Reality show

I would say that I have spent at least my fair share of life in school as well as in the workplace. One consistent observation I have is that most schooling is not aimed at preparing you for the workplace. Sometimes I feel like I must be in a reality show with what I see at work. There should be a required class that teaches you what to do when your boss lies about you to HR. or what to even do when you find yourself at a meeting with HR present. Or when to call your lawyer. It isn't enough to do good work or be a good employee. You have to always document events. Even things that seem insignificant at the time. I remember a time when I thought it was weird when the new guy did not join us for social events and he kept to his work schedule like a clock. Now I might be asking him for a job because he was able to flee faster than me and was better prepared to leave a situation that suddenly became bad.

Holiday Flo

Flo and I have new digs again....looking forward to staying put for a while.  She is sporting her holiday bling after being very visible to everyone walking around on the 2nd floor for the past six months.  People actually know where I sit because they know where the office with the flamingo is.....not sure if that is good or bad yet.  I also decorated my boss's office for the holidays.  He was in Hawaii for two weeks, so I thought it would be appropriate to have him return to a fake lighted palm tree and poinsetta leis in his office.  The leis eventually migrated from the doorway to the tree. 

The Non Smiler

There are always so many new personalities to adjust to at every workplace. Especially when there is a merger (and by merger I mean a sale of one company to another). It takes a while to sort out who is reacting out of fear, who is truly generous and kindhearted, who feels information is power (and witholding information makes them feel powerful), and who is shy. And then there are the other people. The ones who even after months of working on the same floor in the same building you still have no idea what to think of them. I've never seen so many in one place before. I feel like I missed the cloning room or something. One particular feature of these mystery people is their quietness. Meek only goes so far. Ignoring will not make reality different. And the unsmiling not talking about anything other than work....yeah, it's just flat out annoying and rude eventually. Soon I will be forced to give up and just label them 'they who can't accept reality and don't play well with others'. Not that that will change anything. I'm just sayin'.....because it's my blog and I can.

New Flamingo Parking

This is Flo, a lamp I inherited when a former co-worker went on sabatical. She has kept me sane on many days. She also helps me make a very bold statement when I get a new job. I moved her with me to my State job, where she confirmed my new co-worker's suspicions that I was not a standard State worker. She picked up some binder clips in her braid there and is settling in nicely at my new workplace. In my office...with a door....and enough room to park my bike.... I waited a few days to bring her in; I started with the binderclip sculpture from the State job. It went over well, so I brought in my calendars and then Flo. Amazing how long it took some people to notice her.

Fish On

Last week a lovely lady was downsized from our office. It was disturbing and, in my opinion, handled poorly. So I spent the rest of the afternoon filling up the fountain in my office. And last night when I went to the pet store to buy dog and cat fud, I bought fish too. My mom came shopping with me...on the phone from the comfort of her home. She had a great time. So did the people behind me in line when I expressed hope that the fish would live...and then realized I had forgotten to put food for them in the cart. They are currently enjoying hiding in the back of the fountain where no one can see them. If they make it past a week I'll get them some rocks. If they make it a month, I'm getting a pirate ship.

Fist Bump

That did not just happen. My boss has been in a war with the Program Manager over his main project for a few days. We spent the better part of yesterday filling in gaps in our paper trail to appease him. Then we had a big meeting with him. They both think they made their point and 'won the battle'. Afterwards my boss called me from his office to congratulate me on staying calm during the meeting (uh, sure, no problem, not hard when not emotionally invested in this). The next time he came by my desk he game me a fist bump. *shudder, ughg* The funniest part - the project is in a 'winter shutdown'. Even funnier, it's shutdown because one of the subcontractors forgot to order the pump. It's a well project. I will probably never forget the day they told him it had a twelve week lead time. So glad my life is more than this job.

The Shelf

Sorry for the shadows here, it's the first sunny day we've had in weeks and it lifted my spirits enough to warrant an office rant post. This seemingly innocuous shelf has been in my workspace for a couple weeks now. Prior to this all the binders and such you see there were stashed under my desk, providing lovely foot rests, but not so nice access to the information stored within them.

Like many office sagas, this one started many months ago, and I am sure I have but a portion of the information. It has become obvious in the past few weeks that there was a lot of behind the scenes activity when I changed my work status to part time and started grad school. One of these is that some information may have been misrepresented to the Queen Bee. Her Hiveness was apparently operating under the impression that I was only going to be here a few hours per week, thus she did not think it reasonable to approve my request for a corner shelf upon my move to my new workspace. Uh huh, I see. Seeing as this denial occured on the heels of the fountain incident, I was left with no choice. I marched my butt over to her office and upon referencing the two incidents asked if there was a problem. She assured me that no, there wasn't she just didn't want to invest in furniniture for someone who was here on such a part time basis. Now, friends, let me give you one more piece to this puzzle. In the weeks prior to this statement, I had been in the office every workday for at least 6 hours. She was here about 6 hours per week. No, I'm really not exagerating this.

Imagine my surprise when upon the arrival of the latest shipment of furniture (because we apparently have some extra money laying around and thought this was a good way to spend it, never mind the fact that we never entertain clients here) a strapping young lad referencing his office map asked me where I wanted my shelf. Wow, the drama. It's amazing what a little thing like this will do for your perspective. It has buoyed me up to a whole new level of work appreciation. Appreciating the asepcts of not working here, that is.

For reference, I believe my request was the smallest made by anyone in the office. Everyone got at least one piece of new furniture, and several got more pieces than were in my last apartment. I was too chicken to try to sneak a picture of one of the deluxe offices, but we'll see if my boldness returns one night when no one is around.