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Ack, a week has gone by with no posts from me. I just picked up my paper journal, yesterday, and realized I haven't made any entries since last October. :( But the stresses are building up to the point I've been thinking for a few weeks now that I need to get back to my paper journal, and I expect today I'll be spamming with posts. Possibly I'll try to make some of them back posts so it won't be quite as bad for you, dear friends. :)
Work continues apace to be crazier and crazier, but some of the craziness nears it's head and is going to get done with, finally. Planning classes is one of the most stressful things ever, I have no idea why. Well, yes I do - because the guy who's in charge of scheduling only does scheduling for classes if he feels like it, but doesn't bother to inform anyone when he doesn't feel like it (if I do a schedule he'll definitely do it over, though - we went through that iteration with one of the classes). And then certain people insist on approving every detail, but also expect you to be psychic and know what they want and have done it yesterday. Lower end managers are so busy that it's hard to coordinate with them to even discuss it. There's no space in which to have classes, with yet another busy person responsible for scheduling space rental. Probably worst of all, it's very hard to pin down exact details about some of these classes. How many people is the minimum to have in a class? Some sources say 12, some say 8, others say 16, and there's no official statement. How long will the class take? Official guidance says two and a half days with 12 people, but we're going to do it for only three people, two of whom are quite conversant with the material already, so I think I can do it in eight hours, quite probably less than that. (But the trainer from Boston says he can do it in four. We also really wonder what kind of demi-god he actually is, since he gets do do all kinds of things that we ordinary people can't. Supposedly he's at the same level as me or Moose, but he never has to work on the floor or wear a uniform, and gets to do jobs we've been told we are not allowed to.) Will the online testing thing decide to work that day? No way to know. Do we have the latest version of the offline test, in case the online test decides not to work? Nobody seems to be able to tell us how to determine that. But, all that is almost over, thank goodness. The classes are scheduled and have a space and soon Moose and I will do our little performances and for good or ill we'll be done with that. :)
Testing will soon get over with, too, just because the testers are running out of people to test. And am I so f-ing glad? You bet I am. This time of year is always so incredibly stressful for everyone, and we hear everyone's stress right before they test, and for 40% we hear it again after they get out of their test, as we do their paperwork and help them get ready to test again. New this year, they're being retested by the same team who tested them the first time. Previously they were just assessed by my boss, who nearly invariably said, "Yes, I can see that you know what you're doing and just had a brain fart. You're okay, go back to work." The hell of it is, that is the case most of the time - it was a small thing, they had a little brain-fart. They really don't want to do prep before going back in, they want to just do it again, and it's really hard to work with someone who actually does know what they're doing. We do weird things when we're under stress, and there's no way to tell if you will do it right the next time even if you were 90% perfect the last time - you still might randomly drop some other piece out because you're stressed.
It doesn't help the stress that the tests are very little related to what we actually do every day, and that the potential for possible thousands of dollars in your paycheck rides on them. It's only potential, mind you. I've been trying to lighten the mood a bit by telling people that this must be fun, because gamboling is always fun, right? It is amazing how random the results will be - some people who hate to work and blow off their duties all year will test well, others will be fantastic at their jobs all year and blow it during demonstration. People who've done well every year before have screwed up this year (and gotten pretty pissy about it). Of course when it gets to the second time they're doing the test they feel they're starting to gambol with their job, which increases the tension, and, if they get so tense that they have to go to a third test, the Career Plan points they've worked hard for over the year get lost as well.
When 40% of people fail their first time through there's something wrong with the test. This year they've had to suspend testing in some places because they've fired so many people, and you know some of those are probably good workers they couldn't afford to lose. Upper middle management used to have some leeway as to choices they could make besides firing people, but apparently some of those choices have been taken away this year.
And then the guy who was supposed to be scheduling people for their tests didn't really know what he'd taken on at first, and didn't set up clear ways to communicate to people that they were scheduled this day or that their schedule had changed, and got really behind on getting people back in for their later tests. We've got one guy transferring down to Boston who put off his test until his last day here and then failed, so we're having to send him to Boston in a state of shame. It would have been better to have sent him untested, imho.
Thank your stars you didn't have to read all that.
On the neighbors front, we're sick up and fed with the condo situation. We've had two real estate agents in so far, and I think the second agent we saw had already done some stuff to screw us over before he even came in. So, we're renting a storage space - I'm looking into it today - and we're going to start putting stuff in it so we'll be ready to move quickly when/if we get the chance. I can't tell you how much it lightened my heart when Eor started putting books into boxes, last night. Why should the first stages of moving make me feel so much better? It is stressful in itself, but it's also turning stress into motion, it's doing something about changing the situation, even if it's not the exact right thing. It's the nomad in my soul delighting in the prospect of running away from our problems. Whatever it is, my life with Eor has been characterized by moving every three to five years, but I've at least been able to keep my jobs for much longer. I think moving distracts me from the stresses of the work sphere. :) I said to my coworker, Mistress of the Night, that I wanted to cut and run and she was all, "But you can't! Your bills! You'll lose your job!" etc. Hullo, the two do not equate. My bills will get paid.
Somebody was actually parked in my CLEARLY NUMBERED space the other day. I nearly went ballistic, but Eor restrained me.
On the family front, issues of travel to Hawk's wedding seem to be getting ironed out for my Mom and youngest brother, Eightball. :) There's no way to tell until they're actually arrived at their destination, so I'll be trying to keep the cell-phone charged, but it'll be hard to help them if there's an issue. Mom still hasn't, apparently, contacted her middle brother, nor will she tell me when her return ticket is for, even though I did attempt to remind her that summer in Maine is short and we might want to be able to make our own plans, which will of necessity hinge on hers, as our guest.
I think I had a dream that Hawk called me and told me that the wedding was off. I THINK it was a dream because if it were real I'd think I'd have told Eor right away, as it might change what we'd be doing that weekend. I'm pretty sure that the only phone call I had with Hawk lately was that he was back up here for a short time redoing some of his tests for school and he wondered if he could borrow our kayaks for him and a friend to go out last Sunday. The only wedding-related stuff in that conversation was following up on the situation with Aunt Ess, who he did not invite to the wedding even though he invited her sister, Aunt BeeJay. He tells me he has now written a nice, newsy letter to her explaining that decision - he didn't want to burden her with the guilt of having to say she couldn't attend, or the financial stress of trying to make it. I'm glad he's written the letter and hope that it does make her feel at least included in some way. The situation annoys me, because he made a decision for her, really, by not inviting her. I'm the only one who should be planning other people's lives in my family. ;)
So, yes, it's not that I have nothing to write about, it's just that it's all such an ongoing tangled mess, and things haven't been resolving themselves in nice, neat ways, and I don't want to bore with a bunch of bitching, and especially where so much of it is about work, which nobody wants to hear about. Instead I've been writing paper letters. Woe unto them who receive them, unfortunately - ten or more pages, often, of this kind of thing.
In things that amuse me at work - a guy was trying to describe an area of the body: "Where the torso meets the leg. Where the leg meets the torso. They know each other, they've been introduced."
:)
Work continues apace to be crazier and crazier, but some of the craziness nears it's head and is going to get done with, finally. Planning classes is one of the most stressful things ever, I have no idea why. Well, yes I do - because the guy who's in charge of scheduling only does scheduling for classes if he feels like it, but doesn't bother to inform anyone when he doesn't feel like it (if I do a schedule he'll definitely do it over, though - we went through that iteration with one of the classes). And then certain people insist on approving every detail, but also expect you to be psychic and know what they want and have done it yesterday. Lower end managers are so busy that it's hard to coordinate with them to even discuss it. There's no space in which to have classes, with yet another busy person responsible for scheduling space rental. Probably worst of all, it's very hard to pin down exact details about some of these classes. How many people is the minimum to have in a class? Some sources say 12, some say 8, others say 16, and there's no official statement. How long will the class take? Official guidance says two and a half days with 12 people, but we're going to do it for only three people, two of whom are quite conversant with the material already, so I think I can do it in eight hours, quite probably less than that. (But the trainer from Boston says he can do it in four. We also really wonder what kind of demi-god he actually is, since he gets do do all kinds of things that we ordinary people can't. Supposedly he's at the same level as me or Moose, but he never has to work on the floor or wear a uniform, and gets to do jobs we've been told we are not allowed to.) Will the online testing thing decide to work that day? No way to know. Do we have the latest version of the offline test, in case the online test decides not to work? Nobody seems to be able to tell us how to determine that. But, all that is almost over, thank goodness. The classes are scheduled and have a space and soon Moose and I will do our little performances and for good or ill we'll be done with that. :)
Testing will soon get over with, too, just because the testers are running out of people to test. And am I so f-ing glad? You bet I am. This time of year is always so incredibly stressful for everyone, and we hear everyone's stress right before they test, and for 40% we hear it again after they get out of their test, as we do their paperwork and help them get ready to test again. New this year, they're being retested by the same team who tested them the first time. Previously they were just assessed by my boss, who nearly invariably said, "Yes, I can see that you know what you're doing and just had a brain fart. You're okay, go back to work." The hell of it is, that is the case most of the time - it was a small thing, they had a little brain-fart. They really don't want to do prep before going back in, they want to just do it again, and it's really hard to work with someone who actually does know what they're doing. We do weird things when we're under stress, and there's no way to tell if you will do it right the next time even if you were 90% perfect the last time - you still might randomly drop some other piece out because you're stressed.
It doesn't help the stress that the tests are very little related to what we actually do every day, and that the potential for possible thousands of dollars in your paycheck rides on them. It's only potential, mind you. I've been trying to lighten the mood a bit by telling people that this must be fun, because gamboling is always fun, right? It is amazing how random the results will be - some people who hate to work and blow off their duties all year will test well, others will be fantastic at their jobs all year and blow it during demonstration. People who've done well every year before have screwed up this year (and gotten pretty pissy about it). Of course when it gets to the second time they're doing the test they feel they're starting to gambol with their job, which increases the tension, and, if they get so tense that they have to go to a third test, the Career Plan points they've worked hard for over the year get lost as well.
When 40% of people fail their first time through there's something wrong with the test. This year they've had to suspend testing in some places because they've fired so many people, and you know some of those are probably good workers they couldn't afford to lose. Upper middle management used to have some leeway as to choices they could make besides firing people, but apparently some of those choices have been taken away this year.
And then the guy who was supposed to be scheduling people for their tests didn't really know what he'd taken on at first, and didn't set up clear ways to communicate to people that they were scheduled this day or that their schedule had changed, and got really behind on getting people back in for their later tests. We've got one guy transferring down to Boston who put off his test until his last day here and then failed, so we're having to send him to Boston in a state of shame. It would have been better to have sent him untested, imho.
Thank your stars you didn't have to read all that.
On the neighbors front, we're sick up and fed with the condo situation. We've had two real estate agents in so far, and I think the second agent we saw had already done some stuff to screw us over before he even came in. So, we're renting a storage space - I'm looking into it today - and we're going to start putting stuff in it so we'll be ready to move quickly when/if we get the chance. I can't tell you how much it lightened my heart when Eor started putting books into boxes, last night. Why should the first stages of moving make me feel so much better? It is stressful in itself, but it's also turning stress into motion, it's doing something about changing the situation, even if it's not the exact right thing. It's the nomad in my soul delighting in the prospect of running away from our problems. Whatever it is, my life with Eor has been characterized by moving every three to five years, but I've at least been able to keep my jobs for much longer. I think moving distracts me from the stresses of the work sphere. :) I said to my coworker, Mistress of the Night, that I wanted to cut and run and she was all, "But you can't! Your bills! You'll lose your job!" etc. Hullo, the two do not equate. My bills will get paid.
Somebody was actually parked in my CLEARLY NUMBERED space the other day. I nearly went ballistic, but Eor restrained me.
On the family front, issues of travel to Hawk's wedding seem to be getting ironed out for my Mom and youngest brother, Eightball. :) There's no way to tell until they're actually arrived at their destination, so I'll be trying to keep the cell-phone charged, but it'll be hard to help them if there's an issue. Mom still hasn't, apparently, contacted her middle brother, nor will she tell me when her return ticket is for, even though I did attempt to remind her that summer in Maine is short and we might want to be able to make our own plans, which will of necessity hinge on hers, as our guest.
I think I had a dream that Hawk called me and told me that the wedding was off. I THINK it was a dream because if it were real I'd think I'd have told Eor right away, as it might change what we'd be doing that weekend. I'm pretty sure that the only phone call I had with Hawk lately was that he was back up here for a short time redoing some of his tests for school and he wondered if he could borrow our kayaks for him and a friend to go out last Sunday. The only wedding-related stuff in that conversation was following up on the situation with Aunt Ess, who he did not invite to the wedding even though he invited her sister, Aunt BeeJay. He tells me he has now written a nice, newsy letter to her explaining that decision - he didn't want to burden her with the guilt of having to say she couldn't attend, or the financial stress of trying to make it. I'm glad he's written the letter and hope that it does make her feel at least included in some way. The situation annoys me, because he made a decision for her, really, by not inviting her. I'm the only one who should be planning other people's lives in my family. ;)
So, yes, it's not that I have nothing to write about, it's just that it's all such an ongoing tangled mess, and things haven't been resolving themselves in nice, neat ways, and I don't want to bore with a bunch of bitching, and especially where so much of it is about work, which nobody wants to hear about. Instead I've been writing paper letters. Woe unto them who receive them, unfortunately - ten or more pages, often, of this kind of thing.
In things that amuse me at work - a guy was trying to describe an area of the body: "Where the torso meets the leg. Where the leg meets the torso. They know each other, they've been introduced."
:)