Okay, I'm home for real now...
Jul. 27th, 2004 11:26 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mousmeWent to have dinner with the Maternal Unit while my father's in Ecuador. Everything went quite well, all things considered. Must make a separate post about everything that's happening there, as my uncle is not expected to last very much longer, and she'd flying to the US next Friday. I'm not quite in the right frame of mind to write about that just now...
So, instead, I'll ramble about work.
I've been assigned a whole metric assload of new responsibilities, as I mentioned before. See, before I was just doing OS&Ds, which didn't quite take up my entire day, but kept me busy enough.
Then our receptionist/factotum quit. She was supposed to train me to take over some of her responsibilities (luckily that doesn't include answering the phone). So now I'm taking care of P.O.s for the company, and honest to goodness, I have no idea how that woman managed to do anything but P.O.s all day long and get the rest of her job done.
Of course, I only got a day and a half's worth of training for something which requires at least a week to two weeks of training, so that's partly why I'm swamped.
See, there's a story behind that. My supervisor, for whom I have yet to find an adequate online nickname, isn't really keen on making my post a permanent one. The reasons for this are mostly just his own issues, namely that he wasn't the one to pick me, and therefore I don't add to his glory. In fact, I appear to be something of a thorn in his side, since he was convinced I wouldn't last a week and yet here I am.
So instead of getting me trained from the moment the receptionist gave notice, he decided instead to hire another girl, Laura, and have her trained at head office. Before she even set foot in the building she had her own computer login, a long-distance phone code, and had been promised a new computer. I had been there for six weeks and was still using someone else's login, just FYI. Laura, according to my supervisor, was the best thing since sliced bread.
So Laura was trained at head office for a week, and then came to train with the receptionist. Two days after coming into the office, she up and quit. Just never showed up for work on Wednesday morning. So my supervisor was reluctantly forced to go back to Plan A, which was train yours truly for the job. Since the receptionist was leaving at noon on Friday, that gave us exactly a day and a half to teach me what I should have been learning almost from the start.
Luckily, it's not rocket science. However, just like OS&D, there's no way you can just logic your way through it. You either know it or you don't, and the procedures are abstruse (or recondite? not sure which is better... are they pretty much equivalent? Gah... sidetracked by vocabulary detail) and finicky. So, annoying. And long. Yay, sentence fragments!
I have to keep track of everything we buy, as well as all the repairs and maintenance done on the trucks, since all that requires P.O.s. However, it's the fact that everything has to be done in triplicate and then called in or faxed to other people that's annoying. If I only had to do it once, that would make it better. I just somehow get the impression that I'm wasting colossal amounts of time, energy and paper doing the same thing over and over again. Find invoice, write up P.O., write it down in book, enter it in computer, call up people to give P.O. number, stick two copies in envelope for head office, stick another copy in binder reserved strictly for that purpose. Lather, rinse, repeat.
I've also taken on the responsibility of answering the phone and the radio in order to deal with both OS&D and P.O. situations. It's fun, but very challenging for someone with concentration issues to try to work on something while being constantly interrupted either by the phone or by the radio. Not to mention that I don't understand a damned thing sometimes when the drivers call in on the radio. I swear by all that's holy they're speaking another language just to confuse me. ;)
There haven't been any complaints yet, however, so I figure I'm doing a good job. Even if my supervisor has the knack for making me feel like I'm never busy enough. ;) Actually, I am quite busy at work. I get there a bit early every day (except this week because of the &#!%@ construction) and invariably leave late because I never seem to have enough time to finish everything I have to do.
I still have lots to recount, but that's better saved for a later post. :)
So, instead, I'll ramble about work.
I've been assigned a whole metric assload of new responsibilities, as I mentioned before. See, before I was just doing OS&Ds, which didn't quite take up my entire day, but kept me busy enough.
Then our receptionist/factotum quit. She was supposed to train me to take over some of her responsibilities (luckily that doesn't include answering the phone). So now I'm taking care of P.O.s for the company, and honest to goodness, I have no idea how that woman managed to do anything but P.O.s all day long and get the rest of her job done.
Of course, I only got a day and a half's worth of training for something which requires at least a week to two weeks of training, so that's partly why I'm swamped.
See, there's a story behind that. My supervisor, for whom I have yet to find an adequate online nickname, isn't really keen on making my post a permanent one. The reasons for this are mostly just his own issues, namely that he wasn't the one to pick me, and therefore I don't add to his glory. In fact, I appear to be something of a thorn in his side, since he was convinced I wouldn't last a week and yet here I am.
So instead of getting me trained from the moment the receptionist gave notice, he decided instead to hire another girl, Laura, and have her trained at head office. Before she even set foot in the building she had her own computer login, a long-distance phone code, and had been promised a new computer. I had been there for six weeks and was still using someone else's login, just FYI. Laura, according to my supervisor, was the best thing since sliced bread.
So Laura was trained at head office for a week, and then came to train with the receptionist. Two days after coming into the office, she up and quit. Just never showed up for work on Wednesday morning. So my supervisor was reluctantly forced to go back to Plan A, which was train yours truly for the job. Since the receptionist was leaving at noon on Friday, that gave us exactly a day and a half to teach me what I should have been learning almost from the start.
Luckily, it's not rocket science. However, just like OS&D, there's no way you can just logic your way through it. You either know it or you don't, and the procedures are abstruse (or recondite? not sure which is better... are they pretty much equivalent? Gah... sidetracked by vocabulary detail) and finicky. So, annoying. And long. Yay, sentence fragments!
I have to keep track of everything we buy, as well as all the repairs and maintenance done on the trucks, since all that requires P.O.s. However, it's the fact that everything has to be done in triplicate and then called in or faxed to other people that's annoying. If I only had to do it once, that would make it better. I just somehow get the impression that I'm wasting colossal amounts of time, energy and paper doing the same thing over and over again. Find invoice, write up P.O., write it down in book, enter it in computer, call up people to give P.O. number, stick two copies in envelope for head office, stick another copy in binder reserved strictly for that purpose. Lather, rinse, repeat.
I've also taken on the responsibility of answering the phone and the radio in order to deal with both OS&D and P.O. situations. It's fun, but very challenging for someone with concentration issues to try to work on something while being constantly interrupted either by the phone or by the radio. Not to mention that I don't understand a damned thing sometimes when the drivers call in on the radio. I swear by all that's holy they're speaking another language just to confuse me. ;)
There haven't been any complaints yet, however, so I figure I'm doing a good job. Even if my supervisor has the knack for making me feel like I'm never busy enough. ;) Actually, I am quite busy at work. I get there a bit early every day (except this week because of the &#!%@ construction) and invariably leave late because I never seem to have enough time to finish everything I have to do.
I still have lots to recount, but that's better saved for a later post. :)
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2004-07-27 08:40 pm (UTC)Factotum? P.O.s? I'm afraid I don't get it. But I get the fact that you're overwhelmed... hell, I see it in the total lack of posts and such.
Hmmm... nickname... how about PolitickingSOB? Because that's what he sounds like. Out to toot his own horn and so forth.
Anyhow, sounds messy, but you sound like you've got a handle on it.
Certainly seem to be smiling enough for it not to be horrid. Hope smoother sailing is just on the horizon...
no subject
Date: 2004-07-28 04:22 am (UTC)A P.O. is a Purchase Order. Basically it's a form (with a number) that proves to another company that we hired their services and/or bought stuff from them.
Hope that helps. :)
no subject
Date: 2004-07-28 10:47 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-07-27 08:42 pm (UTC)Shame that, they were good too ;)
no subject
Date: 2004-07-28 05:58 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-07-28 02:19 pm (UTC)