The Tesla coil
This post has been brought to you by my brain, which decided, after a densely-packed work week, that I should get up at 5 AM on a Saturday. Sigh. Better, there was a line for the bathroom at that time! (Mom was just glad she'd mostly shut the door.)
This was not the most fun of work weeks. I mean, it wasn't terrible, but it just so happens that Memorial Day and Labor Day--the bookends of summer--come during the busiest parts of my job, so you're cramming in five full days of business into four, and things get hectic. There's little downtime. You're just moving from one set of stuff to do to another.
This week was worse--there's a business-related conference in California right now, so my boss sent DW, BBC, and the new girl out there. (Her dad lives in the area, so she's staying with him, and had actually planned to spend next week out there anyway.) I was offered the chance to go and went, nope! I do not travel, especially for work. And, as has panned out, this was pretty much the worst week to have three people gone. BBC2 also took the week off, so aside from Penny and the new kid who helps BBC2 out, the other building's essentially been closed. Better, the new kid was supposed to be there today, but called my boss yesterday to go, oh, I have a bachelor party this weekend and a wedding next weekend, so I won't be there. Gee, thanks for the appropriate amount of time to give warning.
Penny's been a bright star this week, though. He's easily the most productive of the three people working on their set of projects. To wit, despite two of the three being gone, I have a pile of completed projects waiting to be called to get picked up. I simply couldn't get to them with everything else going on. Meanwhile, since the new girl came along, BBC's productivity has gone *way* down. He has taken to her like a duck to water. My boss is like, you know, I don't care if they're dating, but when they're here, they need to work! We're constantly catching him at her work area talking, meaning he's not working. The girl is supposed to be cross-trained to work in both buildings and my boss is seriously considering pulling her from the other building to work with me permanently, it's that bad. Consider that she works with me on Tuesday nights, which is when several coworkers, including my boss and BBC, have a standing thing that they do. BBC has taken to calling us, and this week he was on the phone for a half-hour--while he should've been getting my boss dinner. He was gone for a full hour. My boss was pissed. Honestly, I don't get the sense of anything romantic on her end, just friends, and with him it might be more of a subconscious thing, but my word. I called him a lap dog last week, because I noticed he had started coming up for coffee first thing in the morning. Dude doesn't drink coffee; he's been very clear about that. Yeah, new girl is perfectly capable of getting her own coffee; I don't care if you're coming up front for some other reason. He was also buying her lunch a few times. Dude, NO. She's not your girlfriend. She can feed herself. (He appears to have Nice Guy Syndrome, which is fine, but she's younger than him by a few years and an employee of his family's business. I know he means no harm by this, but it's kind of uncomfortable for her.)
Here is the bigger issue: Penny's fiancée works for a particular car company whose leader's name is similar to Corn Husk. He came to us in the fall from Pennsylvania because she was transferred here for work, for the sole purpose of working her way up in the company to a particular promotion, and once she reached that status, she could work anywhere she chose. They were likely going back to PA, so we knew his stay was temporary, but then mid-week came word that Corn Husk demanded all employees work in the office. There is to be no remote working by anyone; otherwise they'd be assumed to have resigned. (And, in looking for a link to that story, I discovered *another* story from just yesterday that he's looking to cull 10% of salaried employees. Oof. I hope she's not one of the people involved, though we'll definitely keep Penny on if he's interested.) We knew his time here was limited, but this looks like he could be leaving at any moment, which sucks. He'd taken on a second job elsewhere, related but not conflicting, and has since resigned there because, with the uncertainty of how much longer he'll be around, he can't leave them hanging.
I know, come the middle of next week, this current stressful period will ease, but we'll be dealing with a different sort of stress when Penny's gone. He's the one person we've been able to rely on to get stuff done in a timely fashion. BBC cannot work back there by himself; he needs someone to push him, and unfortunately the new girl is not that person. I like her, I know she works hard, but she's been detrimental to things. Unless they make changes, she may not be here much longer, either. Then we'd really be in a pickle.
This was not the most fun of work weeks. I mean, it wasn't terrible, but it just so happens that Memorial Day and Labor Day--the bookends of summer--come during the busiest parts of my job, so you're cramming in five full days of business into four, and things get hectic. There's little downtime. You're just moving from one set of stuff to do to another.
This week was worse--there's a business-related conference in California right now, so my boss sent DW, BBC, and the new girl out there. (Her dad lives in the area, so she's staying with him, and had actually planned to spend next week out there anyway.) I was offered the chance to go and went, nope! I do not travel, especially for work. And, as has panned out, this was pretty much the worst week to have three people gone. BBC2 also took the week off, so aside from Penny and the new kid who helps BBC2 out, the other building's essentially been closed. Better, the new kid was supposed to be there today, but called my boss yesterday to go, oh, I have a bachelor party this weekend and a wedding next weekend, so I won't be there. Gee, thanks for the appropriate amount of time to give warning.
Penny's been a bright star this week, though. He's easily the most productive of the three people working on their set of projects. To wit, despite two of the three being gone, I have a pile of completed projects waiting to be called to get picked up. I simply couldn't get to them with everything else going on. Meanwhile, since the new girl came along, BBC's productivity has gone *way* down. He has taken to her like a duck to water. My boss is like, you know, I don't care if they're dating, but when they're here, they need to work! We're constantly catching him at her work area talking, meaning he's not working. The girl is supposed to be cross-trained to work in both buildings and my boss is seriously considering pulling her from the other building to work with me permanently, it's that bad. Consider that she works with me on Tuesday nights, which is when several coworkers, including my boss and BBC, have a standing thing that they do. BBC has taken to calling us, and this week he was on the phone for a half-hour--while he should've been getting my boss dinner. He was gone for a full hour. My boss was pissed. Honestly, I don't get the sense of anything romantic on her end, just friends, and with him it might be more of a subconscious thing, but my word. I called him a lap dog last week, because I noticed he had started coming up for coffee first thing in the morning. Dude doesn't drink coffee; he's been very clear about that. Yeah, new girl is perfectly capable of getting her own coffee; I don't care if you're coming up front for some other reason. He was also buying her lunch a few times. Dude, NO. She's not your girlfriend. She can feed herself. (He appears to have Nice Guy Syndrome, which is fine, but she's younger than him by a few years and an employee of his family's business. I know he means no harm by this, but it's kind of uncomfortable for her.)
Here is the bigger issue: Penny's fiancée works for a particular car company whose leader's name is similar to Corn Husk. He came to us in the fall from Pennsylvania because she was transferred here for work, for the sole purpose of working her way up in the company to a particular promotion, and once she reached that status, she could work anywhere she chose. They were likely going back to PA, so we knew his stay was temporary, but then mid-week came word that Corn Husk demanded all employees work in the office. There is to be no remote working by anyone; otherwise they'd be assumed to have resigned. (And, in looking for a link to that story, I discovered *another* story from just yesterday that he's looking to cull 10% of salaried employees. Oof. I hope she's not one of the people involved, though we'll definitely keep Penny on if he's interested.) We knew his time here was limited, but this looks like he could be leaving at any moment, which sucks. He'd taken on a second job elsewhere, related but not conflicting, and has since resigned there because, with the uncertainty of how much longer he'll be around, he can't leave them hanging.
I know, come the middle of next week, this current stressful period will ease, but we'll be dealing with a different sort of stress when Penny's gone. He's the one person we've been able to rely on to get stuff done in a timely fashion. BBC cannot work back there by himself; he needs someone to push him, and unfortunately the new girl is not that person. I like her, I know she works hard, but she's been detrimental to things. Unless they make changes, she may not be here much longer, either. Then we'd really be in a pickle.