Crappy Customer Service

Wagons Ho!

December 15 – 5 Minutes. Imagine you will completely lose your memory of 2010 in five minutes. Set an alarm for five minutes and capture the things you most want to remember about 2010.

Skipping this one because it's redundant after all these days of writing shit down.

December 16 – Friendship. How has a friend changed you or your perspective on the world this year? Was this change gradual, or a sudden burst?

He is my supervisor, and he is teaching me about healthy scepticism.

In spite of how I appear in print, I really am an open, optimistic person.  I have not lost the ability to believe what people tell me.  My boss at the Sportswear Company used to rag on me for being so honest to everyone.  She did a good job of not crushing my spirit while bracing me to accept the lower standards of others.  The senior buyer has continued this tradition.  He has an uncanny ability to predict the outcome of complex transactions - a talent I'd like to develop.

Mush!

December 14 – Appreciate. What’s the one thing you have come to appreciate most in the past year? How do you express gratitude for it?

Is it against the spirit of this whole navel-gazing exercise to say Money?  I appreciate Money most?  OK, how about Compensation?

After decades of being underpaid, I am finally making a living wage.  I have my own benefits and a pension.  I work in a place with a wellness program. I can't tell you how happy I am to have wound up here.  I want to say I'm lucky, but my inner voice says that luck plays only a small part.  I clawed my way up from the ground, learned to play by the rules, made mistakes and wasn't afraid to look like a dumbass or change what needed changin'.

Now, in gratitude, I must pass this torch to my husband, who is underpaid and undercompensated for his incredible skills.  It is time for him to change what needs changin'.

One More Time

December 10 – Wisdom. What was the wisest decision you made this year, and how did it play out?

The single wisest decision I made was leaving the Steel Company, where I had worked for about three weeks.  The company was in a tough place, what with trying to merge three separate competitor companies into one.  There were a lot of bad feelings floating around.  Plus, the whole hour-long commute in the crankiest traffic in the city.  I thank my lucky stars I am no longer toughing that out in a La Nina year.

It was advertised to me as a logistics job, but I spent most of my brief time there on payables.  I am no bookkeeper, people.  I have no training as such.  Plus, out of three different pieces of software they were using to manage their company, they chose one that was DOS-based.  What does that say to you?

Leaving there was ugly.  My supervisor there was pissed off that I was taking a powder after only three weeks.

Let's Roll.

December 7 – Community. Where have you discovered community, online or otherwise, in 2010? What community would you like to join, create or more deeply connect with in 2011?

I joined a community of public-service-minded people when I started my new job.  These people are actually serious about making the city a better place to live.  It scares the crap out of me.

I also reluctantly joined the World of Warcraft community.  Mr. W and I were growing tired of playing Lord of the Rings Online, two years (!) in.  The eagerly awaited debut of DC Universe Online was a bust, it's not even up to the standards of games designed ten years ago.  So...World of Warcraft is our chosen Sunday time-sink.  It's not my favourite game but my friends and husband make it tolerable.

 

Gettin On Wi It

December 5 - Let Go What (or whom) did you let go of this year? Why?

I let go of my old job, obviously.  I had no idea it would be so emotionally difficult, because at the time I had a grievance list a mile long and was clutching my desk so I didn't just walk out every day.  But I loved working for my supervisor, and I enjoyed working with apparel.  I still kinda miss them both.

Part of me is in mourning for the ideal of the job, not the reality of it.  The job I wanted at the Sporting Company doesn't exist anymore, and never will again.  This was confirmed for me when I ran into someone who still works there.  She aired a laundry list of grievances I recognized. 

She also didn't ask me how I was doing because she was tied up with her own devils.  She is of a certain age, but unable to retire from the Sporting Company's pittiful wage (never mind that, there's no retirement planning either).  I'm certain that she also feels her age is a challenge to finding new work.  Her life is tough enough without me being petty or spiteful, even though she was terrible to me at the beginning of my tenure there.  So I let go of that, too.

Blah?

While I like to brag about myself as a great conversationalist, I'm really just fantastically good at keeping up an inane stream of chatter with anyone.  It's a skill that's come in handy a lot recently, what with going on interviews, jumping jobs and meeting the populace.

I find myself in a lot of situations where this skill is essential - the moments before a meeting begins, for example.  A bunch of strangers are sitting together, maybe waiting for the chair to show up.  Should we sit around and make awkward-turtle gestures at each other?  Or should we turn this into a party?

I don't meet a lot of people with this skill.  When I do spot someone across a boardroom table who can help with the conversational heavy-lifting, I feel as though they are a kindred spirit.  I've also noticed that it is a well-developed skill in people who climb high in their careers.  I ask you to keep an eye out for the likes of us who are "naturals" and maybe pick up a corner of that burden.

Is It Wrong...

To be so, so tired of the "bohemian" look jammed down the throats of plus-size women?

To walk a wide berth around loitering groups of surly-looking First Nations teens?

To pay 10¢ extra per bus ride for air conditioning?  (Hypothetically.)

To have this huge summer entertainment extravaganza taking place outside the front door, yet stay indoors for a meal and a nap on my lunch hour?

Check Out Guitar George, She Knows All The Chords

I disappear into tasks.  I am the person to whom you give your massive time-sink of a job that no one wants - I'll do the hell out of it.  Filing?  Yes please!  Alpha or numerical?

Do you want to spend your long weekend editing the ID tags of your *entire* music collection?  I just did.  (The weather was shitty, mind.)  And put those album covers on, no matter how obscure.

At work I am using spare parts of the day to categorize a massive vendor contact file.

I became the essential employee at The Sporting Company when I read every.  Last.  Catalog.  You need me to find something out?  I'll find out ten things, and learn another language so I can find an eleventh in another country.

No one else in my family is like this.  Where does it come from?

Suddenly Outdoors

As it turns out, one bus gets me from my doorstep to my place of work - and it costs about $300/month to park there.  So I've given up my shiny new car to my husband.  Now our sports car sits at home - we are trying to keep the kilometres low to get a good resale price when our lease is up.  Lancers tend to get snapped up by kids looking to rice them out.

I never really liked driving.  No scratch that, I never really liked driving in the city.  Still, giving up my car is hard *whine*.  I had no idea I was using my car as a giant purse until I had to carry everything I want to have during the day...on my freakin' back.  I got tired of carrying a bag with my lunch and books in addition to my purse, so I'm experimenting with one large bag and transferring my contents from my purse and back. 

I have to be quite strict about what to carry.  No more having nine types of lip gloss.  One book only.  Umbrella only on rainy days.  My inner Girl Guide says, What if you are caught unprepared?  But she also says, Pack light.

Yep

I did get that job.  I ask myself, why do I seek trouble?  My life is very calm in general, but occasionally I seem to really fuck things up for myself.  I have no one else to blame for it.  Clicking that jobs link was an act of id.

The last few weeks have been spiritually tough, and I should probably deal with that by writing more, but I don't want to be seen whining.  That is the ultimate sin to a Scottish Albertan, being steeped in Calvinism whether one likes it or not. 

I had to lie to go to the interview, and lie some more about my desire to stay with The Logistics Company.  I hate lying - I can do it, but I hate it so much that even a small lie keeps me awake at night.  My inclination, once I heard that I got the new job, was to simply not show up one day and vanish from the sight of my old/new job, which would be much easier in the short term.  I did face the music and quit to my boss's face after all.  She is a big scary intimidating woman so I was tied up in knots over that too.  I was terribly sorry about taking a job I was lukewarm about, and tried to do the whole thing as nicely and briefly as possible by just getting the hell out of there.

So this week I am restarting over again (yes I know that is grammar butchery - but it's apt).  This new job shit is highly overrated.  My new job pays more, has better benefits, a better commute and a cool new location...but I hate being the newbie.  Thus my stomach is still all screwed up in the mornings.