11:49 AM - 21.09.04
Zils
Meltdown seems to have been the theme for a lot of people lately - or maybe I`m just travelling with the wrong crowd. You know working because food and shelter are still critical items on our agenda and we weren`t born on third base? Never mind.
Late again this morning, I was heading for the bus stop when the woman I used to commute with pulled up beside me. She was running late too, she said. Accepted her offer of a lift and caught up on things a bit. She has heard about my work adventures for years so I don`t have to do too much explaining for her pick up the story line. Ditto in reverse. Heard about a number of friends of hers who were all seriously ill with one thing or another. Venting is sometimes all one needs to get through that one more day with one`s sanity still intact enough to fool most most people.
At work early, it gave me a bit of time to do some housekeeping - good thing. You know that fairy tale where there is a brand new pair of boots. Some poor soul puts them on and the fiddler starts playing - faster and faster as the booted ne has to keep up with the rhythm of his footwear. That was the tempo of the work day. First up the co-ordinator came steaming (literally) in early. Her purpose was to vent too. She is livid with the brother. How dare he tell her what to do. Who does he think he is insisting things be done the correct way. How immature can he get? He`s way behind most males his age in emotional development. Well actually he`s the first really mature male I`ve encountered in a long time - my supervisor and one of the male liaison`s I`ve dealt with maybe accounting for two more. She sounded like the little teapot in the song "when I get all sssteamed up hear me shout" and it wasn`t even 8 am yet.
Two of the young women from the scanning contractor came in to work in the stacks today. The rest of the staff grumbled and moaned about that, but they don`t seem to understand that if their documents don`t get filed then they can`t have acces to them for their work. Simple concept - records management does include filing and that doesn`t make one less worthy of respect. Those young women put in a long day dealing with the petty details - give them a break and at least don`t slam them in the rolling files.
The liaison came by to ask me to focus on the scanning. For the first time I actually disagreed with that, although I didn`t voice an opinion. Right now the brother is being run ragged preparing material for divestments with the co-ordinator bucking him and undermining his work every opportunity she gets. Work she should have completed on a spreadsheet days ago was still not completed and yet the buyers were promised access this morning. She sounded lie a scalded cat as both the brother and the liaison insisted that she had to do it and that it had to be an exact reflection of what was being sent out. As of last evening I was going to prepare the material I had prepared for divestiture the day before so that it could be sent out too. Now the co-ordinator was being told she would have to take that on under the brother`s supervison. Uh huh. She was asking questions about other data that was also being prepared and it was obvious from the liaison`s tone that it was something she had no business knowing about let alone asking more details. That`s why I wear headphones - right? What I don`t hear I can`t leak to any other party.
Not two hours after I started in on the scanning the brother came by. Had I done a quality control check on some documents we found "lost in cyber-space" by the outsourced scanning contractor. Um no, I haven`t had time to take lunch, coffee or enough p breaks lately - anything more just means something else goes on the back burner. Well the sister wants to send a report to the scanners today about all the problems we are still finding. Guess those piles of unscanned data are going to have to grow even taller before I get to them.
Shortly after, the brother came rushing back to ask me if I`d seen some of his working tools or if I knew who had been going through his desk. He described several things that he had noticed being tampered with that really upset him. I told him that the material I had been working on had been reordered too since last I touched it and mentioned that it was not unusual to find that my bag for a desk had been gone through. He was very disturbed by that. I don`t think he expected affirmation of his observations.
As I was checking the douments pulled off for quality control I noticed the software slowing down, then hanging up on different processes. Sometimes not responding to search parameters properly the first time. There were still lots of problems with the data I had been given to check, so I was also taking and printing screenshots so that the sister could see what I was finding and the brother could then e-mail them to the tech support that is supposed to fix all the glitches. It took a couple of hours to process only a few documents because of that. When I did show and tell for the liaison later that afternoon, when she could find some free time, I thought she was going to break down. When she tried to search on her account it wouldn`t bring up the material at all, and yet, I had screenshots that were proof it was there. Went to my computer to see if it might be her account. Mine wasn`t functioning well or fast but it could be forced to work with extra effort. I don`t always like her behaviour, but I also don`t think any corporation should push their employee`s so hard and withhold so much in time and resources that they can`t possibly do their jobs well even at full tilt. In the fairy tale of the fiddler, the dancer usually dies as a result of the fiddler`s musical performance. I think this company`s management thinks they are the fiddler and maybe they are. Wait until it`s their turn to deal with the piper though.
Called the home school service that my son is enrolled with and discussed his progress - or lack thereof. The administrator was really upset that he couldn`t get hold of me during work hours and wouldn`t accept my explanation about not having access to a phone or being allowed to use one. He`s obviously never been in a position where he had to have work and had to cope with abusive work conditions. His shots? Well I see you`re still a single parent and you live in THAT community. He implied that he didn`t believe I waas gainfully employed either. Great what do I do - call him on the inappropriate remarks or deal with my son`s educational needs? I know that he isn`t moving as fast as the administrator would like nor as fast as I would like. Still he`s working at his lessons and that`s much better than giving up or dropping out isn`t it? After all this is the sixth child I`ve had go through the education system not the first one. Sometimes the system is the problem and not the child - this time included. Oi.
Finally finished up the day and waited to talk with the brother privately. It`s just like when you have children and need to discuss some adult concern privately with a friend or relative. They all seem to sense something and won`t go away or follow their usual routine. All I wanted to do was ask him to look in on his sister and make certain she was ok. She really did not look all that well and I didn`t feel it was my place, nor did I think she would accept solace or help from me. She does trust her brother though. Finally got the chance to say my piece about half an hour after I usually leave for the day.
Got home and found the good, the bad, and the ugly waiting for me. The ugly was the state of the housekeeping. Between the cats and my son it was a disaster area. The bad was another call from Elections Canada. We want this now - on voicemail. So what`s a girl to do? Went and had a nap thinking I`d feel better after a sleep. Woke up more upset than before. Blew up at my son and the cats for being their messy selves then did the election work. The good? My package with the zils (finger cymbals for belly dancing) and the drum music to play along with arrived. The cats loved it. They stopped their nightly tear of tag and hide and go seek and all sat in various elegant poses listening to the instruction video. The warrior princess Ficus and the queenly Pasha were actually purring with pleasure. Must have reminded them of when cats work openly worshipped back in their days in Egypt when the world was run the right way, don`t you know.
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