Being An Adult: 101

2010-12-08T19:16:00.000-08:00

The hamster wheel that is the work force sucks.

You get up and stumble your way to the shower (I hope, for your coworker's sake), prying your eyes open just long enough to shove you contacts into them. Maybe you are lucky enough to work for a company that provides free parking lots but if not then it's public transportation all the way! Buses and trains smell. They are crowded and you spend most of your time praying to God/Allah/Budda/Xenu/the voices in your head for the strength not to pummel the group of teens that are exponentially getting louder as the school year goes along. My suggestion; invest in a MP3 player or iPod.

Now you have made it to work and after momentarily considering turning around, heading home and calling in sick before anyone has seen you, you settle in at your desk (most likely in a cubical prison). And so you slave away for the next however many hours only to go home and start everyone over the next morning.*

*I concede that not everyone's work experience will be identical to the above description but no one really likes those people anyway.

What was the purpose for this reenactment? To point out that everyone knows how you feel. You don't need to go to extremes to show us how much you hate your job or that you are bored at work.

I work for a bank. It doesn't matter which one, they are all the same in their most basic design. There are three types of jobs, Executives (big wigs/suits), front office (tellers, customer service representatives), back office (everyone else). My particular position is in the back office so most of my daily interactions are with front office personnel or other back office minions like myself. I don't have to deal with too many customers but sometimes the other employees can be just as frustrating in their stupidity.

There is a particular woman in my office (and I think most companies has someone like this) that just cannot be pleased. She has been with the company for just short of 25 years and is still in what would be considered an 'entry level' position.

Now before I get too far into this individual, I would like to take a moment to say that I have some sympathy for her. I'm not completely cold hearted and I understand that there are events in her life that may have contributed to her attitude. With that being said...

Since I took my position in the same department as her she has hated me. She was convinced I was hired for the sole purpose of taking her job. This was never the case. I was hired because there is no way our department could function and survived with the staff it had. Immediately she was terrible toward me but I was told not to take it personally. She was that way to almost everyone.

It is widely understood that barring any serious breaches of respect or the law you should always have a smile on in front of your superiors. Behind their back we all curse and kvetch but it is still with a level of respect for the superior position they hold. My co-worker seems to have missed that memo. She routinely refuses to take work after the fictional "cut off" time (the time of the day we begin balancing our daily work but are still capable of taking on more) and if she isn't refusing it then she sure makes it known that she is doing so under direst.

Every time she does this I can't help but wonder how she gets away with it. This is her job! If people weren't bringing stuff to her that needed to be done there would be no purpose for her. The back wouldn't and isn't going to pay for her to sit and play on the Internet all day. Some days it seems like they do.

Moral of the story? This is life. The best thing for you and me to do it stick it out. I know I won't be here (in this position) forever unlike my witchy little co-worker.

The beginning.

2010-11-27T12:39:00.000-08:00

I don't know where this is going to end up and like most things I will probably become bored and quit.

Ramblings

Being An Adult: 101

The beginning.