1:59 a.m. - 2003-05-16
2003 - a Space Oddity
In the past few months Miss Kitty and I have developed an understanding, if you will, about "our" morning routine. I work - she directs. When the radio comes on, she makes certain my feet hit the floor before the end of the first song. She escorts me to take my shower; waiting patiently outside the door til I'm done. Next comes dressing - this is supervised closely between visits to the mirrors to check out her own look. Her vocalizations with respect to my appearance interspersed with the news on the radio. Brushing my teeth and hair, putting my contacts in is so closely watched, that Miss Kitty's nose is less than an inch from mine. Finally, cuddles before going out the door.
Not this morning. One cat, buried in my comforter, on her back, paws curled lightly with all four legs in the air. Looked like one blissed out feline - how can they do that? One eye opened briefly with a meow that clearly said "Turn off the light when you leave". Then back to sleep. I guess she's glad to be home.
Really odd day today. First up this morning. I received a call from someone in Accounts Payable. She requested my approval on an invoice and asked who I was, since I don't appear on her org chart. I explained that that was likely because I am a contractor and would not have signing authority on any of their company's invoices. She acknowledged that was her thought, but that she had been directed by a senior manager to get my signature. I asked, out of curiosity, who the invoice was from - I thought maybe it had something to do with the data management firm I work for. She said the merchant's name. It wasn't one I recognized, even after being in this industry for a decade. I told her that I wouldn't be able to sign anything for her, so she asked who I reported to. I gave her B's name, but she said that she couldn't accept a signature from her and asked for her supervisor. She was comfortable with T2's name. Shortly after, I went to get some coffee. When I returned, there was an interoffice envelope addressed to me sitting on my chair. It contained another invoice with a request for a signature. I took it to B and let her deal with it.
At lunch I told my walking partner about it, because she works in the finance end of things. I was feeling uncomfortable with what happened this morning and I wanted her perspective on it. She said that it has been known to happen, that someone will embezzle money from a large company by submitting phony invoices using other staff member's names. That is what I had been wondering, but I hadn't said anything to anyone about my concerns. Sent an e-mail to my supervisor, A, when I got home just letting him know the details.
Odd stuff, deux this am. This morning when I was doing some research in the general/area files for one country, I discovered specific files for another 50 properties misfiled in there. They should be located with all the other property-specific data, two rows over. I sent a spreadsheet of the data found to T2 and B with a note about what I had found yesterday in addition to this material. I spent the balance of the day trying to clean up the mess in the database and on the shelves where these files were concerned, in between doing rush jobs at B's request. There is still a large stack of property files sitting on my desk waiting to be dealt with. Another day of not doing work that will allow me to meet my deadline.
Then there was the odd behaviour of the summer student who shares my phone. She was complaining about being cold this afternoon. I felt cold too. I had shown her where all six of the thermostats were located in the library, the first day she was there. I showed them to her again and we turned them up.
There is another phone just by the door where one enters the library. Occasionally, she will use that one rather than the one on my desk. After we finished, I went back to filing the misfiled property files and she went to the phone by the door. I don't think she realized that I was nearby in the room, because I was working on the bottom rows at the time. She said to the person she called "We have a problem, she just turned up the heat." Then something to the effect of what could be done.
She had mentioned yesterday, that one of her goals at this job was to learn how to play corporate politics. Then, she tried to engage me in a conversation about T2 and her supervisor, C2, conspiring against her because they were both absent from the floor together. She wanted her time sheet signed, since it was due in within the hour. I didn't really say much because she just hadn't taken responsibility for getting it done on time, but I'm not there to be her Mom either. I hope I'm just starting to feel paranoid after all the odd stuff the past couple of days.
I don't think she realizes that if someone is offering to "teach" her corporate politics, it is not because they have her best interest at heart. My guess would be that the "teacher" just wants someone else to hide behind with their activities. In Canada, because our laws are much less harsh for young offenders, it has become the practice of criminals to recruit children as young as 8 - 10 to do major crimes - like drug running and B and E's - under their direction, because it is hard for the courts to prove and, therefore, punish them. The children take the fall. Guess it's the same for white collar criminals.
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