deer of the dawn wrote:Binding is one of my non-favorite activities, so my day is automatically better than yours, ali.
And funny, ali, when I was in my 20s I could be in any store and people would ask me if I worked there.
Except it was Jenn who posted that. It's okay -- we all look alike on teh intarwebz.
Altho, yeah, people in stores sometimes ask me if I work there, too. We must just wear an aura of supreme confidence and capability when we're shopping.
As for my day so far: I tried to use my work ID to get through the subway turnstile this morning, and yes, I stood there like a dork and wondered why it wasn't working. Aaand I just dropped yogurt on my shirt. So in other words, nothing new here....
EZ Board Survivor
"Dreaming isn't good for you unless you do the things it tells you to." -- Three Dog Night (via the GI)
Ok, this bitch has got to bitch. Yeah it's about the job. I have never ever been one to have problems with my boss. I pride myself on my ability to communicate, I'm flexible with what I do at work, I try never to be 'above' anything and open to learning new things. I think you have to be in order to survive what I do for a living. I have had a litany of Regional Directors, never had a problem. Not once in 16 years. I didnt say 17 because I was sent to my current job for telling the commissioner to go f - - k himself.....on email. But since that time I have done pretty well. The Regional Directors have come and gone, the nature of their job is political and they move up quickly. I have been offered the regional twice and turned it down twice. Not interested. Anyway, I have a new regional for the last month. She used to work for me as a contract administrator. This is not a problem for me, most of them jumped me. So I have this new chick as my boss. Her name is Xenia. She has never worked in a shelter, never dealt on a daily basis with clients and all their issues. She is a paper pusher, worried about meeting the demands of her bosses, getting crap in on time and moving up. I am still ok with that. The quicker she moves up the quicker she is out of my hair. But the thing is she is clueless. Did you ever meet someone that hides their ignorance behind talking fast, talking over you and not thinking things through? That is Xenia. She is also very nasty and abrasive toward both me and the clients. She treats the clients like they were gravel under her shoe and just grinds them into the floor. She thinks that in conferences it is her nastiness that motivates them to find housing and move out. She asks for files to be sent to legal, then when she gets them she promptly loses them and we have to copy them again. Now, we are talking about a 700 page +/- file. I have one copy machine and no secretary. She asks for reports that she already has, she asks for data reports she got 20 minutes ago. If you balk she says things like "if you can't do the job I will find someone that can" and other goodies. She brings me in on my days off to make copies because she does not want to pay overtime to the line staff. Yesterday and today I snapped. Yesterday I wrote her the memo below.
I am reviewing this whole process in an effort to avoid another situation like this. I can draw the following conclusions and concerns.
First of all, what worked in the past does not work now. I will adjust the lunch hours so we no longer close social service.
Secondly I am tremendously concerned about the intensive redundancy of items requested from downtown. This is not just a concern with this but with other items that are requested. I derived this information from the report that was sent to Beaver on March 29th. I am not sure why this could not have been gleaned from information already supplied. When Jessica called with the request for an amount of teens 16, 17 and 18 I pulled it out of Cares. I again am not sure why this information was not accessible to Beaver without reaching out to the sites. It would seem to me that the whole purpose of Cares is to make information accessible to Beaver Street staff. It seems counter productive to be scrambling for information, calling people off their lunch brakes and back on site to transcribe information that has already been submitted. This issue reaches way beyond this specific incident. We are continually called for files that are already downtown. Not updates, files. Often they cannot be located at Beaver and everything has to be recopied. We have one copy machine and no clerical. I use a community associate to answer the phones and do the mail. I think it would be very productive to initiate some sort of tracking system to monitor the files both downtown and at Beaver.
Although it is 'exciting' to work in a reactionary environment, it places tremendous stress on the staff, both here and downtown. Though I tend to verbalize a great deal more than other staff, I will assure you this is a problem for numerous sites and I think we could all benefit from some changes in process and procedure.
Today I broke into tears at this unrelenting bullcrap. I also think the stress is exacerbating the problem with my back. I am so exhausted. I would ask for a meeting with her boss, but she is 10x worse then Xenia. The adult in me knows I have to stick this out but the child in me wants to walk. I am sending my resume out to all corners of NYC but with a freeze on hiring promotions or even parallel moves are rare. So anyway, thanks for the forum to vent.
The loudest truth I ever heard was the softest sound.
Ah Lorin, I feel for you! Do you use a courier service to transfer files from office to office? If so you can adjust the system to have the receiving person sign for the file thus transferring responsibility from your shoulders. I too am exhausted from work and feeling the strain in my body. I'll vent it out in my blog.
Now if I could just find a way to wear live bees as jewelry all the time.....
Huggles and Cuddles Sarge. I also meant to say to Lorin that her email seemed perfectly reasonable and that if there is a follow up one it should suggest using or implementing a tracking system for file transfers.
Now if I could just find a way to wear live bees as jewelry all the time.....
deer of the dawn wrote:Binding is one of my non-favorite activities, so my day is automatically better than yours, ali.
And funny, ali, when I was in my 20s I could be in any store and people would ask me if I worked there.
Except it was Jenn who posted that. It's okay -- we all look alike on teh intarwebz.
*removes blond glasses* Oh, I see you now.
Geez, lorin, I just got through a so-stressed-I-could-scream week so I feel your pain. Somehow I woke up this morning feeling so much more relaxed. Courage, lorin, and perseverance. Would it help if you kept a log of your activities? I.e., when downtown calls and asks for Report X, you look at your ledger and say, "Report X was couriered/faxed/e-mailed to you at 8:45 this morning." Then let the crickets chirp while they formulate a reply. Eventually that stupid feeling they get will drive them to maybe check around before calling you-- which is evidently the easy thing for them to do.
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle. -Philo of Alexandria
ahhhh... if only all our creativity in wickedness could be fixed by "Corrupt a Wish." - Linna Heartlistener
I feel rather guilty that I have nothing to complain about. Sympathy to those who do!
Is that a harmonium, Sarge? I played one once at a guest house we stayed at in Northumberland (1960s). It was a Sunday and the landlady would only let me play hymns!
I am playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order!
"I must state plainly, Linden, that you have become wondrous in my sight."
I had a relaxing day too. But not as relaxing as Sam, my cat. But I did have time to waste cobbling pictures I took all day of him. I actually think it was well before noon when I took the first one.
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle. -Philo of Alexandria
ahhhh... if only all our creativity in wickedness could be fixed by "Corrupt a Wish." - Linna Heartlistener
I'm definitely feeling the work grumbles lately. We are setting up a new system in stores right now, and we as the helpdesk have not really been trained on it. The people calling in have more experience with it than those who are supposed to be supporting them. And apparently the stores are not being trained well either as we are getting a lot of calls about procedural issues. Grumble, mutter, splutter.
Life is a waste of time
Time is a waste of life
So get wasted all of the time
And you'll have the time of your life
deer of the dawn wrote:Would it help if you kept a log of your activities? I.e., when downtown calls and asks for Report X, you look at your ledger and say, "Report X was couriered/faxed/e-mailed to you at 8:45 this morning." Then let the crickets chirp while they formulate a reply. Eventually that stupid feeling they get will drive them to maybe check around before calling you-- which is evidently the easy thing for them to do.
This. In fact, this is exactly what I do when someone tries to dump this kind of thing into my lap.
Except for clients. If a client says to us, "We never received/can't find a copy of your bill from August 2010" or whatever, then we just go ahead and send them another copy of the bill. It's easier than arguing with them when money (specifically, paying us) is involved.
I had a pretty good day today. Went to lunch with a new group of people who seem pretty nice, then took a two-hour nap, then ran some errands. Tomorrow, IKEA with Magickmaker.
EZ Board Survivor
"Dreaming isn't good for you unless you do the things it tells you to." -- Three Dog Night (via the GI)
It's raining, it's pouring
The old man is snoring
He went to bed without his head
and couldn't get up in the morning
I do wish it would stop raining - I need to weed the garden, cut the grass, get some washing on the line instead of on airers in the house, keep dry when I'm standing at the bus stop. It seems to have rained every day this month!
I am playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order!
"I must state plainly, Linden, that you have become wondrous in my sight."
Had a great morning in church, I led the worship band and we were fairly loud today but it was well-received. Took my daughter out to eat and then came home and had a 2-hour nap as well, Yay!!! Finished writing a skit for Elementary kids, and procrastinating going to a neighbor's housewarming which will be hot, loud, and crowded with lots of peeps I don't know. They will all remember my name because guaranteed I will be the only white person; but I cannot possibly retain all 150 of their names. Well, the earlier I go the better, I suppose, and the music's been pulsating for an hour now.
@Sarge, I loved the paint job on the guitar but couldn't see what the make was. I was hoping you weren't buying for looks.
Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a great battle. -Philo of Alexandria
ahhhh... if only all our creativity in wickedness could be fixed by "Corrupt a Wish." - Linna Heartlistener
Granted this is the beginning of the pool lounging, none of us are quite so pasty pale now. I also managed to get trucker's tan as the driver for the whole expedition. I needed that though. I really really did. I got to spend some quality time one on one with each of the ladies and we all had some great times together. Terry has the only pics of the silly outfits we wore later that night.
Now if I could just find a way to wear live bees as jewelry all the time.....
It's okay -- we all look alike on teh intarwebz. 
Aaand I just dropped yogurt on my shirt. So in other words, nothing new here....
lorin 
