Archive for the ‘Work’ Category
Like I said before, I started my new job. One of the biggest differences between where I was and where I am now is that instead of having an office with a door and two windows, I have a cubicle with no doors and no windows. I think it is probably 8 ft. x 8 ft. My cubicle is on the second floor of the building in this fairly small room that used to be a lunch room or break room. There are 7 cubicles in here. There is only one way in or out and I have to go by everyone else to get to mine. I chose to have the one in the very back corner because it offers at least a small amount of privacy. People have to know where to look to find me otherwise I am just forgotten. That isn’t necessarily a bad thing.
It’s been 3 years since I have had to work in a cubicle and there is a lot about cube life that I have to get used to. The biggest thing is that everyone can here what you say or what you listen to. I had gotten spoiled being able to listen to music through my iPhone using speakers so I wouldn’t have to wear headphones. That’s not the case now. I can’t exactly rock out or anything because of the other people around me. I hate having to wear headphones because I don’t like being tethered to my desk. The other thing about people being able to hear what you say is the gossip and phone calls. Before, I could use the phone for a personal call without having to worry about someone overhearing what I was saying. Not the case now. And God forbid you say something about someone else that you work with. The walls definately have ears and they are always listening.
Cubes are just so boring and drab. Who wants gray walls and a gray desk and black filing cabinets? Who wants two tiny, little shelves to put things on? They are just so impersonal, small and boring. There is even some kind of rule about plants. I don’t get that. Why can’t you have a little ivy on your desk or something. Anything would help to liven the place up.
Don’t get me wrong, I am happy to have a job. I just have to get used to living 10 hours of the day, Monday thru Thursday, in a little gray cube.
One of the good things about this new job is all of the shopping that I get to do for it. I needed a whole new wardrobe for my new job.
When I worked in the plant, I wore Nomex (those fire-resistant jumpsuits) and steel-toed boots every day. I had one suit and a couple pairs of khakis to my name. I wore sweatpants, shorts, t-shirts or tank tops underneath my “blues” everyday. I had no slacks and just a few nice shirts that fit. How in the world was I going to manage to work in an office with that kind of a wardrobe? I would have to wear the same thing every third day!
So, after I found out about the job I talked to HH. I explained the situation to him and surprisingly he understood. He told me to go and buy whatever I needed to get me started for the new job even if it meant we had to take the money out of savings. I immediately went out and went shopping. I got shirts, slacks and of course…SHOES!
I know that I will have to do some more shopping and I should have done it all in the first place since I had my shopping pass from HH but I couldn’t help but feel a little guilty about spending all of that money. I hate feeling guilty over shopping. It is one of my favorite things to do.
I got a new job. Hooray!
Well, it isn’t exactly a new job, per se. You see, when I got the job in the plant 3 years ago, I was working at an engineering firm. I had only been there for 3 months when I got the plant job. I had always wanted to work in the plant so I left the engineering firm to try my hand at operations. Management at the firm understood and we parted ways on good terms with the understanding that I could come back there if I decided I wasn’t meant for operations.
So, I had been trying to reach management at that firm for the past 3 months so that I could find out if I could come back. I knew that the chances were fairly slim since the market was horrendous but I figured what the hell, you won’t know unless you try. True? I couldn’t ever get ahold of management over the phone and I didn’t want to leave a voicemail or send him an email because what was I going to say, “Hey I doubt you remember me but I want to come back to work for you.” Yeah that ‘s a real winner. So I tried and tried and tried some more and couldn’t get ahold of him so about 3 weeks before my last day I started getting really desperate and I left him a voicemail. I didn’t expect anything to come of it since I figured that I was probably rambling and didn’t make any sense. The message must have been somewhat coherent because my old boss called me less than a week later to tell me that they wanted to bring me back and they were just waiting on project approval to do so. I got off the phone with him optimistic and thoroughly elated but paranoid that the approval wouldn’t come through. A week later I had my offer letter in writing and I was going to be starting the first week of the new year. Just in time since I only had about 1 1/2 weeks left at the operations job until I was officially terminated.
Thankfully, things worked out and a “major” crisis was avoided.