Is it wrong that I don't feel like working? That I don't feel motivated to work for a boss or organization that gives me the impression that they neither want nor care about my opinion? Less than 6 months ago I was excited to come to work, felt like I was making a difference here at work, that what I did made a difference. I don't feel like that any more. Now I feel like I could just not show up any more and no one would miss me.
I know that, indeed, that is not the case. I have worked hard and long to make myself indispensile and I know that there are a lot of plates that I and no one else in the lab keep spinning.
A while back I had the oppurtunity to change departments, to switch to I.T. and become a lab informaticist, an I.T. person who would work solely for the laboratory. It would have been more money, easier hours and less work. But I have been holding out for a supervisory position that is supposedly being created for my department. One of the techs in the lab took that position and here I am... a year later almost... still waiting for that position to materialize.
I am really running out of patience.
I really feel like I am being crewed over.
Monday, March 30, 2009
Friday, March 13, 2009
An end to flickr
So, I have been doing this project where I am doing a daily self-portrait with my camera, sometimes messing around with it in Photoshop and posting it to flickr. Well, when I started this little project I had a temporary flickr "pro" account because I am a DSL customer of AT&T/Yahoo, which owns the company. At the end of January, I got an email from flickr saying that my free "pro" status would be coming to an end because it was only an introductory free trial, seeing as I am a customer of their aren't company. The trial was to end on February 1st. February 1st came and went and I was still a "pro" user. March 1st rolls around... I am still a pro user. This is cool I think as I continue to upload my self portraits, pictures of family get-togethers, pictures I took going for a ride through Eastern Connecticut on a snowy day with my son.
I'm digging it; really enjoying it.
Last night as I was uploading the self-portrait for day twenty-seven of this 365 day project and there is the notification on the upload page:
my free "pro" trial is over and I have already used up 20% of my allowed upload capacity for the month. I am not going to be able to continue my 365 day project on flickr.
Now, even though the flickr pro account only costs 24.95 a year, I just cannot do it. I am the sole bread-winner in a family living in the most expensive state in the union. I do not own a cell phone. I have only the most basic cable. I buy used video games for my old PS2 (you know... the really old fat ones with no network hookup.) Eating out and splurging usually means take home Chinese food for about $30. I have a thermos I bring to work so I don't have to buy coffee. I'm not frugal; ask my wife... we live on the cheap because that's what we have to do to survive. The only real two luxuries we allow ourselves are Netflix and a DSL connection. So, $24.95 to be able to upload more pictures? No, thanks. So the project is on hold - maybe I'll start it up again if I can find a decent place to upload photos without too many limits.
I'm digging it; really enjoying it.
Last night as I was uploading the self-portrait for day twenty-seven of this 365 day project and there is the notification on the upload page:
my free "pro" trial is over and I have already used up 20% of my allowed upload capacity for the month. I am not going to be able to continue my 365 day project on flickr.
Now, even though the flickr pro account only costs 24.95 a year, I just cannot do it. I am the sole bread-winner in a family living in the most expensive state in the union. I do not own a cell phone. I have only the most basic cable. I buy used video games for my old PS2 (you know... the really old fat ones with no network hookup.) Eating out and splurging usually means take home Chinese food for about $30. I have a thermos I bring to work so I don't have to buy coffee. I'm not frugal; ask my wife... we live on the cheap because that's what we have to do to survive. The only real two luxuries we allow ourselves are Netflix and a DSL connection. So, $24.95 to be able to upload more pictures? No, thanks. So the project is on hold - maybe I'll start it up again if I can find a decent place to upload photos without too many limits.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
The disaster that is work
So, we have a fairly new lab director at work. He's a nice enough guy probably, in spite of his habit of staring at his nails and biting at his cuticles during meetings (even meetings with client/physicians!). The previous director was a real policy guru and didn't have much of a personality to speak of, a little uptight with the fashion sense of a circa-1970's Wayne Newton.
But the old guy got things done. A lot of the changes are still being put into effect and have been long overdue - he got the complete renovation of the lab in motion... Another change he wanted to implement was a radical expansion of my department. When he took the job, I was the department. I was working 10 hour days to cover the actual office hours of 7:00 - 5:00 so that someone was always there to actually answer the phones and working beyond that and some weekends to catch up when I got behind. Jon's (the old boss's) vision for my department was a number of people, eventually as many as six full time client service representatives covering at least two shifts (7:00 am - 11:00 pm) of full time phone duty and office work with two supervisory level positions. One of these would be a full-time sales person who would also handle the marketing for the lab and traditional supervisor who would overlook clients services, the couriers and logistics, pathology secretaries and transcriptionists as well as possible the send-out and processing sections of the lab. He wrote a job description for the latter position with me in mind before he left in October. I even got help (after many years of the over-worked routine) under his watch for which I am very grateful.
Well, the new guy is saying exactly all the same things about the direction for my department since he has arrived but has managed to make exactly zilch happen about it since his arrival. In fact, instead of getting my new position approved, he instead (I'm sure at the prodding of our Pathologist, who is all about his own needs, the rest be damned) expanded the hours of the pathology secretaries and got approval for another pathology secretary. While, I might add, completely cutting out the possibility of any possible OT for me and the other client service rep, while approving any needed OT for the secretaries who read, do homework, surf the net, etc. on company time because there is not enough work for the two we already have.
I'm afraid it might be time to polish up the old resumé and get set up on moster.com again.
But the old guy got things done. A lot of the changes are still being put into effect and have been long overdue - he got the complete renovation of the lab in motion... Another change he wanted to implement was a radical expansion of my department. When he took the job, I was the department. I was working 10 hour days to cover the actual office hours of 7:00 - 5:00 so that someone was always there to actually answer the phones and working beyond that and some weekends to catch up when I got behind. Jon's (the old boss's) vision for my department was a number of people, eventually as many as six full time client service representatives covering at least two shifts (7:00 am - 11:00 pm) of full time phone duty and office work with two supervisory level positions. One of these would be a full-time sales person who would also handle the marketing for the lab and traditional supervisor who would overlook clients services, the couriers and logistics, pathology secretaries and transcriptionists as well as possible the send-out and processing sections of the lab. He wrote a job description for the latter position with me in mind before he left in October. I even got help (after many years of the over-worked routine) under his watch for which I am very grateful.
Well, the new guy is saying exactly all the same things about the direction for my department since he has arrived but has managed to make exactly zilch happen about it since his arrival. In fact, instead of getting my new position approved, he instead (I'm sure at the prodding of our Pathologist, who is all about his own needs, the rest be damned) expanded the hours of the pathology secretaries and got approval for another pathology secretary. While, I might add, completely cutting out the possibility of any possible OT for me and the other client service rep, while approving any needed OT for the secretaries who read, do homework, surf the net, etc. on company time because there is not enough work for the two we already have.
I'm afraid it might be time to polish up the old resumé and get set up on moster.com again.
Wednesday, March 4, 2009
Crackdown at Work
Now, I know that it may be a little less than appropriate to be online doing personal things (like say, balancing your checkbook), but I don’t understand how something as innocuous as Twitter should be blocked. It’s not like you can go on there and waste hours and hours of time there, unless maybe you have something like 2000 people that you are following and you respond to each and every one of them. I can see that they don’t want people blogging, updating their Facebook status and playing Mobsters on MySpace. I’ll give them that point with zero hesitation. But Twitter? Really? Especially when the Hospital itself has a Twitter account and one of the doctor tweets...
So now I am going through Twitter withdrawal. My friend Liz and I communicated through the site… I used to get breaking news stories from CNN and the local station here, WTNH. I miss knowing what is going on with Wil Wheating, Jimmy Fallon, and Ashton Kutcher.
Friday, February 27, 2009
...I am a horrible blogger (redux)
I'm sorry, blog. I have been so very unattentative... I've been meaning to speak to you about this actually. You see, I've met someone and their name is Twitter; you may have bumped elbows at the last office party? Yes, the new kid... I've been so consumed with what's fast and easy (and it is sooo fast and sooo easy). I promise it's only a passing infatuation. (I hope that sounded sincere enough)
Saturday, February 14, 2009
Waiting for Pon farr...
There is a girl at work, whom I really just adore and have grown kind of close to, who has lost her damn mind.
She has fallen head over heel with a boy at work who doesn't feel the same way, which in and of itself is not so unusual. Unrequited love is as common as, well... the common cold. It hits everyone once in a while; we all go through it. In this instance though she just cannot let go of him.
He likes her as a person (I'd be hard-pressed to think of anyone who wouldn't) so he enjoys spending time with her. She and her posse will grab him to go with them at lunch time; they go to the movies and bars and just generally hang out together.
In every way that she is a passionate person, he is a bit more cerebral and maybe a bit too reasonable. Almost Vulcan in his thinking. He told her from the get-go that he simply will not date anyone with whom he works and has stuck to his guns about it. He probably does have feelings for her, but has remained true to his word.
If she can just hold out till he enters Pon farr, she might have a chance then...
She has fallen head over heel with a boy at work who doesn't feel the same way, which in and of itself is not so unusual. Unrequited love is as common as, well... the common cold. It hits everyone once in a while; we all go through it. In this instance though she just cannot let go of him.
He likes her as a person (I'd be hard-pressed to think of anyone who wouldn't) so he enjoys spending time with her. She and her posse will grab him to go with them at lunch time; they go to the movies and bars and just generally hang out together.
In every way that she is a passionate person, he is a bit more cerebral and maybe a bit too reasonable. Almost Vulcan in his thinking. He told her from the get-go that he simply will not date anyone with whom he works and has stuck to his guns about it. He probably does have feelings for her, but has remained true to his word.
If she can just hold out till he enters Pon farr, she might have a chance then...
Thursday, February 12, 2009
A little project...
I decided that with all the time I spend online, that some of it should be useful.
On flickr there are a lot of people who have done 365 projects: a photo a day for a year. Some of them are absolutely awesome like this lego one... I want to try my hand at one. So I am doing 365 days of self-portraits. I have heard, you have heard the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words? Well sometimes a thousand words just isn't enough. With each photo that I upload I am going to try and include some thoughts about the day or just crap that pops into my head.
I will try to include as many of these photos and thoughts here as well. So, if you see some strange headers here in the blog (like "365 :: 02.12.09 :: day two") those are part of that series.
On flickr there are a lot of people who have done 365 projects: a photo a day for a year. Some of them are absolutely awesome like this lego one... I want to try my hand at one. So I am doing 365 days of self-portraits. I have heard, you have heard the old adage that a picture is worth a thousand words? Well sometimes a thousand words just isn't enough. With each photo that I upload I am going to try and include some thoughts about the day or just crap that pops into my head.
I will try to include as many of these photos and thoughts here as well. So, if you see some strange headers here in the blog (like "365 :: 02.12.09 :: day two") those are part of that series.
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