Work: Scroll down to the not work section if you don't want to hear my f* bombs
OK, so I'm venting, and this is likely to be boring if not a repeat conversation. I work out of our small local office, but we have many offices across New England and New York and of course across the ocean in the UK since we are a UK based company. However, the group I work with is primarily NH & MA based. I work with 5 main arborists and their respective districts. My group is 1 of 2 parts in our budget. The second half is RI & southern MA and under a different "lead" aka manager. The two divisions are run very differently, which has many pros & cons- recently our entire department has been under reconstruction/reconfiguration. With the "vp" of Forestry taking a job in a related but different department, his "assistant" (not really the right term for what Tim did) taking the "vp" job, my boss taking a new job under the former "vp" in the related but different department and the two "lead" positions being combined. On top of which an Arborist was helped out of the department this past summer, and that job has still not been filled permanently but instead been filled by a couple temporary contractors. Needless to say the department has been in a bit of chaos with the changes and no immediate decisions being made. On top of which our company runs it's Fiscal year end in March, so it's also a very very high stress time for our department. Last year we went over budget by $3 Million and accrued insufficiently, which caused that money to be taken from this fiscal year. Trust me, I would not have wanted to be in the room when Craig (vp at the time, but no longer) had to have the finance meeting for that. It was not a pretty sight to say the least. How I am tied in is very simple, well to me it is, but to the outsider it's a bit complicated. Anyway, while the 5 arborist I work with authorize the actual work, I pay for it. And while they are supposed to also keep an eye on there budgets and specific projects, unit work, etc (very complicated and it's not) I am the person who actually sees the invoices, the time sheets, everything with an actual cost associated. So when we talk finances, I'm right there in the middle. So when we are over budget, or even when we are just running quarterly figures I'm the person on the line. There are a couple other complicating factors, for example in the past 2.5 years we've changed accounting/operating systems more than 3 times and the current system in use isn't fully active, and there are problems with moving the system from it's temporary network to the live network. Yeah, so it's never just one thing on the table. What I liked about my boss (former) was that he was very much in favor of updating systems and technology, and moving away from the old excel and paper world. He had great ideas on improvement, field force automation, automatic uploads, global connect, everything. He was always looking for ways to electronically simplify and make the arborist' jobs more efficient. However the follow thru wasn't always there, or he didn't always get the company support to get things completed in a timely fashion. Again, referring to our system- it was supposed to be ready to go live back in August... it's now March. Something else I liked about my former boss was that he wasn't a micro manager. He laid out what was expected of everyone, re-iterated this during reviews and staff meetings, and made it abundantly clear that he was available anytime people needed to reach him, but that everyone was accountable for their districts. Something I didn't like was that he wasn't hard lined enough, or in other terms that he didn't micromanage enough. His laid back style worked for some, but wasn't sufficient for others. For example Jan. Jan was not one of my boss' favorites, not because she wasn't likable, but because she had a hard time letting things go. I don't mean this in a personal way. I mean with changing of job requirements and process. Jan is a bit of a control freak, but in a good way. Everything has to pass thru her, in her district, but some of the automation that we've worked in removes this necessity, and I think that was difficult for her. However in Jan's defense, because she was so involved, she was always on top of things, with everything up to date, and running at or very very close to her budget. I love that about her. Then we have Jim. Again, Jim is very personable, but not efficient. He tends to be behind a huge amount of my work stress, and the bigger problem is that he is consistently behind the ball. You know, occasionally being late with reporting is ok, but to be that way each and every time... no fucking way. I'm very much at my boiling point with Jim. And I'm getting to the point where it's going to get messy because I will address the problem and it will have a backlash on him. Every time we are doing finance reporting, his area tends to be the highest stress for me, and unfortunately my work stress tends to travel out of the office with me ( personal note: I'm working on this issue). Last year, at this time, I was literally ready to walk out. This year, I thought we had things under control. I was assured that we had things under control. The new vp ran figures, we discussed the "plan" and he bravely left for his honeymoon. Then the fallout started yesterday. The former vp called me to say the guy in finance thinks we are already at our budget amount... and asked how much we still money we still have "out there", meaning work not yet paid for. I freaked. WHAT? We CAN'T be at budget already! We had a plan. I was assured things were under control. In my division alone, never mind the south, we still have over $550K out. What the fuck do you mean we might be at budget? What the fuck do you mean don't pay out yet? What the fuck? What the fuck! According to the "plan" the unit costs had already been added to our figures and it was just the hourly stuff we had to watch. What the fuck? The bids had been put out last year, and we knew the cost, how the hell are we now over budget in that?
Needless to say, I'm a bit on the edge. While it's a group effort, or problem, I end up feeling accountable, even if in reality I shouldn't be. My other fleeting sorrow is that Tim is coming home from his honeymoon and walking into a bees nest. But then... I think "You're friggen crazy to take time off during this month" every one know that, and that's why I don't. I have a hard enough time taking time off any other time of the year because I'm afraid of what mess is going to be there when I get back, never mind the most stressful month that holds the possibility to you coming back with your head on a platter.
I'm so over this shit. Next year this isn't going to happen, and all this last minute crap that everyone overnights to me... nope not doing it. If you can't control your spend, then it's your problem, not mine. What's that you say? You don't have enough time? I can solve that for you too, in the same fucking way it was "solved" for me.... network in from home. So you're 40 hours isn't enough, I'm sorry you can work from home nights and weekends, that'll give you time. You're salaried for 44 hours, and we've made the addendum that you can earn straight OT. What, that's not enough? Go to the fucking line department, their supervisors don't get any OT except for emergency work.... have a nice day. And this sending me a two fucking months worth of documentation two months late...yeah sorry, not acceptable. Why the hell should this become my problem if other arborists are managing the workload, and you can't? What the fuck. Don't even get me started, really don't.
Not Work:
The beautiful Anna is so motivating in the knitting department. I've found all sorts of cute things I want to make for the little one, and it's making me actually read patterns... yup after 26 years, I'm finally reading and following directions. Who knew? Man, if only my Chem teacher could see me now! ;-) I finished my first sweater (pictures to come soon) but disappointingly fouled up under the arms. I'm only a little sad, since it was a) my first sweater b) one of the first patterns I read & followed and c) the rest of the sweater is great. She's a little one, she won't notice that the seam bumps up. I also made a little spring dress from some super wash wool, so that mum can throw it in the wash instead of taking the time to handwash. I was even smart enough to make it on bigger needles for air flow:-) I'm waiting for some cotton yarn to make a "Yoda" Sweater that's a wrap sweater so if Anna's fussy it will be easy to get her sweater on, and in a stylish spring green. I'm excited.
I've finally bitten the proverbial bullet and got my gym membership. $148 dollars later (an no that isn't for a year), that better be enough motivation for me to get there!! My goal is to lose weight (of course) but also blow some of this work stress off. I'm a little nervous about this, but I used to go the gym religiously so once I get in a pattern I'll be set. I'm not nervous about physically using the gym, more about having to deal with strangers. Again the whole not liking strangers thing affecting my life again. However, the boy bought me a sweet little mp3 player for x-mas and that will be my shield from having to talk to people at the gym. Actually he bought it for me, specifically because I said I was going to start going to the gym... back in November/December. Ok so I'm a little late getting there, but hey 3/4 months is better than um... 6 months or better yet next year?
Lastly, we are vehicle shopping. Again. This will be the 2nd "new" car in two years for the boy. Said boy got out of his Chevy truck ( nice truck, but had some issues) into a VW Jetta. I used to like Jettas. That was until we owned one. The Jetta has spent more time in the shop then actually being driven. And I actually mean this literally. Up until about a month ago, the boy and I had same work schedules so we often drove together. So the Jetta sat except for Thursday's when he goes south for man time with his buddies, and the occasional OT or other plans. It's been in and out of the shop for everything. Currently it's back in the shop for a Catalytic Converter... which the part alone is $500 (and that's wholesale cost) plus labor.
We've decided that instead of continuing to pay for all these repairs (it was in less than 2 months ago) it's time to look for another vehicle. Now this doesn't bother me too too much, but I think the boy is heart broken. His heart is not broken over getting rid of the Jetta, but because this may mean he doesn't get his Harley this year. And I am the bearer of bad news in this case. Come on , think financially. A monthly payment on a Harley is almost equivalent to a car payment.... and do you really want to be making two car payments a month on top of insurance increase? The sad part is that I know if he had a Harley, he would ride it everyday that he could, unlike a few that shall remain nameless that take their bike out a couple of time the entire year. So in that sense I would love for him to have his motorcycle... but on the financial end... we were looking at buying a house too so 3 (with mine incl.) car payments isn't that favorable a prospect.
The other vehicle buying dilemma is that we do not agree on vehicles. I mean we really don't agree on vehicles. Since I know he wants to get his motorcycle, my thought is inexpensive but reliable.... that means you don't get all the bells and whistles. You sacrifice so that you have a less expensive vehicle that you can pay off quickly and therefor get your bike sooner. Logical isn't it? The boy's thought is more... if you're going to be paying for it you should get exactly what you want. Ok, so that's logical too, but which do you want more... bells & whistles or a vehicle and a motorcycle?? Of course I say this having bought my vehicle used so that I could get many more of the bells and whistles :-)
