01/05/07 to 01/05/11


I finally found a benefit in having two bosses that hate each other.

Monday:
Did nothing much all weekend - and enjoyed it!
I'd done everything I needed to on Saturday, so sat around Sunday and Monday working out my vacation time. I'll be taking the first two weeks of July to go visit friends back to home, but I'll still have ten days left.
I finally determined not to waste them all, and plan on taking a short break in Europe somewheres - I ought to take advantage of living so close to Europe now.


Tuesday:
AJ called us together for the morning meeting as we all weren't there yesterday, and said he'd decided over the weekend to implement a "corporate look" policy. He wants all letters and memos from our office to look like Head Office's from now on, so he told me to make sure nobody uses our own layout any more and to put the corporate layout up on everyone's PC instead.

I tried it out on a piece of our headed paper and it doesn't fit, so I went in to see AJ and showed him. Their address is in the right hand corner and ours is in the left, and the date prints over so you can't read it. AJ said just redesign the template to put the date on the other side then.

I said OK - and didn't bother to remind him our own layout is already exactly the same as the corporate one but with the date on the right to fit our letterhead, so that means I don't have to do anything after all.


Wednesday:
The morning was real quiet until Donna got a call right after the lunchbreak. It was from Carly to say she'd just had her annual review and a 2.2% pay raise, so things got pretty loud about then.

AJ must have heard some of what was being said, because he got down the stairs to the parking lot real quick and we all saw him drive away. I guess he won't be back today - that's good, because nobody here's going to try to stop LeeAnn doing what she says she's going to do to him. It could be messy, and it'll make us all very unpopular with the Cleaner if she does it. Fiona, Mike and Donna are all stirred up too, and even Amy's a little savage. James and I are waiting to see what happens tomorrow.

The big printer was fine today - Mike was too busy telling us all about the Head Office salesmen who all had their reviews yesterday.


Thursday:
Guru Bob came over at nine this morning, walked in and said I'm here to see AJ about the System Admin's annual review, then smiled at everybody who looked up. AJ came hurrying over to shut him up but it was too late and everybody'd heard, and when I was called in James said make sure you hold out for at least you know how much - what I put. He meant 2%.

I wasn't actually involved in the review at any point, and they could have carried on without me there. I just sat there listening while the two of them discussed me.

Guru Bob started off by saying there haven't been any reported failures this year, all the system problems have been minor, and I'm very pleased with your level of maintenance - although there were several upgrades you should have put on you still haven't done. AJ said no, they haven't been done, as that would mean we'd have to turn the server off, and we can't do that during works hours.
Then AJ got his turn. He said your coverage of the shipping has been quite good and you've managed to get most things out on time although I have warned you about delivery delays, but I accept that you aren't necessarily to blame for those - on the whole, I'd say your performance this year has been adequate.

Guru Bob then turned to AJ and said I think we can agree on a 2% raise, don't you? AJ said no, he won't get any raise at all, because his systems admin performance wasn't really adequate and there have been several failures. Guru Bob invited him to specify what failures there'd been, so AJ said Donna and James have both complained about lost files and I've personally been having some serious problems with the Internet myself, as I keep getting an error - every now and then I get a message to say file 404 hasn't been found, and if he'd been maintaining the server properly he'd have noticed that file's missing and put it back by now. He should also have noticed I was getting that problem, but he hasn't said anything to me about it. Actually he can't do the maintenance work any more as it's causing him to fall behind with the shipping - he was seriously behind with the shipping only last week for example. Guru Bob asked what system problem took up his time then, because I certainly haven't heard of one.
AJ then remembered I had gotten behind with the shipping because of the budget work I did with James, so he said well, he doesn't do all that much system work anyway so it's not really necessary to have him do it - the system works fine without him fiddling with it. Guru Bob said on the contrary, it works so well because he maintains it, and if he doesn't do it any more one of the people from Head Office IT will have to do it, and we'll bill you for any call-outs. AJ said we don't need some fly-by-night from Head Office IT to come in here and mess about with our system - at least he knows what we need and he can keep it ticking over.

That started a little discussion as Guru Bob objected to being told Head Office IT were deliberately sabotaging people's best efforts by stealing files during the night and wasting the company's money by demanding better PCs than 'real workers' had to make do with, and AJ objected to being told he was only running our site because nobody else wanted him and that he shouldn't be allowed within two miles of anything more complicated than a pencil, and he was dangerous enough with that. Things got a little more personal then, and I had a front row seat - I think they both forgot I was there.

They finally calmed down and backed off each other, but not until I'd heard some very interesting stuff.
Guru Bob said look, it's half ten and I've got to get back to Head Office - he'll be getting a 2.5% raise. AJ didn't like that too much so, after some more discussion, he finally beat it down to 3.2% instead. I think he realized he wasn't doing too well as he said 3.2%? why don't you give him 10%?, then backed down real quick and said no I was only joking.

Guru Bob and AJ finally agreed I'd get a 3.4% raise, and I came out the meeting with them both hoarse and me not having said a word. All the others were waiting to hear and as soon as Guru Bob had gone and AJ had shut himself away in his office, they all came rushing over. James said we heard them shouting, what happened? Donna said what did you say? I said I didn't say anything, I didn't really get a chance to - as soon as one said something the other jumped down his throat.
LeeAnn said did you get a raise? I said yes. James said how much? so I said I'm not supposed to tell you. James said did you at least get you know how much - what I put? He meant 2%, so I said yes.

It wasn't a lie - I did get 'at least' 2%.


Friday:
AJ said at the morning meeting it was only going to be a short one as he was going to be busy with reviews for us all this morning, apart from me as I'd already had mine. He went straight back in his office and called in Andy, then James, Donna, Fiona, LeeAnn, Mike and finally Amy. It didn't take too long and everyone was real quiet for the rest of the morning.

The new name badges haven't come yet so Fiona called them up, and was told they'd be here next week. I can't wait to see what I've been called this time.

We all waited until AJ'd gone to the afternoon meeting at Head Office after the lunchbreak, then we all compared notes about our annual reviews.

I got blamed for the carriers not delivering on time - again,
James was told he wasn't keeping the books 'neat enough',
Donna was told she'd been late in, when she'd actually been on vacation that day,
Fiona got told off for talking to suppliers for too long,
LeeAnn was told her boots weren't 'suitable', but not suitable for what,
Mike was criticized for wearing a tie that was 'too bright',
Amy got told off for putting a visitor's empty coffee cup in her waste bin.

They all got 2.2% raises, so I lied and said I had too.

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 read 01/04/30-01/05/04 or read 01/05/14-18 

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