So I'm back to hating my job again today. It didn't take long from the point where I thought things were going ok (last Friday when they offered me regular full time employment) to me wanting to quit again. I had a general feeling of unappreciation today, starting pretty much from the minute I got to work. I should have known it was going to be a bad day just because it's Tuesday. Tuesday's are always the worst days of the week.
To begin, my parents called me downstairs this morning after I get out of the shower. They said that "I have to come down and see this". My immediate thought was that I probably didn't want to see whatever was down there. But I headed down the stairs anyway. I got to the bottom and I heard my dad say, "Don't let it get in the kitchen." There's another red flag. Whatever I'm supposed to be looking at is something that is alive and shouldn't be in the house. I started thinking about what's been in the house recently. A squirrel? Nope, it's not a squirrel. A bat like at the old house? Nope, not a bat either. It's a mouse. The cats had been playing with it all morning. They were actually batting it across the wooden floor to each other before I came downstairs. That's what I wasted 5 minutes of my morning with. Because of this, my entire morning routine was off and I ended up forgetting to put make up on. Luckily I had some eye liner and eye shadow in my purse, but I wasn't able to cover up all the wonderful zits on my face.
I got into work and things were fine at the beginning. Then a coworker came up to me and proceeded to tell me how she's sorry that she didn't give me credit for a document that I created, which she had sent out to all the departments to use for presentations. Awesome. I spent at least 30 minutes to an hour creating this template document and I was going to present it during our department's presentation, but now everyone has it and probably thinks that this coworker created it. Great. The day was getting worse and it wasn't even 8AM yet.
As soon as my supervisor got in there were double the amount of tasks for me to do because she likes to dump things on me. I guess that's part of my job, but still, it sucks. So, first off I had to fight with the guy we bought our PA system from earlier this month. The one we ordered was out of stock and we had to figure something else out. Of course I had to fight with the guy about it. Then, there was a worker's comp case that happened late yesterday. I had to figure out how to file a claim and deal with that shit. Somehow it was after 10 once I figured some of that out.
The next bit of underappreciation came from the temp who started last week. She had to update a contact list with people from each department. It was updated to reflect this person who was hired late last month but my name wasn't updated and I started two months ago. I mentioned that to the temp and she was like, "Well I just updated it." Well you didn't do your f-ing job properly, so do it again. I don't care if it makes you look incompetent. We've all had those moments so suck it up. Of course, I never said any of that to her because I'm not confrontational. So I'm sure it'll never get done.
In the afternoon, during my meeting with my boss I asked about my newly acquired benefits of vacation time and personal days. According to the policy, if you're hired before September 1 you get 3 personal days, but if you're hired after you only get 1. I was hired as a temp before the date, but my change in status came after, so I wanted to see which date they'd use to determine my personal days. Of course they use yesterday's date so I only get 1 personal day for the rest of the year. Same goes for vacation: I only start accruing hours starting yesterday. That means that I've accrued about a half hour of vacation time. Super. It's like I didn't even exist in the company for the first 8 1/2 weeks.
Finally, after my meeting with my boss I find an email from the assistant in a different department. It states that every year there is a "Girls Night Out" and gift exchange, presumably between all the assistants (which technically I'm not - my title has been changed to HR Associate thanks to my whining). Apparently my supervisor volunteered me into organizing this shit. Awesome. Thanks so freaking much. Now I have to organize an event I care next to nothing about, nor want to be a part of. I also will have to be involved in a gift exchange with a bunch of 30-somethings who are absolutely nothing like me. This happened with 20 minutes left in my day. There were also two new tasks left on my desk for me to do before the end of the day too. Thanks. One more reason to be pissed at the world.
So the end of the day came and I thought I could just go home to commiserate. Nope, wrong again. My mom calls (for the second time after leaving me a voice mail) right before I'm about to leave work. I answer and she wants me to meet her and my dad at a car dealership a little further south from where my office is. I figure I could probably get a free meal at a restaurant out of it so I said I'd meet them there. I got to the car dealership 10 minutes before they get there and then, once they got there, I spent 5 minutes looking at the car they're interested in before my mom says that I can go home if I want. No dinner? Nope, there's soup on the stove at home. Great. So not only did I drive 10 miles out of my way to look at a car for 5 minutes, I have to cook something for myself when I get home. I get home about 45 minutes later than I normally do, the animals are practically gnawing on my ankles for their dinner which was a half hour late, and I have to find something that I'd actually want to eat for dinner.
And apparently Jordan Staal fought someone in the game tonight, which is conveniently on NHL Network, a channel we aren't subscribers for. Thanks life! I owe you one! I think I'll be going to bed before 9 tonight just to make the day end that much sooner. FML.
Tuesday, September 22, 2009
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Real Job, Here I Come
Good news for me! On Friday, I was finally offered regular, full-time employment thank god. On top of dropping the temporary status, I got a pay increase and I'm eligible for health insurance. That was my main concern with getting to regular, full-time status since my health insurance from my dad was ending at the end of this month. Now I don't have to worry about that, which is a relief. And I'm eligible for personal days and paid leave too.
Friday morning I spoke with my boss about tasks that I had to do that day and he scheduled a meeting for that afternoon that was just labeled with my name. I had a feeling that this meeting would be about my future since I had spoken to my boss about it the week before. It was still kinda awkward because my boss has a very long-winded way of explaining anything so for the first 15 minutes of the meeting, he explained the thought process behind the decision. So instead of just saying, we're giving you a pay raise, he explained how this followed past precedent and how the company compensation plan is structured. I tried to act interested because it's knowledge about the company, but at the same time all I wanted to do was look through my offer letter and see what my raise would be.
He also went into the recruiting process for the job and that they picked me because they think that I can have good potential to grow with the company and blah blah blah. It was interesting information to hear about, but again I just want to read over my offer letter. So I sit there waiting to get to the interesting part and eventually we do get there. The offer letter though states that my job title is HR Assistant instead of HR Associate, which is the title of the job that I applied for. It's a stupid thing to focus on, but still, I feel like 'Associate' sounds a little higher up or something than 'Assistant'. I know that my job is clerical in nature and I'm still an hourly employee, which kinda sucks, but I feel I'm worth more than that. Because of this, I don't think that this experience would count toward getting my PHR (Professional of Human Resources) Certification. For the PHR you need two years of exempt-level HR experience, and my job is non-exempt. Hopefully somewhere in my future, I'll be able to move up. You never know.
For now though, I'm going to be happy that my job is 'real' and that I can have all the perks of a 'real' job. The next step will be getting an apartment, which I hope to do by the beginning of 2010. John is still trying to find a job so we might have to wait until he finds something before we start seriously looking at apartments. I'm ready to move out though. Living with my parents is getting pretty old, as is the commute to work. Hopefully, we'll be able to move soon.
Friday morning I spoke with my boss about tasks that I had to do that day and he scheduled a meeting for that afternoon that was just labeled with my name. I had a feeling that this meeting would be about my future since I had spoken to my boss about it the week before. It was still kinda awkward because my boss has a very long-winded way of explaining anything so for the first 15 minutes of the meeting, he explained the thought process behind the decision. So instead of just saying, we're giving you a pay raise, he explained how this followed past precedent and how the company compensation plan is structured. I tried to act interested because it's knowledge about the company, but at the same time all I wanted to do was look through my offer letter and see what my raise would be.
He also went into the recruiting process for the job and that they picked me because they think that I can have good potential to grow with the company and blah blah blah. It was interesting information to hear about, but again I just want to read over my offer letter. So I sit there waiting to get to the interesting part and eventually we do get there. The offer letter though states that my job title is HR Assistant instead of HR Associate, which is the title of the job that I applied for. It's a stupid thing to focus on, but still, I feel like 'Associate' sounds a little higher up or something than 'Assistant'. I know that my job is clerical in nature and I'm still an hourly employee, which kinda sucks, but I feel I'm worth more than that. Because of this, I don't think that this experience would count toward getting my PHR (Professional of Human Resources) Certification. For the PHR you need two years of exempt-level HR experience, and my job is non-exempt. Hopefully somewhere in my future, I'll be able to move up. You never know.
For now though, I'm going to be happy that my job is 'real' and that I can have all the perks of a 'real' job. The next step will be getting an apartment, which I hope to do by the beginning of 2010. John is still trying to find a job so we might have to wait until he finds something before we start seriously looking at apartments. I'm ready to move out though. Living with my parents is getting pretty old, as is the commute to work. Hopefully, we'll be able to move soon.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Carpool? More like poor call (almost an anagram)
I live far away from my office. I spend about $200 a month in gas alone. It would make sense to carpool with a coworker who lives close by, right? That's what I thought, until I was actually participating in this said carpool. How is it that I always attract the weirdos?
First off, Mr. Carpool, we'll call him, tends to leave earlier than I do. So I have to get ready a little quicker than usual because there's no way I'm getting up any earlier than I already do. We are meeting at a park and ride lot that I pass on my way to the highway, which is convenient, but it's a bitch to pull out of in the morning. We also now have to coordinate our schedules at the end of the day too. All in all, the carpooling makes me leave earlier in the morning and get home later in the day, as well as clutter my mind up with coordinating schedules. Annoyance level = 2 out of 10.
Second, Mr. Carpool is old enough to be my dad. This gets me thinking about all the movies and story lines that have stemmed from middle aged guys and young female coworkers and I was immediately uncomfortable. Now this scenario would never be possible and I gag thinking about it, but still, I don't trust people and I especially don't trust what people think. As we were pulling into work this morning, there were coworkers watching us, and I just know that people are going to wonder why we're driving into work together. And this guy has to say hello to everyone. He even stops the car to talk to people. Is that really necessary? No, it's not at all. Annoyance level = 4.5 out of 10.
Third, Mr. Carpool is a bizarre driver. Now, I know I'm no saint when driving, especially in traffic, but this guy is weird. He is constantly looking down at the speedometer (I think). Seriously, every two seconds or so, he glances down at it, but it's not a subtle glance with his eyes. No no, he visibly moves his head and moves his hand out of the way. (A) Stop looking at the goddamn speedometer, (B) Newsflash: you can move your eyes without moving your entire head, and (C) Don't put your hand in your line of sight if you're going to look in the same place every second. Who does that? Annoyance level = 8 out of 10.
Finally, on the way home today, we had the windows down for a bit and I was fine with that. I moved the window down a little further and he suggested that we put the air on in the car. That's fine, I prefer air conditioning. Haha joke's on me, there is no air conditioning, just the stupid fan set on the cool setting. This actually means humid lukewarm air is now blowing on me. Awesome. So now not only am I mentally uncomfortable, but also physically uncomfortable too! Double trouble! Annoyance level = 10 out of 10.
Oh, and I didn't even get into the conversation. It revolves around sports because I am a guy in that respect. Whatever, I can talk sports with people. Mr. Carpool is a Penguins fan and a Steelers fan. Fine, I can roll with that. The problem, he talks about the same shit over and over and over again. And he laughs at his own jokes, if you can even call them jokes. This just makes the other annoyances that much worse.
When I was driving it wasn't that bad since I had something to do. Being the passenger was the worst. Now I need to think of reasons not to carpool anymore. I mean there is a positive in that I can save money, but I don't know if it's worth the aggravation. We aren't carpooling the rest of this week because Mr. Carpool is unavailable tomorrow and I made up an excuse for Friday. I have an excuse for Monday lined up because I'm starting a Pilates class after work. I think I should just tell him it's not working out for me because it's adding time to my commute or something. I'm not good at telling people news they don't want to hear. And I have to work with this guy regularly so I don't want to piss him off. I really need to learn how to say no though. Oh well. That's my current drama and hopefully I can resolve it quickly.
First off, Mr. Carpool, we'll call him, tends to leave earlier than I do. So I have to get ready a little quicker than usual because there's no way I'm getting up any earlier than I already do. We are meeting at a park and ride lot that I pass on my way to the highway, which is convenient, but it's a bitch to pull out of in the morning. We also now have to coordinate our schedules at the end of the day too. All in all, the carpooling makes me leave earlier in the morning and get home later in the day, as well as clutter my mind up with coordinating schedules. Annoyance level = 2 out of 10.
Second, Mr. Carpool is old enough to be my dad. This gets me thinking about all the movies and story lines that have stemmed from middle aged guys and young female coworkers and I was immediately uncomfortable. Now this scenario would never be possible and I gag thinking about it, but still, I don't trust people and I especially don't trust what people think. As we were pulling into work this morning, there were coworkers watching us, and I just know that people are going to wonder why we're driving into work together. And this guy has to say hello to everyone. He even stops the car to talk to people. Is that really necessary? No, it's not at all. Annoyance level = 4.5 out of 10.
Third, Mr. Carpool is a bizarre driver. Now, I know I'm no saint when driving, especially in traffic, but this guy is weird. He is constantly looking down at the speedometer (I think). Seriously, every two seconds or so, he glances down at it, but it's not a subtle glance with his eyes. No no, he visibly moves his head and moves his hand out of the way. (A) Stop looking at the goddamn speedometer, (B) Newsflash: you can move your eyes without moving your entire head, and (C) Don't put your hand in your line of sight if you're going to look in the same place every second. Who does that? Annoyance level = 8 out of 10.
Finally, on the way home today, we had the windows down for a bit and I was fine with that. I moved the window down a little further and he suggested that we put the air on in the car. That's fine, I prefer air conditioning. Haha joke's on me, there is no air conditioning, just the stupid fan set on the cool setting. This actually means humid lukewarm air is now blowing on me. Awesome. So now not only am I mentally uncomfortable, but also physically uncomfortable too! Double trouble! Annoyance level = 10 out of 10.
Oh, and I didn't even get into the conversation. It revolves around sports because I am a guy in that respect. Whatever, I can talk sports with people. Mr. Carpool is a Penguins fan and a Steelers fan. Fine, I can roll with that. The problem, he talks about the same shit over and over and over again. And he laughs at his own jokes, if you can even call them jokes. This just makes the other annoyances that much worse.
When I was driving it wasn't that bad since I had something to do. Being the passenger was the worst. Now I need to think of reasons not to carpool anymore. I mean there is a positive in that I can save money, but I don't know if it's worth the aggravation. We aren't carpooling the rest of this week because Mr. Carpool is unavailable tomorrow and I made up an excuse for Friday. I have an excuse for Monday lined up because I'm starting a Pilates class after work. I think I should just tell him it's not working out for me because it's adding time to my commute or something. I'm not good at telling people news they don't want to hear. And I have to work with this guy regularly so I don't want to piss him off. I really need to learn how to say no though. Oh well. That's my current drama and hopefully I can resolve it quickly.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
My life as an episode of The Office
Imagine this: You are called into your boss's office along with three other relatively new employees and are told that you will be the judging committee for displays put up by each department in the company. The other employees: two Indian transfers from the India branch of the company and the new janitor, who started two days prior. You are told that you are to choose one winner and three runners up based on creativity, effectiveness of the display, and involvement of the employees within the department. You are also told that one of you will have to speak at the company picnic the next day and announce the winners.
You then realize that it will be you who is speaking at the picnic because two of the other committee members have Indian accents and won't be understood by everyone and the other committee member hasn't been there for a full week yet. You on the other hand have only been there for six weeks but somehow are still considered temporary. You are now hating your job and possibly your life in general. This is only the beginning though. You know that you are inevitably going to piss some people off. There can only be one winner, and there are a lot of displays that are good. And you know that everyone likes to blame the messenger. Lucky you.
This was my life last Wednesday. As much as I tried to pawn off the speaking part onto the other group members, I was still stuck with the task of announcing at the picnic at the end of the day. So after our group came up with our winner and runners up, I got to dwell on the fact that I had to speak in front of 100 people. Did I mention that I hate public speaking?
Anyway, after tossing and turning all night long, I get to work the next day and have to make certificates for the winners we chose as well as certificates for another set of awards being handed out that day. I guess I should probably begin by explaining the whole company picnic process in a little more detail, since this isn't your everyday picnic. This is when I would call in the NBC crew to start filming. The picnic takes place during an extended lunch hour during a regular work day. A few departments sponsor the picnic, choose a theme, and put the thing together. The theme of this picnic was "Country-Western".
To make this an authentic picnic, one of the conference rooms was converted into a tavern scene where "Old Time Photos" could be taken. This room was complete with a hay bale, props such as a wagon wheel, a bottle of beer (empty of course) and a bottle of Jack Daniels (also empty of course), and clothing so you could dress up for the photo. The patio outside was also decorated with hay bales to sit on, western decorations, country music playing, and a real horse. Yes, someone had a friend bring in a horse.
The horse was the main attraction of the day and the owner actually gave grown adults pony rides in the parking lot. How many people can say that they got to ride a horse at the office? Well, my hand is raised. I digress though. Before the festivities could begin, speeches had to be made. The president of the company was supposed to speak, but he didn't want to. He backed out that morning and everyone was running around freaking out. Then, the first speaker who had actually agreed to speak was nowhere to be found. He wandered outside about 15 minutes later (intentional, I think). The other set of awards were handed out and people talked about what they did to earn them and then the big moment for me came.
My supervisor introduced me and I had to grab the mike and go for it. I have never really used a microphone before and I'm not very comfortable with them, so I was nervous. It also didn't help that there was feedback for the first few speakers and they had been fiddling with the volume a bunch of times. Regardless, I had the mike and all eyes were on me. I was so freaked out that I can't even tell you what I said in front of everyone. I rushed through it so fast in order to get it over with. People said I did a good job, but I know I sounded like an idiot. I didn't stumble or trip over my words or anything, so I guess I should be happy about that. At least everyone at the company knows me now.
After that, I could finally breathe again, but my stomach was still not quite right. You see, I actually make myself physically ill worrying about public speaking. I did that to myself in college once too when I was supposed to present in front of a political science class. In that case though, I never had to give the presentation though because the professor got sick and it was the last day of class. I was kinda hoping something like that would happen for the picnic too so I could get out of it, but no such luck.
The fun had only begun at that point because I managed to piss off the IT department and the Finance department with my awards. Apparently IT thought their display was hot shit and deserved to win. They had set up a TV monitor and put together a slide show of clips. The department refused their prize (a basket of candy) and the certificate and promptly turned off their TV. The one guy in the department also threw a temper tantrum and refused to speak to anyone in HR the rest of the day. I still catch him giving me dirty looks too when I see him. The Finance department was more diplomatic about their loss, but also looked at the winner's display, found a typo and brought it to everyone's attention. Seriously people? It's a recognition activity, not the Olympics. I think most people missed the memo about how this was supposed to be fun. So now I feel like I'm being judged by Finance and I am unable to call IT for anything in fear of retaliation from sore losers.
To top it off at the end of the picnic, my supervisor who is in charge of interviewing people for jobs, is called downstairs. An employee referred his friend for a temporary position we have opening up. We weren't going to call this lady back, but she was there that day. You want to know who it was? The lady who brought the horse!! My supervisor had to interview her because she had just brought us a freaking horse for our company picnic. The moral of the story: If you want a job, bring them a horse for their company picnic and they can't ignore you.
All in all, it was the most ridiculous day I think I've had in a long time. When I tried telling my friends about my day, I could hardly believe it myself. The working world is so bizarre sometimes.
You then realize that it will be you who is speaking at the picnic because two of the other committee members have Indian accents and won't be understood by everyone and the other committee member hasn't been there for a full week yet. You on the other hand have only been there for six weeks but somehow are still considered temporary. You are now hating your job and possibly your life in general. This is only the beginning though. You know that you are inevitably going to piss some people off. There can only be one winner, and there are a lot of displays that are good. And you know that everyone likes to blame the messenger. Lucky you.
This was my life last Wednesday. As much as I tried to pawn off the speaking part onto the other group members, I was still stuck with the task of announcing at the picnic at the end of the day. So after our group came up with our winner and runners up, I got to dwell on the fact that I had to speak in front of 100 people. Did I mention that I hate public speaking?
Anyway, after tossing and turning all night long, I get to work the next day and have to make certificates for the winners we chose as well as certificates for another set of awards being handed out that day. I guess I should probably begin by explaining the whole company picnic process in a little more detail, since this isn't your everyday picnic. This is when I would call in the NBC crew to start filming. The picnic takes place during an extended lunch hour during a regular work day. A few departments sponsor the picnic, choose a theme, and put the thing together. The theme of this picnic was "Country-Western".
To make this an authentic picnic, one of the conference rooms was converted into a tavern scene where "Old Time Photos" could be taken. This room was complete with a hay bale, props such as a wagon wheel, a bottle of beer (empty of course) and a bottle of Jack Daniels (also empty of course), and clothing so you could dress up for the photo. The patio outside was also decorated with hay bales to sit on, western decorations, country music playing, and a real horse. Yes, someone had a friend bring in a horse.
The horse was the main attraction of the day and the owner actually gave grown adults pony rides in the parking lot. How many people can say that they got to ride a horse at the office? Well, my hand is raised. I digress though. Before the festivities could begin, speeches had to be made. The president of the company was supposed to speak, but he didn't want to. He backed out that morning and everyone was running around freaking out. Then, the first speaker who had actually agreed to speak was nowhere to be found. He wandered outside about 15 minutes later (intentional, I think). The other set of awards were handed out and people talked about what they did to earn them and then the big moment for me came.
My supervisor introduced me and I had to grab the mike and go for it. I have never really used a microphone before and I'm not very comfortable with them, so I was nervous. It also didn't help that there was feedback for the first few speakers and they had been fiddling with the volume a bunch of times. Regardless, I had the mike and all eyes were on me. I was so freaked out that I can't even tell you what I said in front of everyone. I rushed through it so fast in order to get it over with. People said I did a good job, but I know I sounded like an idiot. I didn't stumble or trip over my words or anything, so I guess I should be happy about that. At least everyone at the company knows me now.
After that, I could finally breathe again, but my stomach was still not quite right. You see, I actually make myself physically ill worrying about public speaking. I did that to myself in college once too when I was supposed to present in front of a political science class. In that case though, I never had to give the presentation though because the professor got sick and it was the last day of class. I was kinda hoping something like that would happen for the picnic too so I could get out of it, but no such luck.
The fun had only begun at that point because I managed to piss off the IT department and the Finance department with my awards. Apparently IT thought their display was hot shit and deserved to win. They had set up a TV monitor and put together a slide show of clips. The department refused their prize (a basket of candy) and the certificate and promptly turned off their TV. The one guy in the department also threw a temper tantrum and refused to speak to anyone in HR the rest of the day. I still catch him giving me dirty looks too when I see him. The Finance department was more diplomatic about their loss, but also looked at the winner's display, found a typo and brought it to everyone's attention. Seriously people? It's a recognition activity, not the Olympics. I think most people missed the memo about how this was supposed to be fun. So now I feel like I'm being judged by Finance and I am unable to call IT for anything in fear of retaliation from sore losers.
To top it off at the end of the picnic, my supervisor who is in charge of interviewing people for jobs, is called downstairs. An employee referred his friend for a temporary position we have opening up. We weren't going to call this lady back, but she was there that day. You want to know who it was? The lady who brought the horse!! My supervisor had to interview her because she had just brought us a freaking horse for our company picnic. The moral of the story: If you want a job, bring them a horse for their company picnic and they can't ignore you.
All in all, it was the most ridiculous day I think I've had in a long time. When I tried telling my friends about my day, I could hardly believe it myself. The working world is so bizarre sometimes.
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