Did I plan my return to work right or what? Friday is my (cue evil laughter) RDO. So I work tomorrow and Thursday, and then I'm off for another three day weekend. I am so damn pleased with myself right now.
...
I spent the day manipulating this damn report that has been CONSUMING me since January. This report that I am responsible to tame but for which I gather the necessary information from others. Honestly, I don't know what to call the people I get the information from, other than Stupid.
Yes, that was harsh. But true.
Anyway, as the whole world except my boss seems to know, a report is only as good as it's information, and while I can make it look good and make it tell us stuff, what it's telling us is not always the whole story, as there will frequently be a) missing information, b) duplicate information, c) inaccurate information and d) just plain old jacked up information.
I left my report in someone else's hands last week, and (I can say this but only in a whisper) I kind of hoped I might not have to deal with it once I returned. But those were false hopes, friends, because there it was, waiting for me to wrestle it into shape in 2 hours before my boss's 10 o'clock meeting.
Needless to say, it didn't happen. If you want something to be accurate, if you want me to turn in reliable and consistent and attractive work, you gotta give me some fucking time. I can rush, sure, and I can vouch for the rushed stuff 98% of the time, but for something this important (and this truly is Important), well. You do the math.
Otherwise, I got nothing else done except read about 30 of the 192 emails (that's a real number) I had acquired in the last 7 days. Meanwhile, my co-worker, who saw me bent over this damn report all morning, could not wait to share with me her never-ending stories about her weekend and the weather and the people she saw. She also said "Thank God you're back" which, if you think about it, isn't that great to hear. It just means she has some problem I need to solve, don't you think? I'm going to be waiting for that shoe to drop all week now.
And she left her big ass piles of crap next to my chair ALL DAY. She said, at one point, "Oh, I'll move those," and then I was closeted in a meeting with this lady who oversees the Stupid people (and is in no way stupid herself; she's kicking their butts and I bet she'll have them all in line - or vying for transfers - soon) for about 4 hours, and when I came out, she was gone. Like a wisp of curly-headed smoke on the wind.
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If I think I'm working hard, though, I should remember that Patrick visited about 10 libraries today, had only one day off this week, and has put about 3,000 miles on his car in two months.
Personally, I think I'd rather be traveling LA County doing his job.
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