The Insanity Continues

An update to this post.
( Feel free to skip )

Backstory:

I work for a gasoline distribution company in their consignment department.

Two years ago they asked for volunteers to work weekends. Because I don't the ability to work from home, I could only work on Saturdays because that's when the office we were at was open. Then last year we moved offices and even though I 'knew' the office was open on Sundays I didn't think to change my schedule until recently.

When I work on the weekend, I'm alone which means if something happens, I'm on my own to deal with it.

Last January, my computer updated on a Friday night and when it did, I lost the driver that connected it to the wi-fi network when I came in that Saturday. I couldn't get W or K to respond to my texts, so I left.

That next week they scolded me very harshly, which if they had answered my texts from the beginning there wouldn't have been a problem.

Fast forward to the issue that almost got me fired.

For several months now an alert will pop up telling me that something needs to be updated but I don't have the authority to do so. I finally got tired of seeing the message, so I opened a service ticket.

Friday while I was off, IT fixed it. But in do so, they deleted an icon for a very important program from my desktop.

I texted W at 6:24am (she has told us to not text until after 6am) to tell her I was missing this icon from my desktop. Then I tried using the search function in the start menu to find it and couldn't so I opened a service ticket.

Since I didn't want to have to work eight hours Monday-Friday (or four ten-hour days), I did other things that I would have to do anyway (one of my team mates is moving to another department and so we got new sites). This takes me a while due to all the different reports I use to keep track of what I key and when. I also did other things and before I knew it, it was time to go home.

W texted back around 10:30.
W: He left you his number. You should have called him.
M: I did not see his number. I spent the day setting up my new sites and checking emails. I have 6/1-6/6 for 2005 so that's good. But 1346 still hasn't sent in the corrected paperwork.
W: I was told his number was on the paper he left you. Please leave that on my desk. (I almost threw it away so it's a good thing I didn't)
M: I've already left the office. I'll double check when I get in tomorrow. If it's there I'll call him.
W: I want that note on my desk when I get in. No reason it should not be. (I feel this was way too aggressive for my response)
M: I can do that. I thought you wanted it today. (she's always misconstruing what I say in email, so I've started doing the same)
W: If you didn't bill at all we will have to have a discussion tomorrow. (I just told her that I no longer had access to the program I need so how was I supposed to bill?)
M: Please explain how I was supposed to bill. I did not have access to [the program]. I did not see his phone number on the paper. I'm sorry that I was unable to bill but it is not my fault as far as I can see. I will bill as much as I can the rest of the week.
W: We will talk tomorrow. I know his number is on the paper. If you had called him you could have billed. You basically stole from [company I work for] sitting there for half the day. You should have gone home. Also I have asked you all not to text me before a certain hour of the day. Again we will talk tomorrow. I am unplugging for the rest of the day. (can she get any more childish? And it's amazing how she went from 'I was told' to 'I know' about whether or not his number was on the page. Also, it's not like I was surfing the internet, I was actually working)

At this point, I turned around and went back. And I was right, he did not put his number on the note.

When I got to work today, I wrote her a note explaining what I did yesterday and mentioning that the reason I didn't leave (other than I needed to set up my sites and didn't want to waste part of a full work day) was because the last time I left when she didn't respond to a text about me not being able to work, she scolded me for it. I offered to lose the four hours I worked if she felt the need to punish me and reminded her that she had told us not to text before 6am.

I then checked the search function again and found the program I need. Not sure why it wasn't there yesterday, but whatever. I was able to open it (pinned to the taskbar now) and keyed eighty-nine reports. I emailed her to let her know I now had access to this program and I think I told her I pinned it, but I truly cannot remember.

Then at 9:43am she sent me this email:

[logans_girl2001],

Thank you for your letter.

I stand corrected. I thought I heard David put his number on the note he left and he had not.

I know it didn’t take you four hours to set up your new sites. That should have maybe taken a half an hour. So, my concern is what did you do for the remaining 3.5 hours you were here?

This is the second weekend we have had an issue with you being able to work.

The first was January 2017 (which you alluded to in your letter) and now this one. I consider this your second strike. One more strike, and you will permanently work Monday through Friday like the rest of your team no questions or discussions.

I do not want to “punish” but if you did not work the full four hours I think you should tell me how long you did work and I will adjust the time and you can make up the rest during the week.

It is stealing from Empire when you sit here and do not key and the fact that Factor was there all along adds fuel to the fire.

My response:

W,

Like I said in my letter, I searched for nearly thirty minutes to find [the program] yesterday. I do not know why I was able to find it today but not yesterday.

It took me more than half an hour to set up my sites because every time I thought I had them all, I would count and find I was missing two or three. After that I went through the emails in the shared in box and moved them (there were over seventy) and checked my sites' folders and noted which ones I still need. I realize that shouldn't have taken me as long as it did but I was not just sitting here or surfing the internet (I'm sure IT can tell you if I went on any websites other than the ones for work). Nor was I working slowly, I was working as fast as I normally do. Oh, I also went through [internal reporting site] to make sure my [external reporting site] sites were polling into [internal reporting site].

If you feel like my time should be adjusted, then please do; just let me know how much time you take away so I know how much to make up.

She replied that there was no reason for me to 'be punished' so I considered the matter closed.

Then an hour later, I received this Skype:
W: yep. got a text at 6:24am yesterday morning (I feel like this was really meant for someone else)
W: nvm ma'am...i already addressed this (she sent an email saying that the after 6am rule is only for weekdays and on the weekends we are not to text her between 9pm and noon)
W: did you pin your [the program]..
M: Did I not say I have pinned it to my taskbar? Previously that option was not available which is why it wasn't pinned before now.
W: [logans_girl200]. watch your approach
W: i was just making sure all was okay
M: And I knew D didn't remove [the program] completely from my computer but he did remove the icon, which is why I was unable to open it.
W: the sarcasm won't work and is not acceptable (I wasn't being sarcastic (well, not this time))
M: And I was just asking if I mentioned it because I'm not sure if I did or not.
W: i don't want to discuss this anymore... just want to make sure you have what you need tomorrow (I've found that people who continue a conversation that has ended and then say "I don't want to talk about this anymore" or "This conversation is closed" only do so for one of two reasons: they want the last word, or they're losing the argument)
W: i am just ensuring you have all your tools available

In my note, I told her (I think, I forgot to save a copy) that if this happens again, I will just sit there (off the clock) until I can talk to her.

So, not fired but close to it.

Update on this post.

I managed to get over forty keyed with time left over! But I'm still stressed about how much trouble I might get into due to arguing with W and refusing to go back to the office. It's eating into my energy reserves.

Also, when I got in this morning my monitors were working, so yay for that. But it still was not connecting to the wifi. I went to one of the offices and got the password but it didn't work for me. I even tried to make my phone a hotspot. It didn't work at first. KP emailed IT for me about my not being able to connect. Then the hotspot worked. I replied to IT that I was connected via a hotspot (so they'd know they could fix it remotely) and one of the IT guys emailed to ask if I was all good then. I was like, uh, NO! So he called me and took remote access and fixed it!

So, yeah, that's my morning so far. Hope yours are going better.

Update: Just got a meeting invite for a 'discussion' in about half an hour from W.

Update2: The meeting was just with KN and W. They started by telling me they love my work and want me to take notes of how I do my mornings so that I can tell the rest of the team so that maybe they can be as well organized as me. Then they went on to tell me that I handled Saturday all wrong. I knew that at the time but couldn't make myself express that to them, THEN. I have been told to blow up one or both of their phones if something similar ever happens again.

Conclusion: Not fired. Yay! Not even written up. Since I didn't sign anything this may not have even counted as a verbal. Got some good feedback. Moving on, on a more positive note.

Today was a good day. It started off like every other day but then around the middle of the day I was called into one of the small conference rooms.

I knew I wasn't in trouble because L had been calling everyone into the room one by one. I figured it was to talk about our self evaluations that we had to fill out back before Christmas.

Spoiler: it wasn't. But it was good news. L was telling each of us that we were getting a cost of living increase. Mine was only $.38 but it's an inch closer to the salary I want.

While in the room, L talked to me about training me as a lead/backup for KN. She is very supportive of the idea and said that I am currently a junior biller and to be made a lead I have to be a senior biller. She said that we will sit down at some point and discuss strategy to get me there. So, yay!

She also said that she is pleased with my improvement in my attitude and keying (she said I'm not on the error log much these days).

Update on my last post.

So, I went in today and, sure enough, I did not have any paperwork from that problem site. I emailed KN and asked if I should contact him or not. W replied asking if I had contact information for him other than email. I said I did but since KN said she was going to contact him, and the fact that I don't know enough to explain the process to him, I was hesitant to call him.

L replied that she thinks the site has already flipped but she needed to double check and would let us know. In the meantime, I was to not contact the site about the missing paperwork.

Eventually she forwarded an email that said that this site would be flipping around the first with her reply that until then the site needs to be hounded (my words, not hers) about sending in paperwork everyday.

Not long after that I received paperwork for 12/1-12/5. I wanted to scream! But I didn't, I did reply to the email with the paperwork for 12/5 in it reminding him (again) that I need all the missing paperwork.

I will rejoice so fucking hard when this fucker flips to wholesale!

I've been extremely lazy about sitting down and writing this post (I started it on 10/26). And because I put it off so long I have some ranting to do along with the squee I was originally going to post about. So I'll start with the rants and end with the squee. Everything is under a cut so you can pick and choose what you want to read.
( Fucking anxiety )
( Fucking coworkers )
( Fucking brat )
( Halloween! )
( Squee! )

Brief backstory: I work for a gas consignment company. We have ~300 sites split between five 'keyers'. They are more or less evenly split between us. In the past the majority of my sites were ones we received their sales online. Back in August the list was realigned so that we all had some of each different type (the company acquires other companies like ours from time to time and these are the different types I'm talking about).

I had two sites that had to be keyed everyday while co-worker A had all the rest. When the realignment happened I was told I'd get to keep my two priority sites but K took them from me and gave them to A.

When I questioned it she said that A is better at keying them everyday and I'm better at entering 'sticks' (physical level of gas in each tank at the site). At the time it didn't register that she never gave me A's sites that she has to call to get the sticks for.

Well, A has been out since mid day Thursday and so we've been keying her sites (it's month end).

Today I actually pulled up the list that showed nearly all of A's priority sites (sites that have to be keyed daily) were several days out (as in A hadn't keyed any the day she left early).

I'm seriously considering asking J (my manager) if we can talk so that I can bring this up. When I had priority sites they were never out unless I was missing paperwork or had been off.

So, tell me, if A is so much better at keying everyday then why were her priority sites out so many days? And why do I always hear her commenting that she's X days out on her priorities? And if I'm better at entering the sticks, why wasn't I given her sites that she always has to call for?

But I know the answer to these questions: it's because A is bff's with both K and J.

Man, it's been a hello of a week!

( This got long! )

I guess you could say this is an update to this post.

So two of my co-workers have been let go recently (making it obvious that the real reason J was interviewing was to replace them). One came out of left field for me (but really shouldn't have). Her replacement started Friday.

Our weekly meeting was pushed back so that she could attend it. During the meeting I made a comment about preferring to get paid bi-weekly because you then know exactly how much you'll get paid each week (this company gets paid on the 5th and 20th). J muttered "That's about to change" and it kinda freaked me out. I asked her about it and she put my mind at ease and then asked me to meet her in one of the small conference rooms.

She told me that she was pushing really hard to get me on permanent starting Monday (today) but that her boss's boss (one of the VP's who knows next to nothing about our part of the business) was pushing back just as hard. She is assuring me that his pushing isn't that he doesn't want me on the team, just that they hired KS last week and he's worried about how it'll look with them then 'hiring' me.

She did say that she keeps reminding him that my contract actually ended a month ago and that it's more expensive to keep me under contract than to 'hire' me.

Some back story before I get to the reason for the icon.

The company I work for is a petroleum consignment company. That means we own the gasoline at certain stations and give them a commission. My job is very data entry heavy; I key in the fuel sales so that the owner/operator of each site can get paid.

Yesterday I was keying my sites (FYI we're not supposed to work late but I'm taking off early Thursday so I am working late) and entered the wrong site number (it was one of mine, though) and noticed that a day that I know I hadn't keyed had been keyed (although it is possible I had keyed it by mistake) but didn't think anything of it and certainly didn't wonder who could have keyed it (if it wasn't me).

At the end of the day I mentioned that I had keyed 113 sites (on a normal day I can key between 60 and 80) and my supervisor said she shows I had keyed 114.

On my way home I realized that the reason she shows me at 114 is because of that extra day. I decided to check it when I got in to see if I had keyed it.

When I got in, however, I found the following email in my inbox:

logans_girl2001 – I know you didn’t key 3512 for 3/12 yet – but someone else keyed another site to 3512 for 3/12

So, we’re going to need to do a C-store audit for you to enter the real sales for 3512 in to Factor. I already did one to zero out the mistake made by the other team member (doesn’t matter who, so please don’t ask)

If you need help with this please let me know. Don’t forget – you will have to do a WS invoice to charge them for the fuel this day too

Sorry for the inconvenience!

As you may remember from my explanation, I couldn't care less who may have keyed my site by mistake. To have her tell me to not ask...made me feel really small. A lot of the time I feel like she's talking down to me. I mean, sure, I had a day where I just could not brain but that is not how I normally am.