11:16 PM - 12.04.05
Daily Grind
Had an interesting chat with one of the other government workers this morning while riding on the feeder bus to the train station. She has applied for permanent status in the position she has been in for the past year. It was posted nearly two months ago. She is still being told that applicants are being screened. Was that normal? Well, being that it's government it is entirely possible. Being unionized also means there is a strict protocol in place around the whole procedure, that can mean up to four to six months to fill just one position. Add in the advent of e-applications. The ease of submitting a resume likely increased the volume of material to go through substantially.
We chatted a bit about qualities we each had with respect to our own worker profiles. I liked her attitude about that. She is from one of the minority groups that has really been vilified in the press the past few years. She recognized that sometimes one was rejected because one's personal attributes just didn't fit in with the character of the workplace. She acknowledged that she liked to be told exactly what to do and just to do that work in the manner it was prescribed. No variations. She can't function in open area work environments.
When I hire for my office - worker personality is something I give consideration to, as well as the technical skills an applicant presents. As I've noted before, I need people who can deal with very high levels of pressure, impossible deadlines added in to instructions from a remote location that can change hourly. They also need to be very public service oriented, since one is constantly dealing with all aspects of the public. Doesn't matter that one has been doing the technical work for a couple of decades if those other soft skills aren't also present. A lot of people I know will accuse an employer of discrimination because of their gender, age, colour, faith, or culture when it really has more to do with that emotional intelligence or the personality profile requirement for their workplace. One disruptive soul - no matter how good they are - can rob the rest of the team of precious productive time, if they are having to compensate for someone who is constantly out of step with all their other co-workers. No characteristic is good or bad except for how and where it is applied in one's job. That notwithstanding that some workplaces need stirring up or shaking down from time to time. Anyway, my worker characteristics are almost diametrically opposed to hers, so placements I do well in she finds she can't cope with, while the reverse is also true. I can't function in a place that is micromanaged.
We parted at the train and I spent the rest of the journey in just watching the sunrise. Met one of the women I volunteered with on one of the family support committee's coming off the train. We walked to our respective office buildings together, just catching up on personal business - how things were going for each of us and our families. It was a really pleasant way to start the morning altogether. The chatter seemed to continue for a while with co-workers inside as well. Our supervisor was talking about her adventures in making a cheesecake for the department's baby shower/birthday party around noon. The woman whose desk is right next to mine was telling our supervisor how she was trying to get a cake finished for her boyfriend's ex's birthday later in the week. Comparing recipes and baking styles. I commented on what great parenting/role modelling my co-worker was doing, by looking after the birthday preparations of her step children's mom. She said she actually was just doing it because she and the mom got along very well. Nice to hear. Similar chatter like that among workers all day. Bits of caring about and for a range of issues and people.
A lot of us were not feeling all that well during the morning. Comparing different rememdies for the assortment of ills afflicting us. By noon I was really queasy. I had already booked time with my chiropractor and was hoping it was just the level of pain I was experiencing that was causing the distress. The spring weather changes always cause anything unstable to inflame - the left knee and wrist this year - in addition to the sinuses with the very high pollen counts right now. Just Spring fever. Right?
He was feeling a bit better today, but allowed his arm was still bothering him too. He asked if he could do the adjustments from a different angle so it wouldn't retrigger his injuries in the process. No problem. Something he said made me think he was feeling a bit down, because I don't seem to ever get much better. Truth is that childbirth and a couple of traumatic injuries/illnesses the past few years have just been enough so that I seem to cope, but not fully recuperate. Part of that is a genetic condition called Ehlers_Danlos syndrome. Long title that means I'm "double jointed" - hyperextension of the joints. It has always been a bonus with respect to being involved with gymnastics and yoga, but it does mean my joints are less than stable. The constant physical stress on them since I started having babies has taken it's toll. Add in that I think that one incorporates the emotional stress one experiences into the skeleton itself and the recipe for chronic pain is almost a given. When I got home tonight, I surfed the web looking for articles I could email to him, so he didn't feel it was any lack of skill on his part that I wasn't improving. The fact that he keeps me as functional as he does allows me to not be crippled by the disorder, as other people have been. Some of the sites were listing practices such as spinal fusion as their first choice for care. Not for this girl.
Back at work I emailed the manager of the office building I am assigned to right now. I had volunteered to approach them for door prizes for the open house. Realized suddenly that that was a week from today, better get on the ball. Sent that off and looked up 15 minutes later when a gentleman asked if I was me. He was carrying a whole bag full of goodies and his name wasn't Saint Nick. It was the building manager himself. I was a bit stunned as was the coworker who doesn't like Aquarians. He handed me two big packages of titanium golf balls, a golf shirt, a flat of embossed mugs complete with gift coupons for the coffee service on the main floor, a very nice leather bag, a travel mug and embossed beer stein. I was pretty much speechless - and, as you might guess, that is very rare. My co-workers eye's were the size of saucers. After he left, she commented that now she knew who big brother was. It was a bit strange, in that no one really knows my "address" because my desk is in an open area on the floor next to no discernable landmark. Yet here within 15 minutes of receiving the request, this gentleman had not only assembled a very impressive donation to the company but had located my floor, my desk and knew what I looked like enough to be comfortable to address me by name, when he approached the group of people around me. I told her I thought it was pretty neat. I know from past experience how much surveillance exists in most offices in the industry in which we work. It is comforting to know that someone like this man could comfortably identify a relatively new hire like me out of the thousands of people working in the complex and locate me within minutes. Makes me feel much safer being where I am. Don't mind the "invasion of privacy" one bit, since I'm not doing anything but attending to my tasks. Also might explain some of the Fred incidents too.
The one mover was back after being on an assignment somewhere else for a couple of days too, so the afternoon stretch felt really good. I tried the pumpkin chocolate cheesecake my supervisor had brought in after just having some veggie rolls. Hadn't ever gotten to the party because of the doctor appointment and the fundraising work, but I did want to see how that recipe would taste. To die for, it was. The rum ball was yummy too. Yes I know, not exactly sick people food, but at least I could be sick and feel happy too. Right?
The mover was enjoying his share at the end of the afternoon and he and the coworker who stays later and I got into a discussion about alcoholism. It started when they were discussing some of the strange things they had found left in the stacks at various jobs. Just because someone is a white collar worker doesn't mean they are any better, when it comes to things like dealing with litter. I allowed that in a contract last year, that I had found bottles of gin stuffed in some of the document cabinets, interspersed with mix - of course. The mover said his experience was that there was at least one alcoholic to deal with on every assignment he was sent in to - their denial of their condition causing the most damage for everyone including themselves. Talked about the effect that had on their ability to do their jobs, as well as the effect it had on their co-workers and families. I know about that one from personal experience and he obviously did too. I told them about my aboriginal friend using it as a tool to protect herself from the memories of the abuse she had been subjected to for decades as a child and young adult and how hard it was to watch her self destruct. Odd thing was, when I got home she had just called and left a voice mail just letting me know that she was out of jail.
I had been feeling really teary and sad just before lunch today, so I wasn't surprised to see one of the emails I recived when I sat down at my home computer tonight. My friend from the Middle East had dropped a brief note to say she had just learned that her father - who lives in England - had died. I had thought at lunch that maybe I was picking up the feelings of the coworker from the last assignment whose hubby is in the last stages of cancer, but I guess not because there was an email from her too asking if we could get together for lunch this week. Pisces moon - makes one very sensitive to the feelings around one, but sometimes it is impossible to figure out exactly where they are coming from - inside one's self or out, from that person in that corner or the one on the other side of the room. On good days it's an interesting puzzle to solve, on bad ones it can cause major confusion and a bit of paranoia too. Is it even real or not. Reality - stranger than fiction, as the bard would say, I think. "There are stranger things on heaven and earth, Horatio ..." Hamlet (paraphrased) - the grave scene.
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