00:45 - 24.06.05
Revelations
Sorry about last night dear diary. My youngest and I went to get groceries last night. By the time I got back home I was feeling quite sick - flu symptoms. It was very hot and humid so that might have been part of the problem too. We had bought two electric fans on sale since we have no air conditioning in the house. My son wanted them because they are also radios and have purple blades as opposed to some of the more workmanlike models out there. When we had placed them strategically to get maximum airflow we turned them on wondering how the cats would adjust. A number of the males laid in a circle on their backs with their paws flopped open about two feet from the one unit. They looked like patrons at a spa. "Peel me a grape".
There was a staff meeting called yesterday morning. At one point we had to go round the table each person updating the group with respect to their own projects/workloads. The two supervisors who had been giving the one new worker so much trouble about her work performance were acknowledging that they had no idea how much work they had been dumping on her. You see that young lady is on holidays and the other two have had to pick up the slack for her. It has required both of them to try and cover all her tasks and they haven't had time for their own jobs. That was supposed to be the workload for 50% of her time at the company. Uh huh. Hope they find a way to apologize for the harrassment they inflicted on that young woman when she returns.
Another item on the agenda was another team building event. Remeber this is Calgary and July is mostly given over to the Stampede. Apparently our department is going to be going to the rodeo as a group. Mandatory paid attendance during work hours. Lunch, drinks and a 20% discount on shopping included. Have I mentioned how much I enjoy working for this company? Got back to my desk after all that excitement. Email from the United Way representative waiting. There is a 50/50 draw being run to raise money for that charity. To sweeten the pot, the company has kicked in two tickets for one winner to go see the Willie Nelson concert next month. I already bought my draw tickets but I imagine that will boost sales quite a bit too. Next email was from the company President. The company has made a large donation to the local Red Cross to help with the flood rlief work they are doing here in the city. They have also decided to allow any worker who had flood related problems in their homes to have two full work days off with pay to deal with it. Have I mentioned how much I like working for this company?
I had lunch with one of the other returning officers yesterday at lunch - the one that does work overseas. She was stationed at Jenin for the Palestinian vote. Her accounts of what she saw first hand don't jive with newspaper accounts - what a surprise. I think that sometimes the media is responsible for creating or exacerbating conflict in order to sell their advertisers' services. I think I'm going to start boycotting some of those advertisers if they don't insist on honesty in reporting the news instead of putting pressure on the papers to print what sells more of their advertising. I think I'll consider the ones who advertise in the smear magazines - the papparazi driven ones - completely off limits in terms of my consumer dollars. There has to be a list of head offices and officers of those companies somewhere on the web, so I'll just send them all notes letting them know why I won't consider buying their products anymore.
Today lunch was with one of the other women who works contract in the industy I'm in. She is working for the parent company of the last company I was assigned to and also worked with me in the company where I needed to walk away last October. We had a lot to talk about as a result. She asked whether I was still with the same agency and I said no. She asked about my superviosr so I explained how nasty his behaviour had become since that other co-worker was brought on and what I had had to deal with where that person was concerned. It was odd but she was the second person that day to let me know about other jobs and agencies who are looking for workers right now. I know I keep getting told at work that my contract is secure for the length of the project I'm assigned but there has been no follow through on bringing me into the company on their own contractor program. That was promised for when I had put in 560 hours. That passed some time ago. Don't know how to read that. Some industry gossip told me more about what might be happening behind the scenes though.
In the afternoon I processed the implications of what I'd been told listening to Sting's original Desert Rose and dancing with my veils and the cats in my head - sugarplums are just too fattening don't you know. The only interruption was when one of the staff from another floor needed to use the last form of technology that was supposed to render us a paperless society. The reader for that technology sits right behind the cabinets right next to my desk. It had to be pulled out - huge ugly beast - and chair brought in for her to sit on while she tried to find the data she needed on fiche. That meant her chair was right up against my chair, Cosy.
Anyway one of the girl cats just sat on my keyboard so I guess it means I'd better go and deal with those girls for real. Good night dear diary.
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