First Door on the Left

Saturday Scruples

1. Your boss demands to know what a co-worker is saying behind her back. It’s not flattering. Do you say?
No. If my boss wants to know what a co-worker is saying, she can bloody well go ask the co-worker. I am not going to be in the middle of something like this.

2. You pick up a lottery ticket for yourself and a friend. Your friend’s number is drawn before you can deliver her ticket. Do you switch tickets?
Did I write our names on the tickets when I bought them? If not, who’s to say which one is mine and which one is hers until she picks hers up and has it in her hand?

3. You’ve been pounding the pavement looking for work. A company where workers are on strike offers you a job. Do you take it?
Depends. Is the company offering a good salary with good benefits? Are they comparable to what the striking workers were receiving before they got greedy and decided to go out on strike? Is there a guarantee that I will still have my position after the striking workers return? If the answer to these questions is yes, then I would take the job.

Me: So, in the four months before you started reporting to me, did you do your job well?

So-and-so: Exceptionally well.

In the review, I wrote: So-and-so performed her job exceptionally well during the four months before she started reporting to me. In the two months she has been reporting to me, she has…

Reviews are pretty much worthless crap anyway, aren’t they? The poor performers really don’t care, and the good performers already know they are good. Where’s the point?

Speaking of points, why don’t you go mark yours on my spanking new guestmap? Thank you, very much.

Manager: Have you completed so-and-so’s semiannual review and presented it to her yet?

Me: No, I did not realize it was due and nobody told me it had to be done.

Manager: Well, try to get it done today, okay?

Me: Yes, sir. (thinking: Incompetent fool. I’m not a mind reader.)

I wish I had more respect for the people I work for, but they have as yet done nothing to earn it. I’ve never been one to respect titles.

I have been with this company for two months now. They expect me to review this person’s performance not only for the two months she has been reporting to me, but also for the four months prior to that. Incredible.

It has a government in power without the legitimacy of a democratic majority, in the hands of a coterie from a single part of the country and clearly aiming at a dynasty of rule. Its rhetoric is one of violent aggression against anyone seen as its enemies. Its opponents are locked up without trial or the right to habeas corpus.

What country is being referred to in the above quote? Any guesses? Read here to find out. Do you agree or disagree?

Now I’m really going to bed. Goodnight (again).

So, do you like today’s color scheme? My goal was to achieve something that would be easy on the eyes. Nothing shocking, no big contrasts. Did I succeed?

Wow, I have two whole days off ahead of me with nothing to do except the usual domestic stuff. I would really like to take in a show or a movie or something, but I hate to do those things alone. The s/o’s days off are Thursdays and Sundays, and mine are Fridays and Saturdays. You can see we do not get a lot of time to go out and do things together. It’s kind of difficult to get him motivated to do anything, anyway. He’s somewhat of a home body.

Surprise! I am not going to talk about work today. You all already know how crappy that is, anyway. Why belabor the point? Neither am i going to mention how tired I am. I’ll just say goodnight now and go to bed.

Take care!

I can’t give you anything but love.

Work is so frustrating. There are certain duties and responsibilities that come with the job. Your rating and raises (if any) depend upon how well you perform these set duties and responsibilities. Yet each day they pile so much more crap on you that there just isn’t time to complete the work you were hired to do. So, it doesn’t get done, your rating sucks, and there is no raise.

I am like this () close to telling them where to put this job.

Sorry for laying all this on you, but I need to vent somewhere. The s/o quit listening to me a long time ago. I need some release, so you’re it (the few of you who actually read this stuff). So… thanks for listening. I love you.

I finished the project due at 11:00 this morning at 10:55, after arriving at the office at 8:30, and with a lot of interruptions. Sometimes I amaze even myself!

Have you been keeping up with American Idol? I hate to say it, but I think the two guys left are probably not going to last much longer. The girls really did better tonight. What’s up with Justin’s hair? An entire flock of birds could be nesting in there and we’d never know it.

Believe me, I, too, wish my life were a bit more exciting. But it isn’t, and I have nothing else to say, so… goodnight.

My brain just refuses to wrap around some things. Like all these airlines, losing like a billion dollars a year, going bankrupt, and staying in business. When the airline I used to work for went under, it was only 100 million dollars in debt. That’s nothing compared to the billions these airlines are losing today. Yet my airline had to close the doors and shut down. These airlines are all staying in business. How are they doing that?

Also, why am I so tired, yet I cannot for the life of me go to sleep? Is it tension? Stress? Probably. I have work deadlines I have to meet, yet I don’t see any way I’m going to meet them. I have a project due at 11:00 in the morning. It isn’t anywhere near ready. I’ll get it done, though. I always do, somehow.

I think I’m coming down with something or other. Every muscle in my body is aching. Maybe if I ignore it, it’ll go away.

I’m rambling. I’ll go back to bed now and try once again to go to sleep. I need some sleep. Goodnight.

My new employer has an “employed at will” policy. In other words, an employee can quit or be fired at any time, for any reason, and without any prior notice.

They also have a “no re-hire” clause written into the policy. Once you quit, or are fired, you cannot be re-hired under any circumstances.

Don’t think I haven’t been giving a lot of thought to both of these policies. I’ve been putting in 10 and 11 hour days, and still cannot complete all the tasks they expect me to complete. Today, I will be in the office at 8 a.m., and most likely will not leave until 6 or 7 p.m. This would not be bad, and I could accept it, if there were a hint of support from upper management.

I’m getting too old for this crap.

Tom posted a very poignant entry today about Alzheimer’s. My dad had Alzheimer’s. He never forgot my mother, though. He always knew that she was the woman he loved. Other memories may have left him, but that bond was there until the end. She cared for him and looked after him like you would not believe. She did it mostly by herself, until the last couple of months when she had to have the Hospice people help out. My mom is my hero. I know she was Dad’s.

Medical science will find a cure for Alzheimer’s. It probably will not come soon enough for the generation currently affected by this terrible disease, but it will come.

Before I forget, Happy Anniversary to Bob and Sandra. Bob was my best friend all through high school, and I was the best man at their wedding on this day the summer after we graduated. I remember it was a very warm day, and we were sweating bullets in those tuxedos. Happy Anniversary, guys! (I still remember the panic on Bobby’s face when I told him I had lost the ring. I really hadn’t.)