1:30 PM - 08.03.05
New Moon
Pinch me - I think I'm dreaming.
Sunday night I couldn't sleep. Too nervous by far. I started working for the one data management company exactly four years ago. Change is something that doesn't bother me much most days. Cutting the apron strings was a bit of a jolt in the end, even though I knew I was being harmed by the association on a number of levels.
Walked in to work at 8 am after downing a latte for the courage it might offer. Within half an hour I had a desk and chair, a telephone and email account set up, photo id and a security card and we even managed a trip to the supply cupboard to fill the drawers of the lockable cabinet that had been given to me for my own use. Looking up from my desk I can see the mountains as well as the street scene below. I was given the key documents I need to do my work and told to make myself comfortable at my workstation. Next up was the tour of the records center/library being introduced to all the women who make up the records team. I know I didn't get all the names - about 20 people - correctly but that will come - right? A lot of them are new hires just like me - that doubling of the staff in a very short period of time is unusual and I'm still thinking on it.
9:30 came quickly and I was included in a workshop to train liaisons from other departments how to do their tasks for us properly. The trainer was a very nice woman who hailed from NE Texas. Very pretty, but subtle accent meant it was easy to listen to what was being said. The lecture helped me understand the corporate culture and values as well as their goals for the work that I was brought in to do. The questions from the women attending helped me understand the dynamics and workflow among and between the different departments. That's a pretty good way to start a new position, I think. For the balance of the day I was told my job was to "play" in the software and with the database just to familiarize myself with what was there. Not one demand for deliverables on the first day. I found a lot of gaps in the information that I was given and spent two or three sessions with my superviosr just showing her what I'd found as I "played". She kept thanking me for bringing up or pointing out problems. They want this endeavor to be as well done as possible and there was no territoriality or defensiveness about observations of weaknesses in the current set up. Odd.
Went home and spent 3 hours talking with one Returning Officer and my tech. Just comparing note nad planning some mutual strategies with the RO while asking my tech how he had fared in our nation's capital. Lots of funny stories and laughter to go with it. He said his three days were so busy he had no time for play. came back with about 20 pages of notes. Uh huh. He asked me if the staff there always found ways to undermine one's ability to do their job. Remember my experience with the mobile polls during the last elelction. Troubles with the software so I found a way around it while talking with one of their staff. Next day I as off site to work downtown they called my tech made her undo everything I had done and then messed up the software even more so that I couldn't reproduce the statutory documents that were required by law. They didn't know and I didn't tell that I had already created several photocopies so their little bit of sabotage was a moot point anyway. Let them savor a phyrric victory so they don't try anything else. No skin off my nose since it protected my work from more harm and it certainly didn't hurt my feelings if they thought that their little game would "knock me down a peg or two" or embarrass me. Their behaviour was an embarrassment but only for themselves. No amount of projection changes that.
Today was equally as pleasant too. Talked with several of the records staff just getting a sense of what they would need fromn the work I am doing. Chit chat is allowed so I got to know a little bit about some of them. Several asked if I was doing ok and if I was feeling comfortable. They seem to be very considerate of each other and there is a lot of mutual support for each others tasks. Also very unusual. I started in doing the work I was brought in to complete and it raised as many question or red flags as the day before. Another session with my supervisor, he notebook at the ready so she could fix the things that were possible for her to do. Change the coding in the software to add more fields? - No problem. A lot of work generated for other staff on the floor. - We welcome it because it will make things better for the staff. Whatever I asked for was given to me without question or delay. Very strange. No complaints either about the amount of front end research I was doing. In most places I try to explain that the more I know going in to a project the more efficiently I can plan the execution of my tasks. Most assignments the response is that I have no right to know the overall picture and also no right to comment on the areas where I have been brought in pecifically for my expertise. Kind of a waste of resources, but I don't normally have much say in the matter.
Went walking up the escarpment at lunch. Across the bridge watched the break up of the ice. Floes of ice the size of a living room floating down on the current bobbing gently up and down. Up along the hike traill - a lot of people running or power walking all with faces just lit up because of the sun and warm weather. Temperatures in the high teens C/ around 60 F. Unusually warm for thi time of year. The specialist from Texas is in our city all week and we asked her how she was coping with the coolness. She allowed that she might have had second thoughts if we had been having a blizzard when her plane landed here on Sunday but she also said that the temperatures in the city where the company has her based were way too hot for her liking anyway.
Back through my favorite market I picked up a shawl to keep at the office because the floor is kept really cool. Walked past the one entrance and noticed a new dance studio just opening. I've been wanting to take another belly dance course so I grabbed a brochure on the way past. Nothing available until late at night in that category but there is a hip hop course right after my work day ends. Do I have the gut to go try it? Don't know. A couple of nights back there was a community profile on televison on the news about a team of women curlers. They had all begun learning the game in their 60's and been playing together, some of them, for nearly a quarter century now. Then there was the profile of the man who started playing the bagpipes in his 50's and was now in one of the most prestigious bands in the world. See I'm trying to talk myself in to it but I don't know. Think I'll go watch a session first. I like hip hop - it's an awful lot like dance in the '60's and also has a lot of belly dance movements in it too. Sort of a fusion I guess. Back at the office my supervisor mentioned that the company offered yoga classes at noon when she saw me stretching to get out some of the kinks after a long session at the computer. Consultants can go too - yes and the company has a "play" day in June scheduled as well that we can join. Then she sent me a course outline for a workshop mid month in an area where I want to learn more. Would I like to be included? You bet. Next up learned that one of my lunch hour walking partners from a few contracts back is now at this company. Did she want to restart that activity? You bet.
Odd things today. My phone rang this morning - call from a relative of one the other key superviors on staff in the recordscenter. Just a mumbled "wrong number" before the caller hung up. As the superviosr was sitting and working with me just before lunch, another team member came up and handed her quite a stack of paper. She said it had just been printed out on their printer did she know anything about it. Well yes - she had set that print job to her computer - other side of the building - yesterday about this time and it had printed out accordingly. Next when I powered back on to the computer after lunch the software kept opening up the search screen for the legal department. I asked the tech sitting nest to me if she knew what might be causing it and how to fix it. she opened her copy of the software and it did the same thing for her. We worked together on dealing with the problem for about half an hour. I commented that there must be a ghost on the floor given the strange things that had happened that day. She jumped and looked at me a little strangely. She said - yes there had been several instances where several staff had encountered said ghost - he was quite mischievious. She then went on to tell me stories of what he seemed to enjoy most in terms of pranks. Oh boy.
See what I mean dear diary. I think I'm dreaming - don't wake me up. If nothing else the past two days have been entertaining. Hope it continues for a while longer.
�
�
