Three weeks in
..and I'm still dealing with 'new hire' bullshit. I am so not used to this. I'm used to showing up, on the first day, and being sent out in the field and told to get to work. That is good, that is how I roll, I am not accustomed to spending WEEKS trying to get this that and the other thing in order before I can actually do the job I was hired to do.
I finally got my security clearance application in, I finally gave the department all my documentation, I finally got computer access, I finally got a computer and I thought yes, finally, I can do some work!
...But no. Apparently, getting computer access and getting access to the internal network server, you know, the one with all the data I need on it, are two different things. There's a whole other process to go through! YAY!
This wouldn't be such a big deal if Old King Cole wasn't so useless. This guy grabs me for his project my first week, gives me one task which I can't accomplish because I don't have file permissions, then gives everyone else in the office the impression that he's keeping me busy when he's NOT, and then shows up at my desk once a day to ask why I don't have file access yet, tell me to do things that I already did to try and fix it, then talks about how stupid this is. Then when I ask him if there's anything else I can work on in the meantime, he says no, there's nothing. I call foul.
I've been gradually making it known that I have nothing to do, and it's finally started to work. Last week, I volunteered to help build a tortoise protection fence! I started that today. It was actually quite fun; I was out there working with a bunch of air force boys - who are very different from army boys, btw. Army boys = football players and jocks, air force boys = geeky kids who liked planes. I love air force boys, they're mostly about my height and wear glasses. It amuses me. They're also quite nice, I had a very pleasant time chatting with them today. One of the women in the office also conscripted me into working on organizing the in-house reference library. Yay I get to organize something! Fortunately that's a big enough job to keep me more than occupied until the file permissions come through, if they ever do.
So thought I'd rather be in the field, things are looking up.
I have just about had it with the other new hire, though. Imagine a first grade teacher, the kind of first grade teacher who never yells at the students, just talks really slowly and quietly and asks them why it's bad to write on the walls with crayon and explains why they really shouldn't do that, now should they. Except she talks like the to adults. It is pure, grade-A condescension, and it's almost insufferable.
Jim (older guy in the office, been working in archaeology forever): Yeah, my knee is still a little messed up, but it doesn't bother me too much. I figure surgery isn't really necessary.
Mara (new hire): Physical therapy! (said matter-of-factly with a finger wag!!)
Jim: Well, I guess, but that's a lot of effort for something that's not really a problem...
Mara: (in talking-to-first-grader voice) But at physical therapy, you can learn good habits for your health...for life! (and you can learn how to go potty all by yourself!)
And this to a fifty-some year old man.
So I didn't take it too personally when this happened today.
Mara: (bending down slightly to me as I'm siting at my desk - very similar to the way one would bend down to a child) There's a meeting at three, have you heard?
Me: Oh, yeah, I heard something about that, is it something we all have to go to?
Mara: (first grader voice) Well, you might benefit from it. It's CH2 - your employer - so I think I'm going to take advantage of it.
Me: You know, I'm right in the middle of something now, why don't you just tell me how it goes?
Incidentally, I did end up going to the meeting, I told her later it was because of the free pie. But seriously, at that point, I was not going to say yes to anything she said. I mean what the hell? How old do you think I am that you talk to me like that? Are you seriously standing here and scolding me for not jumping at the opportunity to sit in a meeting that has nothing to do with me? And thanks, I had no idea that CH2 was my employer. Thanks for telling me. But as I said, she does it to everyone, not just me. She perpetually speaks to others in this 'mother knows best' tone designed to make you feel ashamed of yourself (not that you do or should, but that's the goal.) It's really, really obnoxious.
I'm trying not to complain about my co-workers at work, though. That's a game best avoided.
In other news, I took a major leap the other day and signed up for a pagan meetup group in LA. The monthly gathering is at a bar in Hollywood...on a Wednesday. Yeesh. Gonna be a bad day at work next Thursday, I'll tell you that. But I've been craving some kind of community, and this seems like a nice group of people who just sort of get together and enjoy their pagan-ness. It's not a coven or anything, because I'm still not sure if I want to dive into that now (or possibly ever). It seems like a very well-regulated group, too, so I'm reasonably confident that they're not too heavy on the crazy. SO we'll see how that goes.
Cory is watching Planet Earth and lions are hunting elephants. Cool.
I finally got my security clearance application in, I finally gave the department all my documentation, I finally got computer access, I finally got a computer and I thought yes, finally, I can do some work!
...But no. Apparently, getting computer access and getting access to the internal network server, you know, the one with all the data I need on it, are two different things. There's a whole other process to go through! YAY!
This wouldn't be such a big deal if Old King Cole wasn't so useless. This guy grabs me for his project my first week, gives me one task which I can't accomplish because I don't have file permissions, then gives everyone else in the office the impression that he's keeping me busy when he's NOT, and then shows up at my desk once a day to ask why I don't have file access yet, tell me to do things that I already did to try and fix it, then talks about how stupid this is. Then when I ask him if there's anything else I can work on in the meantime, he says no, there's nothing. I call foul.
I've been gradually making it known that I have nothing to do, and it's finally started to work. Last week, I volunteered to help build a tortoise protection fence! I started that today. It was actually quite fun; I was out there working with a bunch of air force boys - who are very different from army boys, btw. Army boys = football players and jocks, air force boys = geeky kids who liked planes. I love air force boys, they're mostly about my height and wear glasses. It amuses me. They're also quite nice, I had a very pleasant time chatting with them today. One of the women in the office also conscripted me into working on organizing the in-house reference library. Yay I get to organize something! Fortunately that's a big enough job to keep me more than occupied until the file permissions come through, if they ever do.
So thought I'd rather be in the field, things are looking up.
I have just about had it with the other new hire, though. Imagine a first grade teacher, the kind of first grade teacher who never yells at the students, just talks really slowly and quietly and asks them why it's bad to write on the walls with crayon and explains why they really shouldn't do that, now should they. Except she talks like the to adults. It is pure, grade-A condescension, and it's almost insufferable.
Jim (older guy in the office, been working in archaeology forever): Yeah, my knee is still a little messed up, but it doesn't bother me too much. I figure surgery isn't really necessary.
Mara (new hire): Physical therapy! (said matter-of-factly with a finger wag!!)
Jim: Well, I guess, but that's a lot of effort for something that's not really a problem...
Mara: (in talking-to-first-grader voice) But at physical therapy, you can learn good habits for your health...for life! (and you can learn how to go potty all by yourself!)
And this to a fifty-some year old man.
So I didn't take it too personally when this happened today.
Mara: (bending down slightly to me as I'm siting at my desk - very similar to the way one would bend down to a child) There's a meeting at three, have you heard?
Me: Oh, yeah, I heard something about that, is it something we all have to go to?
Mara: (first grader voice) Well, you might benefit from it. It's CH2 - your employer - so I think I'm going to take advantage of it.
Me: You know, I'm right in the middle of something now, why don't you just tell me how it goes?
Incidentally, I did end up going to the meeting, I told her later it was because of the free pie. But seriously, at that point, I was not going to say yes to anything she said. I mean what the hell? How old do you think I am that you talk to me like that? Are you seriously standing here and scolding me for not jumping at the opportunity to sit in a meeting that has nothing to do with me? And thanks, I had no idea that CH2 was my employer. Thanks for telling me. But as I said, she does it to everyone, not just me. She perpetually speaks to others in this 'mother knows best' tone designed to make you feel ashamed of yourself (not that you do or should, but that's the goal.) It's really, really obnoxious.
I'm trying not to complain about my co-workers at work, though. That's a game best avoided.
In other news, I took a major leap the other day and signed up for a pagan meetup group in LA. The monthly gathering is at a bar in Hollywood...on a Wednesday. Yeesh. Gonna be a bad day at work next Thursday, I'll tell you that. But I've been craving some kind of community, and this seems like a nice group of people who just sort of get together and enjoy their pagan-ness. It's not a coven or anything, because I'm still not sure if I want to dive into that now (or possibly ever). It seems like a very well-regulated group, too, so I'm reasonably confident that they're not too heavy on the crazy. SO we'll see how that goes.
Cory is watching Planet Earth and lions are hunting elephants. Cool.