Work grumbles
I work as a retail manager and this back to school season is upon us. This means many things none of them very happy making for me. First, there are the two six day, roughly 50 hour work weeks. The second of those is a week that supposedly is a holiday week. For Labor Day, I theoretically am supposed to get a paid holiday. That's a nine hour day off with pay. Where does it get added in to the week when I'm working six days that week for a total (before the holiday) of 48 hours?
Last year, I had planned on going to the World Con in Toronto. I had informed my boss a year and a half in advance, reminded him at six months and three months that I would be taking the long weekend off. Two weeks before the con, I was told that I couldn't have the time and his recommendation was to go up Saturday night and return Sunday night. How this would allow me to enjoy a five day long convention and getting together with friends was and still is beyond me. This year though Boston is not much farther away, I planned for the inability to get the time. I hope my friends from here and afar enjoy themselves.
This would not be too bad to handle on its own. However there have developed personality and personnel problems at the job. There is a certain employee that has finally succeeded in finding the end of my patience. After almost six years of working with this person, his need to have me repeat all instructions five times and any answers to his questions an equal number of times has driven me to the point that I find that I can't work with him. My helpful boss tells me that since there is no actual trouble with his performance that there isn't much we can do except try to get him to change his habits. How does one go about changing the habits of a person that seems to have OCD? Well, Thursday I will try to find out when I have a conference with him and a training supervisor.
I am also upset by the fact that the associate that I currently count on the most to help me keep my sanity is leaving for a position in the field in which she just graduated from university. I'm glad for her to be finding her way into the serious world of a career but selfishly feel the loss of a sounding board and friend. Though only twenty-one, she has a more mature approach to life than most and a witty cynicism that melds well with my own.
This grumble is not to solicit sympathy or advice but to simply let me vent frustrations that otherwise would stew inside me for far too long.
On a lighter note... the other day I received a letter from a professor that I had for a class last fall semester. He finally found, read, commented on and returned a short story that I had handed in in the middle of the semester. Ten months isn't too long to keep a student waiting is it? I am grateful that he actually read and replied after all this time but thanks to the delay, I'm not currently working on that story, though I will re-write it in the future. There are a few refinements in voice and action that I need to make.
Thanks for letting me vent.
Last year, I had planned on going to the World Con in Toronto. I had informed my boss a year and a half in advance, reminded him at six months and three months that I would be taking the long weekend off. Two weeks before the con, I was told that I couldn't have the time and his recommendation was to go up Saturday night and return Sunday night. How this would allow me to enjoy a five day long convention and getting together with friends was and still is beyond me. This year though Boston is not much farther away, I planned for the inability to get the time. I hope my friends from here and afar enjoy themselves.
This would not be too bad to handle on its own. However there have developed personality and personnel problems at the job. There is a certain employee that has finally succeeded in finding the end of my patience. After almost six years of working with this person, his need to have me repeat all instructions five times and any answers to his questions an equal number of times has driven me to the point that I find that I can't work with him. My helpful boss tells me that since there is no actual trouble with his performance that there isn't much we can do except try to get him to change his habits. How does one go about changing the habits of a person that seems to have OCD? Well, Thursday I will try to find out when I have a conference with him and a training supervisor.
I am also upset by the fact that the associate that I currently count on the most to help me keep my sanity is leaving for a position in the field in which she just graduated from university. I'm glad for her to be finding her way into the serious world of a career but selfishly feel the loss of a sounding board and friend. Though only twenty-one, she has a more mature approach to life than most and a witty cynicism that melds well with my own.
This grumble is not to solicit sympathy or advice but to simply let me vent frustrations that otherwise would stew inside me for far too long.
On a lighter note... the other day I received a letter from a professor that I had for a class last fall semester. He finally found, read, commented on and returned a short story that I had handed in in the middle of the semester. Ten months isn't too long to keep a student waiting is it? I am grateful that he actually read and replied after all this time but thanks to the delay, I'm not currently working on that story, though I will re-write it in the future. There are a few refinements in voice and action that I need to make.
Thanks for letting me vent.