I arrived to work yesterday morning to find out that my supervisor will not be in for the foreseeable future. He was in a pretty serious accident while riding his bicycle and has fractured his hip and collarbone. Wow.
The absence of our fearless leader is tragic. Happily, his injuries weren't as bad as they could have been, but between healing and rehab time, he'll be gone for weeks, at least. He's the manager of this office, and with all the chaos, is the only one who really knows what's going on.
This presents several problems. On an organizational level, he's in charge of closing this place down, so there's a lot that can't be done without him, and already morale has taken a nosedive (really, though, it was pretty close to bottom before, but there's a perceptible shift in the mood here, and it's not nice). On a purely selfish note, he's in charge of all the temporary staff, and he's the one coordinating our projects. We just met a big deadline (a little ahead of schedule!) but now there's nothing to do.
Seriously, nothing. I spent eight hours here yesterday and did NOTHING. I don't mind the occasional half hour spent surfing Craigslist, but I spent about seven hours browsing the Internet yesterday, and it made me MISERABLE! I'm cranky and irritable, and I can feel my brain cells slowly dying off, and I fear that they are beyond regeneration. Reading the newspaper doesn't help, reading books doesn't help, even two hours of choir rehearsal and the challenge of lots of new music didn't make me feel any better. I fear that the longer I'm here the more my intelligence will just slowly slip away, and I'll be left a babbling idiot by the end of the year. I need a challenge!!
Today, though, I came prepared. I have two cover letters to finish for job applications. I just hope I'm still able to write them. I'd better get started.
Wednesday, November 30, 2005
Monday, November 28, 2005
A tribute to Thanksgiving tradition
While I'll probably take some grief for my last post, I should point out that my family is fabulous and I miss them often. In the six years since I've celebrated Thanksgiving at home, a wonderful new tradition has evolved: the Thanksgiving pants.
From the time I was in high school, Christmas Day and Thanksgiving have been relatively relaxed, have dinner in your pajamas type of holidays. Really, with just the five of us, why dress up? In the past few years, however, Thanksgiving pajamas have evolved into a beautiful tradition of the Thanksgiving pants. We all have them, and they seem to all share the same color scheme. My new Thanksgiving pants are red fleece, and with them I received fleece slippers - slip-on striped ones. I was super comfortable and very warm, which is hard for me in weather that dips below 45.
The pants are comfortable, serve many purposes outside of Thanksgiving, and allowed me to rejoice in the elastic waist and have lots of apple pie. How could I better spend a holiday?
From the time I was in high school, Christmas Day and Thanksgiving have been relatively relaxed, have dinner in your pajamas type of holidays. Really, with just the five of us, why dress up? In the past few years, however, Thanksgiving pajamas have evolved into a beautiful tradition of the Thanksgiving pants. We all have them, and they seem to all share the same color scheme. My new Thanksgiving pants are red fleece, and with them I received fleece slippers - slip-on striped ones. I was super comfortable and very warm, which is hard for me in weather that dips below 45.
The pants are comfortable, serve many purposes outside of Thanksgiving, and allowed me to rejoice in the elastic waist and have lots of apple pie. How could I better spend a holiday?
Sunday, November 27, 2005
There's no place like home
Ah, home for the holidays. There's really nothing like it. Unless it's 25 degrees and windy and too cold to venture outside. I much prefer Thanksgiving in San Francisco. If only I could get my family to travel to me. I once had a conversation on this topic with a woman in the airport who traveled from NY to SF to visit her kids for Christmas. She said my parents will start traveling to me once I have children of my own. I guess I'm in for a long wait.
The lousy weather and my inability to stay warm have prompted this list of the top seven reasons I won't be moving back to NY:
7. San Francisco has better Mexican food.
6. Nobody would look twice if I wore my hiking boots to work.
5. I'll never have to shovel rain.
4. I live on the Pacific Ocean - in a city where Ocean-front rents are cheap!
3. The only occasions requiring stockings and high heels are funerals and job interviews.
2. I've finally made some friends, and starting over again would be lousy.
1. No matter how cold summer gets in San Francisco, I will never have to worry about my hair freezing.
The lousy weather and my inability to stay warm have prompted this list of the top seven reasons I won't be moving back to NY:
7. San Francisco has better Mexican food.
6. Nobody would look twice if I wore my hiking boots to work.
5. I'll never have to shovel rain.
4. I live on the Pacific Ocean - in a city where Ocean-front rents are cheap!
3. The only occasions requiring stockings and high heels are funerals and job interviews.
2. I've finally made some friends, and starting over again would be lousy.
1. No matter how cold summer gets in San Francisco, I will never have to worry about my hair freezing.
Friday, November 18, 2005
The insanity in which I work
We had a Thanksgiving potluck lunch today in my office, and watching all these people I work with really makes me wonder about the world - but first a little background.
This firm is closing at the end of the year, and most of its employees will be without jobs. From the time I started here, I noticed the tension, which is at times unbearable, between the long-time employees and the temporary staff. Well, it turns out most of the oldtimers have only ever worked here. That's right, most of them are in their mid-thirties, and this crazy firm has been their only adult job. Think back a minute to your first "adult" job after you turned 18. Would you still want to be working there at 34? Indeed, that's the case for five people in this office. No wonder they're bitter about having to leave. Their bitterness escapes at odd times, like when they refuse to invite the firm's current manager and some of the temps to the potluck, or when they leave at 4 pm for happy hour (after taking a two-hour lunch), or when they insist upon eating lunch in the community kitchen, but won't speak to or sit with any of the other people in the office. Remember the 7th grade? This is worse.
Added to this dynamic is the awkward situation of a mother-son team working here. The mother has been around for at least 30 years, and at some point in this company's history, all of her eight children have been employed by it. Right now, her youngest is here. He's probably almost 40, but when they're together, he acts like he's 12. Do you have any idea how irritating it is to hear them bickering over lunch - especially when they refuse to acknowledge that I - a lowly temp - am in the room. I was really disoriented when I first heard him holler "Mom, we're leaving" at the end of a recent Friday; I thought I was in my parents' house, the only place this behavior belongs.
And then there's the technology issue. The people in charge of this slowly sinking ship have been working with the same computer database since the late 1980s. Yes, the pre-mouse era. These poor, soon-to-be-unemployed folks won't be too successful in their job searches because they don't know how to use the current version of Word. I gave one woman a tutorial last week on how to cut and paste, and she was so awed you'd have thought I'd introduced her to fire.
But at least today wasn't boring....
This firm is closing at the end of the year, and most of its employees will be without jobs. From the time I started here, I noticed the tension, which is at times unbearable, between the long-time employees and the temporary staff. Well, it turns out most of the oldtimers have only ever worked here. That's right, most of them are in their mid-thirties, and this crazy firm has been their only adult job. Think back a minute to your first "adult" job after you turned 18. Would you still want to be working there at 34? Indeed, that's the case for five people in this office. No wonder they're bitter about having to leave. Their bitterness escapes at odd times, like when they refuse to invite the firm's current manager and some of the temps to the potluck, or when they leave at 4 pm for happy hour (after taking a two-hour lunch), or when they insist upon eating lunch in the community kitchen, but won't speak to or sit with any of the other people in the office. Remember the 7th grade? This is worse.
Added to this dynamic is the awkward situation of a mother-son team working here. The mother has been around for at least 30 years, and at some point in this company's history, all of her eight children have been employed by it. Right now, her youngest is here. He's probably almost 40, but when they're together, he acts like he's 12. Do you have any idea how irritating it is to hear them bickering over lunch - especially when they refuse to acknowledge that I - a lowly temp - am in the room. I was really disoriented when I first heard him holler "Mom, we're leaving" at the end of a recent Friday; I thought I was in my parents' house, the only place this behavior belongs.
And then there's the technology issue. The people in charge of this slowly sinking ship have been working with the same computer database since the late 1980s. Yes, the pre-mouse era. These poor, soon-to-be-unemployed folks won't be too successful in their job searches because they don't know how to use the current version of Word. I gave one woman a tutorial last week on how to cut and paste, and she was so awed you'd have thought I'd introduced her to fire.
But at least today wasn't boring....
Thursday, November 17, 2005
What's on your ipod?
So I finally ordered my ipod last week, after saving for almost a year, and in anticipation of its arrival tomorrow, I've started compiling playlists. In the interest of expanding my horizons, I have to ask: what are you listening to lately? Any suggestions are welcome - especially if they come with links to the site you've downloaded them from, but please, no Christmas music. I'm just not ready yet.
Wednesday, November 16, 2005
The true depths of boredom
Boredom can come in many forms: that rainy day, what-am-I-going-to-do-with-myself boredom that's usually rectified by movies and popcorn or a good book; the general malaise of life often obliterated by rearranging the furniture or a trip to Amoeba for new music; and, perhaps the worst form of boredom imaginable - job boredom. In my case, it's the kind of despair created by nothing to do and no investment in this temporary, hopefully only-until-Christmas job. It's a boredom so deep I have hoped that it would kill me, just to relieve the pain.
However, as my sister (in a similar situation - check out the link to her blog) has pointed out, nobody ever dies from boredom, no matter how badly they want to. So here I am, trying to ease the monotony of my day with my first entry. How very exciting!
It's not that my workplace is bad. Some of the people are really great. But I'm a temporary employee in a firm that will close at the end of the year, and has slipped so far in prestige that its full-time employees think nothing of taking two-and-a-half hour lunches and then leaving at 4 pm to get drunk. And no, they don't invite the temps. Really, I'd be surprised if more than a half hour's worth of work ever gets done here.
So that leaves me with nothing to do. So instead of writing a book (and thanks to Mark for that suggestion) I decided to try this. We'll see how it goes.
However, as my sister (in a similar situation - check out the link to her blog) has pointed out, nobody ever dies from boredom, no matter how badly they want to. So here I am, trying to ease the monotony of my day with my first entry. How very exciting!
It's not that my workplace is bad. Some of the people are really great. But I'm a temporary employee in a firm that will close at the end of the year, and has slipped so far in prestige that its full-time employees think nothing of taking two-and-a-half hour lunches and then leaving at 4 pm to get drunk. And no, they don't invite the temps. Really, I'd be surprised if more than a half hour's worth of work ever gets done here.
So that leaves me with nothing to do. So instead of writing a book (and thanks to Mark for that suggestion) I decided to try this. We'll see how it goes.
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