The Final Countdown...

In honour of tomorrow being my last day at my current job and, hopefully, an end to my work whining for a while, I've decided to make this blog entry into a handy dandy list:

Things I will not miss about my job:

1. My job. I'm tired of knowing the nuances of software applications and still feeling like I know nothing. No software should be so complex that after two years, a person can still feel like an idiot for not knowing very much about it.

2. My boss. Nothing is more exhausting than constantly having to tell your boss things you want to do, things you are doing and things you should be doing.

3. My cupboard under the stairs (aka, my cubicle). It has a broken keyboard tray, an old computer, one less file cabinet than everyone else and a chair that once was glued but was sent away and is fixed but still hurts my back. Also, everyone else has shiny new Macs and I have an old PC with Windows XP. Almost everyone else in the office got upgraded to Windows 7.

4. Wearing a shirt that happens to be the same colour as one of our logos and being told, "Hey, you're wearing [software name] blue!"

5. Dressing nicely for work and being asked why I'm dressed so nicely.

6. Going into the bathroom to hide from my cubicle and being assaulted by optimism.

7. Being Instant Messaged by my coworker every five minutes even though she sits across the aisle from me, less than ten feet away.

8. Trying to train the same coworker in #7 and constantly having to remind her to focus because she's too busy giving me her regular State of the Company Address According to [Captain Monkeypants' Coworker]

9. Having to debate how sick I really am when I'm actually sick in order to decide if I can afford to use valuable PTO.

10. Having my boss perch awkwardly on my desk and try to carry on a conversation. Even when I try to talk sports, he gets a panicked look in his eye, knocks over something on my desk and scrambles away.

11. Wondering if we'll actually get our annual Christmas bonus of a miniature candy cane in our mailbox or not. Last year, we didn't.

12. Wondering why we spent several thousand dollars on a "Smartboard" when we only use it as a projection screen when the money could have been spent on something more useful.

13. Making coffee in the mornings only to discover that whoever was nice enough to rinse the pots the night before was not nice enough to empty out the old, soggy coffee grounds. I hate soggy coffee grounds.

14. Being asked daily if I've changed my mind about my resignation. Then, on a happy hour the night before I'm due to leave, going to a coworker-arranged happy hour, only to find out that the boss who has not really spoke to you in a week AND the president of the company show up and proceed to baffle you by the fact that they're friendly and nice about you're leaving. Have we FINALLY reached acceptance?

15. Feeling horrible because I resigned and my boss couldn't even be bothered to take me out for lunch the way he has for EVERY OTHER EMPLOYEE WHO HAS LEFT IN THE PAST TWO YEARS.

16. My boss. Yes, I know I said that in #2 but given the fact that he's acted like I broke his heart by leaving and thus is acting slightly like a vindictive Ex, I'm allowed to say I won't miss him again. Also, he made me cry and that still irks me.

17. Making a drinking game up based on the amount of times my coworker vanishes down the hallway to chat to her friend/coworker and then comes back and whines that she doesn't have enough time to get her work done.

18. Wondering why the walls of my cubicle are the exact same colour as baby poo or chocolate that melted and then went hard again. Neither one is pleasant.

19. Having emergency staff meetings fairly regularly that tell us that some further turmoil is befalling our company. After having been sold, merged, moved and re-presidented, it's been a rough two years.

20. Awkward Bagel Days.

Things I will miss about my job

1. The coworkers I actually like.

2. Getting to work at 7 a.m. and having no one be there yet.

3. Having meetings where I imagine I set a demon on everyone.

I think that much says it all. Hopefully with the new job comes a new series of blogs. Stay tuned and have a great weekend!

Happy Friday!

Short Weeks, Long Weekends

Today was my Friday at work and I couldn't be more glad. Even though most people in my office have to go to work tomorrow...I don't. To me, that makes for a good end to a somewhat tough week in the office.

It hasn't been a tough week, workwise. It's just been one of those weeks where the coworkers who generally annoy you a little, end up annoying you a lot. It's been one of those weeks where even the tiny normal daily hiccups turn into big delays in the daily breath of your working life. My computer would freeze. I'd have to reboot. My software would stop working. I'd have to reboot. You know how it goes. In the end, it turned into one of those weeks that should have been relaxing since the boss was gone but ended up being a bit of a waste of time.

Still, it's my 'weekend' now. It means I don't have to go to bed at a reasonable time if I don't feel like it. Of course, these days, I tend to go to bed at a reasonable time even when I don't have to get up early. Nevertheless, it's nice to have the option. These days, the best part is that I no longer have to blearily find my way out of bed at 4 a.m. because the puppies need to go out. They're now fully capable of sleeping through the night without having to do their business outside. I find it odd that I can relate a little too much to a coworker whose young son is being potty trained and she was excited that he got through the night last night without an accident. I found myself relating to her with the puppies before I realized I was comparing a dog to a child.

I'm seriously becoming one of those old English ladies with the mismatched outfits, big old hats and a high pitched voice that trills on about her dogs. The thought frightens me a little even though I have a feeling, at the moment, it's inevitable.

I did go out tonight after work. A coworker invited me to grab drinks with her and some of her friends from her former office. I like her and hadn't been out for a while so I thought it might be fun. It was fun. Of course, it did get a wee bit odd when our company president showed up to say hi. In a way, it wasn't as out-of-place as you'd expect: My coworker is good friends with his brother and fairly good friends with him and she'd jokingly invited him.

Naturally, it changed the atmosphere a lot. Aside from passing chats about TV shows, I don't really talk to him much. As you know, I'm not always happy with the way things are at work but I mostly don't blame him. He made a point of telling me that he thinks I'm intimidated by him because I never show up in his office to complain like everyone else. While I'll admit, he is a little intimidating because, well, he's our company president, I politely told him that from my past experience, I've been conditioned to approach my manager/boss if I have a problem. Since he's, you know, the company president, I tend to figure he has more important things to do. Then I asked if he'd prefer me to talk to him.

I think I surprised him. He finally said that he wished everyone had that approach because he spends half his day listening to people complaining.

Here's the thing: I do complain about my job. You know that. I do it a fair amount on here. There are things I don't like- primarily the office politics and our stingy PTO policy. However, whether or not it's right, I do tend to think that even if he's an odd man, our company president got where he is for a reason. I do wish he'd take more action after seeing that inaction was not benefitting his employees but, in an ideal scenerio, the reason there are managers in our company is that they're supposed to manage the day-to-day operations of their department.

It was an interesting conversation. I didn't have to say much. It turns out that, as I suspected, he's much more aware of things than people seem to realize. For example, my issue with the 'clique' is not just my issue. In a strange way, it made me feel better.

The danger, of course, is that I let down my guard just a little. I let myself believe that it was ok to relax around our company president. Then again, that might not be such a bad thing. I suppose we'll have to see. What it came down to was that he asked me questions and I answered them. I'm nothing if not blunt although I can be quite tactful when necessary.

In the end, it turned out to be a fun and interesting evening. I met some new people. I heard some bad music and I got out of the house for a bit. In the spirit of me being boring, I intend to have a quiet weekend now with only necessary errands like car services and doctor's appointments to run. Sometimes, though, those are the best weekends: Nothing firm, just open time to spend as I will. I plan to relax with the puppies.

As long as no bunnies are involved.

Happy Friday and have a great weekend. Thanks for reading!

A Wonderful, Happy, Hour....

It was another beautiful day today. Now it's officially summer, it seems that Spring is trying to get back a little of the time it missed. It was warm without being unpleasantly hot, breezy with no humidity to hold back the fresh air.

It was the first day in a while where I've come home to lunch with the puppies and not wanted to go inside to the air conditioning. It made it hard to crate the puppies up and send myself back to my own cubicle-sized crate at work.

The afternoon didn't take too long to pass. It helps that I had a meeting with my boss among others. My boss is funny in meetings. He's ok in the ones where the entire staff have to attend or, even, when his own 'boss' is there. Yet when it's small groups of us, my boss is like a fidgety child. He likes to play with buttons on the computer. He also very frequently gets distracted and leads us down bizarre areas of discussion. For example, I learned that the term "crapper", used to crudely describe a toilet, was named after a plumber named something like Thomas Crapper. We looked it up on Wikipedia in the middle of a meeting. We also learned that my coworker worked at the most unfortunate Ruby Tuesday restaurant in the world. It burned down once. A mirror fell on someone's head and half the staff passed out because of carbon monoxide poisoning.

We've had a lot of odd discussions like this when my boss is present. Unbeknownst to him, I've actually started to not hate meetings when he's attending and no one higher up than him is going to be present. They're often quite...interesting.

Anyway, after the meeting with my boss, the afternoon whizzed by. There had been talk of a happy hour after work but, as I suspected, it either didn't happen or it became one of those 'exclusive' happy hours that the annoying little high-school-esque clique in my office has sometimes. I may sound bitter but, actually, I'm not. I just get fed up of the slightly unprofessional vibe in the office that involves whispering, gossip and secret lunches/happy hours. It makes things a little uncomfortable for those of us not involved. It's not that we want to be involved but it becomes a much bigger deal that we're not because of the covertness of everything. It's much like everything in the office that is worthy of a staff meeting to announce something bit- it remains a horrible secret until we're in the meeting. This leads to paranoia and gossip that wouldn't be nearly as present if they'd just tell us upfront what's going on instead of making us wait until a staff meeting.

As I said, the happy hour didn't happen. Instead, I came home and spent some time playing with the puppies in the garden. Then I took my laptop out, grabbed a beer and sat outside and wrote a little of the novel I'm currently working on while the puppies played nearby.

All in all, I have to say, that's probably one of the best 'happy hours' I've ever had. Since I tend to prefer the company of the puppies to most of my coworkers, there was no awkward socializing. There was no trying to be friendly when, mostly, you wonder why you're spending your free time in which you're NOT getting paid to hang out with people you personally don't care for outside of working with them. Also, the beer was way cheaper. Also, it's a rare happy hour at a bar when a furry little dachshund catches sight of you watching her and makes a running leap to try to get on your lap to give you 'kisses.'

Also, I got to work on my novel which is always a nice thing, particularly when the early evening sun is shining down and the breeze catches you just right.

Now that....was a happy hour.

Happy Thursday!