Whee C_W!
And good luck to you, Dr. G!
That would be nice - we could use a run of good luck around here, especially among the un(der)employed.
Yesterday I spent eight solid hours typing a document that was a RUSH!!! for the internal audit that’s being done, so they could get another 17 points. Today I find out that they are very grateful for my hard work, but they won’t be using the form after all. Hey, supervisor who volunteered me for work outside of the scope of my assignment, you can suck my lily white ass. Grandsupervisor who decided to use the form then not use it, you can also suck my lily white ass. Jerks.
Last week it was a RUSH!!! that I had to get a manual formatted and printed off for somebody off in the field. I got it done in an amazingly short time, and got it sent off to the lady who was supposed to send it out to the field. I found out this week that she got the manual, and just let it sit on her desk for days.
My temp mantra is “I get paid by the hour.” That’s been more important than usual lately. 
That works in perm jobs as well. When I was dealing with the RatKing, I constantly reminded myself that I didn’t get paid by the box, I got paid by the hour.
and today… I wasn’t feeling well. No time for breakfast before I left (I brought it with, to eat at work). So I was hungry, not well-rested, bit of a headache, and I just wanted to scream SHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUPSHUTUP!!
Fortunately I resisted.
Oh well, She’s retiring in a couple of months and I can get caught up again on my podcasts etc. and living inside my own head when I want to.
The interview went well, but I don’t think I’m gonna get the job.
I knew next to nothing about the company, since I only had about an hour between time of phone call asking me to come in and having to leave. It was a 45 minute drive across town to get there, through the worst traffic areas in the city. I tried Google-mapping to find a quicker way there, but you basically can’t get there from here. There’s no straight shot there, no close access to the highway or anything.
I get to the place and it’s this tiny storefront hidden away in a strip mall. Didn’t look promising. I talked to the owner and the office manager, and they were probably two of the nicest people I’ve met. I liked them immediately. They told me the less-than-ideal storefront was only temporary.
Problem is, they’re only wanting to pay $9-10 an hour. I can’t justify an hour and a half in the car each day for that, my entire paycheck would go towards gas. I was honest with them, I told them that it was too far a drive, they said they understood completely. I countered with a different pay rate, and the interview was pretty much over at that point.
I’ll be floored if I get the job. It’s a bummer.
I like being in my own head, that would drive me batty. That’s the reason why I prefer to eat lunch in solitude and get drained if I don’t get some break during the day to do so. Heck I pay extra on retreats so I can have my own room and space for the same reason, been far too long since I went on one though.
Yesterday and today I’m not getting that break, new higher up is here and we are having lunch together to get to know her. Which is good, don’t get me wrong but I need that break so I’ll probably hide out in the bathroom for my breaks so I don’t get cornered by people wanting to chat. The worst offender left last week, she was nice but couldn’t take a hint to go away and I’m generally too polite to ask unless I have actual work to do.
And the lunch today? I just found out what it is. Sandwiches like I thought, which is fine but they are sandwiches from the place I hate most.
The good sandwich place is just up the road but they had to go get stuff from Spolumbo’s. I feel queasy and I haven’t eaten it yet.
Urgh. I totally get it. I sit across from the conference room.
Whenever sandwiches are ordered, they are ALWAYS from Spolumbo’s.
They even smell gross. Yick.
Dear Lawyer with a cellphone:
Did you have to stand right in front of the computer I use to yell at the rewards club people? There were perfectly serviceable couches right behind you where you could have sat comfortably to yell. Mrs. Lawyer with a cellphone? When I “suggested” that you two could go sit on the couches, that was not a suggestion. That was me saying “go the fuck over there and out of my space.” There are other people coming in and I need to check them in. I have work to do and you are an impediment to getting that done.
Also, let me remind you it is 2013. That whole “I’m not good with computers” excuse you kept using to explain why you (YOU. Not the rewards club people) screwed up your reservation no longer applies. To use language you will understand, the statute of limitations has run out. We have been using computers for nigh onto sixty years, and for almost twenty of those years computers have been an integral part of our culture. Having assistants to do that sort of thing for you does not help when you are nowhere near your assistants. Who, I am sure, think you are a clueless boob as much as I do.
Hoping you get a vile brain cancer from your phone,
Spaz
That’s too bad, Dr. Girlfriend. I guess you could look at the experience as good for working on your interviewing skills. I specify to my temp agencies that I will only take jobs in the north half of Calgary - I don’t want to spend an hour and a half in my car every day, either. The idea of dealing with the busiest highway in town at rush hour twice a day makes me want to crawl under my bed.
SpazCat, I worked at an assignment one time where one of the higher-ups walked past the photocopier to hand me one piece of paper to photocopy - that’s just frigging sad, is what that is.
ETA: Forgot today’s gripe - holy crap, Word, what the hell is wrong with you? I spent hours yesterday and today fixing up my 500 page document after Word decided to change my margins on me and messed up the many, many forms I had painstakingly formatted. That’s on top of the document regularly just stopping and not allowing me to do anything, and taking five to ten minutes to open another document that I’m copying from. There is something seriously wrong with either the program or the network or both at this company.
Oh, I almost forgot something hilarious that happened the other day. Some representative from Blue Cross Blue Shield called me at the desk and started in on some spiel about how the company should switch to their health insurance because blah blah blah I hung up on her.
The funny part? Our health insurance is through BCBS.
Someone stole my new minion. I’m outraged! OUTRAGED, I say!!! I only had him for a week, he was nice and presentable and helpful and someone else poached him. He left me for more money and a desk job.
Now I have to go through the whole hiring process again. Sometimes I miss my warehouse.
Someone could always track down SG and have him apply to be your minion. Of course, he’s not helpful or presentable, but think of the memories he brings!
I was supposed to be off all this month, but got a new project in Barcelona’s metro area. I’m not starting until next month but due to some confusion re. starting date I got to spend a couple of days in Barcelona, which I used to scout the place.
They said I’d need my car because the client’s location is “very far from the train station and there aren’t any buses to that industrial area”.
I’ve gotten a rental in the actual village where the client is located and yeah, on August’s molten-lead days or under September’s downpours betcherass I’ll drive, but it’s about a 20’ walk from my flat to the client’s location without knowing the way. It would be 30’ from the train station. The nearest bus stop (with a bus from the train station) is about 200 yards from the client’s location.
I think I’m micro-pitting people who use their legs so little that the part of the brain linked to them has atrophied.
20’? Should I assume you mean 20 minutes, not 20 feet? We’re running into that a bit with walkability scores on real estate - I walk an hour to the local mall and consider that easily within walking distance - I don’t think the people making those scores agree with me. I agree with you - a 20 minute walk is very doable.
Nava, just for clarification, in English the ’ and " symbols are sometimes used to designate minutes and seconds, but only when talking about latitude and longitude, as in degrees, minutes and seconds. I’ve never seen them used when writing about parts of an hour.
Normally in writing, the ’ and " symbols are used for feet and inches, respectively.
I know it has both meanings - but it looks like the minutes meaning is common enough that you both understood it. I’ve seen it before, including in instructions received from the US, but maybe that company’s research folk were so used to “international English” and to decimal units that they’d absorbed the minutes meaning.
Sorry, I should have started by saying that I do appreciate the correction.
I actually hesitated to even say anything, because your English is so good, and I was hoping you wouldn’t be offended. But I thought if I were in your shoes I would appreciate knowing about some of the subtle meanings that aren’t always obvious.