Life and Such
Let it be known, I am still alive. It may not seem that way over the next few months, seeing as autumn is rapidly on its way here. If I've not mentioned it before, I don't like autumn. Maybe it's the SAD, maybe it's the inherent crazy of the season, but it's probably my least favorite season (winter being a hairsbreadth behind in second). Anyway, I'm known for being notoriously hard to get in touch with and more than a little reclusive come autumn, just like everyone else around me, it seems, so I tend not to say much unless I have something I that needs to be said. It's not that I'm not here and not that I'm unwilling to chat or whatever, but if you want to have a conversation with me, you'll have to ping me first, because I typically don't initiate much contact this time of the year.
Birthdays are coming up. We just had my dad's yesterday, and most of it was actually spent at my cousin Logan's wedding. Which was lovely, by the way. Next up in my more-or-less immediate family is that of my niece, Kelli, who is turning two on the 11th. I've picked out a card, but have yet to find a present for her. Mine comes next, which means I'll have to take inventory of the past year and decide whether or not I get to have a birthday this year, since last year was my last "freebie." Then comes Adrian's birthday, and it's hard to believe he'll be turning four. I'll probably have a Pixar theme for him, since he's crazy in love with Pixar movies ("Cars," the "Toy Story" trilogy, and "Ratatouille," especially).
I've also recently noticed that censorship in this country appears to be alive and well. There's a song that's been playing on the radio for the last few months or so called "Breakeven" by the Script. Note the second line on there (it also gets repeated later). For quite some time, on the order of numerous weeks, the song was played just as these lyrics are shown... but just starting this past week or so, I've noticed that line has completely disappeared from the radio edit of the song, instead replaced with "but no wise words gonna stop the bleeding." Does anyone else find this more than a little suspicious? ...I'm willing to bet the Religious Right is behind this somehow.
Work has been... something of a challenge lately. Mind you, it's also around this time of year that the Scheduling department tends to forget about things like availability requests, mostly due to having to all of a sudden deal with class schedules again (there are a LOT of college and high school students working in the various call centers, particularly in Kearney and Lincoln--for obvious reasons), and for a few weeks they require repeated applications of the cluebat to get things right. I seem to be particularly difficult for them to finagle, seeing as I'm one of VERY few full-time French-speaking associates, and I think possibly the only one at a CRAII level. So, yeah, my schedule right now is all kinds of screwballed--mostly because of the apparent mandatory overtime.
Now, we were warned that, since our fall season is kicking off (and a lot of hunting seasons start in the fall) we're going to be somewhat busier and so some of the full-time staff may see additional hours scheduled within their availability. Now, this warning was in effect for one week: the week of August 22-August 28. And I wound up being scheduled for 50 hours last week. FIFTY. More than ANYONE ELSE at my level in my call center. I did not ask for ANY of the additional hours, although people were being practically badgered to take on extra hours to get a lot of people up to fifty or more. However, for these other people, they got scheduled for more like 44 hours or so and then were ASKED if they could take on extra ones. Not me. I was more than a little surprised to see that many on there, and even asked my supervisor if it was supposed to be that many, and was told yes, due to that little warning we had gotten. Okay, fine. I can deal with one crazy week. Except that this week, I'm scheduled for 44 hours. Again, I did not ask for anything extra beyond the normal full-time 39-40 scheduled hours. And next week? 36 hours--less than usual, yes, except that, if September 6th weren't Labor Day and thus the Customer Service department closed, it would be ANOTHER 44 hour-long week. Again, I was not asked "Can you add extra hours?" nor "Do you mind staying later?" when these schedules were made (although the CCAs keep asking me if I want to stay an extra half-hour at night or come in early and I keep saying "no," especially since they have me coming in at opening everyday).
I'm sure part of this comes from my rather unique status of being full-time Customer Service and a foreign language associate, but this is getting ridiculous. One week, sure, fine, I can deal with that. Two weeks, maybe. But three weeks straight? No. I have obligations outside of work, not the least of which being Adrian, who's barely seen me at all since this nonsense started. Is it any wonder my friends and suitors all think I've dropped off the planet? I've talked to my supervisors about it, and have been assured that there is no "mandatory overtime," but Scheduling apparently isn't getting the message, and thus I am going to have to have WORDS with them.
...on the plus side, it will mean some nice paychecks coming up here, though, and I can definitely use the money.
Birthdays are coming up. We just had my dad's yesterday, and most of it was actually spent at my cousin Logan's wedding. Which was lovely, by the way. Next up in my more-or-less immediate family is that of my niece, Kelli, who is turning two on the 11th. I've picked out a card, but have yet to find a present for her. Mine comes next, which means I'll have to take inventory of the past year and decide whether or not I get to have a birthday this year, since last year was my last "freebie." Then comes Adrian's birthday, and it's hard to believe he'll be turning four. I'll probably have a Pixar theme for him, since he's crazy in love with Pixar movies ("Cars," the "Toy Story" trilogy, and "Ratatouille," especially).
I've also recently noticed that censorship in this country appears to be alive and well. There's a song that's been playing on the radio for the last few months or so called "Breakeven" by the Script. Note the second line on there (it also gets repeated later). For quite some time, on the order of numerous weeks, the song was played just as these lyrics are shown... but just starting this past week or so, I've noticed that line has completely disappeared from the radio edit of the song, instead replaced with "but no wise words gonna stop the bleeding." Does anyone else find this more than a little suspicious? ...I'm willing to bet the Religious Right is behind this somehow.
Work has been... something of a challenge lately. Mind you, it's also around this time of year that the Scheduling department tends to forget about things like availability requests, mostly due to having to all of a sudden deal with class schedules again (there are a LOT of college and high school students working in the various call centers, particularly in Kearney and Lincoln--for obvious reasons), and for a few weeks they require repeated applications of the cluebat to get things right. I seem to be particularly difficult for them to finagle, seeing as I'm one of VERY few full-time French-speaking associates, and I think possibly the only one at a CRAII level. So, yeah, my schedule right now is all kinds of screwballed--mostly because of the apparent mandatory overtime.
Now, we were warned that, since our fall season is kicking off (and a lot of hunting seasons start in the fall) we're going to be somewhat busier and so some of the full-time staff may see additional hours scheduled within their availability. Now, this warning was in effect for one week: the week of August 22-August 28. And I wound up being scheduled for 50 hours last week. FIFTY. More than ANYONE ELSE at my level in my call center. I did not ask for ANY of the additional hours, although people were being practically badgered to take on extra hours to get a lot of people up to fifty or more. However, for these other people, they got scheduled for more like 44 hours or so and then were ASKED if they could take on extra ones. Not me. I was more than a little surprised to see that many on there, and even asked my supervisor if it was supposed to be that many, and was told yes, due to that little warning we had gotten. Okay, fine. I can deal with one crazy week. Except that this week, I'm scheduled for 44 hours. Again, I did not ask for anything extra beyond the normal full-time 39-40 scheduled hours. And next week? 36 hours--less than usual, yes, except that, if September 6th weren't Labor Day and thus the Customer Service department closed, it would be ANOTHER 44 hour-long week. Again, I was not asked "Can you add extra hours?" nor "Do you mind staying later?" when these schedules were made (although the CCAs keep asking me if I want to stay an extra half-hour at night or come in early and I keep saying "no," especially since they have me coming in at opening everyday).
I'm sure part of this comes from my rather unique status of being full-time Customer Service and a foreign language associate, but this is getting ridiculous. One week, sure, fine, I can deal with that. Two weeks, maybe. But three weeks straight? No. I have obligations outside of work, not the least of which being Adrian, who's barely seen me at all since this nonsense started. Is it any wonder my friends and suitors all think I've dropped off the planet? I've talked to my supervisors about it, and have been assured that there is no "mandatory overtime," but Scheduling apparently isn't getting the message, and thus I am going to have to have WORDS with them.
...on the plus side, it will mean some nice paychecks coming up here, though, and I can definitely use the money.