrow. Ugh.

Up next, we have sexual harassment. As I've mentioned before, we have maybe a dozen women here, including myself and other salaried staff. We also have a zero tolerance policy for harassment of any kind. That didn't stop one guy. Two different girls got to work overtime, because they had the required skills for the job. He does not. One of the girls brushed it under the rug, and refused to confirm or deny anything, which means it turns into a he said/she said. Which is super unfortunate and annoying, because what he said amounted to what were the girls in question doing to who to get overtime. Now personally, I probably would have punched him. And the girl who did come forward almost did. She was angry, and rightfully so. Best we can do is keep an eye on the situation.

As for the unwanted job changes - I overheard our controller talking to my boss one day, and saying that they might make me do some of the file clerking stuff, like handling the invoices. I do not want to do that. I don't like doing that kind of work, and I have more than enough of my own to keep me busy. In addition, I took a pay cut recently (allegedly temporary) and don't want to add more work on when they didn't take any away.

And of course, the temper tantrums. One was from Marvin, who was upset about an untrue rumor that was spreading around the plant. One of the managers, Nori, brought it to his attention, and Marvin politely asked me to leave his office. That means it's going to be bad, and he's going to say some things he doesn't want me to hear. I kind of wish I had a photo of the Nori's face. It was like "I regret ever even opening my mouth." I got the door closed behind me and about two feet down the hallway when I heard the cuss words start flying. I happily went back to my office, where it was much calmer. Not by a lot, but some. At this point I'll take what I can get.

The other two temper tantrums were from the same guy. He's upset that we no longer have a pension program, and likes to gripe about it frequently. He also doesn't super understand how 401ks work, but he has a loan. (Don't ever get one. Trust me.) We had some bumps, and the company that hosts our 401k program, X, is telling him that he owes money. He tells me how much they say he owes. Then says nothing else. It's like, dude. I have literally nothing to do with that, and we are not going to pay money that you owe to a creditor. I can check and make sure that your payments are going from us to them, but that is all I can do for you. So we'll see. With him, somehow it will end up being my fault.

The sun is finally starting to come up, and people are arriving, which means it's way less likely that I'm going to fall asleep at my desk. Not absolutely, but it's better.

Thanks, but no

Had a guy come in for an interview. He was very animated, and a little long-winded. Fine, whatever. He’s probably nervous. Super qualified, and the interview goes well. I gave him my card, and Marvin’s. He emails that night to thank us, which was nice. Not so nice, he attaches his resume again, and the thank you is the first paragraph. The next 10 paragraphs of 500 or so words is him restating everything that we talked about, and everything on his resume. It included not one, but two (!) bullet point lists. He’s eager. A little much, but he’s really qualified, so we will look past it. My boss emails back, because that is the polite thing to do, and tells him he will hear back from us in the next week or so. That was Thursday. 

Tuesday, he emails again, and it is what amounts to a manifesto. A short excerpt – “Too be honest....shortly after our meeting, I was elated and have felt since then, the urgency to research all my notes about numerous solutions and future opportunities which I would like the chance to put in practice with You to enable us to become a valuable asset to this company from this moment forward... [the ellipses are his, and he had a super long paragraph break here] Since our initial meeting, I have continuously felt drawn to the idea of being part of your outstanding culture diversity and core values that you share @ the [company name].”

I realized what bothers me about it, and it’s that the entire thing reads like a scam letter. Act now, or you will lose out on the 27 million dollars being held in a trust! It did, however, only include one bullet point list. Despite the fact that this dude is very qualified, there are more red flags here than a bull fighting contest. There’s such a thing as too much, and he is it. If you hadn’t heard anything, I could see reaching out after a week was up, just to check in. But he had, and if he’s this high maintenance and over the top in the interview process, I don’t really want to know what he’s like to work with.

The flying monkeys doth descend

We're having a big meeting at work this week, and in preparation, several VPs arrived Monday. We're expecting about 30 people, in meetings all week. That's in addition to everything else we have going on. I've been up just before 5 the last two mornings, both because there are both VPs and VIPs there, and to supervise a training. I only had to sit through the whole thing once, thankfully, because it's two hours long.

I'm giving a training on the new payroll system to the supervisors sometime later this week. I did one last week, but a lot of people were out on vacation. It was interesting. Several of our supervisors are... seasoned, and honestly, set in their ways. They do not like the new payroll system, and take every possible opportunity to tell me so. It's like, I get that you don't like it. But this is what we are using now. I did not pick it. Time to move on.

I had one supervisor in particular, who is especially resistant to change, and computers, who was mad that some of the programming was off. Some of the other supervisors had slightly more functionality than him. It's an easy fix, if I can ever find the time to get to it. But he's mad because he has the most seniority among his department as far as supervisors go, and his functionality is different. I'm sorry, what does that have to do with anything? At all?

My boss Marvin, as I may have mentioned before, is a fairly short man. He's used to it (obviously) and has a fairly good sense of humor about it. One of the mechanics saw him walking down the hallway. He then passed on a message through Bombur, that was that Marvin walking through the hall this morning, or was someone crawling? I was glad I didn't have my drink handy, because it would have been spewed all over my desk.

Friday, woo!

It is Friday, and I am glad.

This week has been a long one, y'all. Not just because it's the first full week I've worked in three weeks, but we had a lot of stuff going on.

We've had some issues with the new payroll system. It could have been much worse, and honestly, I thought for sure it would be. That hasn't been fun, and I'm having so much more trouble getting things fixed than I should. It's a too many cooks situation. 

Yesterday was super not fun. I am pretty sure that now that our friend Hellmouth is no longer in the Hellmouth, the energy has dissipated to other places. One of them is here. I had to fix some payroll issues, deal with a cranky boss, feed what was supposed to be 50 but turned out to be 65 people, take some unexpected conference calls, and go get a... toothpaste from my doctor, because people don't give their hobgoblins toothpaste, and they spread lollipops. And I don't want to die from a preventable... cavity. And if you think I'm talking about something else, I'm sure you're mistaken.

Our local Italian place also lied to me. They say their trays can feed 18 to 20 people. Really, it's like 15 maybe if those people are full grown and hungry men. So I'm pretty sure we ran out of food. I'm not sure, because I had to leave to go get on a conference call that I was told started at 12:30. I dialed in, and greeted the other participants, who were surprised I was there. Our call started at 1:00. I hung up and did not mention it when it was our turn. 

I'm very glad to have the weekend off. I've been super tired lately, the kind where you could cry at the smallest upset. Yesterday was so bad I pulled up the Georgia Aquarium webcam and did some deep breathing. I think I need some time off. 

I have some exciting things coming up in the next couple of months, and I'm excited to talk about it. I'm not yet, because nothing is definite until it is, but it's looking really good. Really expensive also, but good. 

Hope everyone has a lovely weekend, full of rest.

P.S. Thanks to everyone who recommended dress pants with actual pockets in the open thread a couple of weeks ago. I got some from Banana Republic, and I could fit my whole hand just past my wrist in there!

In need of naps

Ugh. So I came to work on Monday after four hours of sleep. Monday night I clocked about 8. I came into work this morning at 2:15. We're having a cookout, and needed to feed the night shift. I went home early yesterday afternoon and got about six hours, but I'm not looking forward to the next ten hours.

I think I'll be fine till about lunch time, but after that, all bets are off. We have another feeding at lunch, and then again a little after 6 this evening. Then I'm home free. To sleep for the next couple of days. Ha! That's wishful thinking, but I'm going to remain in my sleepy delusions a little while longer.

We rolled out our new payroll system this week, and no one here has particularly high hopes for it. I did about six hours of reconciliation yesterday between what the new system wants to pay and what the old one would have. It's not pretty. There's a lot of stuff to be worked over. And since it's with people's pay, there's not a lot of them who are particularly understanding when it comes to timelines to fix stuff. Which I get, but some people get downright nasty about it.

I think I'm going to break and make myself some coffee. Then pull a loony toons and prop my eyelids open with toothpicks. I'll let y'all know how that turns out.

I think I'm awake

My flight back from vacation landed at about midnight last night. It was another two hours home after that. Then getting everything inside, shower the plane off, and bed. So about 3 a.m. Then up to get ready for work at 6 a.m. I am not bright eyed and bushy tailed by any means on a good day, but today... whew.

And to top it all off, today's the day we go live with our new payroll system. For real, no backsies. I know it isn't going to be right, the question is how wro g it's going to be. There's going to be some mad people when paystubs hit Thursday. I'll head off what I can when I get the register tomorrow, but it's a short week with the holiday, so people's hours are a little off.

And oh, happy thought. We won't be here Thursday. Or Friday. So that means next Monday will be double not fun, but hey. Don't borrow trouble and all that.

Woo hoo

Vacation here I come!!!

I'm actually writing this on the plane on the way to my first vacation in several years. I am not a huge fan of flying, and forgot to bring headphones.

I did bring a book, thank goodness, but I wish I could listen to music.

We go live for real with our new payroll system next week, so I'm really glad to get a couple of days to myself. Even if they were unintentionally scheduled to one of the busiest weeks I've had all year.

It'll be back to work hit the ground running on Monday though. It can take it's time getting here.

I am already tired

First payroll on the new system today.

I am not a morning person. You need me to stay up till 3 for some reason? No problem. You want me to get up at 3? 4?5? Best of luck to you.

This morning, for example, I was up shortly before 5. And wishing for the sweet release of death shortly after.

I'm cold, and tired, and my eyes are gluey.

But payroll must be run, and with a noon deadline, my amount of time I have to do it is really only flexible one way.

If this doesn't make sense, it's not my fault. Mostly asleep Bees is a different person than awake one. And if you want a prime example of that,  I typed my real name after asleep and couldn't figure out why it looked weird.

My candy bucket for a nap.

Fires and fake pockets

From flaming dumpsters to actual fires. The fire alarm went off the other day. I was in Marvin’s office giving him an update on the never ending project I’m working on, when an announcement came over the PA system. “Fire, evacuate immediately.” He looked at me and goes, “Grab your stuff, it’s time to go.”

I went down the hall to Bofur’s office, and he was already on the phone, trying to figure out if it was a false alarm.

Thankfully, it was, and someone had just hit the wrong button on the control pad. It added ‘update emergency preparedness plan’ to my schedule, because if it had been a real fire, everyone would have been in deep doo.

That’s also the fastest I’ve seen some people move, coming out of offices to see if it was a real fire, and if it was time to head out.

That’s about the most exciting thing that’s happened this week, other than me fussing at a guy for making fun of my fanny pack.

It isn’t stylish, and I feel like a dweeb wearing it. As any female knows, pockets are a problem, or rather, the lack thereof.

[Insert photo set here of Leslie Knope talking to Ben about pockets. I can’t do that on my phone, so you’ll just have to picture it.]

To make up for the fact that’s my work pants either don’t have pockets at all, or are so small you could fit a quarter and a half a stick of gum in them, I got a fanny pack to compensate.

That way, when I go out on the floor, I have somewhere to put my phone, my watch, some sticky notes and pens, and a couple of tissues. If I’m just running out there real quick, I don’t take it, but otherwise, I do.

Anyway, Dori took it upon himself to comment on it. I’ve had and used it for a couple of months, and he is the first to do so, to my face, anyway. I told him I was rocking it, and then showed him the fake pocket situation I was working with yesterday.

He then agreed that it was a good idea, and that fake pockets are stupid. Mission accomplished.

Headless chicken in a flaming dumpster

Y'all. I need a vacation. 

I don't even know what I do all day. Really. 

I go in, work for a while, then its suddenly almost four and I haven't had lunch, and wonder why I'm so hateful. Hangry is real. 

I really like my job, I do. But dang. I keep thinking eventually I'll hit a rhythm. I think that rhythm has been hit, and unfortunately, it's the tune of one of those super fast songs they play at Zumba. (I think. I took one Zumba class in college, and that was enough. No thank you.)

There are many, many times that I feel like I'm running around like a crazy person. I try not to be a hand holder, because that's not my job. But sometimes, I feel like my job is to herd cats. Or kindergartners on a massive sugar high. 

I'll be working on something at my desk, then my boss will ask for something. While I'm working on that, someone will come in with a pay or benefits question. Then the phone will ring. Oh, the phone. I think other people are allergic to answering it.Then someone with far more schooling than me (and possibly with engineer in their title) will need help figuring out how the printer works. And at least once a week, a salesperson without an appointment shows up and tries to sell us something, and I get to run them off. It's like I'm my job, tech support, house mom, and gatekeeper all at once. And like I said, I love my job. But the attitude of 'I need this right now' is what gets to me. There are two people in the building that get to ask that of me, and they are the two that least often do.

On Monday, I had received 64 emails by 10:45. By the time I left a little before 5, I had 132.

The company I work for is going through some restructuring, which only adds to the madness. This week, we finally officially transition to the new payroll system they said we were going to be on in March. When paystubs hit tomorrow, it's going to get crazy. I'm not looking forward to it. People have a hard time being patient and understanding sometimes. I agree that they need to be paid what they are owed, but dang. I'm doing the best I can. If it was my fault, I would take responsibility for it, but there are limited things I can do to make it better right away. I don't have that much pull. If I did, I would get paid more. 

There's a guy who keeps accusing 'me' of stealing his pension. Not me specifically, but the company, and he's talking to me when he says it. Our company did away with the pension program, and people are not happy about it. I told Boss and Grand Boss that if I had stolen his pension, like actually taken it for myself, I wouldn't be at work. I would be on an island somewhere they don't extradite to the United States with my feet propped up. However, I did not have anything to do with the pension program, so I guess it's off to work for me. 

Except next week, cause I actually am going on vacation, and I'm super excited. I haven't been on vacation in.... four years? It's been a while. I got vacation when I was at the paper, but I didn't have any money, because I was working at the paper. So I just took the week or whatever it was off, and hung out around the house. Which was relaxing, but I'm excited to be able to go somewhere. I'm going to the beach, and when I told my boss I'd like off to go to the beach, he said no. I was about two seconds away from going, "Excuse me?" when he told me I didn't need to go anywhere near the beach because I'm so pale. Which is true. I told him I was more going shopping near a beach. This time next week I'll be gearing up to go! And them come back to mountains of work. Yay. 

Abuse of power

Bonus post, yay! It would be longer, but 4 a.m. comes very early. It hurts to think about.

So last week, we had training and meetings going on. It's part of my job to bring in lunches when the situation calls for it. Friday, I did not feel like packing my lunch. I knew this on Thursday. I was feeling lazy in advance. So I sat there, and thought to myself what reasoning I could come up with to bring in lunch on Friday. I came up with something, cleared it with my boss, and ordered from a local restaurant that's been a hit before, and that I like, and that delivers (a definite plus).

People went wild. They were all so excited, you'd think I hadn't brought in food twice that week already. They all said thank you so much, and that I'd done such a great job. A couple of people went almost over the top with their praise. I had to try not to giggle. I called the restaurant. Ordered what I wanted. Paid over the phone. Opened the door for the guy when he came to deliver. Took the lids off stuff and sat out utensils. Ate. That's it. I didn't mind the thanks, at all. It was just super funny to me that I was doing it for entirely selfish reasons, and people thought I was so nice for it.

My evil plan is working.

The delicate flower what's her name

Had a guy come up to ask a question. I could see him, but he couldn’t see me. He asked to see Boss, who was out that day. He says, “Oh, well where’s….. that girl?” Alrighty then. Never mind that I’ve been here six months. It’s shocking how often people don’t use my name. Just now a guy walked up to my office, and asked someone else if “she” is here. Just take two more steps forward. I’m right here at my desk. My name is not hard to remember or pronounce, and I am not Voldemort. I am the only one with my name in the building. Not that hard.

I don't necessarily mind when people call me nicknames, or even pet names. I live in the South, (and it sounds better if you exaggerate the accent on south) so it's something I'm used to, and everyone that does it is always very respectful. It's not rare that I go through a day with a few dears, the occasional sweetheart or hon, and one guy calls me pretty lady. These people are almost all my father's age or older, and I think half of them feel like I'm their kid, because I'm the same age as their children.

What I do have a problem with, though, is the what's her names, the "that girl"s, and the she/her. I have a name, it's there for you to use. If you forget for some reason, you can glance at my business cards that are right there on the desk in front of you.

Some days, I'm not sure the guy across the hall knows my name. Logically, I'm sure he does. I share a name with one of his daughters. He often calls me sunshine, which is nice. I am the age of his daughters, so it's not weird. However. He's called me the wrong name twice now. He keeps calling me Carrie. My name is not Carrie. There is a Carrie that comes sometimes. She and I look nothing alike. At all. The first time, he kept talking and made his way into my office. Which was good. Cause I was wondering if Carrie had come in and I missed it. The second time, I just ignored it, and he sorted himself out. I don't think he knows that he's called me by the wrong name. 

One possible consequence of people feeling sort of like I'm everyone's kid (I'm well into my mid 20's but have been reliably informed by at least two seperate people on seperate occasions that I look about 17) is that they feel like I'm delicate. I don't mind people doing things for me, opening doors, offering to carry obviously heavy packages, all helpful. Where it turns, though, is when they take it too far.  

For example, one day shortly after I started, there was a little puddle of grease in the hallway. It was about the size if my hand, a different color than the floor, and in the middle. Someone came through to wipe it up, which I appreciated, but his reasoning was that he didn't want me to trip.

Another time, I was borrowing a cart from the stockroom. It was empty. The guy that works in the stockroom told one of the mechanics that I needed help pushing it up to the front. The guy immediately agreed. Which was nice, but super unnecessary. 

Last week, I was bent over at the waist to cut one of those ties off a box of paper. Not to pick it up. Just to snip that tie thing, whatever it's called. My boss came through and told me to be careful, I was going to hurt myself. Like, what? I'm sorry. If I hurt myself by bending over, I think I need to just go straight to the hospital. I'm not 80. I mean, I act like it sometimes, but still. I was fine.




P.S.
I finally got around to picking names for my coworkers, and you can find that page labeled The Cast by clicking the hyperlink, and also in the menu on the right. I finished it after I wrote this week's posts, so I'll start using those names Friday and going forward.

What is normal, anyway?

I've thought all this year that I'd have more free time when X happens. When I finally got a boss, when we switched to a new timekeeping system, when this or that happens. I thought everything would even out and I'd have a "normal" workday.

That hasn't happened yet. I hit six months at this job in two weeks, and it feels like it's been at least a year. I  feel like I've hardly paused for breath. I think that's been evident in how often I've been posting and the kind of content I've shared.

It was easy to post at the paper. There was always stuff going on to write about, but the cast was small and predictable. Here though, there's a lot I can't share. Partially because, being in HR, there's confidential material I'm dealing with. There's other stuff that's just too specific, and wouldn't make sense to people outside the building. The people are different. I see more people, and they're focused on their jobs. We don't share a lot about our personal lives. Both because they're professionals, unlike some others I've worked with in the past, and they have their lives, at least on the outside, more or less together.

I'm not going anywhere, because I really enjoy doing this. I miss it the weeks I can't get a post out. I need to take the time to do more things like this, because I really do love it. I've had some health issues recently, nothing too serious, but it's making the little time I have off all the more precious. I'm hopeful that I'll have a resolution soon, and start feeling better.

My living situation is also hopefully about to change, not necessarily for the better, because I love where I'm living now, but it's time for a change. When it does, I'll be taking a vacation from work for a week to get the move sorted out, because I am not dealing with that and work at the same time. No thank you.

I'm working on a way to label my coworkers similarly to how I did for the people at the paper, so I can include more details in my posts, instead of this person said this. The entire place is full of stories, I just need to figure out how to tell them.

Unsupervised

So y'all. This week is my chance. Boss is going to be out of town starting tomorrow, and there's like five or six people out at various times the rest of the week. Who knows what kind of trouble I can get myself into.

Of course, when I told my boss this, the best example I could come up with was to sit in my office with the door locked and eat an entire cake by myself.

Not the best, I imagine. Also, I couldn't actually do that, because even if it wouldn't wreak havoc with my blood sugar, I dont know that I could finish a whole cake by myself in one sitting. Like three cupcakes though, I could do. But that just seems sad.

Finally Friday

Whew. What a week, y'all.

I think the investigation of the crack pipe continues today, Boss was out yesterday, and I was not going to handle that in his absence.

I just spent half an hour looking for a rolling box that one of the contractors left here last week. You don't realize how big a plant is until you're looking for a one by two box. It's big. I finally found it, and it wasn't a box, it was a cart. There's a difference, especially when you're shaking down supervisors to see who's seen it.

I have now injured/poisoned two people with the candy tub in my office. The first person was eating cinnamon candies, and wondering why they had sores in their mouth. A week in, they remembered they were allergic to cinnamon. And there's these gross taffy like things in there, I didn't think anyone actually ate them. One of the managers did. And then heard/felt a crunch. Pulled out the candy, and the crown came with it. So that's fun.

It's Friday though. Hallelujah.

Alrighty then

I'm still here, I promise. It's been an absolutely wild few weeks at work, yet I'm not entirely sure where my days go.

Anyway, a couple of highlights.

Yesterday, one of the supervisors was worried that he had offended me. He got called to the big boss's office for something, so he walked past my office without saying hello. He stopped back by when he was finished to let me know that he was not ignoring me. I did not think my feelings were that delicate.

And last night, someone did drugs in one of the bathrooms. We don't even know what it is. Someone brought what I'm assuming is a crack pipe to the office this morning after they found it. So that's fun.

In a late breaking update, our quality manager got in a fight with a stapler. The stapler won. 

Back off

Yelling, "I'll get to you when I get to you," is never an appropriate action at work. This is my mantra for today.

Rude

I had three separate people tell me they were going to be in the 6 a.m. fire safety training. Not a single person was there.

I was here before 6 this morning. I am not a morning person. I am not pleased.

We have three more hours of safety training. I sat through all 5 one hour sessions last week. I'm going to be a very effective arsonist.

Last week, I was in before 6 a.m. every day but Monday. This week, I think it's just today, which is good. If I get too tired, I quickly lose the will to live. Not really, but I don't get pleasant.

Take cover

This week y'all. Whew. I am aware it's Monday.

We were to a new timekeeping system today. Today's also the day that the shifts have rotated, we've moved to a new schedule for half the plant, we're sending several people to a sister plant to help out, layoffs take effect, and payroll is due. So not much. However, I talked to the lady at corporate in charge of payroll on Friday, and she agreed to let us push it back a week, both so we could get some training in, and so I can get a good test week in.

Like I've mentioned before, our new timeclocks are biometric. I got everyone registered Friday, but haven't had a chance to do a real trial, because over half the people thought they didn't need to test it more than once. So I don't have clocks for them. And when they come to me and have an issue, I will not tell them it sucks to be them, but I will be thinking it, at least a little.

There are still a bunch of bugs to be worked out, and I'm not looking forward to next Thursday and Friday when paystubs and checks come out. People will not be pleased. They haven't handled the transition well to the new system. We just started meeting about it a month ago, and though it's been in the works for a while, I don't think it's ready. Our lunches aren't being calculated properly, and who knows what else. They also mentioned several times that they would set up training for us to take, and then to have one for supervisors and managers. Shockingly, that hasn't occurred. I have a pdf that's like four pages long with instructions. That's all. I'm apparently supposed to train everyone. I don't have the faintest clue what I'm doing, so it will be fun. I'm so excited.

It's a shame circuses are becoming a thing of the past. I could run away and join one. I make some mean cotton candy.

I think they're trying to kill me

Y'all. Except for Monday and today, I have been at work before 5:30 every day this week. I can in at 8 on Monday, and a little after 6 today. I cannot take it. If it wasn't Friday, I might lose my mind. I am not a morning person. If you need me to stay up till 2 or 3 in the morning, fine, whatever. But get up just before 4? No thank you.

We're switching to a new timekeeping system soon, and I'm trying to get everyone's fingerprints registered. There's about 15 I still have to do. Five of them are issues with the account registration, and the other 10 have been hiding from me. Rude.

To get third shift, it's late to bed and early to rise for me this week. We've also been dealing with another layoff, so that's been so fun to deal with on top of everything else. I'm so tired. I almost fell asleep at my desk yesterday. I keep trying to think of the sweet sweet overtime money, but I would pay someone to let me go to sleep right now, so it's not really working.

We also had our fire safety training this week. We had five sessions, and I was in all of them. I worked on emails and stuff most of the time, but whew. In one session, one employee proudly informed everyone that he's put out two fires while working here. And he only started one of them.

And it's back to work for me. I keep feeling like I've been here forever, and it must be almost lunchtime. It's usually around 10 when I feel that way, so. Five hours in usually is time for lunch, but not this week. Frankly, I'm just glad I've had a chance to eat, because that is not always the case.

Finally, I will leave you with this jem from one of the maintenance managers. It should be noted that this is a man built like a bear.
"Well, the line is running, and it hasn't wham, bam, jammed, and caused me to cry."

I got suspended

Yes, internet friends. This is not a clickbait title. Last week, I got suspended from my job. See, one day last week was my birthday. I love my birthday. I do not love being the center of attention. So I just didn't bother to mention it to anyone. Well, one of my coworkers that I know outside of work saw it on facebook, and outed me. My boss was not pleased.

Apparently, I was not supposed to work on my birthday. No one told me this. I knew if I wanted the day off, I could get it, but I did not want the day off. I had things to do, and people to see, and didn't want to take off a random day and then go right back to work. No thank you. Well, that was a big no-no, which culminated with my boss standing in my doorway saying that I'd been bad bad bad. And then he suspended me. I was not allowed at work on Friday. Now, I didn't exactly mind the long weekend, but it was presented as 'you will do this because you have brought shame upon yourself for keeping your birthday a secret.' So it didn't exactly feel like a yay, free day off kind of thing. More like what I imagine getting sent to the principal's office feels like. I don't know for sure. I never got sent to the principal's office.

Thankfully, I didn't miss too much work while I was gone. I did have forty something emails to contend with Monday morning, but that's sadly not outside the reasonable number. A little high, but I've had worse and more urgent things pop up on Monday mornings.

I still can't believe I got suspended. Honestly, I'm a little offended by it. More the fact that I'm one of the stubbornest people alive, and it was an ordered day off, not an offered one. I'm not trying to sound ungrateful, I know lots of people who don't have such a forgiving schedule, and have worked places *cough* the paper *cough* that didn't care what was going on, you were there or you were in trouble, and the leave/vacation/holiday schedule was a joke. I am grateful that this job is not like that.

I guess we'll see what happens next year!

Way more complicated than it needs to be

Whew. Overcomplicated seems to be the watchword for this week. It seems like half the things I've been dealing with are way more difficult than they need to be.

Exhibit A: One of our managers, who will have a name as soon as I can get my cheat sheet written, forwarded us a resignation letter from one of the interns. This is fine, we knew it was coming. However, he just put "letter of resignation" in the subject line. So I panicked. We've had some staff turnover, and I didn't think he was going to leave. He isn't. We had a talk about how he could maybe not do that ever again. This job is going to give me gray hair.

Exhibit B: One of the supervisors calls me all worried. One of his people's pay is wrong. I look at the timesheet, and what we actually paid him, and cannot for the life of me find a discrepancy. I called the supervisor in to the office so we could go over it together, because if I made a mistake I need to know what it is so I can fix it. The guy says he's short overtime. No, he's short two more scrolls on his phone that would show it under a different code.

Exhibit C: Not quite work related, but sort of. I am setting up a new blog, as myself. This one will still be around, and I am debating if I want to link the two. If I do, it will only be one way. I will link from here to the one that's me, but I won't link from that one to here. I would like to keep my job. Not that there's anything that I've written that's bad, I just wouldn't necessarily want any of the people I work with to see. Anyway, Blogger is making it way harder than it should be. I have almost doxed myself at least twice in the last fifteen minutes. They try and make it so easy to put all your stuff in the same place. Which is great, if you want that. If you're running a secret anonymous blog, and another as yourself with personal info, you don't necessarily want to link the two. Or have the anon name posting on the personal blog. Ugh.

There's a lot more that's been going on that I'm going to try and get written up this weekend to put up next week. I'm just not sure where my days are going. It's like I don't get a minute to breathe, then I'm home, dinner, bed, time to wake up and do it all over again, with no pauses in between. But it's almost Saturday!

I don't think so

I have an awful poker face. Really, it's horrible. I don't play poker, but I would lose every time. I may say something is fine, but my face gives me away every time.

We've been interviewing supervisor candidates for a couple of weeks now, and haven't found anyone yet. They've all been fine, but just fine. No one who we really think would be a great fit.

One guy, fairly young, had a strong resume and we thought might be a serious contender. However. He gets there, and isn't having a great interview. Someone asked what range of money he was looking for, and he said he'd want it to be in line with the next promotion he'll get at his current job. Ok, fine. We pay very well for the area we're in, and it's competitive with other companies.

This dude though. This dude names a number 20k higher than what we'd pay. And he was not worth it.

In that moment, I was really glad he was not looking at me, cause I'm pretty sure my eyebrows hit my hairline. He was not that good. Needless to say, he's not getting the job. We have two interviews this week, and maybe one of them will be a good fit.

I'm super glad to be on this side of the table, it's a whole lot less stressful, but I'll be super glad to get it over with. Of course, then we have like three other positions we're hiring for.

I don't think it's going to end anytime soon. On the plus side, I could about do one of the interviews in my sleep.

Mission Impossible it's not

So this week y'all. Whew.

We are switching to a new timekeeping system. And it uses fingerprints. On a closed system.

And people are going to lose it.

We're in an area that's not super developed, which I actually enjoy. However, that also means that a lot of people are very resistant to change. And technology. And things they don't understand.

There's a lot of people where I work that don't understand how email works. Which is fine. It's not an essential part of their job, so whatever. There are starting to be parts of their jobs that do require more technology, and if they have a problem with learning how that's a different issue.

The timeclocks are going to be one of those issues. We have several people that are a little... suspicious of technology. Which is fine. To be totally honest, I'm just enough of a conspiracy theorist that it would bother me a little too.

On the other hand, I certainly wouldn't have a rant that I recite whenever the subject comes up, talking about how I'm not going to let people steal my identity, and we've already got my social, and birthday, what else could they want, what's next.

First, no one wants to steal their identity. It is not a massive conspiracy so I can turn into a cat burglar and steal from the Louvre using their fingerprints, with a mask like in Mission Impossible.

It's so they can clock in and get paid. The end.

So that's on my plate this week. Thankfully, Boss has gone through this before, and he's not someone to suffer fools, which is something I really appreciate.

There's enough else on both our plates that if someone raises too much of a stink about it, he'll show them the door. Especially if they get nasty about it.

That happened last week. Not the showing the door part, but the nasty. We had a early meeting, which went fine, other than the fact that it was at 6 a.m., which is not a time that meetings should be. The 7 a.m., though. There was a guy in that one that had some opinions about having to use a new program, and he was not afraid to share them. I was not caffeinated enough for that. It was so fun.

I'm not looking forward to it, but after this week it will be over, then on to the next problem!

Only mostly alive

Hello internet friends!

I am still here. I'm battling a cold/seasonal allergies right now, so I only feel mostly not dead, but we will persevere.

I'm planning on typing up a bunch of posts this weekend to hopefully go live starting next week, because I miss blogging.

The issue that I'm running in to, besides lack of free time, is that there's a much bigger cast of characters in my new job, and I'm not sure how to keep them straight when writing about them. I don't want to use real names, because I like my job, and would like to keep it. I mean, they have normal men names, and the likelyhood that someone would care is small, but still.

So as soon as I can figure that out, it will open up way more opportunities for me to tell stories about my coworkers behind their backs.

Cause y'all. I have seen some things.

Off with her head

Y'all. There was a literal mob at work yesterday. There were no torches, no pitchforks, but there was a mob all the same. 

See, there was an issue with payroll. It was right when it left on Monday, but there was an issue when it was transmitted to the system that does the checks. No one got their overtime pay, or any other extras. 

It was so fun. 

Have you ever had the sudden realization that your head is attached to your body, and been profoundly thankful? It's never something I've thought to be thankful for before.

I had just walked in, and was booting up my email, just going about my morning. Suddenly, three supervisors were in my office. No one, then boom. I didn't know they could move that fast. They asked if I knew what was going on, and I saw the emails rolling in. 

There's about 175 people that didn't get paid correctly. That's a lot of mad. I don't think the phone stopped ringing all day. When the supervisors came in, people were waiting. They did a really good job to deflect the maddest of the employees off of me, which I really appreciate. 

I only had one person be straight up rude to me, and she's done it before, so it was not surprising, just offensive. Girlfriend needs an attitude check. Most people just wanted to know what was going on, and that they were going to get paid. 

We got it resolved fairly quickly, and I printed out info about what's happening next. I posted them on every possible route to my office. Inside the plant, there's a window in the supervisors' office so they can see what's going on, and I pressed one of the papers to the window so they could see. They all about came out of their seats reaching for it. 

Hopefully, everyone will be paid after today. We're switching to a new timekeeping system in a couple of months, and someone said they worked at another plant that did, and no one got paid for two weeks. I told my boss if that happens, I won't be here. I'll be somewhere far, far away, in a wig and sunglasses, hiding.

As I'm typing this, the customer service manager came in, and was super rude to me because his computer isn't working. There's something wrong with that. 

About that note

So I was reading AAM the other day, and she was talking about passive aggressive notes at work. (Here's where we pretend I wasn't too lazy to get a hyperlink to that post.)

I started thinking about it, and thought, wow, I don't think there are any at my new job.

Not so fast. There is one. And it's on my door. I put it there myself.

I want to believe its nice than passive aggressive, whatever the word for that may be, but it's there all the same.

See, since I'm in HR, there's stuff in my office (still can't believe I have my own office) that people are not supposed to see. So it's supposed to be locked when I'm not there.

Someone is having a hard time with that. I say someone, and I genuinely don't know who it is, takes a "shortcut" - which is the exact same distance - to the hallway from the entrance. They open my door to go into the hallway, and then leave it open.

I don't get there till after 7, and this could happen at 6:45, or 3. Who knows. Thus, the note, reminding whoever it may be to shut the door behind them

Doing my happy dance

I'M GETTING A BOSS!!!! I am so excited. Unless he's recently had a fit of hedonism, after his background clears, he will start early Feb. (Also, autocorrect's suggestion after 'getting a' was divorce, which is weird for me, a single person.

Thanks to everyone who said to suck it up and ask my boss if I was supposed to come to those meetings, the answer was yes. It's made my job easier when I can be there while everyone is in the same room.

Someone paged um... Sally... on the intercom. I was confused, cause they just said Sally. I wasn't sure how they would get the right one, but then I remembered. There is only the one. I have a fairly popular name. I am the only one here. Not surprising when there's only about a dozen women, (Ah, STEM) but it hasn't happened since elementary that I've been the only one with my name. I have taken great joy in not signing my emails with my full name. Is this what Beyonce feels like?

Someone threatened to get a lawyer involved in something yesterday. No one has threatened me with the law since I left the paper, and it's been over a month. I was almost starting to miss it.

Going like mad

Eventually, it will slow down and I'll have time to breathe, right?

It's been a busy week here, and payroll wasn't right, so that's been fun. I don't think I've ever dealt with so many mad people before. I understand, and they're not mad at me, but it is a massive headache for us all.

Some people didn't get paid right for their holiday, which thankfully is not my fault, and I have been heaping the blame on the guy who did it, because he is not here, and none of the people who are mad will ever meet him.

Now that its Friday and people are starting to get paid, some people have not gotten their check. It makes the start of my day ever so much fun.

Did you know adults could get ear infections? I don't guess I did. But we can. Yay. The antibiotic they have me on seems to be clearing it up, as well as my throat, ick, but it's slow going. The fact that I am not doesn't seem to be helping matters.

Have my first staff meeting today, finally talked to Boss about whether or not he wanted me there, he says yes. It will make my job quite a bit easier. I've already met everyone that's going to be there, and they are all very nice, but I'm a little nervous about it.

I get paid today! (Maybe) I like when I get paid, and I don't feel the need to shake the check to see where the rest is like I did at the paper.

But best of all, it is Friday. And tomorrow I do not have to work, and due to an oversight that I have not been quick to correct, no one has my cell number. Bliss.