A Jorb Well Done (new job thread)

[YojimboMonkey]

Work has sucked really bad the last week or two, as I've dealt with one crisis after another without a break, literally going days without getting more than an hour of sleep at a time, no time to spend with my family.  I've gotten to the point where I flinch whenever my phone makes a noise and I have been reminiscing fondly on the simplicity of flipping burgers. 

On the other hand, my boss just brought me a nice gift box of Woodford Reserve, with a couple of nice tumblers, telling me it was a birthday present he'd forgotten to bring to my party 3 months ago.  Which is nice.

But back on the first hand again, I'd very much like for my life to stop sucking so please calm down internet and please equipment stop breaking and please random shit stop going wrong ok thanks

[clare]

Wow, Jim, sounds like your boss is pretty keen to hang on to you. Now if only he'd pay you more.

[Good Intentions]

Hi Marinus,
 
I have been informed by our finance manager that there was an error in the 16/12/10 payrun where there was an overpayment to you of $6114.55.
I have been advised to notify you to please do not spend this amount as HR will be recovering the overpayment.

[YojimboMonkey]

was it your error? no? then fuck them

seriously though no that sucks but the entire world exists to make sure you do not get that money so sorry, you are shit out of luck

[Good Intentions]

I didn't get a payment of $6114.55, btw. I got almost a grand less than that. I suspect they quoted the gross amount they overpaid me, and didn't take into account tax. Otherwise they keep fucking up over and over.

[clare]

Bastards. I assume you told them the actual amount they overpaid you?

[Good Intentions]

I will once the office opens again.

[alex]

Today was a good day at the office!

My office has four desks: one of a professor who mostly works in a different city and comes here once or twice a month, generally only for meetings; one of a second-year PhD student who drops by for a few hours a few times a week and works from home (or not at all) otherwise; and one that used to be occupied for 2-3 full days a week until last month but is currently empty.  In other words, I've been alone in a big office a lot lately, and I find that it does not help my productivity levels to be alone that much.

Last week, I talked about this with a friend, who's also in the writing-up stage of her PhD, and who also spends a lot of time alone in her office (and when she's not alone, her roommates are busy with very different kinds of work), and who's not thriving in those conditions either. We forged a plan: to spend one day a week in the same office and try to motivate each other to write. That day was going to be Monday, because Mondays are usually the pits, obviously. Since my office is bigger and brighter than hers and has a huge free desk, she came over to mine today. It was cool! Neither of us were hugely extremely productive, but we both did a pretty okay job, esp. considering it was a Monday, I helped her a little bit with her writing while she helped me with some psychological assistance in the ongoing grading-drama, and between that, well, we just had fun. At the end of the day, we decided that there wasn't really any point in limiting our writing partnership to just Mondays, and she's coming back tomorrow.

[bethany_m]

I sent over a half assed application to a coffee shop chain today.  I'm working 15-20 hrs a week and that keeps us afloat financially, but a little extra is always nice.  We will see if they call  me.

[alex]

Good luck!

[Aglaya]

Two things:
A. We're going to be firing the long-term huge problem employee next Saturday.  Sucks that we have to wait that long when we know that it's happening either way, but that's protocol for you.  We could do it next Wednesday, but I'm off in the middle of the week and need to be there.  I'm so happy that shit is finally almost over.
B. I found out today that in a few months, provided there are no super-major screw-ups on my part, I will be getting a bonus of several thousand dollars!  I'm sure if I lived somewhere else or had some bills or dependents, what I make wouldn't amount to much, but with the life I have now, the money I make is crazy.  That bonus may bump up the date of my trip to India by a year or two!  Or at least help me see a little more of the US.  I really want to go to India, but maybe I should continue to practice travelling in-country for awhile first.  The bonus will be a yearly thing, and it'll get bigger every year.  I really love my job.  It's crazy how much I'm getting paid to do something that's like 60% fun.

[alex]

The increase in productivity levels reported above due to the presence of a temporary office roommate did not last all that long - the first week of the experiment worked well, and resulted in me handing in an almost-complete first draft of the chapter I'm writing. The second week, in which I meant to re-write and complete the chapter after consulting some additional secondary literature, was far less successful: the reading stretched over the entire week, and was accompanied by much procrastination. Weirdly enough, though, when my temporary office roommate left around 6pm tonight, and when I was just about ready to close down business for the week too, I was still struck by a wave of productivity, did the re-structuring I needed to do in the chapter (which is an incredibly tediuous process), wrote a few additional paragraphs, and took care of all of the necessary transitions. Now it's 9pm and I actually do feel like I deserve the weekend - strengthening the analysis, tying in some of this week's readings, re-writing the intro and writing the conclusions can wait until next week, I think.

[Aglaya]

I fired someone for the first time today.  It totally needed to happen, and it's a relief that it's done, but it sucked to have to do it.  He took it ok, was just kind of quiet and left.  I thought he was going to cry for a second, but he didn't.  I wish he would have listened to what me and the store manager have been saying to him in regularly scheduled job evaluations that he knew could lead to him being fired for the past year, but he chose not to, and now he's 40, spent the last decade making coffee and doesn't even have a good reference to show for it.  Totally sucks for him, but it's already made things better for everyone else.