23:51 - 01.11.08
Yin/Yang
I�m feeling quite down, dear diary, and I�m not really sure why. Even the �bad things� this past couple of weeks have had silver linings. Maybe I�m just still fighting that flu I had earlier in the week.
Second day of supervising this week � I had spent the night before vomiting everything that wasn�t part of a permanent structure in my body. I know, too much information - but the day itself went well and a lot was accomplished thanks to a really large, really great crew and the two store managers who worked with us directly. They should write a �best practices� manual for their company when it comes to inventorying. Even with a very difficult situation � their stockroom so loaded that there was barely enough room to walk for all the goods they had to count � we still ended up getting the job done more quickly and accurately than at other sites where there was considerably less challenge. Vomited part of the next night, but even with a small crew that day, things still went well. I was exhausted by the end of that day, but that was just not enough fuel consumed to keep me going.
Not even the suggestion of a headache all week, thanks to a broken contact lens I discovered the Sunday before. It forced me to find the remaining contact lens from the last set I had that broke a few years back. Turned out that that lens works better for me than the one that broke. Better vision, less eye-strain. A curious synchronicity was the theft the Friday before at one of our counts. While our crews were working, someone entered the workroom where all our personal belongings were stored and stole out of several staff�s bags and backpacks. In my bag, the only sign of interference was that my contact lens case had had a spill of something red on it that wouldn�t wash off. The letter �R� � for right eye � seemed to be highlighted with a red halo around it. Next morning I discovered that lens � broken. Just odd.
My supervisor was at another site � same company � at the beginning of the week with a crew of his own. Turned out that site was under construction with as much material in disarray as at the site where I was assigned to supervise. The extra challenge of having construction workers labouring away not five feet away from his team, meant the decision was made to cancel that inventory until the welfare of our staff could be assured. Meant my supervisor and his team also came to work on our site part of Monday, all of Tuesday, then Thursday as well. Wednesday they were assigned to work on an emergent bankruptcy count. The bad thing was that my supervisor became increasingly ill over the course of the week. Exposure to some sort of toxins at one work site plus the flu as well, I think. I finally called our office manager and asked if she would take him home at noon on Thursday. The fact that he didn�t argue the point proved how sick he was. He hasn�t returned to work since, so I was moved from the site I was still assigned to work on on Friday, to start supervising the next assignment that began that day. A lot of crew reorganization had to occur in order to make certain that both stores could be successfully inventoried. Logistics � almost as much fun as maps and demographics, from my humble point of view.
First day at the new site was pretty discouraging. Firstly we arrived �late� for the agreed start, because we had to travel from the site where I was actually assigned. Arrived to find no preparation done, and again, a stockroom clogged with pallet after pallet of material sitting in the middle of every aisle that we needed to work in so that there was almost no room to move, let alone count. The person looking after the high stacker delegated to us for our use did not want to do that job and was vocally expressing their views on the issue. Can�t necessarily blame them � having just had my schedule sent topsy-turvy � but we had to find a way to work together regardless. That person�s angst meant my crew were delayed in being able to get to their work, which left them tremendously frustrated too.
One of the personal characteristics of most of our counters is that they have very high energy levels that demand, ummm, constant direction/channeling and purpose. Those are great attributes, as far as I�m concerned, but, like race horses, they can become skittish and mischievous if those energies aren�t corralled and directed in a positive manner. They also tend to be perfectionists. They hold everyone to a very high standard of personal performance, which is also great, except in cases like this where one has no control over recalcitrant machines, inter-departmental squabbles in the host company and a big mess to deal with all in one. Rescue arrived in the form of, first, the store manager who over-rode the objections of his staff to our presence and activities in �their territories� and then with the arrival of reinforcements from the first site we were at in the morning when they had finished their inventorying there. A lot of my original crew were overwhelmed with the amount of work that we all knew had to be done without the material, staffing, or co-operation we needed from the store staff, you see. Doubling our numbers and gaining access to the material we have to count made the rest of yesterday and today go really well.
Well, dear diary, I�m not feeling as down now, so I thank you for once more being my shoulder to cry on. Maybe it�s the �state of the outside world� that is really causing my angst. I�ve tried to avoid all forms of news for the past month, but it is almost impossible to escape. I hate being lied to and yet that is what I feel is being done � moreso than ever - both through the media and the political bodies/corporations that tend to dominate in the general public�s minds. There seems to be no space or time for the multitude of other voices and opinions that might actually make a valuable contribution to public discourse. Heaven forbid that we should consider anything other than someone else�s bottom line/pocketbook, eh?
Maybe it's just that sense of the pending astrological Saturn/Uranus opposition that is exact on November 4. You know - the status quo up against the revolutionaries. Couldn't we just for once use the principle of yin and yang to find a balanced solution? Grumble. Good night, dear diary.
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