8:49 PM - 16.09.04
Sleight of Hand
The phone at the brother's workstation rang just after 8 am and it was the brother calling. Not that unusual, he often has called in with information I needed or questions or instructions. I looked at the call display and realized that he was in the building but on another floor. He said that he had been moved from working with the records team to another team and the decision had been made yesterday afternoon while I was dealing with the flooding in my home. He didn't sound very happy about it and it didn't make a lot of snse to me either. He was in the midst of several projects one of which ws deemed critical, yet all of a sudden he is no longer there. He mentioned coming in to the records area after work to complete his projects but that doesn't make sense either.
Not much I could say or do except express my regrets that we weren't working together anymore. Tried not to speculate about it either - just makes one crazy and paranoid. Takeovers and mergers in this industry foster all sorts of weird behaviour and obviously this one is no different. Just keep my head down and my nose to the grindstone right? Scanned documents as quickly as I could given that I had what I thought was unrestricted access to the brother's pc now. Not. He popped up around 10 to see me and yet he couldn't look me in the eye. Paranoia got worse and then his sister showed up and stood right behind him until he left. It was clear there was something going on there that was most unpleasant. He called about an hour later and just expanded on some of the unfinished business that had to be dealt with with respect to the software and some other tasks but it seemed he felt he had to communicate with me without being detected. I know I haven't consciously or actively done anything wrong but it does make one wonder who is being disciplined or made out to be wrong. Add in the fact there was still no pay in my bank account and the stress level jumps very high.
One of the things the brother did manage to let me know was that the young male tech from the outsourced company would be by to try and fix the software - again. He said the estimated downtime was anywhere from 2 to 8 hours - did I have other work to keep me busy. Yes about 20 times that but never mind. The tech arrived at about 1:30 pm and I spent the afternoon adding in all the new filing that has piled up over the past couple of days - about 3 linear feet I think. I didn't really mind the brak either. At lunch I had power walked around the south perimeter of Prince's Island and then back along the river path in 45 minutes.
Part of the reason was a couple of young street kids who started to follow me just after I crossed the bridge into the park. Two males, two different ethnic backgrounds, but from their faces and demeanor very similar experiences - none of which were likely very happy. It was when they fell silent then changed their course to follow me that I decided to move a little more purposefully. I switched my course and they followed and after I switched a second time with the same result I realized I would need to be very careful. I think because it was payday - well for other people anyway - and I had my purse with me they may have thought it might be useful for them to "borrow" it. Under normal circumstances I leave my purse in the office, but because someone has been going through my office in a bag at work I have been taking it with me at lunch. Can't win, me, but between the co-worker, the plumber and the street kids I'll take my chances with the kids. They're just hungry right? Anyway, I kept walking briskly watching to be certain that there were always other people nearby. I had wanted to take the northern path on the island, but that is too isolated at this time of year. The south path had several groups of women walking together, so I started making sure that there was always at least one group between me and the young men. After about 15 minutes they gave up and wandered off elsewhere.
While I was working on the new data the young techwas asking for help with the reprogramming he needed to do. Because I am the designated "primary user" I think he felt that he'd better be certain that what ever he did should be understood by me. It was interesting because he showed me a few tricks it would have taken a while for me to figure out myself. He asked questions about my work life and told me a bit about his own. He grew up in a small town in Saskatchewan so we got to talking about access to education and learning experiences. He had had a lot of really interesting computer courses in high school and sme special projects to boot. I allowed I came from the slide rule generation and hadn't touched a computer until I was helping with my childrens schooling as a classroom volunteer. Discussed different coding and systems a bit. He was a bit frustrated because some of thepatches that had been made to the program built for this company had been lost when he reconfigured the software and he couldn't track down any of the people who had done that work. Can't blame him. He was doing a download that took about two hours on my PC in addition to working on the brother's PC. At about 4 pm the co-ordinator came round the back and headed for my PC that was showing the download at about 95% complete "Oh let me show you something that will help you work better" I stopped her from interrupting the download but only just and explained that she would have to wait until the tech had completed his work. She tried to go on to the pc twice more but I wouldn't let her near the keyboard so she finally went off. Stayed and guarded the beast until the download was complete and the unit rebooted so that the process was complete. Checked to make sure that it had done what it was supposed to then advised the tech, who was still on the phone trying to rewrite the gibbled code so that he could finish before 6 pm. I asked how he wanted the other computer secured and he asked me to turn it and the scanner off. At that point theco-ordinator was still around so I did as he asked, confirmed what I'd done with him then left for the day - late but whatever it takes - right?
Got home and called my supervisor just to touch base because this little voice kept urging me to do so even though I hate bothering him. It was about 6 pm then and he sounded beat and down. He said things were not really going all that well this week and he was feeling a bit overwhelmed by the sound of his voice. I just noted that I wanted to be certain everything was ok since we hadn't talked for quite a long time. He said he had left several messages on my cell phone and seemed quite relieved when I explained that the voicemail on that unit never had worked. I guess he was wondering why I hadn't responded to his calls. Oi. He said that the co-worker I had had at the assignment just before this one had quit the contract he had been assigned to next. My supervisor was trying to be hapyy that my co-worker had gotten another job but he also felt a bit betrayed when he had gone to some lengths to get this contract to keep my co-worker busy. The skills needed for that contract just happened to be the ones I discovered that my assistant tech for the election had so I offered to e-mail his resume to my supervisor right then. The reason I had that resume was that my assistant tech had e-mailed it to me not one week ago asking me to critique and expressing frustration that he hadn't had much response to his applications. I can't say whether it willwork out or not or if the wages offered are enough for him to take it, but it does seem kind of synchronous doesn't it?
I aasked my supervisor about the old payroll administrator - had she left the company? No just moved on to another department. I explained about my lack of a paycheque and he said he would check in to it for me. He also said he would try to hook up with my liaison sometime next week. Part of what had happened on Friday between the data management company's new rep and the liaison was that she said she might cut the non-contract I have short because she thought she might bring some of the records people from the company being taken over in to take my place. Fine with me, as you know dear diary and my supervisor didn't seem to upset either, because he knows how I feel about being there. However, there is a principal involved called ethics in agreements that doesn't sit well at all. As he was talking about that I remembered the brother's odd behaviour when he came to see me and the fact that the sister was right behind him - how did she know he'd come if some one in the library hadn't alerted her I wonder? Maybe the reason he couldn't look me in the eye is that she had told him what she planned to do - maybe - and he felt badly. Not his fault. He doesn't realize that I want out of there, especially now. I hadn't realized until he called to say he was transferred to another department that the only sense of safety that I did have was because he was there. His presence was a protection all in itself. I actually felt a little afraid after he hung up the first time wondering if I wanted to remain past the end of September. Don't know. I don't think all the cards are out on the table yet - do you?
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