I'm told it builds character
Apr. 5th, 2006 12:13 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mousmeToday was mostly an exercise in frustration, caused as usual by the CAM. Suffice it to say that after she cut into my lunch hour yesterday ("I need ten minutes of your time" turned into half an hour of my time, predictably enough), she did it again today. Her clients wanted coffee, and they wanted it *now* and basically bitched and moaned that we hadn't provided lunch (for a half-hour meeting!), so I got dispatched to fetch the poor dears coffee and cookies.
Normally, this would be fine. Today, there were two problems with this plan: 1) L is not there, which means that I have to be at my desk to answer the phones; 2) It was ten minutes before I was scheduled to go to lunch.
So, I got one of the admin girls to mind the phones while I was gone, and cut into my lunch break yet again. The admin girl was very nice about it, considering that she has her own work to do and can't always be covering for me when the CAM has one of her fits.
The CAM later gave me more work which involved wrestling with our ever-cantankerous fax machine, and so I spent about two and a half hours on something which would have taken maybe twenty minutes of her time if she'd bothered to do it herself and do it properly. Then she told me to "relax" and not take everything so much to heart, as though it was somehow wrong of me to take my job seriously and want to do it well and thus get frustrated when I can't. Meh.
Otherwise, the day went pretty well. I finished my filing, and so of course Boss!Lady provided me with a whole new unprecedented batch of filing. I actually got a fair bit of that done too, in-between fighting with the fax machine and running interference with various clients.
Someone told me the other day that it sounded in this LJ as though I really hate my job. That's not exactly true. I do like the people I work with: they're all extremely nice, and there's a definite sense of departmental loyalty here that I reallly like. The work itself is tedious and repetitive and unrewarding in the extreme, and that's what I don't like about it. I also seriously resent the fact that I haven't been made a permanent employee. Having a few health benefits and, oh, paid vacation time would go a long way to reconciling me with this job.
It's a job I can do, and that I can do well. It's not what I'd rather be doing with my time, but I can think of worse jobs. In fact, I've been in worse jobs (Bell Mobility and Fast Scaffolding spring to mind). It pays the bills, and the working environment has a lot going for it.
So, that's me setting the record straight.
In other news, since people have asked, my arm is almost 100% better now. I went back to the hospital about three weeks after my accident for x-rays and various poking and prodding, and they basically told me to go my way and sin no more. They didn't even think I should bother with physio, and just told me to use my arm as much and as normally as possible. So that's what I've been doing, and now I only get occasional twinges in my wrist and shoulder, which is where there was the most soft tissue damage (as opposed to the elbow, which is the bit that actually broke, ironically enough).
The main difficulty I have is hauling around heavy files, but even that gets easier every day. I can now dance entirely pain-free (and let me tell you that's a relief!), and I started back with Random Colour the day after I got rid of the sling without too many ill effects. Apparently beating on things with sticks doesn't pose any kind of problem for me.
Dancing has been going extremely well, I might add. I've been going to as many of the classes as possible, although I've been good about keeping my Sundays free of club activities. I've been doing this for about a year and a half now, and to be honest I can't imagine living without some sort of dancing now. It's even hard for me to imagine how I managed before, when all I was doing was staying home in the evenings.
The one disadvantage, if I can even call it that, is that there are lots of other things I would love to be doing as well. There are projects I want to work on, people I want to see, and places I want to go, and when three out of seven nights a week are taken up with dancing, well, that leaves very little time for these other things. Monday nights are booked for 24, and that leaves Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Sunday evening is generally not good for staying out late and what have you, as it's a work night, ditto for Wednesdays, and suddenly you're left with Saturdays, when everyone else has ten million things scheduled.
I can't really complain. Things are going, well, smoothly is perhaps too strong a word. But I'm treading water, keeping my head above the surface, and I'm not too tired yet, to push this metaphor to its limit. I'm still reasonably optimistic that one of these days I'll stop treading water and actually start swimming toward a goal. Right now, though, treading water is a good thing. Definitely better than the panicky drowning I was doing two years ago. A lot of things in my life still suck (especially financial stuff), but at this point I am cautiously hopeful that I'll eventually be able to get a handle on it, and that's more than I was able to say before.
Okay, bed. I am rambling and in serious danger of getting maudlin, or worse. The serial has been posted, LiveJournal has been updated for the first time in a long time, and I have a whole day's worth of filing ahead of me (Whee.), so I'm going to get some shut-eye.
G'night folks!
Normally, this would be fine. Today, there were two problems with this plan: 1) L is not there, which means that I have to be at my desk to answer the phones; 2) It was ten minutes before I was scheduled to go to lunch.
So, I got one of the admin girls to mind the phones while I was gone, and cut into my lunch break yet again. The admin girl was very nice about it, considering that she has her own work to do and can't always be covering for me when the CAM has one of her fits.
The CAM later gave me more work which involved wrestling with our ever-cantankerous fax machine, and so I spent about two and a half hours on something which would have taken maybe twenty minutes of her time if she'd bothered to do it herself and do it properly. Then she told me to "relax" and not take everything so much to heart, as though it was somehow wrong of me to take my job seriously and want to do it well and thus get frustrated when I can't. Meh.
Otherwise, the day went pretty well. I finished my filing, and so of course Boss!Lady provided me with a whole new unprecedented batch of filing. I actually got a fair bit of that done too, in-between fighting with the fax machine and running interference with various clients.
Someone told me the other day that it sounded in this LJ as though I really hate my job. That's not exactly true. I do like the people I work with: they're all extremely nice, and there's a definite sense of departmental loyalty here that I reallly like. The work itself is tedious and repetitive and unrewarding in the extreme, and that's what I don't like about it. I also seriously resent the fact that I haven't been made a permanent employee. Having a few health benefits and, oh, paid vacation time would go a long way to reconciling me with this job.
It's a job I can do, and that I can do well. It's not what I'd rather be doing with my time, but I can think of worse jobs. In fact, I've been in worse jobs (Bell Mobility and Fast Scaffolding spring to mind). It pays the bills, and the working environment has a lot going for it.
So, that's me setting the record straight.
In other news, since people have asked, my arm is almost 100% better now. I went back to the hospital about three weeks after my accident for x-rays and various poking and prodding, and they basically told me to go my way and sin no more. They didn't even think I should bother with physio, and just told me to use my arm as much and as normally as possible. So that's what I've been doing, and now I only get occasional twinges in my wrist and shoulder, which is where there was the most soft tissue damage (as opposed to the elbow, which is the bit that actually broke, ironically enough).
The main difficulty I have is hauling around heavy files, but even that gets easier every day. I can now dance entirely pain-free (and let me tell you that's a relief!), and I started back with Random Colour the day after I got rid of the sling without too many ill effects. Apparently beating on things with sticks doesn't pose any kind of problem for me.
Dancing has been going extremely well, I might add. I've been going to as many of the classes as possible, although I've been good about keeping my Sundays free of club activities. I've been doing this for about a year and a half now, and to be honest I can't imagine living without some sort of dancing now. It's even hard for me to imagine how I managed before, when all I was doing was staying home in the evenings.
The one disadvantage, if I can even call it that, is that there are lots of other things I would love to be doing as well. There are projects I want to work on, people I want to see, and places I want to go, and when three out of seven nights a week are taken up with dancing, well, that leaves very little time for these other things. Monday nights are booked for 24, and that leaves Wednesdays, Saturdays and Sundays. Sunday evening is generally not good for staying out late and what have you, as it's a work night, ditto for Wednesdays, and suddenly you're left with Saturdays, when everyone else has ten million things scheduled.
I can't really complain. Things are going, well, smoothly is perhaps too strong a word. But I'm treading water, keeping my head above the surface, and I'm not too tired yet, to push this metaphor to its limit. I'm still reasonably optimistic that one of these days I'll stop treading water and actually start swimming toward a goal. Right now, though, treading water is a good thing. Definitely better than the panicky drowning I was doing two years ago. A lot of things in my life still suck (especially financial stuff), but at this point I am cautiously hopeful that I'll eventually be able to get a handle on it, and that's more than I was able to say before.
Okay, bed. I am rambling and in serious danger of getting maudlin, or worse. The serial has been posted, LiveJournal has been updated for the first time in a long time, and I have a whole day's worth of filing ahead of me (Whee.), so I'm going to get some shut-eye.
G'night folks!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2006-04-05 12:43 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2006-04-05 05:28 pm (UTC)"Treading water"? You're more like an acrobat!