2:22 a.m. - 2003-03-29
Good Job, Bad Job
Great progress today on the Elections Canada front. The realtor who has responded to my e-mail, e-mailed me last night letting me know he had some ideas. Could he see a copy of EC's standard lease. I called this morning and left him a voicemail saying I would be by during the lunch hour, since that is the only free time I have during the work day.
He had four possible sites for me. Even better, one site shares offices with the Calgary Police Service. The downside for that site is that the space isn't quite big enough on the main floor, the layout doesn't work well with the tasks we have to carry out and there aren't enough washrooms to meet labour, health and safety codes. The upside was that there was enough space available on the second floor, with a good layout, that I could make it work. EC says we can't have anything located on a second floor, but I'm good at begging. We'll see.
The second really good site is right across the street from the first site. It's all on one floor and the layout is nearly perfect. The downside is the amount of space included in the lease - it's about double what I'm supposed to get. I told the realtor that it would come down, in EC's judgement, to the cost of the lease. They won't say no to more space, but they won't pay for it either. The other two sites are acceptable too, with various drawbacks, and they are still all close to the Police facility. Security is one of my key concerns this time, so I'll work with whatever he can arrange for me. Very nice gentleman; last election all the realtors I spoke with either were rude or unwilling to even talk about a lease because it would be short term. I understand that, but three months worth of rent is better than no money coming in - right?
The day job went from bad to worse today. As I've noted in earlier posts, I have received a number of comments from T2 implying she didn't believe my productivity level was adequate. Things like "What do you mean you've only done ..........". A number of times I have been instructed by B, usually at T2's direction, to carry out a number of other tasks such as training C, moving boxes of data from one location to another, looking after rush requests, and many other activities that have consumed huge amounts of time away from my task. In addition, instructions have often been reversed or changed frequently, so time was lost adjusting the process to meet new criteria. Some instructions have interfered either with my ability to do the work correctly or compromised due diligence requirements.
In addition, C has gone to T2 or B on a number of occasions now and misrepresented what I am doing. I'm not certain whether it's because she doesn't understand the process or if her level of frustration leaves her needing to find someone to take the abuse she feels should be dished out. It has taken a lot of time to clear up those misconceptions, but up until now everything has been ok once I've explained the procedures I've used. C has also aggressively challenged some things I have done, demanding I justify my actions to her - something she has no business doing. The primary focus there has been the several properties I've identified that are not recorded in the comany's database. Researching that in the software and through documentation on the shelves is quite time consuming, but is clearly outlined as part of T2's expectations in the original e-mail she sent at the beginning of this project. C has wasted a lot of my time this week insisting I go back through each search I've done with her when she has pulled those files later. As it turns out though, the staff who are responsible for the database and the properties themselves let me know today that they are very pleased with what I've found. It wasn't until the beginning of this week that I was finally allowed to report my findings to them.
Anyway, because of the steady badgering by C and T2, I spent considerable time last weekend populating a spreadsheet I created at home, because I've was tired of having to defend my work and productivity constantly. I had advised B that I was going to do it and she was fine with that. The team is required to submit their stats monthly anyway so she had no difficulty with me doing my own. I brought up the issue of confidentiality and she said the agreement that I signed with the data management firm was all that she felt was necessary.
The spreadsheet I created covers the time from February 13 when I started the assignment, to the 19th of March. It documents properties/files processed per box per day, number of documents per property, and time spent each day carrying out either client or library service as opposed to time on task. The time on service equals about 8 full working days out of a total of 23.5 working days.
This morning there was a team meeting, so I brought in a disk with the spreadsheet on it just so I could print it out as uptodate as I could manage. I knew I should have done that at home, but my computer wasn't working very well and there just wasn't time. It turns out that among other restrictions, my PC's A drive has been disabled - who knew. C was the only person in this morning, so I asked her to send it to the printer from her PC. She commented on the comprehensiveness of the data and I just responded that A had trained me well and that I was used to sending in very detailed stats and reports. (Those 3rd degrees I got some mornings made me learn to be as thorough and clear as I could before A saw them). C appeared to try to save the work onto her PC, but I wouldn't allow her to. She commented she wanted to re-sort the data to create a number of other reports. She must have told T2 about it before the meeting, because when I offered T2 the printout, she refused it saying she wanted the electronic file. She won't allow me the time to do stats - or anything else - during the work day so, at this point in time, it is, firstly, unpaid work and it is also personal work done for my benefit to protect myself from the badgering.
It also appears C might have also given T2 the impression that it contained confidential information even though it is no different than the spreadsheets submitted by other staff members. The upshot was that T2 came by with a confidentiality agreement for me to sign this afternoon, that included a clause about turning over all work and copies of my working notes to her. I am quite willing to turn over the spreadsheet if T2 is willing to pay for my time. Otherwise, I've already stated that the paper copy is all I'm willing to provide.
Every time I manage to cool down one problem, two or three others are thrown at me. I'm really beginning to hope that if a referendum has to be called anyway that that be sooner than later.
�
�
