01/12/31 to 02/01/04

01/12/31 to 02/01/04

===

Another year gone, and most of us probably glad to see it go.

Monday and Tuesday:
Didn't do anything much, and enjoyed it a great deal. I was invited up to the next floor above for New Year's, and must have gotten back down OK as I woke up back to home. I didn't wake up at around eight as normal for some reason though - and the neighbors were playing some dance music for a while as I could hear the base line through the walls, but it stopped around mid-day.

I made two resolutions -

stop worrying over things in the past I can't change and save it for things in the future I can do something about.

paint all the walls in my apartment a different color to the dirty cream they've been since I moved in over a year ago.

Wednesday:
Everyone stayed home for Christmas except Fiona, who came back from her retreat somewheres up a mountain in Wales and said she was cleansed and in touch with her inner harmonies and Goddess Nature in preparation for spring and the successful closing of the year.
She also said she was poised to take the next step on her personal development path, which would lead to her being less preoccupied with the illusions around her earth-bound body - then got real annoyed with us all when nobody would own up to taking one of the eight notepads she'd left in the stationary cupboard.

The temporary staffer from the week before Christmas still hadn't showed by 9:00, so Fiona and LeeAnn got Amy to call up the agency she was with. They said they'd check and call back, but we all don't hold out much hope.

AJ called us together for the morning meeting today because we all weren't there for the meeting Monday, and said he'd decided to implement a "call partnership" policy. We all need to achieve better customer service by ensuring either our own or a colleague's phone must never go unanswered, so we all are to pair off and become 'call partners.' Each person must then pick up their call partner's phone if they are away from their desk - and your call partner will pick up yours if you're away from your desk.

The office isn't that big, and (apart from James, Andy, AJ and me) everybody's desks are so close together they can just lean across and pick up someone else's phone anyways. AJ's off in his own world again, and of course he's also off in his own office, so he does need a call partner. Amy's the lucky one he's selected, so she now has to listen out for his phone and answer it if he doesn't.

The agency called back just before the lunchbreak and said they would be sending in Sharon tomorrow - she is, apparently, a lovely girl very keen to go back to work and will be here at 8:30 ready to start. It sounds good so far.

The big printer wasn't working after the lunchbreak again.
Walked over, pulled Mike's mobile charger, threatened him with LeeAnn, and plugged the printer back in.

We all were too busy to worry about Mike all that much though. Amy and LeeAnn did the customer invoices, James and Fiona took all the phone calls for customers' orders, and I went through and did the goods releases before taking over and doing the shipping as normal. We all made it up to date, but everybody was glad when it got to five and we all could go home, and we'll all be glad when Sharon comes tomorrow.

Thursday:
The new temporary, Sharon, finally arrived at about 9:30 today - we all thought maybe she'd gotten lost but she said no, the agency had told her we all start at 8:30 but she doesn't start until 9:30 normally so she didn't bother to show up before then. LeeAnn didn't say anything, just showed her the desk and where everything was, and then handed over to Fiona.
Fiona started in to explaining how the customer invoices were to be typed up, but Sharon said she didn't do typing.

She doesn't do computer work of any kind, nor does she do any photocopying, faxing, answering phones or making coffee either. She drinks coffee though.

Fiona told her she could do some filing then, but Sharon said no, actually she doesn't do filing either, in fact she doesn't do any office work. James said we'll complain to the agency, and Sharon said go ahead, she only came in as a favor because the agency couldn't get anybody else. She wandered out to the washroom (all that coffee finally got to her) and so we all made Amy call up the agency. They said yes, they'd told her it was office work - had we tried explaining what we wanted her to do? Amy said yes and they said oh well, it's only a temporary position after all, and maybe she'll start in to working when she's settled in. James said how long will that take? but they said they didn't know.
AJ came out then, and Sharon drifted in and sat back down, so AJ went over to her and asked her if everything was all right and was she settling in? She said oh yes. He said good and went back in his office, so Fiona, James and LeeAnn marched after him and Amy and I went along too, just in case we were wanted for corroboration.

Fiona told AJ Sharon had been late and hadn't actually done anything yet, so AJ said maybe she was just getting comfortable. LeeAnn told him if she was any more comfortable she'd probably fall asleep, and we were paying for her to just sit and gaze out the window. AJ said well tell her she has to work or you'll call the agency, and sort it out will you I haven't got time right now.

We all went back and Sharon wasn't staring out the window any more, she was painting her nails and reading a magazine she'd brought with her instead. Fiona said right, you will do the filing then if you can't do anything else, and Sharon said no sorry, not until her nail varnish had dried as she didn't want to chip it.

She freshened up her lip gloss and went out to lunch at twelve, and didn't bother to come back - nobody minded that much to be honest about it, as her sitting there doing nothing was more annoying than anything else, and we all were too busy covering the work again.

Friday:
AJ said at the morning meeting the "call partnership" policy hadn't really been tested as we weren't that busy right now, so we'll carry on with it next week as well. He then asked how was the problem with the temporary, Sharon, coming along - was she settling in and happy to be here? Fiona said well she didn't get back from lunch yesterday so we don't really know.

Sharon finally did come in - she turned up at 9:30 again, and wandered in as if nothing was wrong. We all did a double-take, but she didn't even blink.
James went over and said well would she be willing to try to do just a little work today, nothing too strenuous seeing as it was Friday and the end of the week and we were all busy. Sharon thought for a moment and said OK - as long as we didn't expect her to do too much too fast. Fiona said we'll just be happy if you do some, and we have low expectations now anyway. LeeAnn gave her the filing to sort out, but Amy will actually put it away - just in case.

AJ came out to look around just before he went to the afternoon meeting at Head Office, and saw Sharon was doing something, so he said good and went before we all could tell him yes, but Amy's doing it all again because apparently Sharon doesn't know the alphabet that well.

Sharon stopped working a little after AJ had gone, told us all she didn't think the office was very nice, and she was probably going to go back to shelf-stacking. She'd seen a job in the one hypermart she was going to apply for, as she wouldn't go back to the other hypermart she'd worked in before because the manager had picked on her.
Apparently she'd been sent out with canned spaghetti and fabric softener, and told to stack them in the spaces. She'd stacked all the canned spaghetti, but hadn't gotten any room left to stack the fabric softener so she'd taken it back and left it in the stock room out the back. The manager had then picked on her and bullied her about it, and so she'd had to take all the canned spaghetti out from the shelf space she'd stacked it on (which was next the soap powders and marked up 'fabric softener'), and take it all the way over the other side of the store from the stock room and stack it in the other shelf space (which was next the other canned goods and marked up 'spaghetti 20% off'), instead.
Then when she'd finally done that, he'd come along and picked on her again - so she quit.
It turned out he objected because she'd stacked all the canned spaghetti upside down, but she didn't think he had any right to talk to her like that.

Once she'd told us how bad she'd been treated she freshened up her lip gloss and got up and left, as it was already half past two and she had to go to the agency to hand in her timesheet and pick up her money.
Fiona and Amy called the agency and they said OK, they'd send someone else in on Monday instead, so she won't be coming back next week. Let's face it, nobody's sorry to see her go.

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read September - December 2001 or read 02/01/07-11

revised: 2002-01-06
URL: http://www.playpenoffice.com/filing/020104.html