Monday, December 31 0 comments

Resolutions

New Years' Eve is where we think of resolutions. But somehow, for me, it turns to thinking about regrets. Regrets for things I have done, things I left undone, time I've wasted, things I have said and things I should have said. I try not to dwell on things I didn't do, guilt is wasted energy - but I always hope I learn from the experience and do better next time. So with that said, here we go with my 2008 resolutions:
  1. Save more, spend less. Maybe I will get a part-time job.
  2. Read more books.
  3. Cut out the bad carbs.
  4. Complain about the boss less - I will blog about it instead of complain out loud - gotta vent somewhere.
  5. Volunteer more.
  6. Stay out of fabric stores - buying fabric is like an addiction. Instead, I will try to use up what I have - and I have plenty.
  7. Go green in everything I do.
  8. No regrets.
Friday, December 28 0 comments

More Boss Crap

So the boss tells the story of why he dyed his hair and mustache. He says that his sister-in-law has this cat that doesn't like his gray hair. So in order to spend the holiday with the family, he had to dye his hair so that cat wouldn't attack him. Apparently the sister-in-law's neighbor has a gray haired dog that tantalizes the cat creating his hatred for gray hair. Too bad cats are basically colorblind. Hmmm.
Thursday, December 27 0 comments

No one wants to go

So my boss says he wants to take me out to lunch. Actually he took two of my co-workers out to thank them for the great job they did on a project. Funny thing was one of them did do a great job, the other did only what he had to after being prodded, reminded, retrained, then it was still half-assed and a day late. So let's take him to lunch for a job well done! It turns out that the good employee couldn't make it the day he had it scheduled so he planned another lunch for the next day. So he is going out on the company twice in one week.

Besides the boss, there are four employees. So the boss was taking two out, ignoring the other employee totally and planning something for me next week. But at the last minute, he asked the other employee along on the second lunch and she went. So that left everyone but me. He also took an engineer from another department out as well. But that was on a different day.

The boss says that he wants to schedule lunch with me and one of the engineers for next week. He mentions where he wants to go and I say no, but thanks anyway. I told him I don't like that place because they allow smoking at lunch and so I would rather not go but I appreciate the offer. So I thought I was getting out of it until he scheduled it for someplace else.

What I didn't know was that the engineer in question was also trying his best to get out of it. So once I found that out, I offered him a deal that I won't cancel if he won't so we can get through this thing together and he agrees. So sadly, I have to go and it's gonna suck.
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New Hope

A new director started today. For the first time since I've worked at this company, there's a woman at the senior management level. I think it's great and hope things work out well for her. And for me. This woman will be my boss' boss. Already he is sucking up. And unfortunately, I sit right outside of her door so I have to hear his bs.

My boss is a total poser. He has been at my company for 7 months and he still cannot remember the simple processes that we have in place. He constantly asks for information that he already has. Then he wants to change the processes because he thinks they are inadequate. The problem is he is the inadequate one because he doesn't follow or know the process, so how can he change something that he obviously doesn't even understand?

To top it off he can't remember any of our projects either so he mixes them all up. Today he was explaining a project to the new director but he described parts of two different projects. He had it so messed up it was actually entertaining to listen to him make it up as he spoke. Making things up is his specialty. A few weeks back there was a thank you luncheon for everyone on a successful project. I was missed from the invitation list so I asked him about it - he said I wasn't invited because it was managers only. So I asked then why all the rest of the entire project team was on the invitation list. He agreed that I was missed - so he said he would get me included. But of course, he never did. Not that I really cared about the lunch, it was the principle of the thing. I knew he wouldn't follow up. Follow-through is another thing he doesn't do.

So back to the new boss...my boss was in her office only four times today. That's because she was in meetings some of the time so during the 8 times he looked for her, he could only stalk her four times. I wonder how long it will take her to figure out that he doesn't do anything but hang around. He calls it hovering - the rest of us call it lurking.

To make matters worse, this is not a good-looking man. He is short, overweight, and balding. Today he showed up with the little hair that he has colored! He went from a whiteish-gray to a dark color. Plus he dyed the mustache. It is not an improvement.

Next week for fun, I will have to post a stalking chart and record all his suck-up attempts with his new boss. He does make for some entertainment. It helps relieve the frustration of his ineptness.

New boss, new hope for termination.
Stay tuned...
Wednesday, December 26 0 comments

Low Expectations

I got a raise today. My boss was proud to announce that on a rating scale of 1 to5 (5 being excellent), I have scored a 5 in all categories. Perfect score! So he says he fought to get me a big 4% increase for 2008. I know I should be grateful for all of this but it's hard to get excited about a guy whose standards are so low, the 5's become meaningless. In my department there are two employees who are underachievers. One should be fired. He spends the workday online on myspace trying to get dates and watching YouTube. The boss sticks up for him all the time. So my perfect score is a way for the boss to rate the bad employees 3's, not at good as some of us but not so bad as to have to take action. As for the raise, I know that the average increase for all employees where I work is 3% so 4 is really good. But he promised me 5% back in September when I found out that the myspace slacker made more money that I did! So it was a shut-me-up kind of a deal. I can't believe that I am so frustrated over a good review and a raise. I guess I would rather be held to a higher standard.
Monday, December 24 0 comments

Time to Vent

I haven't been online regularly for quite a while. I can't believe I've stayed away so much so long. I have always found this a great place to vent, report, or just think. But my work life has been so sucky all I seem to do is write documentation. The documentation is about my horrible, incompetent, self-serving boss. I have never met someone who had this many flaws in my entire life and I am to the point where I just have to get out. So I am working on that. In the mean time, I am going to start blogging bad boss stories, so bad no one could make this crap up. But for now, it's Christmas Eve and I wish everyone peace and good will.

But just wait until next week.
Saturday, December 15 0 comments

Cardioversion

Today is round two of life in the cardiac unit. This time it's cardioversion for Jeff. Cardioversion is a fancy way to say the doctor will zap his heart so that it stops and restarts in (hopefully) normal rhythm. The entire procedure takes 10 minutes. But there are considerations going in this morning. First thing being he has to be in atrial fibrillation, which he has been for months so he's pretty sure that won't be an issue. And secondly, he has to have a coumadin level between 2 and 3. Since this requirement has to be attained for a month before the procedure, with level checks weekly, the last 3 weeks were in range so this one should be no different.

The coumadin level was actually the tough part. The drug is given to atrial fibrillation patients to thin their blood so that the irregular heart beats caused by this condition won't create a clot that could potentially be life threatening. But the thinning of the blood has so many complications that I wonder if it would be better to just chance it. I mean, if he were to fall down or bump his head he has to go right to the emergency room. That's some serious side effects.

Even during the two hours of prep for this procedure, it took three different nurses to attempt to find a vein for an IV. The thin blood is making Jeff's veins spasm and blow out the IV lines. Finally when the third nurse succeeded he got some color back in his face. The IV will be necessary because he will need to be anesthetized - or as the doc says - it would hurt. It's very difficult to watch him suffer through this. For the most part he stays pretty quiet and calm, and does not complain or worry - at least not out loud.

The cardiac nurse comes to get Jeff, he gets into the wheelchair and heads out. I wished him the best and waited. I assumed it would be a while before he came back, so I settled in with my laptop. Surprisingly, 25 minutes later, he was back. And he came back in the same wheelchair. I had images of IVs running and a groggy man flat on his back. But apparently anesthesia has come along way-or I just don't know that much about it, he was out only for the 10 minutes during the procedure. I was thrilled to see him sitting up and so alert.

He showed me the mark on his chest, like a sunburn where the paddle was attached. It was a 4-inch by 4-inch square outline. Jeff said it felt like someone had punched him in the chest - he felt a little tender there and that's all. The nurse came in and let him order some food since he hadn't eaten since supper and it was now close to 11 am. The doctor came by to check on him and explained that everything went great and he was back to a normal heart rhythm. His late breakfast came, he ate, then the staff told him he could go home. Just like that. No long post-op after care, no waiting for any other tests. The nurse took out the IV, put on a band-aid, gave us some paperwork with medication changes and he got dressed and we were done.

Jeff was feeling so good, we stopped at National Bakery across the street from the hospital, then we went to Tower Chicken since it was also on our way home. We spent the rest of the afternoon at home relaxing. I can't believe how relatively easy this day turned out. Jen stopped by to see her dad and Bailee left work early. We drove over to Serb Hall and picked up fish frys for dinner and brought them home so Jeff didn't have to go out.

The doctor says this can last up to three years. I was hoping this was a permanent fix but I should just take one day at a time. And this day was a good one.
 
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