Thursday, September 09, 2004

M.I.A.

Yeah, i know. Once again, I have been abandoning my blog. It happens quite often, but this is the absolute longest I’ve been away from it: three weeks. A lot of stuff happened. I got back to school, there were people coming from abroad, I left Lexcorp... But I’m getting ahead of myself. So, without further ado...

School Daze


Did I tell you about the class I’m attending?
Yes I did.

Well, I’ve started making friends and everything. Even gave away chocolate cookies a couple of times.
I love meeting new people.  The classes took a while to get a hold on, but I’m making progress.
More as the situation develops.


Don’t cry for me, Lexcorp


After about a week of going to work in the morning and going to school in the afternoon, I started to realize that I wasn’t gonna be able to do both things for long. My schoolwork started to lag as I didn’t have any real time to do it. My work-work started to suffer as well, for several times I had to take homework to the workplace to try to finish it there. Believe me, those were stressful times, trying hard not to get caught by my boss while working on a school paper. Not that work at Lexcorp was a walk in the park, either. Remember the Lexcorp Gazettes?? Well, in case you had forgotten, there’s still three 1000-page books unfinished which are due on October. I started to get migranes and ended up exhausted all the time.

Something had to give. I started to look into work licenses. I wanted a three-month permit, with no pay. But I realized that there was no way I was gonna get it, considering the Gazette situation. So I decided to quit for good. I was quite determined, too. But when I told my boss, he wouldn’t have any of it. He asked me to reconsider my decision several times. Finally I said, “The only other alternative I can think up is a three-month permit...”

The permit was on its way to Human Resources by the next day. It took them two endless weeks to approve it, but now I am resting in the commodity of my own home, able to dedicate fully to getting that darn degree. I must hurry, I only have seven more weeks to do it.


Enter the Temp


Obviously, Lexcorp couldn’t stand to be without me the whole three months, so they hired a temp. But, as things are never simple at Lexcorp, instead of hiring a temp to substitute me, they were gonna transfer a girl from Public Relations to replace me and they were gonna hire a girl to replace her. Sounds complex? Sure, but here’s the deal: The P.R. Girl  was eager to switch jobs for two reasons: she was fed up with her boss and she wanted to earn a bit more. So replacing me for three months, she would get a break and more cash. But it was meant not to happen. The Human Resources people decided that the P.R. girl wasn’t qualified to replace me, so the temp replaced me in the end. I felt sorry for the P.R. Girl, but what could I do?

But, that’s only half of it. P.R. girl’s boss made Temp Girl come into the office a week before her hiring to make sure she would know her way around the workplace by the time P.R. Girl left. So the poor girl followed P.R. Girl for days, writing down stuff and making sure she knew all the procedures done there. Just as she was mastering P.R. Girl’s workload, she was ordered to come to my department and learn from me. Really, that must suck. Specially when you consider that she still hadn’t been hired. She was doing all of this for free.

Training her was kind of a hassle, since we were trying to to churn out one more tome of the Gazette at the same time. But I managed to tell her a thing or two about my work. The girl is smart, friendly, capable, BUT...she has the worst B.O. ever.

Really!! I can’t even begin to describe it. Have you ever smelled a very old and used $5 bill? Dirty, damp and stinky. I’m reminded of a Seinfeld episode where a valet parking lad rendered Jerry’s car useless after driving his car once. I had to hold my breath for long periods of time while trying not to sound like I was holding my breath. After a while, the smell would die down since my nose would get accustomed to it. But if I walked away for a minute, the pungent stench would rush back to my nostrils.

I feel for those I leave behind. May my temp’s B.O. not render them insane.

No comments: