I haven’t posted much about work lately. No real reason. It’s been a little slow in my area and I only like to bitch so much about work on my blog but the time has come.

My manager is horrible with letting me know when he’s taking a day off, coming in late or leaving early. I know he doesn’t need my permission but I’d like to be in the loop. Most of the time I have no idea until the day of or the day before and most of the time it’s because I’ll ask if he can help with something the next day or whatever. Is it really that fucking hard to send an email a week before and fill me in? I always let him know when I’m taking off and it’s always well in advance! The only time he has no idea is if I call in sick. Perfect example is I’m taking off a day in April and a day in May and guess what? I’ve already put in my request and he’s aware of those days. I’ll even remind him as it gets closer.

It was really bad during hunting season. He’d just leave early. One time I asked on a Thursday if he’d be able to help me on Friday with a report and he tells me that he’s taking off that day. Really? You couldn’t let me know in advance? Just last week I didn’t know he was leaving early until THAT day! The thing is if he’s not going to be in or he’s leaving early I need to know in order to get the mail runs covered. We have our Corp. office down the street and they handle all out going mail which means we need to take our mail down to them to get stamped and shit. If I don’t know he’s out, it doesn’t get done or it’s all last minute and sometimes I don’t have the time to do stupid shit like that.

I’m going to sit him down and talk to him about it. I know damn well if I did shit like this, he’d have a panic attack.

I haven’t blogged about work lately. It’s work. Nothing was really going on, nothing worth blogging about anyway. Until now.

A few months ago I got a new manager. He’s supposed to help out when I’m out for whatever reason with the copying and the machines and all that fun stuff. I’ve been training him the last few weeks and he’s slowly (very slowly) learning. I called out yesterday because I have the time and really, I didn’t feel like going to work. I just wanted to sleep. I thought it would be a good test for my manager since I will be going on vacation soon anyway.

I checked my emails at home throughout the day and didn’t see anything about machines blowing up. Everything seemed to be ok. Then I came into work this morning. I had at least five reports sitting in my “To Do” bin. I called my manager and asked him to come back to my area if he could. I asked if he copied anything yesterday and he said no. What the hell? Three of the reports are the type of reports he’s been training with. He knows how to do those! I’d expect him to copy those if nothing else. He claimed he didn’t see the three small reports and the one large report the requester said it didn’t need to be done until today. It doesn’t work that way. I explained to him that you have no idea what the next day brings. You could walk in expecting nothing and have someone rush back needing 30 copies of something. Guess what? That means that report that “could wait until tomorrow” is now pushed back, again.

I was upfront with him and told him that this worries me. I’m worried about going on vacation and already dreading coming back. I mean, if he couldn’t handle just one day, what’s he going to do when I’m gone for four days? or a week?

In short, I’m awesome! The only thing I really need to work on is being a little nicer and letting people help me. I told my Supervisors that I’ll work on those things. As far as the “help” thing goes, I never had help in my area before so I’m still adjusting to having that option. I’m just used to doing everything myself is all. Plus I know if I do it, it’s probably right.

The best part is I’m getting a 5% raise! That’s almost unheard of at this company. You have to really bust ass to get it. Last year I managed to snag 4% and even that was pretty amazing seeing how I had only been here for about 6-7 months at the time of the review. That’s not all though! I’m going to be managing another employee! Sure, it’s just one person but I’ve never managed before. This is going to be a great challenge. I’m a little nervous but I’m excited as well. Obviously I don’t want to be in the same position here forever and this is a great chance to move up and gain more experience.

Yesterday I was informed that I’ll receive a 4% raise! While that might not seem like much, I’ve only been here about 6 months and the company scale for raises at the moment is between 2%-4%. Obviously I got the highest amount allowed at the time! In the end, it equals out to about $1,000 more a year! How awesome is that?

My manager told me he feels that I’m underpaid and next time raise time rolls around he’s going to fight for more money for me. He told me I’ve been doing an awesome job and been handling everything really well. Later this week I’ll have a full review.

The best part is now more money will go into my 401K without me even doing anything since I’ll be making more. It won’t be much but it’s better then nothing! Money aside though, it does feel nice to be appreciated for what I do. At my last job I didn’t feel that. I always have co-workers telling me how good of a job I do and what not. It’s nice to hear those things but at the sametime it’s nice to see that translate into money! Compliments don’t pay the bills.

You’d think adults would be better about things like this. You’d think adults would let someone know when they use the last of something or that adults would replace the packing tape on the tape dispenser. I guess I give my fellow co-workers too much credit.

I should know better since these are the same people who call me or send me an email when their copier has an “error message” instead of checking to see what the “error” is first. A copier needing paper is not something you need to call/email me for. You have two arms and two legs, I’m pretty sure you can add paper to a machine. The same goes for toner. The toner sits right next to the machine, you’ve added toner to these things way before I ever started here. You didn’t magically forget how to do it, you’re just lazy now since you think I’ll walk around the building to replace the toner. Wrong, I have more important things to take care of around here.

Another thing, did you all suddenly forget about that email I sent out about reports and binders? Remember that email? It explained that if you have a report that needs 10+ copies and is going to use binders to give me a few days notice. One day does not equal a few days. How am I suppose to make sure I have enough binders for you and everyone else if you don’t make me aware of things? Hell, I could leave work today with shelves full of binders and come in tomorrow to see only a handfull left. Atleast if you give me notice I know I’ll have enough for your precious report.

I enjoy most of my co-workers. They are all nice people, for the most part. There is one though, that well, I just can’t fucking stand.

Since day one I didn’t like her. I could tell she was someone who has to be in everyone’s business and someone who just has to know everything. When she talks to you, she comes across very harsh and sometimes rude. I know some people are just like that, for whatever reason but that doesn’t mean I’m going to sit back and take it.

Every since I started working here she’s always found a reason to come back into my area. I feel like she’s checking up on me or something, know what I mean? I could understand if I wasn’t doing my job right but my manager has gotten nothing but compliments about me and about the work I do. She expects me to drop everything when she comes back here. Sorry, but I have work to do. If you want to talk to me while I work, fine but I’m not stopping just for you. Don’t like it? Come back at another time when I’m not busy.

Today I almost lost it though. I’ve been working on some data entry for another co-worker. Loud Mouth co-worker came back and started going on about something. She left and then came back again. I was sitting at my PC working and she comes back into my desk area and starts talking. I of course keep typing and working. She actually says “Excuse me, I’m talking to you.” No, excuse ME. You came back here and interupted ME. Don’t like the fact I’m typing and not looking at you while you talk? Then like I said before, come back later. I actually told her, “No offense, but you came back here while I’m working and interupted me.” If she would call or shoot me an email telling me she’ll be back in a few minutes, I have no problem stopping and going up to her desk or waiting for her to come back here. Is that really too much to ask?

Then she tries to tell me how to do my job. That I need to make certain things “priorities.” Excuse me? I know how to fucking do my job and I know what’s important and what needs to be done and when. I don’t need you coming back here to tell me. All your doing is taking up my time, time that could be used working!

I know I dropped a few F-Bombs in there but that’s just how pissed I am. It’s just going to get worse too, I know it.

I need a beer.

I mentioned in another post how I liked Cute Guy at work and thought perhaps Cute Guy liked me. It turns out Cute Guy is a little…odd.

Once again I think this has to do with the fact that some people don’t have sensors or anything between their brain and their mouths. You know those people. It’s obvious they don’t think before they speak. What does this have to do with Cute Guy? Plenty.

Today a few of us were standing around and talking about The Intern we use to have and just kinda killing time before a meeting. Some how we turned the coversation towards Cute Guy and he just blurts out something about how he was going to meet this girl in Tulsa while on a trip for work. He met her on Myspace or something along those lines and had sent him some naked pictures. Interesting right? Obviously he was going to meet his MySpace Girl to have sex but then he saw a picture of her feet and was turned off because they looked huge. He wasn’t turned off by the fact she was willing to have sex with some random dude she met online, oh no. He was only turned off by her feet. We all just looked at him like “Did he really just tell us that?” Then he brings out his cellphone that’s kinda fancy. I don’t think it’s a Blackberry (I totally almost typed Blueberry) but it’s something like that. He recorded himself calling some sex toy homeshopping number and asking the woman who answered if the toy he saw was dishwasher safe or not. She answered something like no, you have to use your hand and he responds with “…if I wanted to use my hand, I wouldn’t be ordering this toy” or something stupid along those lines. Again, we all kinda just looked at him. We were laughing of course, but it was more like an odd laugh. I guess along the lines of a WTF laugh. I mean really, that would be like me blurting out “Well, at my last job I had sex in the conference room!” Somethings you need to keep to yourself.

Then he mentioned he was back with his “on again off again” 19 year old girlfriend who has trust issues. Yea, I’d have trust issues too if you had random pictures of naked girls on your phone/PC.

Perhaps odd is the wrong word to use. Maybe he’s just more immature then anything.

I sure know how to pick them don’t I?

Lazy people annoy me. Stupid people annoy me. Lazy, Stupid people annoy me to no end.

I got an email at work from one of the VP’s telling me the copier in his area had an error message. Of course he doesn’t tell me what the error message is. I mean, it could be anything. I take a stroll over to the copier which is located on the other side of the building. The red light was flashing, which meant that something was wrong but it wasn’t an error. The damn machine was just out of paper. If he would have looked at the screen he would have seen that. Instead, he just saw a flashing red light and backed away from the machine. I fill it with paper and when I get back to my desk I send him an email explaining there was no error, it just needed paper. His reply? “Oops, sorry!”

I get emails like that about the various machines on a regular basis. If a copier is actually down because it needs a service call, I send an email out to the whole building explaining what’s going on and that they need to use another machine for the time being. I’m amazed at how many people don’t read, hell even look at their emails. I always make sure the subject says something like “Blah Blah Blah Machine Is Down.” That way even if they don’t read it, they can still see something is wrong. Do you know how many people still try to print to the broken machine and then get all WTF when they don’t see their stuff? 95% of them! They come back and stare at the copier. It was so bad one day that I actually send a reminder email out.

On the same note, it pisses me off when after I send an email out I’ll get 5 people calling me to tell me the machine is down. No shit Sherlock, I know it is. Read.Your.Email! Hell, just glance at your inbox and you’ll see that I’m already aware of the situation.

Yesterday was Interns last day. That means all week we (being Cute Guy and IT Guy as well as myself) have been pulling various pranks on the poor Intern.

We started off small. We took different types of wrapping paper and wrapped his phone, his computer and keyboard and some of his cubicle. We took packing tape and wrapped it around his chair and tapped across the opening to his cube. Intern came in and of course asked everyone who did it. We all lied obviously and told him we had no idea. One day IT Guy programed the phone to play crappy music when you dial “313.” The only way to turn it off was to dial the same number. Needless to say all day Intern and everyone else in his area had to listened to crappy music until one of us turned it off.

The master prank came yesterday though. IT Guy was obsessed with wrapping Interns car in plastic. Only thing is we didn’t have any on hand. He actually went out and spent his own money to get plastic to wrap up the Interns little Yaris. We had someone else in the office give him something to do to keep him inside for about 30 minutes while IT and Cute Guy went out and did the wrapping.

 

 It’s a super crappy cell phone picture but you can tell what was done. The white thing you see is a note that says “Good Luck At School” and we signed with our initials. Stupid Intern actually thought someone else was doing all the pranks but before he left we made sure to take credit for what we did and he was pretty impressed with the car, as was everyone else at work. It’s kinda sad though, because now we’re going to have to actually work! 

P.S.
If anyone wants to buy this theme for me, I’d love you forever and I’ll never plastic wrap your car.

 

I haven’t blogged much about work, well about the people at work. I wanted to feel everyone before I started talking about them behind their backs. It’s only fair right?

Since day one, I knew “The Intern” was weird. Not weird in a bad way, but just different. It seems like he never knows when to shut up. He just rambles on and the more he rambles, the easier it is to make fun of him. The Intern has more drama then any woman I know. My first day there he was already telling me all his girlfriend problems. Seriously, let me get settled in before you start dumping all your relationship issues on me. By my 3rd week there he was telling me about some energy drink or pill or whatever he bought from GNC that’s suppose to help with burning fat and it’s suppose to help in the bedroom. Of course he had to tell me that it sure did help his performance! WTF dude, I did NOT need to know that.

He tends to think I know the answer to everything too. One day he asked where would be a good place to take pictures. I of course told him downtown. Intern didn’t know where downtown was! Before you ask, yes, he’s from Maryland! I could understand if he was from Florida or some other state and was just here for a few months but you live here! Today he asked me if I knew any good tattoo shops. I told him I couldn’t really help him out since my tattoos are out of state work. He then asked me how much custom work would cost, how badly it hurts and what the pain feels like.

He shares too much personal information as well. Somethings co-workers don’t need to know. Like the fact you came home one night and you found your brother in his room wearing red heels, fishnets, a plaid skirt and bra. Things like that, are better kept to yourself.  I don’t need to know that everytime you see your girlfriend, you guys have sex.  That’s what he told me anyway, he told a male co-worker he’s only gotten laid twice.

As you can see, Intern just doesn’t know when to STFU. What I’ve posted here is just 5% of the crap he’s told me or asked me. Luckily he’s only here for 1 more month.