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12:17 a.m. - 2003-02-26 Quiet day at work today. Got my first assignment nearly complete; some more labels found for me at about 3:30 pm so I can get that out of the way tomorrow am. Apparently the material has to come from head office in Toronto - about 2000 miles away - and they say they are out of stock. How can a company be out of the one supply that is key to their business? I guess it depends where it is manufactured and distributed from. My Dad's business is the sale and service of electronics. Because of the Free Trade Agreement, getting parts for some items is nearly impossible. Often it takes two or three months. Then they have to accept "remanufactured" as in "second hand" parts that are often sub-standard AND their supplier expects them to pay up front for the shoddy goods to boot. Nice to have a monopoly that can get away with that complete with the legislation to support it. My Dad's emphasis has always been on customer service, but it's pretty tough to do that under the current circumstances. These days it's cheaper for consumers to just turf their "old" units and buy new ones that are equally as shoddy in construction. I wonder if they realize how they're being taken. I wonder too if they understand how much pollution is being produced by the throw away goods they're supporting with their shopping dollars. Went back to assignment #2 later in the day. There is a very strong odor from the boxed material coming from overseas. I get on the train and it is obvious that more sensitive noses can pick up the scent. I feel like a strike anywhere match - that's the smell. Usually strip everything off when I get in the door and do a load of laundry to get rid of it. No badgering today that I noticed, but I also had my headphones firmly in place and turned up loud - good solution as far as I'm concerned. Music? Carmina Burana, Bach's Toccata and Fugues, Tina Turner, Bryan Adams, and Much Dance. The last doing the "parent audit". The "newest stuff" seems to be half recycled disco - yuck - and half techno, which I do like. My co-workers are at least trying to be polite now when they do approach me. That's all I ask, along with respect for the work I contribute to their efforts. No word from either of my liaisons at the data management company, but I'm guessing they're tied up with merger issues. Apparently they'll be moving offices to the new partner. Good thing I think. They were running out of space where they were and the new digs are more centrally located. Did get an acknowledgement that my invoicing had gone through - that's a plus. K is usually very good to deal with but I think she is too overloaded a lot of the time. That admin assistant syndrome - they're rarely valued for the volume and quality of work they do because part of their job description implies silent support. No one notices them except when there's a mistake or a crisis of some sort. I'm considering signing up for belly dancing again for next month, but I need to have some idea of how much work is entailed in the Elections Canada assignment that is supposed to be completed by the end of March. Another call from a second Returning Officer in the city; we're all trying to figure out what is on Ottawa's mind with respect to timing. If this assignment is as heavy duty as the last one, then taking the belly dancing course isn't sensible, but my body needs the extra exercise and I need some sanity/play time that I know I'll follow through on. Besides, the company I'm working for offers an awful lot of in-house training, that I would love to have, in a variety of areas from upgrades on software skills to technical training to admin skill development. I'm hoping on the evenings that I have a class I'll be allowed to work late. Since I am only supposed to work x hours per week I could then apply the extra hours to time in course. A win win situation - I think. Anyway, I'm beat. Time for bed. � � |