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May. 15th, 2008
About motherfuckin' time.
May. 15th, 2008 08:51 pmSee, the state of California doesn't suck as much as it could! The gub'mint may slash the education budget to ribbons and use it to line Schwarzie's cat's lierrbox, but at least they got something right.
Hookie. Hookey? Hooky?
May. 15th, 2008 10:11 pmSo, work these past two weeks has been a bit crazy-making*. The woman I work with primarily, G, is a dear older lady, but she's a bit scattered (everything is a crisis of epic proportions that must be solved immediately or her day cannot continue) and has that near-religious conviction of the technologically unfamiliar that she Cannot Understand Computers. Which, in effect, is a self-fulfilling prophecy, because she thus refuses to actually learn.
Which means that I become tech support at any given moment.
I can understand when it's something complicated (mail merges, for example, tend to get tricky when you want formatting that does not pull through from Excel data, like commas and dollar signs). But I cannot sympathise, especially when it is in regards to basic printing functions (as in, File-print, or Ctrl+P for the more adventurous among us) or something inane, like cut-and-paste or bolding text in a Word document. My sympathy runs out REALLY fast at that point, especially after the umpteenth time of showing just how to do said basic thing. The shiteating grin and "I just don't understand this stuff!" after every lesson gets old VERY fast.
Yesterday after lunch, she came dashing into my cube with another emergency (and most of these she ends up solving herself before I've actually even done anything), and plopped a big ol' printout right in front of me, ignoring what I was working on and starting to tell me exactly what she wanted done with it. (The temptation to reply not-quite-in-kind was great.) It was a bit of a 'last straw' moment after much of the morning's ups and downs with other work-related stuff, and I will give myself kudos for not snapping at her**. But she does this EVERY time - if I'm not busy, it's not a problem, but if I'm working on something urgent, and I have the *company-issued* 'Do Not Disturb' sign strung across the opening of my cube, well... Yeah.
So yesterday, I made sure my to-do list had nothing urgent on it by five p.m., and called in sick today. Because I know that if I didn't take some time to regroup, I was definitely going to say something I would.
I found out how much to clean the Bernina ($119, excluding any parts or repairs it may need), and signed up for another serger class for the first week of June. I also did a little bit of stitching, playing with the flat plate that comes with the Bernina that I've never used and fashioning a seam guide using painter's tape. And then I watched Serenity and went out to dinner with Cousin E. Fun times. [Also, I can get a brand-spankin'-new machine with the features I want for under $300, which is tempting simply for the convenience and decorative stitches, if nothing else.]
Tomorrow morning, I'm going to email the Unit Manager and ask for some advice on how to better deal with G, because while she drives me NUTS, she's not a malicious person. Willfully ignorant, but not malicious. I don't mind helping her, I mind when she comes storming in like a ditz out of hell with some non-emergency every ten minutes. It's jarring and aggravating, to say the least. (I will tactfully not mention, of course, that I was not really sick today so much as just indisposed toward work.)
And in other good news, as today was payday, I actually got to select the 'pay balance' button for my Visa card, rather than 'other amount - minimum.' Small triumphs all around on that.
* This does not mean that I hate my job, mind you. 90% of the time, I enjoy the fact it isn't ridiculously stressful, and I'm generally more computer-literate or tech-savvy than most, which puts me in a nice little niche of job security. It's just that other 10% of the time...
** Those of you unlucky enough to know me in person will know that my first reaction to most things is profanity at a high volume. G actually *did* push me to that point last week, though it could have been worse. (Not that profanity muttered at a low volume is much better.)
Which means that I become tech support at any given moment.
I can understand when it's something complicated (mail merges, for example, tend to get tricky when you want formatting that does not pull through from Excel data, like commas and dollar signs). But I cannot sympathise, especially when it is in regards to basic printing functions (as in, File-print, or Ctrl+P for the more adventurous among us) or something inane, like cut-and-paste or bolding text in a Word document. My sympathy runs out REALLY fast at that point, especially after the umpteenth time of showing just how to do said basic thing. The shiteating grin and "I just don't understand this stuff!" after every lesson gets old VERY fast.
Yesterday after lunch, she came dashing into my cube with another emergency (and most of these she ends up solving herself before I've actually even done anything), and plopped a big ol' printout right in front of me, ignoring what I was working on and starting to tell me exactly what she wanted done with it. (The temptation to reply not-quite-in-kind was great.) It was a bit of a 'last straw' moment after much of the morning's ups and downs with other work-related stuff, and I will give myself kudos for not snapping at her**. But she does this EVERY time - if I'm not busy, it's not a problem, but if I'm working on something urgent, and I have the *company-issued* 'Do Not Disturb' sign strung across the opening of my cube, well... Yeah.
So yesterday, I made sure my to-do list had nothing urgent on it by five p.m., and called in sick today. Because I know that if I didn't take some time to regroup, I was definitely going to say something I would.
I found out how much to clean the Bernina ($119, excluding any parts or repairs it may need), and signed up for another serger class for the first week of June. I also did a little bit of stitching, playing with the flat plate that comes with the Bernina that I've never used and fashioning a seam guide using painter's tape. And then I watched Serenity and went out to dinner with Cousin E. Fun times. [Also, I can get a brand-spankin'-new machine with the features I want for under $300, which is tempting simply for the convenience and decorative stitches, if nothing else.]
Tomorrow morning, I'm going to email the Unit Manager and ask for some advice on how to better deal with G, because while she drives me NUTS, she's not a malicious person. Willfully ignorant, but not malicious. I don't mind helping her, I mind when she comes storming in like a ditz out of hell with some non-emergency every ten minutes. It's jarring and aggravating, to say the least. (I will tactfully not mention, of course, that I was not really sick today so much as just indisposed toward work.)
And in other good news, as today was payday, I actually got to select the 'pay balance' button for my Visa card, rather than 'other amount - minimum.' Small triumphs all around on that.
* This does not mean that I hate my job, mind you. 90% of the time, I enjoy the fact it isn't ridiculously stressful, and I'm generally more computer-literate or tech-savvy than most, which puts me in a nice little niche of job security. It's just that other 10% of the time...
** Those of you unlucky enough to know me in person will know that my first reaction to most things is profanity at a high volume. G actually *did* push me to that point last week, though it could have been worse. (Not that profanity muttered at a low volume is much better.)
