00:31 - 15.11.05
Uranus
My phone rang at 5:30 in the am today. It was the tech from Elections Canada. Could I go check a serial number on the computer for him. Did that - sort of. The number was about 1/32 of an inch high and under the lip of the CD player. I was not wearing my contacts and was barely awake. Seeing was a major issue therefore. Mr Fluffy thought it would be a great time to put in his order for breakfast and had his nose right in there talking away. Finally got that worked out and started the daily routine for getting to the bus on time. Didn't come close to the right time - Mercury went retrograde for sure.
At the bus stop realized I couldn't find my bus pass. I knew I had the fare - $2, a twonie as the coin is called here - but I have already paid enough for that pass. Finally found it just as the bus was pulling up. Stepped on the beast and found a bottleneck right at the front of the vehicle. Followed the one guy who is the strong silent type through there and thought I was home free. Just at that point, the one male who had tried being a little more than friendly this summer came up toward me then passed. Realized as he came level with me that he had caught and was pulling my hair. I let out a yelp, because it hurt, of course. I am assuming it was accidental, although how his hand was where it could entangle itself in my hair was a bit of conundrum. Walked to the back door and stood dozing as the vehicle moved on. Realized all of a sudden that the regular movement of the bus wasn't there. Looked out the window and had no idea where we were. I've ridden this bus to work for over a decade now, so it couldn't be put down to unfamiliarity either. We ended up going through one community south of us instead of on the freeway, and I think, through an extra segment of part of an industrial area because we passed a furniture store I didn't know existed out here. Or maybe I was still dreaming and didn't realize it. No announcement as to the why's, but I suppose it didn't matter anyway. Meant that it was even later than usual before we arrived at the train station.
A young man and an older woman sat on the bench with me. He was telling her about his misadventures with a detour last Friday. He had caught the first bus out of his community, one north of mine. He said the bus driver was a substitute for the regular driver and hadn't even been given a map of the route. He had no idea where he was going. The young fellow said the driver's solution was to go up and down the adjacent streets looking for bus stops that might be his. There was only one stop where anyone else got on and the driver tried to ask the passenger for directions. The passenger responded by going and curling up at the back of the bus - nothing but a snort for an answer. The young fellow said he was half an hour late for work as a result. He was laughing about the adventure, so I guess his boss is the understanding type. Some places would fire you for that or at least take disciplinary action against you. I still managed to get to work only 10 minutes late - not too bad.
Set up at work and was just about finished the weekly report when the two women from the other side of the partition tugged at me. Emergency meeting of all staff in the department, in the boardroom right now. Great - what blew up or who died? By now my stomach was doing great heaves. Not the best Monday for certain and it was just coming up to 8 in the am. The announcement was that the one supervisor I like had been terminated effective immediately. I had just seen her not 15 minutes before working away, talking to our supervisor about how much she'd already accomplished that morning. She was the one who had surgery about a month ago and she had been taking time away to recuperate, but that is not unusual given the type of illness it was. Nothing was said about why in the larger meeting - there was just a stunned silence. Our supervisor stated that it was not the beginning of rolling layoffs - because that is a common phenomenon in this industry. I think she knew what everyone in the room was thinking. Am I next?
Had the weekly meeting with the second in command not long after. Now the Friday before, there had been an announcement that the coworker from the agency I work with, who's contract had ended not long ago, would be back to work with the second in command - taking up some of her jobs. That co-worker had called a couple of days before to let me know she had put in her resume and had made some very negative comments about that one supervisor who was fired at that time. I had been quite surprised by her negativity, given the illness of that worker, but remembered that the coworker had started work after the surgery had occurred. She wouldn't have seen the pain the one had suffered for days on end prior to the hospitalization. Apparently she must have known something was afoot though, because her comments about the one fired were almost echoed directly by the second in command. "Poor work ethic" - given the behaviour of the perfumed worker and the ally, that wasn't sufficient grounds. Those two more than doubled the time spent on personal issues of the fired one. "Poor quality of work". I can't speak to that directly, because I didn't handle their data, but I did hear from some of the people who were trying to find the information they needed that they couldn't find anything in the files set up by the perfumed one and it was the ally who was refusing to search and pull the records requested by them. "She was misleading the one coworker" - the one who switched places with me months ago when this area was first set up. That wasn't who I saw and heard misdirecting her, but what would I know. "She didn't have enough of the skill sets required". Well the company was providing training for everyone else in the group including the second in command, so why would it be held against the one who was fired when she was not being offered that same opportunity. Was she refusing to upgrade? As far as I could see, anytime there were information sessions or workshops offered, she was the first to sign up. Then the clincher for me was "she didn't take enough pride in her work", but "she showed too much pride in "other things"", that being a direct reference to that fired worker's racial background. The second in command is quite intolerant of differences of points of view, but not having the same opinion as the boss is not legal grounds for firing. Then came the generic closer of "and there were other reasons". Unless some of the reasons were quite extreme, I don't think that the choice was legitimate within the context of the other workers. Even if there were grounds I wasn't aware of, that comment about racial differences taints the entire process. If she had not been of that race would the outcome have been the same?
Then out of the blue the second in command asked another strange question. When I was at work on Friday I had asked by email if I could be hooked up by remote access to work at home on data entry now tht the Elections Canada work was done. The answer came back "no". When I logged in later that night to see if I'd missed anything, I found that the message had been re-sent with a note from the second in command that stated she had been at the mailroom when my paycheque had arrived and had taken it on my behalf. She is not to do that and she knows it. She had left it on top of my desk for all of the weekend. It should have stayed in the mailroom until I arrived there - that has always been the practice in the past. The mailroom staff have been very careful to make certian I know it's there and find out when I would be up to retrieve it. The second in commnd's comment was that she had sent that information to me early on Friday afternoon - just before 3 pm - why hadn't I responded to her. Well the only information in that first message had been about the remote connection and the comment about the cheque only showed up in the re-sent message at about 8 pm Friday night. I know because it arrived in my mailbox while I was logged in by remote to the email. I was quite irritated by the fact that she had taken the cheque to start with. The question was even more upsetting because it was as though she was accusing me of not having been available to talk or read my email at the warehouse. Was she trying to imply that I had left early? I explained that I left at my usual time and had done so because I skipped lunch for that purpose. If I had actually known about the cheque, I would have made arrangements to have it couriered to me since I really can't afford to wait for my income. I don't have any cushion right now given all the extra expenses that come with house renovations, do I? Left that meeting feeling quite cranky on top of concerned about the fired co-worker.
At lunch I needed to get that cheque in to the bank, so I headed off needing to find something to make me feel better about the day. I was just at the door of the building where I do my banking when a young man stopped me to ask directions. He was new to the city,looking for work and English was not his first language. The address where his job interview was located was quite a way out of the downtown core. Quite far south as a matter of fact. He didn't have a map and the language barrier was becoming quite an issue, so I walked him a few blocks back to the transit shop to get a map and help him find a place to pruchase transit tickets. Travelling on the train without them is nearly a $200 fine each incident. Not what one needs when one is already strapped for cash. At the store I found a city map, while he was doing his shopping, then we went over the route to get to where he was going. He had obviously been told by someone he trusted that the building was in the downtown, so he was obviously suspicious of what I was trying to explain - even with the map in front of him. The tellers weren't very busy, so I took him back to one with the map in hand and the gentleman reinforced the fact that the young guy would have to get on the train south to get to that interview. The good thing was he recommended a more efficient itinerary than I had, because he obviously knew the routes in that area better and I think knew exactly which building was in question. Something I didn't. Walked with the young guy to the train platform, because it was on my way to another branch of my bank. That basically took up all my break, but I felt better for having been able to help someone else find work. I guess it was transference in some ways, because I couldn't help the fired coworker at that point. Angels come in all sorts of packages.
The afternoon I just focussed on data entry and was very glad to leave the building. Maybe I am entirely out of step with what's really going on there, but today was one of those indicators that maybe it is time to be more aggressive about finding another contract. This one is not working out, even though I really like the company itself and think it is a good corporate citizen. Sometimes the company can be great while one or two departments are not. Happens especially in really big organizations. Problem is that if those problems are not addressed - different standards and levels of competence - as in given the state of the records overseen by the second in command and my supervisor, how can they fire anyone else citing the same level of negligence. The entire company will suffer the loss at some point without even knowing it has a ticking time bomb sitting in it's midst. Melodramatic aren't I?
Anyway son number three just walked in the door - just a visit after his work day so I'd better go see what's new. Good night dear diary.
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