Tales of the Vaguely Useless, Day II
Jun. 16th, 2004 06:49 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mousmeDay 2 at Erb.
I need a passing-out icon. ^^;
I'm slightly less useless than yesterday, because Nat finally had some time to train me. Yesterday she was running around like a headless chicken putting out fires, but today was actually quieter, so I got to learn stuff. Yay!
Not that I learned a lot, because I still got only about an hour's worth of training out of a nine-hour day, but still. It's better than yesterday, where I got *no* training out of a nine-hour day.
So I learned to update an OS&D report and to make up Bills of Lading for particular types of shipments and how to update certain types of bills. You know how they say that this is the tip of the iceberg? Well, what I've learned might keep my drink cold for an hour or so. ^^;
However, I at least helped clear away a reasonably significant portion of Nat's backlog. Not that I was doing the actual clearing, but I was doing the busy work that would have prevented Nat from clearing away her backlog, which is pretty much what I was hired to do anyway, from what I understand. So it's all good.
I'm still slow, and there are tons of procedures I don't know, but I've learned three of them, which isn't bad.
My supervisor is turning out to be pretty much an absentee supervisor, which is something to which I'm entirely unaccustomed. I'm used to either working entirely on my own, or with consistent feedback. This will take some adjusting to, I can see.
I saw him a grand total of twice today, once when I walked by his cubicle to get my lunch, and he said one sentence to me: "Tomorrow, seven-thirty." He wouldn't have said anything else had I not asked him to clarify (I mean, cryptic much?), and he explained that he wanted me to be in by 7:30 and not 8:00am, so that I would have the same hours as Nat. I think he finally clued in that having me leave half an hour after her when I don't know what I'm doing and there's no one else around to train me is *stupid."
The second time was when he came into the office I share with Nat in order to bitch at Nat about an OS&D she'd left on his desk that she couldn't deal with because there was no bill and she had no time to track it down. In theory, he should deal with it, as her supervisor. That's how things go in this world, apparently. Chaos, mayhem and disorder.
:::Random Edit:::
Stupid Bloc people! I'm not voting for you! Stop calling me!
:::End Random Edit
Nat has been fantastic with me, however. She's always nice, and consistently takes time to explain what she's doing, puts up with my constant questions, and seems to be genuinely pleased that in a few weeks' time I'll be able to take a considerable amount of pressure off her in terms of her work load. Right now she's doing the work of two people, and even though I won't be doing exactly the same thing she is, I'll be doing my best to take off the pressure so that the poor girl can at least take her breaks during the day (she hasn't been able to even take her lunch breaks ever since the last guy, Fred, left, God knows how long ago).
She's also been rabid about "defending" me from Laith, our supervisor, who seems to think that after one day in the office I should be able to do the same things that Nat does, who has been working for Erb for ten years and has been doing OS&D for five years and could do it blindfolded with one hand tied behind her back. Actually, she's been defending me from a whole bunch of people, which is really sweet, in a way. It's more thst only she realizes how much work it actually is, and what it really entails. Because she does it so efficiently, they all think it's easy and can be learned lightning-fast, but she actually has an idea of what I have to learn.
So, yeah.
I realized today that I had no work clothes left, so I threw in a load of laundry, and I hope it'll be dry by tomorrow morning. It should be, with the weather we're having.
And that's the very exciting life I'm leading these days. Better than the exciting life I was leading before, mind you. :)
I need a passing-out icon. ^^;
I'm slightly less useless than yesterday, because Nat finally had some time to train me. Yesterday she was running around like a headless chicken putting out fires, but today was actually quieter, so I got to learn stuff. Yay!
Not that I learned a lot, because I still got only about an hour's worth of training out of a nine-hour day, but still. It's better than yesterday, where I got *no* training out of a nine-hour day.
So I learned to update an OS&D report and to make up Bills of Lading for particular types of shipments and how to update certain types of bills. You know how they say that this is the tip of the iceberg? Well, what I've learned might keep my drink cold for an hour or so. ^^;
However, I at least helped clear away a reasonably significant portion of Nat's backlog. Not that I was doing the actual clearing, but I was doing the busy work that would have prevented Nat from clearing away her backlog, which is pretty much what I was hired to do anyway, from what I understand. So it's all good.
I'm still slow, and there are tons of procedures I don't know, but I've learned three of them, which isn't bad.
My supervisor is turning out to be pretty much an absentee supervisor, which is something to which I'm entirely unaccustomed. I'm used to either working entirely on my own, or with consistent feedback. This will take some adjusting to, I can see.
I saw him a grand total of twice today, once when I walked by his cubicle to get my lunch, and he said one sentence to me: "Tomorrow, seven-thirty." He wouldn't have said anything else had I not asked him to clarify (I mean, cryptic much?), and he explained that he wanted me to be in by 7:30 and not 8:00am, so that I would have the same hours as Nat. I think he finally clued in that having me leave half an hour after her when I don't know what I'm doing and there's no one else around to train me is *stupid."
The second time was when he came into the office I share with Nat in order to bitch at Nat about an OS&D she'd left on his desk that she couldn't deal with because there was no bill and she had no time to track it down. In theory, he should deal with it, as her supervisor. That's how things go in this world, apparently. Chaos, mayhem and disorder.
:::Random Edit:::
Stupid Bloc people! I'm not voting for you! Stop calling me!
:::End Random Edit
Nat has been fantastic with me, however. She's always nice, and consistently takes time to explain what she's doing, puts up with my constant questions, and seems to be genuinely pleased that in a few weeks' time I'll be able to take a considerable amount of pressure off her in terms of her work load. Right now she's doing the work of two people, and even though I won't be doing exactly the same thing she is, I'll be doing my best to take off the pressure so that the poor girl can at least take her breaks during the day (she hasn't been able to even take her lunch breaks ever since the last guy, Fred, left, God knows how long ago).
She's also been rabid about "defending" me from Laith, our supervisor, who seems to think that after one day in the office I should be able to do the same things that Nat does, who has been working for Erb for ten years and has been doing OS&D for five years and could do it blindfolded with one hand tied behind her back. Actually, she's been defending me from a whole bunch of people, which is really sweet, in a way. It's more thst only she realizes how much work it actually is, and what it really entails. Because she does it so efficiently, they all think it's easy and can be learned lightning-fast, but she actually has an idea of what I have to learn.
So, yeah.
I realized today that I had no work clothes left, so I threw in a load of laundry, and I hope it'll be dry by tomorrow morning. It should be, with the weather we're having.
And that's the very exciting life I'm leading these days. Better than the exciting life I was leading before, mind you. :)
