*tap tap* This thing on?

[mousme]

Sporadic Life Update #75

So life proceeds apace. Just got back from a mini-roadtrip to New Brunswick with my colleague J, which was equal parts fun and frustration, mostly because she turned out to be a slightly passive-aggressive kind of travelling companion. Overall, though, it was a really good time, and the GSCVO handled the road beautifully AND had fantastic gas mileage.

Work is work. The schedule is still wreaking havoc with what little social life I have, but is otherwise pretty good. I'm not being totally overworked, which is a nice change of pace.

We've had some unpleasantness over the past few months due to the possibility of permanent positions opening up. We are 14 temporary operators vying for six job openings, and while some of us (like myself) are being reasonably zen about the whole process, others have taken it upon themselves to make things as unpleasant as humanly possible. Even though the process of filling the permanent positions is pretty much an objective one (everyone has to pass through two evaluations, one written and one oral, which are graded by one senior staff member and one HR person who's entirely impartial), these people have decided that they will be best served by trying to undermine their colleagues in any way they can think of. It's really very unfortunate, and has made the atmosphere around here pretty tense. I'm lucky enough that my 12-hour schedule keeps me mostly out of the way of said unpleasant people, which is good all-around.

It does, however, motivate me even more to keep working toward my goal of becoming a regular member. I'm not deluding myself that there won't be other problems in other jobs, but at least I'd be paid more. ;)

Lots of other minor work-related things, which I may go into in depth at some future date.


I came home from my trip to a very sick cat. Gretzky's been feeling poorly for a while now, but she took a sharp turn for the worse when I was gone. So we hied ourselves to the vet today, where I found out that my beloved vet is on maternity leave, leaving me to deal with the evil vet who accused me of wanting my cat to suffer back in the day. Evil vet redeemed himself by A) being polite and respectful, B) telling me how beautiful my cat was, and C) not trying to sell me any ridiculously expensive procedures on my cat.

Gretzky got poked and prodded, injected with antibiotics, injected with a whole lot of saline solution to rehydrate her, and even got her claws clipped since she won't let me near her paws anymore and her claws were threatening to grow right into the pads of her feet. The possibly-not-evil vet cleaned her up, talked nicely to her, and let me hold her while he did undignified things to her so she wouldn't be too traumatized.

We got home after two hours, and she's already looking much better, and seems perkier. So all is well in the feline world.

I then got called in for an emergency night shift at work, which is where I am now, sneaking onto the internet. Bad Phnee! ;) I am tired and mostly braindead, so I'm hoping they don't hold it against me too much.

In other news, the date for Capricornucopia has been set: January 15th. Mark your calendars. :)

Comments

[heartofawarrior.livejournal.com]

Glad to hear things are going pretty well, and that Gretzky's perking up :-)

And yay roadtrip! Sometimes that's exactly what a person needs :-D

[owldaughter.livejournal.com]

Oh yay, office tension. Sigh. Well, everyone has just under a 50% chance, right? Obviously this number does not take into account the interviews, seniority if it's taken into account, and the evaluations, but hey. Good on you for being zen.

Yay for happier kitties! Hurrah for vets with improved bedside manners! And huzzah for Capricornucopia!

[kiwano.livejournal.com]

Wow, you've been in your job for how long and are only now seeing openings for a permanent position emerge (and not even enough of them to take on more than half the folks who aren't yet parmanent). That's the sort of HR rubbish that saw me leave academia for industry. Good luck.

[grimmwire.livejournal.com]

Noooooo --- I'll be in Boston for Arisia on the 15th. Booo. Guess I'm going to miss the party again.

Glad to hear Gretzky is improving. Good luck on the job front!

[le-maistre-e.livejournal.com]

All I registered out of all of this was *Gretzky*!!!! So glad she's on the mend. My two send her comforting pats and ear licks.

Upon further reread, I second owldaughter's sigh, in re office politics... I've heard bits and pieces of this, but I'm sad to see that it's still going. Kitty skritches for you, too... :-)

[catsarah.livejournal.com]

OMG You AREN'T Dead!! YAY *Huggles*.

[catsarah.livejournal.com]

Also, so glad for Gretzky. I too was just on a trip (to LA for 5 days) and came back to my 13 year old cockatiel (my parent's former pet) on the bottom of his cage behaving and weighing like he was starving to death. I'm feeding him up and he's getting H2O2 in his water to oxygenate any oogies in his crop. If he's not significantly better by Monday, it will be vet time. They've had enough of my money this year though that I think this one should be a freebie O.o

[serenitylioness.livejournal.com]

Huggles to Ms Golden Orange Feline.
And yay to see that Phnee lives. I missed ya!

[pasley.livejournal.com]

I'm so glad your kitty is starting to feel better. Before our poor Phoebe died we paid thousands of dollars altogether for a series of treatments, operations, medications, none of which did much of any good. I don't regret that we paid that to try to save a member of the family, but every day, for about three weeks, we had to decide "Do we fork out the three-four-six hundred bucks for this or that treatment/procedure/operation which may not even work, or do we let her die right now?" It was rough in every way, not the least of which financially, and if at any point our vet had given us the guilt trip that your vet gave you, I think I would have strangled her.

As for work, anyone who is willing to drive to New Brunswick deserves a permanent position. I mean, N.B. is the "Drive Thru" province! I didn't know that it could be a destination! ;)

xox

[guruwench.livejournal.com]

Oh, so glad Gretzky's doing so much better! Scritches to her from both N and me.

Capricornucopia! That sounded like huge mounds of fun when you described it. :)

I hope the office politics improve sooner rather than later.

Life proceeds apace here, cohabitation is working out well, job suckage is occurring here, my health is finally improving although I have to find a way to get my butt out walking (well, and the rest of me too), and we need to rehome one of the kitties (the newest member).

*hugs* to you!