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.