Excuse me while I wipe the cobwebs away from the ceiling and the corners.
There we are.
Well, hello.
It's been over a month and I wish that I could say that a lot of exciting things happened between 7-20 and now, but I've already made a promise that I wouldn't be posting lies on this blog.
Work has been progressing from tedious to socio-politically-economically annoying.
Just when I thought I was nearly done coming up with reasons to look for a new job, here comes another one.
Before I begin with the latest reason, I'll recap with the earlier ones:
1. Some of the people in my work area don't know anything about teamwork.
2. The lady, and I use the term loosely, who sits near me continues to prove to herself that she's the most obnoxious person in the western hemisphere by bragging about her looks(which are passable, but who needs to hear her aggrandize herself regularly?), her ability to party at the clubs on the weekend, her equally aggressive children(who she encourages to fight when they feel that they've been wronged), and her strident insistence that she can say whatever she wants regardless how irresponsible and hypocritical it is.(Even the supervisor complains about it after The Troublemaker leaves for the day and I have to resist the urge to simply say," Why don't you have her fired or transferred?" because I know that the answer has something to do with the understaffing of our department).
3. The software that we use has problems with it at least twice a month, and when it works, there are glitches in it that Tech Support can't always solve.
4. Our rest breaks and lunch periods are mandatory and rigidly-timed(like a football game) instead of flexible and subject to need. Since we get paid for our break time, I can understand the regimentation for those, but we don't get paid for lunch so who cares if we take a 20-minute lunch break or an hour-long one, depending on the need and knowing that it's time that we're not being paid for? One possible reason for this is what I call The Kindergarten Principle: If one person abuses the priviledge, everybody will. This in spite the fact that there are people who sneak out for cigarette breaks while they're "on the clock" and all eight divisions and the peripheral departments can only clock out and in on one time clock!!!
5. The Assistant Controller is a walking powder keg who's paranoia can be attributed to the fact that The Controller hasn't allowed him to take time off to fully recover from an automobile accident that he had over a year ago! He still needs a scooter to get around on his "bad days" and even on his "good days," he can't carry anything or go up or down stairs.
6. Our company is in the process of either being bought out or merging with another retail chain and nobody knows anything other than that the owners are being retained as "consultants" and there might be policy changes that will affect everyone in the company.
7. We're near the end of our annual audit and we scored a 91! This means that we were 91% accurate in gathering information on the vendors and their merchandise. Despite the fact that this was an evaluation of all eight divisions and the peripheral departments, which adds up to over 100 employees, THIS IS CONSIDERED A BAD THING! The target goal was 100 PERCENT!!! I don't know any time when any company, including a company that doesn't train ANY of their employees to do the job that's assigned to them, had a 100 PERCENT Efficiency Rating! The fact that this is what management and the supervisors were hoping speaks volumes about how out of touch with reality these people are! As a result of this "black mark," we are expected to do surprise audits every three months! While this isn't an altogether horrible idea to me, this could lead to accusations of Managerial Harrassment by several people in the company, including Ms."I've got a 10-cent opinion that I want to share with everybody!" If this causes her to resign, that will be the only good news that I'll look forward to receiving after this.
Now, the latest reason for possibly going on Monster.com:
8. We're establishing a $5 per month Savings Fund for snacks, group lunches, and Birthday Parties! While I would by no means want to dump the financial load on anyone to set up a party, I'm personally not interested in participating in a non-work-related activity just for the sake of avoiding being the Department Wet Blanket. I may be paranoid, but I believe that I once lost a temp job because I wasn't part of the crowd and I made no secret of the fact that there was too much goofing off and Playing Executive Meeting For The Sake Of Stuffing One's Face On The Company Tab and less of a secret that I didn't like where I was working, so when theevaluations came out, I was gone despite the backhanded compliment from the supervisor that I did the work of four people! This time, I'll offer to pay the $5 per month but refuse to participate in the Birthday Parties, the Pollyannas, and the Department Buffets. We'll see if history repeats itself and I fail my evaluation when New Management has its interviews of the other people in the department and ask "Which employee(s) are giving you problems?"
I've gotten my...oh hell, I might as well give them free advertising...H&R Block Stock Option Information Packet. It seems that the stockholders voted to split the stock for the last two years and this year, halving the values and doubling the quantities that they were qualified to either buy or sell. I was considering doing another cashless transaction(granting a broker permission to sell my shares at the street rate and paying me the difference from my special employee rate), but it wouldn't be as much of a difference as I had hoped. If it goes up by at least $5.00/share difference from my special rate, I may sell my option for 118 shares this year. If not, I still have between Sept. and Nov. to exercise it and the split shares from this year that I have to wait until next year to act on. It's a complicated process that not every preparer or office person qualifies for due to the mimimum salary/commision and work hours required. I've exercised it 4 times in the 10 years that I've worked for them and this might be the 5th if the market improves. We'll see.
I'm currently reading "Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell" by Susanna Clarke and "American Gods" by Neil Gaiman. If I can manage my finances, I might attend a Q&A in New York on Sept. 19th hosted by Mr. Gaiman & Ms. Clarke and a live reading an book signing of Mr. Gaiman's new book "Anansi Boys," which could be a sequel to "...Gods." If I'm able to attend both or either, I'll write a special review in this blog.
I may have to surf the net for upcoming films because I'm not looking forward to seeing the recently released "Brothers Grimm." By the previews, it sounds like yet another film about a pair of dashing adventurers that go on incredible exploits that "the general public has accepted as fiction." Like we didn't get enough of that from dead TV shows like "The Adventures of Jules Verne" and films like "The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen" and "Van Helsing!"
I guess I'll prepare some spaghetti with leftover sloppy joe and a salad with grated colby/monteret jack blended cheese sprinkled on top. Normally, I'm more creative but it's starting to get humid again and I'll just have to learn to discipline myself to cook for the week on the weekends.
I hope that you'll be able to see yourselves out and have a good week. I'll attempt to do the same, but it's not going to be easy. Good night and drive safely.
