Andy's in charge while AJ's away. He held the morning staff meeting as normal but got called out by the foreman, so we just sat around until he came back and talked about whether it was likely Greece would get hit by a typhoon or something. Donna said she'd been twice and wouldn't go again - she said it was filthy and they had big lizards come into their room. We all wondered if the lizards were man-eaters, but Donna said no she didn't think so.
Andy had Amy type out a memo to us all to say the "presence" policy was optional until AJ came back. Amy read it out to us before she typed and circulated it, so when she came round with the copies I said I didn't need one. She said Andy had said to give us all a copy, she'd made sure she'd enough copies for everyone, and so I'd have to have one.
Everyone's opted to not follow the "presence" policy.
There was a note on the big vine-looking plant from the Cleaner, saying it'd have to be moved. James, Mike and I put it in AJ's office out the way. We didn't think we should put it in his chair though, so we put it in the corner where his plastic plant used to be - we'll move it before he comes back.
Tuesday: Donna's given in and adopted all the unclaimed plants around the office, so she now waters and feeds them all.
There's a downside to Andy being in charge - everything has to be documented. There's a whole new set of forms come out the filing cabinet in Andy's office that Lee-Ann said he's been wanting us to use for a while now. If we're using them by the time AJ gets back, Andy can say we need to keep them. He comes around now and then to see if his forms are being used and goes away happy when he sees they are. He hasn't realised yet that we're all just filling in the parts we like, and the others have asked me to "improve the layout a bit" by taking out the rest.
Wednesday: Lee-Ann came in 7 minutes late - she was watching the news about the 100th birthday procession for the UK's Queen Mother. It's not until Friday, but she got caught up in the excitement.
The big printer wasn't working after the lunchbreak again. Walked over, pulled Mike's mobile charger, plugged the printer back in.
Thursday:
Lee-Ann came in over an hour late today. If she hadn't been on a warning for not coming in, she wouldn't have shown at all. She'd had a fight with her latest boyfriend last night and kicked him out. The neighbors called the police again as he wouldn't go, and when they got there they arrested him. So Lee-Ann changed her mind and tried to get him back. She spent most of the night in the police station where they were working out if she'd really meant to bite the one police officer or not. They decided maybe she hadn't and drove her home this morning, so she's feeling a little fragile as she only got a couple hours sleep at the police station. It seems the police were already looking for the guy anyways. She said she should have known the police were after him, but when we all asked her why she went bright pink and said never mind.
She's not had much luck lately as the last one was arrested and jailed too. The one before that should have been as well but his wife had found him and dragged him home first, so he was arrested from there.
Donna made her go lie down in the break room after the lunchbreak, and we all kept quiet all afternoon so she could maybe get a little rest. I think she did as you could hear her snoring if you stood by the door. Amy went in mid-afternoon and made the coffee for everyone so we all didn't have to go in and disturb her. Donna and I were the last to leave that evening and we'd got as far as the entrance before she stopped and ran back in. She'd told Lee-Ann she'd wake her when it was time to go home, and she'd forgotten to.
Friday: The little leaves on Andy's plant are spreading out over the surface of the dirt. They're still only microns high though, but very green. I've christened my little fern plant "the ideal office worker" as it likes being kept in the dark.
The morning meeting was a total waste of time. It was great. Andy asked us in turn how much work we all thought we might be able to force ourselves to do next week. We all underestimated like crazy (of course) and he said it would be great if we managed to do that much. I said I'd like to be able to close the system for an hour, and he said OK I could! Amy started to protest but Lee-Ann nudged her and she shut up. I felt a little guilty so I warned him it meant nobody could work on the PCs during that time, and it might overrun "a little" - and he still said OK. Amy had caught on by then, so she kept quiet.
Andy went to the meeting at Head Office in AJ's place, and said it had gone well when he came back afterwards. So Donna rang Carly to see how it'd really gone. Carly said Andy'd turned up on time and sat in the meeting room on his own for fifteen minutes, as everyone else had been late. The chair had gone around each one in turn and said "Everything's fine, isn't it? Good" then gone right onto the next. Andy hadn't even opened his mouth.
read 00/07/31-00/08/04 or read 00/08/14-18 