The Insanity Continues

I forgot to mention this in my post this morning.

The company I work for has two suites because pre-pandemic there were too many employees for just one. The higher ups decided that we would stay remote (with the exception of those who need to go into the office) after lock down was lifted because so many people already were remote.

Because of this, we do not need both suites.

And as I write that, I realize that they are getting rid of both suites and moving to a smaller location instead of just closing one of them.

What I mean by that is, we received an email the week before my vacation saying they were closing the office and we needed to go clear out our desks. I took that to mean they were just closing the suite that my team used. But today we were told that we need to leave our badges. So, I'm guessing that they are closing both suites.

I went to clear out my desk last week, not that there was much left.

In 2023, I had to go to the office one day over the summer because my apartment lost internet access. When I got there, I found my keyboard (I have two, one that stays(ed) at my house and one for the office from when we went into the office one day a week) on a different desk. I thought they had just moved the keyboards for some reason, but they had moved the mouse and the USB thing (they're wireless). It took me about ten minutes to figure all that out. I'm still confused as to why they didn't just sit at my desk or my coworkers if they wanted to use her keyboard (she has one of those that's ergonomic).

And the shelf over my desk looked like someone had messed with my nick-knacks. So, I took everything I didn't need in order to do my job home.

I only had two things left. A desk blotter and a phone charger. I went through the little file cabinet attached to my desk and doubled checked the shelf. There is nothing left.

We have to have everything out by Friday but I know I can't get back over there until Saturday and another coworker lives a couple of hours away now. Hopefully we can leave our badges Saturday.

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

I know it's been forever and a day since I posted here, but I don't feel comfortable making this post over on my TikTok because my coworkers can see it, not that it's anything bad, and one of them already knows about it. But I still don't want to post about work on my TikTok.

I was on vacation 10/24-10/28 and had assigned my sites to my coworkers. Now, we have a rule that any issues that happen during that week are the original poster's responsibility. I'm okay with that because the issue is usually that a day was double-keyed or inventory readings (I work for a gasoline distribution company) were entered wrong. Things that are easy to find out and fix even if you didn't key it.

But today, my supervisor and I had the following conversation in TEAMs:

(supervisor):
PC [number]...
missing sales from the 25th through the 27th
do you know what A/R you booked those to?

Me:
I was on vacation for those days. You'll have to ask [redacted]

(supervisor):
we don't do that
we don't shove our work on someone else
you know the rules

Me:
I cannot answer the question you asked me because I didn't key them. I have no idea which AR they were keyed to, [redacted] would know that

(supervisor):
still wrong answer ma'am

Me:
How am I supposed to tell you which AR they were keyed to when I wasn't the one who keyed them?

(supervisor):
we will talk about this another time...
your lack of willingness to help is the issue not that you didn't know the answer...

Me:
I am not saying I'm unwilling to help

By this point, I was on the phone with my mother, feeling my blood pressure climbing. She suggested I ask the coworker who had keyed that site, thinking that maybe that's what my supervisor wanted me to do. But my supervisor could have done that when I told her who I had assigned that site to. Or she could have just looked at the list I sent her before I left on vacation. She has to know there's no way I'd know the answer or would even be able to find the answer.

Me:
[redacted] says she used the one on the spreadsheet

My supervisor was showing as busy and left me on unread for a long time. I decided to court a coaching with the following message.

Me:
I'm not sure what you expect me to do here, (supervisor). I have asked [redacted] which AR she might have keyed it to. She says she doesn't know. I have done all I can think of to resolve this issue

My coworker then said that she kept my list separate from hers (I guess to avoid this?) and that she would look to see if she had used one on two different sites. But she didn't do that. She said she'd keep looking into it, and when I told my supervisor this, she thanked me and said she'd look into it.

What pissed me off so much about this is that she was telling me that it's fully my responsibility to fix an issue that I cannot possibly fix since I have no way to find out which code was used for those three days.

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!

So I received a fax from one of my sites today and when I opened the attachment I discovered that the dates make no sense.



Note that it says it was received in 2015 and the dates, for reports for yesterday's (11/3) sales, say it is for 10/12's sales.

I can only scratch my head over this because I have no clue why the dates are off.

Last week was just a hellish as the one before.

( Under a cut for those who don't care )

I've been thinking about this post for a while so it is very long. And is actually several posts. I didn't want to spam your inboxes so each "post" is under a cut so you can choose where to start reading.

( My mother the bigot )

( Captain America: Civil War spoilers! )

( Hawaii Five-0 spoilers! )

( NCIS spoilers! )

( Yay! )

( Seriously? )

( Why are people such jerks? )

( Why do people have to hate others so much? )