If your boss is an S.O.B tell him to S.H.O.V.E the J.O.B - new job thrad

[Good Intentions]

Teaching this week was really fun. My new students were engaged and interested and smart, laughing and seeming to enjoy themselves. This job sucks a bit quite a lot of the time, but man, I like actual class time.

I try to think about the class time, and forget all about the marking and calling up kids for cheating time.

[Anne the Man]

WORKMATE SHUT UP WITH YOUR MEANINGLESS MONOTONE ABOUT TWITTER IN-JOKES I'M APPARENTLY SUPPOSED TO FIND FUNNY grargh

[Ashley]

my co-editors are editing for the sake of editing. 

guys this article was obviously written by someone whose first language is english, don't edit that.  that's called a writer's voice, not awkward english.  stop that.

[Dick]

Just got an unsolicited job offer w/ a 30% raise & title bump, w/ a probable further 10% and another title bump in 6 months or so.  + nice benefits, shorter commute, work for smaller company, fewer hours because the manager is not an asshole who tries to bonus off of understaffing. 

I'm feeling conflicted about the offer but I think that's just nerves.  I'm going to take the job, and the filthy fucking money.  Annoyed at all the overtime I've put into my current job the last 6 months though.  Should have been takin that shit easy!

[clare]

My boss, about whom the bloke said "the only way she could be a worse manager is if she was actively abusive" is going away for 5 weeks. She's left some, but not all,  of the admin to me. I'm constantly feeling like I'm not up to the task, but then I get a wave of "how hard can it be?" So I'm totally conflicted. I've been exhausted for the last 3 weeks as she's been working me into the ground to get sorted for her departure. I keep hoping that things will actually settle down while she's away (it often does).

She's a small-business mum-management style micro-manager which I don't mind a lot of the time, but man, the sense of guilt when she unawarely says things like "my wages bill this week is $8000. I can't afford that", and I know that part of the reason it's so high is that she's been paying me to learn how to do her job, along with paying me to do random little tasks for her.. blahblahblah. I need to learn to set it aside and disengage a bit better I guess, but I'm keen for the money.

[peacocks]

Dick, that sounds great! how is the money filthy? It sounds like you deserve every penny.

Clare, she should not be making you feel guilty for doing your job or telling you how much her wages bill is. I always feel really crappy when I overhear money stuff at my office.

[Dick]

I work in the oil & gas industry =\

[peacocks]

oh, well. you know. it's texas and all. My step dad used to work as a geologist on an oil rig in the gulf of mexico. he kinda hated it.

[Em]

I hope today was "Make Yourself Look Like an Asshat at Work" day, because between technology failing me, my judgment with respect to interpersonal interactions failing me, and my level of competency being generally inadequate, I really fucked up. A lot.

I feel like going into hiding, and I still have like three hours of work left to do tonight. Somebody please go back and fix it, thanks.

[clare]

Ouch, I hate those days too Em. Where I know I've been a dickhead interpersonally and professionally. I had an interesting conversation with a co-worker about it the other day though, where I said that it's hard when people can't see how many times in a day I bite my tongue and say nothing - they only notice when I blurt out what's in my head, which may or may not be annoying to them. She has the same tendency though (which I hadn't really noticed) so that was helpful for me to see that I'm not the only one it happens to.

[Em]

Today: equally or even more awesome. Multi-tasked like a maniac all day (even though it's SUPPOSED to be a "summer Friday'), have a pounding headache to show for it, and still managed to piss someone right the hell off.

If someone from a different department sent you a document requesting that you complete some very time-consuming tasks by a certain date, and that document was maybe 90% perfectly clear to the outside observer but contained some ambiguities, would you a) ask the person who sent you the document to please clarify what she wanted you to do before you started working or b) just go ahead and take a pretty interesting guess and spend many hours producing the wrong thing?

'Cause I just had to write a rather self-flagellating e-mail apologizing to the person in question, and it's annoying when a chunk of time that could be spent being productive is instead spent writing a message whose only function is to smooth over a shitty situation and make it so there's a possibility that one day everyone won't hate you. 

Also, I keep randomly using the To: and Cc: fields inappropriately.

Must. Stop. Screwing. Up.

[jebreject]

Please don't be too hard on yourself, Em! I imagine most people understand that you're new to the position (and the company!) and it takes a while to learn that stuff. If they don't understand that, well, then they're jerks! I bet you're doing a great job, and once you've mastered everything, you're going to be totally awesome! Stay positive!

[The_Tourist]

me and my boss have desks on lofted areas in opposite corners of the room.

we now have an inter-office telephone that consists of plastic cups by each of our desks connected by a string, with a couple lids taped down to hang them up on. professional.

[Em]

Yeah, sorry, am trying! Was very TIRED when I wrote that!
 
Really, have moved on from being hard on myself to realizing that in this case someone else did something quite counterintuitive and I had to take to the heat and that's just how it goes sometimes. Have made a mental note not to work from any underlying assumptions with this person in the future (not that he's not a smart person, just very literal-minded I think!). The more you know, lesson learned, and so forth!

x-post: ha ha ha

[cold before sunrise]

me and my boss have desks on lofted areas in opposite corners of the room.

we now have an inter-office telephone that consists of plastic cups by each of our desks connected by a string, with a couple lids taped down to hang them up on. professional.

this is fabb.

[clare]

me and my boss have desks on lofted areas in opposite corners of the room.

we now have an inter-office telephone that consists of plastic cups by each of our desks connected by a string, with a couple lids taped down to hang them up on. professional.

That is the best thing I've heard in a very long time :-)

[milesofsparks]

me and my boss have desks on lofted areas in opposite corners of the room.

we now have an inter-office telephone that consists of plastic cups by each of our desks connected by a string, with a couple lids taped down to hang them up on. professional.

Do you have a string & pulley system for interoffice mail?

[cold before sunrise]

my grandma told me about an absinthe bar in paris that had boxes on a wire pulley system so you could send drinks/notes/gifts over to other tables. if that's not incentive to build a time machine i don't know what is. 

[The_Tourist]

Do you have a string & pulley system for interoffice mail?

at the same time the phones were installed, a dumbwaiter type pulley was set up to bring stuff up to his desk. but no interoffice system yet.

i'm pushing for a zip line.

[clare]

There used to be a shop in Melbourne that still used the weird capsules that whizzed all around the ceiling on little tracks. It was great.

[Em]

Turned in my first totally-from-scratch, researched-these-issues-and-came-to-these-conclusions-all-by-myself grant proposal for review by my supervisor tonight. Very big deal at my org. Got the info needed to complete the assignment late yesterday, did my reading and outlined the thing last night, had to do a work-related photo shoot this morning (sigh, don't even ask) and have been writing nonstop for over 12 hours. Computer crashed in the middle and lost some work, so got it in just under the wire. Am looking back at it now (which you should never, ever do) and can see that it needs a technical edit really badly, for starters.

I have that feeling you get when you're in school and you just handed in your exam and you won't know how hard you flunked until you get it back. Well, at least that'll be tomorrow, I guess.

[milesofsparks]

Em, you are working so hard at this job!  If they gave you that short a deadline I'm sure they're going to expect it to still need some edits.  I hope they love it and tell you so and are appreciative of all the work you're doing.

[Em]

Thanks mos. Much appreciated--kinda needed that virtual pat on the back. 

To elaborate on the photo shoot bit I glossed over, I was a bit exasperated at having to spend a lot of time getting my picture taken today, but a) it was a tiny bit fun even though I am really camera shy and not very photogenic (the photographer was really good) and b) it is kinda cool that I will have a professionally shot and retouched photo (two, actually--one more serious, one kinda goofy, is how they play it--they both get used) for my personal use in the future should I ever need that.

ALTHOUGH I must protest that everyone else pretty much ends up with a useable shot for general business purposes. I, on the other hand, showed up in a cute dress and coordinating cardigan selected for the specific purpose of hiding tattoos, only to be told by the Person Who Has the Absolute Final Say on These Matters that for this project, they needed my personality in full effect (implication: please live up to the reputation you are accidentally acquiring and liven up your department), which apparently meant "please show us as much ink as possible" because I was ordered to shed the cardigan forthwith. Ah well, what was I really going to use that photo for anyway I guess?

[Em]

Turned in my first totally-from-scratch, researched-these-issues-and-came-to-these-conclusions-all-by-myself grant proposal for review by my supervisor tonight.

Supervisor didn't get to this last night as there was another big project on her docket as well, so I had to wait until tonight for the verdict, which just came in. The e-mail was copied to a member of our executive team who has nothing to do with the project but who was instrumental in hiring me (and who has major pull), and began with: "Ok, I'm going to try to respond to this draft without spoiling you TOO much." She then proceeded to spoil me altogether too much.  Thinking this is gonna work out.

Although my supervisor promised our people over in Central Standard Time that I would incorporate her feedback and turn this back around to them by start of business tomorrow, I'm told that I have earned special dispensation to get some sleep and miss the soft deadline by a few hours, so I'm going to stop bragging and do just that. I do believe you all will henceforth be subjected to a lot less anxious yammering on the subject of my new job as I seem to have survived the "trial by fire" part!

[fishjim]

woot woot woot

yay Em! you've been GRANTed some sleep & peace of mind