02:49 - 31.10.05
second wind
So where was I? Yes Friday. Downtown office was the location. Last day of work for the co-worker from the same agency as me. There was a goodbye coffee session for her in the morning. I think she was struggling quite a bit asking the same questions most of us ask when our contracts are terminated. With the other two people who have quit two of the other contracts were offered those positions. From what I observed I think there might have been some inkling that they were planning to leave and a couple of "ringers" were brought in so they could easily move in to place right after. I'm not certain that my co-worker was aware of the dynamics because she hadn't been around when the one staff member was fired in the spring. That meant she was asking herself why she was less worthy than the two who received permanent placements. Truth is she wasn't but the decisiions had been made long before she arrived on the scene. I don't think the second job was even posted on the internal job site. In the industry I work in one third of the staff are consultants/contractors and there is no protection for us. To a lot of the people who make the decisions we are just pawns on their chess boards and don't really matter other than ensuring they meet their departmental goals or deadlines. A lot of Christmases I've watched them receive bonuses that were worth the whole years salary of the contract labour that they pink slip just before that "joyful" time of year. Are they really worth that much more than the people who make them look so good? No. But then neither are sports stars or other assorted media darlings. There was a cartoon in one newspaper the other day that showed a male handing a fashion model a huge single payment "just for being alive". Yes well, and world peace, education of children, the health of your family and your personal safety were all just helped along by that one person drawing breath - right. I know crabby aren't I?
At lunch I had my regular appointment with my chiropractor and then I boogied down to City Hall to pick up the maps I had ordered the day before and that needed to be in the mail to Elections Canada no later than midnight that night. It is old and familiar stomping ground and I always get a sense of comfort when I wander through - happier times. Friday was no different. The whole of the department I deal with had been moved to another floor and there was no signage. Security measures meant access was impossible unless one had a pass. The gentleman I had spoken with hadn't mentioned that little tidbit. I had said I would be by at noon - which has been my routine for years. He didn't tell me they were closed at noon so I had a moment of panic. One of those courtesy phones out side the glass doors was available so I called him. He was out of the office. Headed dwon to the next set of doors and tried calling the women who used to be responsible for the taask. I barely got my name out and they buzzed me in. There was one woman standing ready to greet me as soon as I stepped and she seemed to be waiting for me to arrive. She pointed me in the right direction and the other woman who had responded was welcoming too. The first one joined me back at the elevators and we chatted on the way back to the plaza. Bought a United Way fundraising ticket and grabbed a sandwich then raced back to the office just under the one hour lunchbreak.
Some of the rest of the department had signed up to join in the pumpkin carving contest in the bistro at lunch, but I only have two "downtown" days to do errands in the core and those deadlines were non-negotiable. Met the one coworker whose roof collapsed in the spring. She had had other duties to attend to, so had missed the event too. She asked if I wanted to go up and have a look at the results anyway. The reception was chilly to say the least, but I hadn't agreed to be involved to begin with. Because I am only being given my schedule week to week, I don't feel as though I can plan for or commit to anything. My first priorities when I do go downtown are to deal with the health issues first and anything else that relates to paying bills or looking after finances and such - no access from the warehouse. Several of the other staff had not gotten involved either, so I was a little over whelmed by the hostility that was obvious, yet the other staff member who I had come with wasn't treated that way.
When we returned to the floor we work on the second in command was standing at the glass doors waiting for me. I have been having difficulty with my security pass on the one set of doors - the ones closest to me. The pass works oin the elevator and on the other set of doors so that isn't a big issue just an inconvenience. I had mentioned the problem to her again because one of the other contract staff was also experiencing the same trouble. She insisted I had to go up to the reception desk immediately to pick up a temporary replacement card. Why if it's not just me who is having the problem. Her comment was "you don't trust me".I turned to go to my desk to pick up my cell phome and lock other things away but she insisted that I leave immediately. When I arrived back a few minutes later it was to find that the webbrowser on the cell phone had been activated and set so it couldn't be disengaged - or at least I couldn't find a way to do so. There was a message from "playgurl2" apparently from a message sent while I was absent. Finally turned the unit off in desperation. Decided that with the problems I had had with cell phone charges earlier that I needed to insist that that feature be disabled just for my own protection and peace of mind. Emailed the contact I like at elections canada and asked that it be done immediately explaining the circumstances that had prompted the second request - I had already asked that in the summer but hadn't put it in writing. I had just sent that message off when my email account crashed completely. I needed to send a second message as well and the program kept blocking it - not enough memory. Right. Finally found a way to do that but it appears Fred the ghost hasn't had anyone to bug since I've been sent out of office and was making up for lost time. What a joker.
Raced home at the end of the day hoping that my youngest had been able to get at least one of the computers going. He had managed to fire up our own beast without email access but I could use the webmail features to get around that for most things I needed to meet the midnight deadline for my elections assignment. There was still no life past the windows boot up on the elections computer so I called the Ottawa techs to ask for help explaining I couldn't submit the one task unless I could get to the desktop to access the software. We had been told in our manuals that the paper copies weren't acceptable - we had to efile our work. The first response was a bit vague but the responder seemed to be being coached a bit. "Ask her this" and so we went through a sequence of booting up and trying different possible solutions from "safe mode". No luck. I explained that I had made an excel spreadsheet of the work for my own planning use and could send that if it was acceptable to the staff who would need to use it. That was fine. It was obvious that while we were working on the beast and talking that someone there was running diagnostics. The responder finally stated that they would call me back on Monday to try some patches. If not they would send a tech to my home. Given that my house is torn up for renovations and is full of cats that's not really what I wanted to hear. Company even of a work related sort isn't on the agenda - I don't have the time to clean up to a standard that I'm comfortable having strangrs see. I offered to courier it to where ever the support person works. We'll work something out on Monday. I know they did a refurbishment of the network this weekend so maybe it was determined that that might be sufficient to get things back to operablility. Or maybe not. Emailed the one task that was accepted as I had offered it and contiued working to get the maps and other geography work finished off. Finally done at 10:30 so I called a cab to get me to the post office before midnight. Made it with time to spare. That date stamp was a welcome relief - I have proof it went out on time. Got back to find a voicemail from my assistant. She said they had obviously found her paperwork since her pay from the September regional meeting had been direct depositied to her bank account. I responded to the email from the finance department thanking them for showing such diligence in finding the missing documents and ensuring she was paid so quickly as well.
Saturday, other than writing to you dear diary, was spent half sleeping and the other half catching up on all the housework that had been let slip because of all the computer/work issues during the week. Finished at about 5 am/4 am MST - yeah regular time. The bad neighbours were in their room across from the kitchen staring at me as I did dishes. They don't have a curtain up and the cats have pulled down my curtain rod. Guess one of my next downtwon errands is going to be getting another one tout de suite, n'est pas? Today was more of the same with family and election work thrown in (teleconference call you see and follow up email). I also spent about an hour on the phone with my sister's sister-in-law catching each other up on our news. She has really wanted to read my youngest son's chart for me and had set today to do it. Some major aspects very active this coming month - Scorpio themes to boot with Saturn and Mars duking it out, Pluto in the background. Then Jupiter and Uranus apparently going to smooth things out. I think I need a nap now. Good night dear diary.
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