Work sucks as of late. So I’ve been spending my evenings relaxing the warm glow of my TV set, not thinking about this little blog. But today was the last straw.
You see, my new/old assignment in this company was to relieve the workload of some individuals that service the clients, as they’re coming into the fourth quarter. Read: the busy season. The job although not technically complicated, is highly confusing, as there are several redundant bases that need to be covered in the process and there seems to be an exception to every rule. My team members and I were trained for two weeks on what takes most people a few months to learn. We’re now expected to perform at the levels of the people who have been there for years and we’re evaluated according to the standards that their evaluations are based on. This is not what I have a problem with. Since we’re directly servicing the customer’s needs, it’s only reasonable that they expect our work to be flawless. What I have a problem with is the expectation that we will fail and that it seems that we’re almost set up to do so.
You see, about a year ago, the department head (who is a peer of the one who contracted me) tried to hire a team like the one I’m on. Rumor has it; they failed and had to be ‘liquidated.’ So naturally, it’s in her best interests that her peer not be successful at the project that she failed at. We’ve been suspect that her team has the same sentiments and this week, that suspicion was confirmed.
Whenever there are problems, my team and I are blamed. In meetings behind closed doors, an under-your-breath remark is always noting a mistake of some sort and occasionally, emails slyly remind you of an error that may or may not be your fault but has already been confirmed to be yours anyway. All done in a manner consistent with coroporate politics.
I’ve been working with the one individual in the department whom I thought was oblivious to this behavior and thought that the ‘mistakes’ that s/he instructed me to do were honest mistakes. That there was a rhyme or reason to it all. But today I realized they weren’t, and began to realize just what sort of environment I’m actually in. That same individual was caught on the phone complaining to the district manager in the home office that my team is annoying and bothersome and that we don’t help out much at all and that our error rate is rather high. This after spewing junk in an email that invited us to her/his door because of a practical open door policy and assured us that ‘there are no dumb questions’ so we’re all welcome to ask anything that might help us in our processes. It only adds to my disdain that the email was laced with multiple thanks ended with exclamation points and digital smiley faces.
And to the person who seems to be concerned that my team members and I are spending too much time on the Internet and emailing: Stop forwarding me personal jokes and chain letters over company email and start focusing on your own work. Be careful what you wish for; our team might just choose to fail and you’ll again spend 15-hour days at work during the Christmas season.

So now I'll just go to work. I do my job. I don't try to socialize. And I've ended 'waiting-for-the-printer-to-finish-my-job' small talk.

But tomorrow is Friday and it’s the girls’ night out at the Chippendales. I plan to travel 50 miles with 7 other ladies to get unabashedly tipsy/drunk, stuff dollar bills into the g-strings of fine human specimens and act like I’ve been kept in a cave for 25 years and have just discovered the opposite sex. And yes, I hope to capture the whole thing on film. Not a bad ending to a crappy week, no? Wherein, I’ll return to home to my boyfriend the next day and watch him get together with other half-clothed men and roll around on the floor in an entirely different ritual than the night before. I hope to capture a bit of that on film as well.

posted by paula 10:59 PM

Exercising your right to vote and why I’m not a permanent employee in this company.
One would think that every Minnesotan would be out at the polls today. That because this election is “the most interesting America’s seen in a long time” -- as political analysts are saying everywhere -- we should show the nation that we value our right to choose our political leaders. Not so.
Today I heard some amazing suggestions on how we could reform our voting system. Of those, my favorite two:
“They should making voting day a holiday, so it’s much easier to vote. What if we don’t have time to get to the polls?” And my favorite: “They should do voting over the Internet so it’s easier to vote.”

Now I’m a 21st century kind of gal. My first computer was an Apple IIe and I’m so dependant on technology these days that I shudder to think of the times that our power goes out and I’m left technology-less for a matter of twenty minutes or so. I spend scads of time in front of a computer, for work and leisure and education and on occasion, my skin has been known to pick up the blue-ish glow from a monitor. But that doesn’t mean that every two years or so, I can’t get off my lazy arse and dust off my number two pencil to vote. And as for making voting day a formal holiday for the express purpose of making it easier to vote – well, I think that’s a sad statement to your commitment to your job. I don’t know about the rest of the country, but the polls here are open from 7 am to 8 pm. First off, it’s illegal for any employer to prohibit you from leaving work early or coming in late or using your lunch hour to vote. If you feel so committed to your job that you can’t leave your desk for an hour or so, maybe your voice shouldn’t be heard in our elections.

Come on, folks. Are we really that lazy of a society that you can’t pry yourself away from your job or computer every two years to vote? Next thing you know, people will complain of hunger or thirst while waiting in line at the polls and soon McDonalds and Starbucks everywhere will need to be converted to polling stations.

Voting is a right. We take that right away from criminals and delinquents and only give it to legal citizens. That doesn’t mean that it’s a luxury. Go ahead and abstain because you’re cynical about the nature of politicians. Go ahead and abstain because you’re a Jehovah’s Witness and it’s not part of your religious beliefs. But if you’re too lazy to make the time to vote, it’s probably better that you don’t.

posted by paula 11:29 AM

Waiting for dinner on Friday night, we spent some time mall watching at the mall of America. For those of you unfamiliar with this popular time-killer, grab a bench in the mall of your choice and inconspicuously (sometimes conspicuously) watch whatever comes your way.
The Mall of America -- here forth known as the MOA – is the best place to engage in such activity for obvious reasons. Every one and every thing eventually goes there and many do it in improper and sometimes appalling attire. First though, I’d like to dispel some major assumptions about Minnesota and the MOA:
1. Twin-citians don’t shop at the MOA. Rarely do us natives enter the place (aside from entertainment or dining purposes) to frequent the shops there. When we do, it’s with a direct mission to find a particular item and we do so with a very specific directive, careful not to stray from our original purpose. It’s a logistical nightmare and takes too much time.
2. Should we ever decide to frequent the MOA, we’re constantly reminded as to why we don’t shop there by the mass amounts of tourists that trample us with their ample packages from stores like “Minnesot-ah!" which somehow claim to be uniquely Minnesotan by selling things like wooden loon sculptures, stuffed bears, and clocks that look like they’re miniature canoes.
3. We’re constantly in awe of those who actually buy souvenirs from the MOA, such as t-shirts, coffee mugs and key rings, as if the place was Disney Land or Las Vegas and not an actual mall.
4. Those of us that live in Bloomington are quite tired of being referred to as ‘living next to the MOA’ by non-Minnesotans. The city of Bloomington occupies 38.3 square miles or 24,540 acres of land in Minnesota, only 78 acres of which belongs to the MOA. We have nearly 90,000 residents and are the third largest city the state of Minnesota. Not all of us live ‘next to the Mall of America.’ In fact, I live over 10 miles away from it.
But at any given time, we find ourselves at the mall, gazing upon our shopping counterparts and hopeful that they buy something other than clothes so that we may reap the benefits of their wonderful tax dollars. The best time to do such an activity is on weekends of course, which is when the tourism flux is in full swing.

We also witnessed someone else’s accident this weekend as a red, unidentified car rear-ended a van at 65 mph on Hwy 100. It’s the first time either of us had seen an accident happen as bystanders. Of course, there’s not much you can do about it while buzzing past at those speeds.

Saturday night we were invited to a post-Halloween party at a friend’s house in uptown. Although it was last minute, we scraped up some costumes for the optional “Villains and Heroes” theme. Ryan went as Bill Clinton with cigar in hand. I had a perfect wig to be Monica Lewinsky, but couldn’t find a blue dress to wear it with so I opted for a much more trendy Anna Nicole Smith costume. See the pictures here.

posted by paula 9:56 PM