loracs | Entries tagged with work

Where I work, we have a date/time stamp because we deal with legal documents that have deadlines. The one in our lobby is a fairly expensive machine ($500 -$600 range), yet it does NOT automatically change the month. Every day it clicks over to the new date, but at the end of each month it will not change the month - BUT the dates keep going. This morning it was stamping July 34, 2009. Before you say, this one needs repair, I will tell you I know of two other machines exactly like this one and they all do the same thing. Drives me nuts! Is it too much to ask that an automatic date/stamp machine actually automatically change the date. I guess so.

Back to work - one more hour to go. Now that I did my little rant, I'll probably go back to sleepy eye mode.

Current Mood: cranky
Current Location: 94612

The afternoon sleepiness has started earlier than normal. I haven't even had lunch yet. Eyelids are going, going, going, gone South. zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

This is one exciting post, huh? Bet you can't wait for the next dispatch on the state of my drowsiness.

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Location: work

Me: Good Morning, Rent Adjustment

Caller: Hello, you send me my filo.

Me: Excuse me?

Caller: December 18, 2008 is my filo

After several minutes we struggled to an understanding. She wanted a complete copy of her file mailed to her. She didn’t know the case number, but the Hearing date was Dec. 18.

Me: To order a copy of your file, the cost is .06 per page and it must be paid before we make the copies.

Caller: How much?

Me: I don’t know because I have not seen your file yet.

Caller: How much?

Me: I will need to find your file and count the pages and give you a call back with the cost.

Caller: Okay. How much?

This went on for a few more minutes, with several more requests to mail her “filo” as soon as possible. Finally we both understood each other and I promised to call her back within the hour. When I called her back about 30 minutes later, she was not there.

An hour later she called me and said “Cancel my filo. I fine filo in house.”

At this point we were pretty good at understanding each other. She had found her copy and no longer needed us to make a copy for her.

Filo Canceled – Case Closed!

Current Mood: calm
Current Location: 94612

Had a little earthquake about 45 minutes ago. It was a 4.3 and located down near San Jose (Morgan Hill for the locals.) This was the first time I felt an earthquake at work. I'm on the 5th floor of a 6 story building. It was retrofitted after the 1989 earthquake. It was quite a little rolling action. Now that I work in a maze of cubicles, there was an instant discussion. "Was that an earthquake? Did you feel it? What do we do? Should we evacuate?" A guy a couple of cubes over said "Sit down and go back to work." And yes, he was a Bay Area native.

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: 94612

I didn't start out planning to document my lunches, but when

serenejournal said I should do it after I photographed my smoothie on Tuesday, I just kept going. Well, it's Friday and I didn't feel very good today - I've had a headache most of the afternoon. I wandered over to a pizza place and picked at a Greek Salad and a slice of pizza. I tracked down all the olives, peperocine, onions and feta cheese, only eating the lettuce stuff when my main quarries were stuck to it. The pizza wasn't that good, but it was a very, very large slice. I don't think you can make up for taste by just giving a bigger portion, but they tried.

I spent part of the lunch sitting on a bench in the Plaza waiting for a pigeon to come along so I could feed it some of the pizza, but no one showed up for the party. When I sat down, there was a man standing near the other end of the bench. He was talking very loudly on his cell phone complaining about a job. He showed up, but they didn't pay him the full amount he was promised. I was resting my head against the cement planter with my eyes closed. After he finished, he fumbled around in his large bag and pulled out a pack of cigarettes. He announces "I don't see a sign that says I can't smoke here, so I'm going to. I was here first. I hope nobody minds." I was the only one in earshot, so I guess he was addressing me. I opened my eyes. He was lighting up a cigarette and since he was downwind of me I didn't plan to move - it wasn't going to bother me. As this point, he grabs his bag and storms off. I have no idea why he did the big announcement and then stomped off before I even said anything. A proactive touchy smoker?

It's been fun having lunch with ya'll this week!

The Salad The Peperocine The Goodbye Coke

Current Mood: tired

stonebender joined me for lunch yesterday. Since he is such a burger nut, I ended up at the Burger Bistro again. If you get a window seat, it's a great place to people watch. The Plaza is always full of people at noon time. Many of the people are city workers, so I recognized a lot of them and regaled

stonebender with little stories of my relationship with them. One of the people we saw was the fireman who first came to my rescue when I was mugged a few years ago. He helped me up, called the police and walked me to my building.

I had the tuna salad complete with little fetal corn. I can never see those tiny baby ears without remember the scene in Big when Tom Hanks first encounters one of them at a party. He picks it up and tries to eat it like a regular ear of corn. It always cracks me up.

stonebender had a bacon cheese burger and fries, of course!

Current Mood: content

On Wednesday, I went to the Burger Bistro. On the menu my lunch was called "Chinese Chicken Salad", but when the cashier called out the order it was changed to "Asian Chicken Salad." It was quite tasty and pretty. After I ate, I finally tackled my taxes. For the last month I have promised myself every morning that I would gather stuff up that evening. And every evening, I did not. I figured the only way I would get it done was to throw it all in a bag and take it to work. I'm missing a few things, but at least I did enough work that I felt comfortable making my H&R Block appointment next Tuesday.

Current Mood: content

The weather is beautiful, mid-sixties, sunny and breezy. I ate my calamari salad at my desk while working, so on my lunch hour I could sit outside and read. But I also wanted something else, so here is the liquid portion of my lunch - a blueberry pineapple smoothie from the Juice Joynt. They only use fruit, ice and a little oj, it was delicious.

Current Mood: silly

Mostly it was a boring work day. The best phone call was a woman who didn't like the rent increase her landlord was giving. She said the LL didn't need the money and she did. She needs a new pair of shoes and she thinks the LL has dozens of shoes already. She said the LL was evil and probably a worshiper of Apep, an Egyptian snake deity. I told her I'd mail her the Tenant Rent Petition and she should fill it out and return it. I wonder if next to the need for shoes, she'll list the LL's true nature.

On an equally boring note. Here is a picture of the Vietnamese restaurant where I had lunch today. I eat there at least once or twice a week. Today I had their combination Chow Fun. And the Fun just keeps on coming . . .

Current Mood: blah

Staff meeting this morning was very, very uncomfortable. After the normal stuff, co-worker K decides to read a list of issues he (and by extension we) have with our manager, R. From my POV, some of the criticism (but not all) was on target, but delivered in a very confrontational language and tone. There were 7 people in the room and 3 are lawyers and 2 are analysts - there was much back and forth, questions delivered as statements with no room for a response, one or two apologies (from R), but overall I don't think K got what he wanted - he left before we finished because he was called to the front for a client. I don't know if anyone else knew he was going to do this, but it took me by surprise. He seemed hurt that we all didn't immediately jump in with our own complaints against R. Eventually everyone (except me) spoke up with their own issues. I've not been impressed with my manager's people skills up to now, but he handled himself pretty well under what had to feel like an attack.

I wish I could afford to quit, but I need at least 3 more years (more if I can manage it) before that can happen. I don't even hold out the dream of transferring elsewhere in the city because more layoffs are planned for April or May. First they cut empty positions, of which there are very few because they pulled most of them last November, then they cut real people. Maybe the budget whirlwind will pick me up and crashed me some place else, as it did last November. I don't even know what to hope for, mostly I just feel hopeless.

Current Mood: sad

Have you been sitting on the edge of your seat wondering what I did yesterday on my sick/bad back day? Probably not, but here's what I did anyway.
Took it easy getting up and going, but we (

stonebender and I) went out to breakfast at 11:30 am. Stopped at cheap place to get my hair trimmed, then off to get the van smogged. It failed, so we went to the next place to see what we needed to do. I have an appointment on Friday morning for them to check on, and probably just reset, the sensor that failed. Then we went to see Watchmen. After the movie, we picked up tacos for

dbubley and spent about an hour or so at KPPACC with her. Then home and rested the rest of the night.

All in all, I didn't do too much. My back is still painful today, but I'm at work anyway. I should have brought the ice pack with me, but hindsight is 20/20, huh?

Phone Call of the day (so far)
Me: Good Morning etc . . .
Caller in very loud voice with a southern accent: This is a man calling. I am not a woman. My name is . . . .

I guess he'd had his fill of "yes ma'ams" over the phone. Bonus points: In the previous sentence did I use the quotation marks and apostrophe correctly - I want to put another apostrophe after the last "m" but then it looks like too many. I have a love/hate relationship with punctuation. As a reader - I need it, as a writer - make it go away.

Current Mood: uncomfortable
Current Location: 94612

I work in an office that deals with the rent control law for the city of Oakland. One of my duties is answering the phone. I get many strange questions. Here's one I received yesterday.

Property Owner: Can I remove the stove from one of my rental units? It doesn’t work right.

Me: Of course you have the right to repair and replace items in your units.

Property Owner: No I don’t want to replace it; I just want to know if it’s okay if I remove it.

Me: And you don’t plan to replace it?

Property Owner: Right

Me: Ever?

Property Owner: That’s right, can I do this?

Me: And the unit is currently rented, people are living there?

Property Owner: Yes

What universe is this woman living in? I have to hold my tongue as I sweetly inform her she needs legal advice. This is the type of action that gives landlords a bad name - a very bad name. FYI: my parents were landlords and I've been a tenant, so I see both side of the issues.

Current Mood: restless

K: I’m up to a 32” pant waist.
C: Is that all?
K: What do you mean “is that all”, this is unacceptable! I’ve gained 16 lbs!

Five minutes later K asks me if I like peach cobbler.
“I’m going to order one for all of us, but I’m not going to eat any. I’m going to be good.”

This is after he raved how much he loved the peach cobbler he had on Thanksgiving – and hated himself for eating it.

How screwed up is this.

Current Mood: blah
Current Location: work

Overheard this morning from my cube neighbor, K.

"For breakfast I had a tablespoon of peanut butter and a glass of water."

Current Mood: sleepy
Current Location: cube from hell

Day Four and I still hate my new job in my mini-cube in its dirty taupe depressive décor. My immediate co-workers are all around me and I can hear everything they talk about and mostly they talk about food and diets. K (a male) sits next to me and I’ve just heard a 10 minute conversation between him and Co and Ch (both females) about the calories in bananas and how many you can eat before it equals some granola bar. And did you know it is okay to eat 2000 calories a day if you eat most of them in the morning because you will burn them off. Sheesh. And let me add, none of these people are fat. I’m sure there doctors are after a few of them to lose 20 lbs, but that’s about it.

Yesterday we took Co out for a birthday lunch. I didn’t really want to go, but I’m trying to fit in, so I went. At least ½ the meal conversation was about the food and whether someone is “being good” or not. We ordered 2 desserts to split between the 6 of us, but K immediately informed us he was going to be good and not eat one bite – and he didn’t.

The first day I was here, K made a comment about how loose his short sleeves were getting on his biceps because he hadn’t been working out – he was loosing his “guns.” Without thinking I said, “You know what you can do about that – put your shirt in the dryer on high and you’ll again have tight sleeves.” He laughed, but I don’t think he appreciated the humor. I’m definitely feeling toned down here. I don’t even like to talk on the phone because everyone can hear you and I know they are listening, because sometimes they comment on something I’ve said.

I hate it here.

Plus Guy’s attendant S is quitting for health reasons. Her last day is tomorrow. The doctors haven’t been able to get her out of pain and stabilize her. She thinks she has cancer and they just haven’t found it yet. In the last few months she has lost about 80 lbs and she’s still losing. Her niece, D is going to take over for now. D worked for about 3 weeks last month when S was too sick. I’m so worried about S. I don’t think she’s getting the best health care. Because of some weird hours change in IHSS rules, S has lost her health insurance until Jan. 09. I cried last night when she called to tell me. She’d already told stonebender, so it wasn’t a complete shock to me. I always knew some day, she’d quit, I just never thought it would be because of her health.

Current Mood: drained
Current Location: cube from hell aka work

As of this moment (55 minutes from the end of the day), I hate my new job. My cubicle is teeny tiny with no windows. My last place was about 5 times as large and the "wall"behind me was all window. I am one of 7 people in a small division of CEDA; the Rent Adjustment Program.

I received a performance plan with all kinds of tasks on it and I don't understand any of them. I know I'll be trained - at least I hope I'll be trained. I feel all weepy and floppy right now and can't wait to go home.

Current Mood: crappy
Current Location: cube from hell

I start my new job - the one I didn't apply for - the one I didn't interview for - the one where no one actually hired me. I don't know who my supervisor will be; I just show up tomorrow, ask for Cherry and she said there will be an orientation. Which is good, because right now I feel totally disoriented.

Friday was very sad. The department head took my boss, another person who is laid-off, and four other co-workers out to lunch at a very nice restaurant down at Jack London Square. I spent most of the day trying to do a final clean up of my files and packing up the last of my stuff. It was hard, because many people stopped by to say good-bye. The day went by very quickly.

Have I said how much I HATE this - well, I do. There is something about this whole thing that makes me feel so devalued.

Time to get to bed. I need to get up extra early, because I don't want to be late on my first day of doing whatever for whoever.

Current Mood: gloomy
Current Location: home

( Read more... )

Current Mood: drained
Current Location: home
Current Music: Rocky Horror Picture Show

When you work in administration you hear a lot of things first. Today I was asked to re-do the organization chart for our department in light of the budget problems in the city. There will be layoffs - approx. 10%. They are only #'s on the org. chart, but I know the people behind the numbers. For some of them, I know about their families. Who has little ones running around their house. Who proudly announced their imminent empty nest this fall as their last child leaves for college. Who has bought a house in the last couple of years and worries about paying their mortgage.

We are Information Technology and our job classifications don't exist anywhere else in the city. There will be no bumping. My position is okay, as in they are not eliminating it here, but I still have to worry. If they layoff other people in my position in other departments, they could bump me right back to my old classification in Parks and Recreation. Then Parks and Rec. could put me anywhere they want, doing anything they want. I have 21 years of seniority, but only 19 months in this position. It would be very hard to leave here, but I would still be employed. The people connected to the numbers will be in the unemployment line.

Current Mood: sad
Current Location: work

It's 4:30 pm on a Friday. My boss is off this afternoon, but she checks her voice mail and forwards a call to me. Here's what I hear in a heavily accented Russian female voice.
"I call everyone, no one is working, only get message. Please call me." She left her name and number. I repeated the message several times before I was sure I heard the phone number correctly and I never really got the name. Her voice was full of frustration. Remember I work in a municipality's IT division. I call her. As soon as I identify myself with the city's name, she says "Never mind. Disregard my message. I talk to the inspector. All taken care of. Good-bye."

I can only imagine, once she couldn't get through to the agency/department she wanted, she ran her finger down the government white pages leaving messages all over the place.

Yep, it's Friday. And I'm headed home now.

Current Mood: cheerful
Current Location: work

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loracs

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Just Another Herd Creature

or How I Got a DW Account

Entries tagged with work

It's a Puzzle

It has begun

CANCEL MY FILO

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Week O'Lunches

Thursday's Lunch

Wednesday's Working Lunch

This just in - Work IS Still Boring!

Another Day At Work

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Favorite Call

Cube From Hell

Cube from Hell Report

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It's Official

Tomorrow I Become a Cog

Good News/Bad News

Sad Job

Phone message

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February 2018

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