The NOT so fun stuff.....

Work has been NOT-SO-FUN for the past few weeks. Again, I TRY not to talk about it. I absolutely can't say where it is that I work, or who I work for. If it were discovered that I blogged about this place then....well, I imagine I would get fired. Or beheaded. Possibly burned at the stake. But whatever might happen, I can assure you it would NOT be good. So I will be as precise as I can in the most vague and elusive way to not divulge anything that might come back to haunt me.

I am salaried. Which means that I get paid the same no matter how many hours I put in. I am also fast, and efficient, so usually it works to my advantage. Except that every so often, evaluations must be done to be sure I am getting compensated fairly. Meaning is it even remotely possible to force me to do MORE for LESS??? And for the past 2 weeks the evaluations have been ongoing. And its not that we (as a collective whole in my office) are being watched. We are being visually, in your face inspected, some things actually timed by a stop watch, every movement, every blink of an eye recorded...its nerve-wracking to say the least.

The worst part? The work-load inevitably dries up to almost nothing during these times. There is nothing mysterious about it. Its an outright, not even going to try to hide it effort to make it look like we are all over-compensated. It makes my blood boil, and soul seethe. Enron has nothing on these guys as far as fraud and employee-shafting goes. Nothing AT ALL! Luckily, I managed to scrape by without losing anything. Time or money-wise, that is. Of course, during a normal work week, I deal with a 3-4 hour increase in workload. And now I will still have that, only I will get paid the same thing as before. I have to consider myself lucky. A LOT of other people in my office lost as much as 6-7 hours of time/pay. Its like saying I was gang-raped but at least I got away with my life.

So why do I put up with it? I have done a whole lot of soul searching to try and figure that out, actually. I LIKE the job, itself. If you take away the shady underhandedness, and the incompetent, bullying management. If I were fairly compensated, and left alone to do my thing....I would NOT be unhappy. And I have an awful lot of time invested in this, not to mention retirement and other financial benefits that keep me hanging on. I can see it getting to a point where its not worth it any longer. But for now....for now it still is worth it, even if it makes me crazy sometimes. Its not just the benefits that keep me there. I have a whole office full of people that I genuinely like, and have a whole lot of history with. We've all seen each other through good times and the rough stuff. Work-wise and personal. I would really REALLY miss some of those people if I left. So I am staying put for the moment. But I need to find better ways of keeping it all in perspective. Its a job. And then I come home and live my life. And I don't want the job spoiling any of my precious personal time. I've gotten better about it over the years. But there is still a whole lot more room for improvement. And these evaluation times don't really help. But its over. For at least another year. And that, my friends, is a real cause for celebration!!!

Bad Driver Award....

Ok, so confession time: I deserve the BAD Driver award for this week. Yesterday morning, as I was leaving for work, I backed my car into another car of ours that was sitting in the driveway.

Yep. I wrecked 2 of our cars in one fell swoop. And the worst part? This isn't the first time I have done that. Admittedly, the last time was probably like 8 years ago, but still.....I am ashamed.



And it wasn't like any tricky kind of maneuver to get out of the driveway. I was just totally NOT thinking, or paying attention. I was completely lost in thought about some of the not so fun stuff going on at work (blah), and then there was that sickening crunch of metal on metal. What a way to start out the day. So, the damage is not extensive, and its entirely cosmetic. But...it IS ugly. And it does make me sick every time I see it.



I absolutely HATED to make that call to tell hubby what I had just done (he had already left for work). My husband? He was NOT amused. In fact, for the better part of the day he was absolutely furious. He couldn't even speak to me. He turned his phone off. But by yesterday evening he had recovered and forgiven me. I can't blame him for being angry. I was absolutely furious at myself. But today? He called me just to say that he loved me. Awwwww......my heart melted. Really. And then he pointed out that he left my car sitting in the driveway, facing forwards, so...you know...I wouldn't have to back it out at all. Um, funny guy.



And everything is alright again. Except for the dents in our cars. And the fact that I will probably be spoiling hubby rotten for the next few weeks to try and make it up to him. Because I DO feel really awful about it.

Good Hostess....NOT!!

So, Dad and Barb came a-visiting yesterday (Monday) on their way home from a week-end getaway in Myrtle Beach. They were only here for 1 night. Of course we enjoyed seeing them (always), but it makes me sad to say that I was not the best hostess in the whole world. I had this raging migraine that WOULD! NOT! LET! UP!!!! It started around lunchtime, at work, and although I took some Excedrin migraine (that usually works....), and drank several cups of coffee (sometimes that helps), nothing would make this thing budge. I finally had to go lie down around 8:30 pm (yeah, a real party gal, I tell ya). But I had every intention of just lying there for 30 minutes or so, hoping that might help the headache. I still wanted to get up, be sociable, get the coffee-maker set for the morning, take a shower...etc. I had a whole slew of things that I MEANT to do.

What I actually did? I woke up at 3am, fully dressed, lying on top of the comforter on our bed, with my contacts still in my eyes (I NEVER sleep in those....it makes my eyes feel dry and scratchy the next day). What a bummer. Anyway, the good news is that the migraine was gone by this morning, and I have felt just fine today. Which is a huge relief because half of my office has been down and out with some kind of evil flu bug that seems to invoke high fever, projectile vomiting, and all sorts of mucus-y discharge. I was half-way afraid that the headache was the onset of that virus O' death. Whew....thank the universal powers that be for dodging that bullet!