How Was Your Day/Week?

[azalea]

good things that happened over the last week:

• got my offer letter to be full-time, horray!
  
• also got a raise with said offer, yay!
  
• things are starting to calm down quite a bit now at work
  
• might even start to work from home soon, double yay!
  

bad things:

• it's rather bullshit that the timeframe to convert to full-time is conveniently right after mr luther king day, which means i won't get any holiday pay from it. this is the fourth holiday (thanksgiving, christmas, and new years being the others) where i won't get any holiday pay and instead will be punished for the crime of being a contractor. no idea why the timeframe is like this but it's sketchy as hell and i don't like it at all, but whatever.
  
• third bullet point in the above is only true inso far as actual activity. i work at a call center so things are starting to calm down as far as actually call volume is concerned but processes and procedures are continuously being confused for one another to the point where no one is really sure what to follow and what not to follow, and upper management sure isn't helping matters. it's gotten so bad to the point where everyone has resigned to just do things their own way (myself included) to avoid any potential escalations with the people we deal with.
  
• i could've negotiated for more pay, but by the time i accepted the offer it was too late. but, according to my coworker who also negotiated for higher pay, she didn't get her offer yet which makes sense since this sort of thing has to be deliberated first. genuinely annoyed that recruitment and finance work at snail's pace when the answer can just be a straightforward "yeah sure" or "no, it's not happening". no reason to delay the offer more than necessary.
  
• it's unlikely that i'm going to remain in this job for the next few months (since the plan is that i'm going to move later on), so once i get approved to work from home, i'm just going to mind my own business and rarely pop into the office unless i have to. kinda done with the dramatics and bs at this point.
  

well, would you look at that. equal parts good and bad, but a lot happened, suffice to say.

[ShiraNoMai]

Easy come, easy go, huh?

I hope your transition into WFH eases some of the pain until you can finally leave that hellscape. I may not have worked in a call center, but being in a toxic office environment is definitely under my belt. You wonder, sometimes, how anything ever gets done when no one seems to talk to each other, and then it circles back into "we should fix this so it doesn't happen again!" only for it to, unsurprisingly, happen again!

I'm a little tender from communication issues between folk. As Moony pointed out, the wedding this past weekend was nothing short of an unplanned clusterfuck that somehow made it through to the end. I'm very tired. It's been one (1) whole year of that nonsense, and it's finally over. I love my friend, dearly, but fuck me if I ever participate in another event that isn't being helmed by someone responsible for herding cattle.

[azalea]

Easy come, easy go, huh?

I hope your transition into WFH eases some of the pain until you can finally leave that hellscape. I may not have worked in a call center, but being in a toxic office environment is definitely under my belt. You wonder, sometimes, how anything ever gets done when no one seems to talk to each other, and then it circles back into "we should fix this so it doesn't happen again!" only for it to, unsurprisingly, happen again!

the only thing i'm going to miss is the dynamic that i have between some of the coworkers that i've started with when i was hired on. we made jokes, we had laughs, we had good times, but i think at the end of it all, being away from the office would do us a LOT more good than anything else. besides, we have a group chat, so it's not like we're that distant from each other.

that said.... i've had a pretty good week so far! which is really rare for me to say. usually something bad happens over this week, and i'm still wary in case it does, but... nothing really eventful occurred other than the usual routine of wake up -> work - > go home, etc. even work itself has been relatively tame, which is perfectly fine with me because i'm going to be working from home starting next week. no drama, no forced interactions (unless i have meetings or whatever). just the quiet, and me, myself and i. it'll be great!

[Moonface]

@paintbucket: Do you ever have periods where you don't get many calls and just spent time at your desk waiting for something to come through? Or is it usually always a regular stream of them? Just curious since if the former being WFH would mean you could possibly get to do something in the waiting periods that you wouldn't be allowed to do at an office.


So I only slept for three hours last night, which would be fine if not for having to go to work and I also have homework to do (that I've yet to start). I'll give my work some credit I didn't walk into an utter disaster considering my coworker has been off since Thursday, but I'm waiting to see that credit fly out the window after Tuesday when my shift ends and I'm not back in until Sunday and my coworker will continue to be off for all the days between those two. It's whatever though; I'm not planning to push myself to keep things running smooth when my priority needs to be in my classes right now so I don't end up falling behind with homework like I kept doing last semester.

[azalea]

@paintbucket: Do you ever have periods where you don't get many calls and just spent time at your desk waiting for something to come through? Or is it usually always a regular stream of them? Just curious since if the former being WFH would mean you could possibly get to do something in the waiting periods that you wouldn't be allowed to do at an office.

depending on the day yeah; mondays tend to be busiest somewhat, but as the week progresses, call volume gets deader and deader. usually picks up somewhat around very early afternoon and dies down around 4-5 pm. so basically i'm going to spend my time playing my switch and being on my phone or whatever while it's dead lmaooo.

[Moonface]

@paintbucket: Do you ever have periods where you don't get many calls and just spent time at your desk waiting for something to come through? Or is it usually always a regular stream of them? Just curious since if the former being WFH would mean you could possibly get to do something in the waiting periods that you wouldn't be allowed to do at an office.

depending on the day yeah; mondays tend to be busiest somewhat, but as the week progresses, call volume gets deader and deader. usually picks up somewhat around very early afternoon and dies down around 4-5 pm. so basically i'm going to spend my time playing my switch and being on my phone or whatever while it's dead lmaooo.

Hah, nice! I've always had the impression that call center jobs can be draining when you're working in the office because of usually just sitting in a cubicle waiting to take a call and not much else, so at least if my impression is right you don't have to deal with that anymore.

[azalea]

@paintbucket: Do you ever have periods where you don't get many calls and just spent time at your desk waiting for something to come through? Or is it usually always a regular stream of them? Just curious since if the former being WFH would mean you could possibly get to do something in the waiting periods that you wouldn't be allowed to do at an office.

depending on the day yeah; mondays tend to be busiest somewhat, but as the week progresses, call volume gets deader and deader. usually picks up somewhat around very early afternoon and dies down around 4-5 pm. so basically i'm going to spend my time playing my switch and being on my phone or whatever while it's dead lmaooo.

Hah, nice! I've always had the impression that call center jobs can be draining when you're working in the office because of usually just sitting in a cubicle waiting to take a call and not much else, so at least if my impression is right you don't have to deal with that anymore.

my last call center job was draining because it was back to back bullshit with stuff that was more or less out of my control. that's the kinda stuff that really drains you, both emotionally and mentally. @_@

[Mr EliteL]

Ugh, call centre jobs, not for me as in I know I'll be terrible at it.

My weekend was whatever at work, but managed to visit my step-granddad in his local hospice with family. His mind still worked fine as he still knew who I was, but his body is fading. The best he could do was move his head slightly and lift his arms to move his bed sheets about. Voice was hard to understand, and unfortunately can't eat anymore apart from mushed banana. I thought I'd be mentally prepared, like I knew he was going to be that bad but was still difficult to see him like that. Still it was good to physically be there instead of leaving my last presence with him be 1-2 months ago.

[Moonface]

my last call center job was draining because it was back to back bullshit with stuff that was more or less out of my control. that's the kinda stuff that really drains you, both emotionally and mentally. @_@

Yeah, even though I've learned to just accept when something happens beyond my control rather than stress over trying to change it, unfortunately that doesn't mean the thing itself doesn't cause stress depending on what it is.


Speaking of stress, that's my whole day today with trying to figure out animation stuff that's due Friday and my teacher hasn't really taught us much about so far. It doesn't help that things I've been told should do x are not doing it at all and I do not know why because as far as I can tell I'm doing everything that should result in x to occur. It'll be nice when something with this actually works out today for the first time and I can feel like I'm actually making some progress for once...

[Kyng]

Well, I've been on a wheat- and dairy-free diet for nearly two weeks now, for health reasons (specifically, eosinophilic esophagitis. Basically, white blood cells have been congregating in my throat, making it very narrow - and the doctors believe it's caused by a food allergy, but they don't know what food. The two most common culprits are wheat and dairy, though - so, that's what I've been cutting out first).

It's not been as hard as I expected it to be. Gluten-free bread substitutes taste fine (the main problem being that they're more expensive than regular bread), and dairy substitutes taste much better than I expected (the main problem being that they contain very little protein). The hardest part, really, has been getting suitable food when I'm out of the house: there isn't always much available.

Still, I am hoping I can get to the bottom of this in the end, and I'll be able to reintroduce those foods that I'm not allergic to!

[ShiraNoMai]

Advice for getting dairy-free out in public that you didn't ask for: look for vegan menus! One of my close friends is deathly allergic to dairy, so she has to very much go out of her way to avoid it. The biggest culprit tends to be butter, because all restaurants default to using it to flavor dishes and grease pans. But vegan dishes, which are made without the use of animal products, will guaranteed be dairy-free!

[Moonface]

I thought work was going to start going smoothly again with my coworker having returned this past Wednesday, only to find out this evening that her doctor has written her out of work until the 12th because she isn't handling the loss of her brother well and they're concerned for her health. I'm sure my manager is going to pester me about covering shifts but at such short notice and how they were last time they asked me to cover a shift I don't know if I feel like even entertaining them with a conversation about it.

On the bright side, at least I've managed to start getting back on top of my school work over this weekend so I'm not doing everything at the last minute as often.

[queenzelda]

I had to call my mom and cancel going with her to see her eye doctor since I usually drive her home because she will have her eyes dilated due to going in. But my stomach was not having it today. So I stayed home and called her later to found out that if her eyes aren't improving when she's seen again in March, she might have to have eye surgery. My dad had eye surgery and it wasn't too hard for him to recover from. It's still a bit scary to think about though in the end its a simple procedure she told me.

So far my day had been alright, just weird I feel. lol

[Moonface]

@queenzelda: Is there a specific condition your mum's eyes are affected with or is it just checking if her vision has degraded at all due to age?

My day has been... very long. I got up at 4am, started work at 5am, left at 9:30am to go to classes, got home at 4pm only to immediately leave again with the cat to the vet, then went to my mother in laws after that for a bit and finally got home properly at just before 8pm. I don't know how I'm not dead.

[Mr EliteL]

@Moonface : Sad to hear about your co-worker not dealing with her loss well, but really no surprise. Pathetic store managers can't prioritise shit as usual though, if they do try and make you cover.

@queenzelda : Unfortunate your stomach was playing up like that, hope your mom got back alright and that she'll be just about fine to an extent to do usual things in the meantime.

Had a few days off and stayed over my Scrabble friend's place. I lost 3 games, but they were close. Also did bowling twice, one with just us two, one longer session with his brother, I finally got a new found confidence changing the way I play slightly. Managed to get four games in a row above 100 points (107, 106, 126, 115) so I'm definitely a little more consistent now than I was, although I am still lacking in consistency still, just the final scores were far better than what I had been getting just before my change (87, 86, 77, 91 or drop down to 50's or 60's even). I can feel I'll reach my 148 again and even higher than that.
We also visited my Dad where my sister joined us. My brother and his wife went with him for a memory test and he passed that, but has symptoms of cognitive impairment, they also sorted a lot of other stuff with him that he got himself in a muddle with, we just really hope he doesn't go back to making mistakes otherwise there'll be potentially worse consequences. We're doing what we can to help him.

Back to work today was sort of what I was expecting, some stuff not done properly, little time to do jobs, having to date check, but also a crap ton of stock for a Thursday. Joy.