Idiocracy is Coming

Since I saw the movie Idiocracy I worry about whether or not this could really occur. Sometimes, I am afraid that it's closer than I think...

I go to the fitness center every morning. There are two televisions set up with satellite dish hook-ups. On this day, only one is working, since I get there first, I have dibs on the one that works. So as usual, I turn on CNN. Since the primary was yesterday, the news coverage is all about Obama's big wins here as well as the other states.

About 45 minutes into my morning work-out, two younger women come in. Today they are a little distraught, they can't watch Saved by the Bell. The TV just doesn't work. They fiddle with it for a good 10 minutes before they give in.

I am certain that some would call me a little obsessive about my routine, especially in comparison to these two. Their idea of a workout is to crank up the incline on the treadmill and enjoy a power bar while walking on the ramp and chatting about their lives, work, etc. They certainly won't ever break a sweat.

Since their sit-com isn't on they are forced to watch CNN, after all, I have dibs. One of them turns to the other and inquires, "Are there primaries in ALL the states?" Followed by, "Northern Wisconsin is full of Republicans because they all love their guns."

Bad Boss No More

Bad boss was fired today.
Bad employee must be shaking in his boots right now.
One down one to go.

Bad Boss Blues

Tough boss is really hard on bad boss. I discovered one of his patterns. When he lies, his voice crackles. The more the crackle the bigger or the deeper he is in his lie. Every Friday he sits in tough boss' office and he has to explain why he accomplished nothing on his task list. This is the difficult thing about sitting outside of tough boss' door. I can hear everything. She is fair but firm with everyone, she lets no one off the hook, and her expectations are very high.

This day, the list is getting longer of unaccomplished items, the explanations are getting weaker, voice cracklier. I almost feel sorry for him. And a little ashamed of myself since I can hear all this. At the same time it gives me a sense that there is some justice in the world. After all, he is getting paid a lot of money to do absolutely nothing. The meeting goes almost an hour and by the end of it, he has no voice left. Lots of big lies.

I am so glad the weekend is here.

Happy Valentine's Day

I had the best Valentine's Day ever. Bailee took off of work so she could come with her dad and me to the VA Hospital. I've spent the last week making little Valentine's treats for the patients there. Elementary school children made Valentine cards and we went with the Legion Riders group to hand out the candy and cards. It was a good time, chatting with the patients and bringing them a little cheer.

When we got through the entire floor we were assigned, we went to the nursing home section and visited with the residents there. We had so many valentines, we spent an hour and a half just going from room to room handing them out without running out. Bailee was a little shy at first but she really got into it after a while. One of the nurses explained that there was a dying man and even though he looked comatose, he could hear us and she urged us to talk to him. So we did. Jeff thought that would make me cry, it didn't but what did was the young Veteran in the wheelchair with no legs. For some reason, I've linked VA Hospital patients with old men, I had blocked out the effects on the young guys. Apparently for good reason, it was too much to bear.

All the same, I will do this again, only next year I will make sure I have a lot more candy so I can stay longer.

It's a Blonde Thing

I had a major blonde moment today.

It was almost 8AM. I logged on to the HOG website, waiting patiently, ok frantically for the Aerosmith, Kid Rock tickets to go on sale. The site information says the link will be available at 8AM central so I am ready. Today is the 12th and I've transferred $250 to my checking account to cover the cost of the 10 tickets I want to order.

It's 8AM. Nothing.

I open a new window, a new IE session and log into the HOG site again. Nothing.

I call my daughter at Harley.

"Do you know what's going on with the HOG site!?! I can't see the link to order the concert tickets!", I shriek into the phone. She calmly states, "Although I have nothing to do with HOG, don't they go on sale on March 12th?"

Oh crap! Today is February 12th.

More Bad Interviews

So here we go with interviews, round 2. Only this time it gets really weird. Bad boss does 2 phone interviews with 2 more candidates that I rejected. This time he doesn't even invite bad employee. He decides that we should bring in both candidates. Candidate 1 is from the area, has lots of QA experience but most of it short term, and none of it health care related which is really important. Candidate 2 puts on his (or her - can't really tell by the name) resume that he has knowledge of Medicare/Medicaid. I rejected this candidate because I believe the resume was padded. This person worked for a company that made ferry boats and then worked for a bank - so where the hell would Medicare/Medicaid come in?? Did I mention that the resume was so full of spelling and grammar errors that it was extremely difficult to read? But bad boss says the guy has lots of Medicare experience - he says when you follow the breadcrumbs it all came out in the phone interview so we should really bring him in.

Bad boss has a new boss who is really tough, so I mention to her my concern and send her a copy of the resume. I thought she was going to flip - she didn't even want to discuss the qualifications, the look of the resume was enough of a bad sign to her. Did I mention that this candidate lives in New Jersey? So bad boss wants to fly bad candidate in for an interview! Tough new boss says no, so bad boss makes the QA team phone interview.

The interview was an amazing exercise in futility. The first thing that happened is this guy spoke in bad broken English so fast none of us understood 75% of his words. When we finally go a word in we asked about the Medicare/Medicaid experience. He read the textbook definition of Medicare. We asked which state's Medicaid rules he knew, He read the textbook definition of Medicaid. We asked when he used this knowledge in his work and he got angry. He said I NEVER SAID I WORKED WITH IT I SAID I HAVE KNOWLEDGE OF IT. The guy then quoted answers to questions we normally ask about knowledge of UB04 forms and RUGs codes. But we didn't ask those questions - turns out bad boss gave him the answers and told him we would ask. I then asked the guy if he ever wrote documentation, instructions, or manuals. He said yes, he did manual testing. I reiterated the question. He answered the same so he couldn't even understand what I was asking. By then we all gave up and said thanks for your time.

We tried, but it was pretty awful. We were laughing at the answers to simple questions that this guy either didn't understand or we couldn't comprehend because of his accent. Even bad employee rejected him. Which is unusual - I'm sure bad employee would love it if we hired someone worse than him. We reported back to bad boss, then reported it to human resources, then reported it to tough boss. Bad boss was in trouble.

Next thing you know, bad boss is saying that the people doing the phone interviews must have been two different people since he had such a good experience. We quoted the stuff the candidate repeated that bad boss told him. Plus if you were going to have someone sit in to interview for you, would you want someone who didn't totally suck?

I think bad boss knows he's in deep doo-doo.

Pooper Tuesday

Last Tuesday was Super Fat Tuesday - such a nice name for a day filled with primary elections and Mardi Gras.

So it would only seem appropriate to name this Tuesday, the day the Best in Show is named at the Westminster Dog Show - Pooper Tuesday.

And congratulations to Uno, the Beagle for winning this prestigious award. It's the first time a beagle won, Snoopy is very proud!