Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Take two Aspirin and call me in the morning

Why is it that some people have these nice cushy jobs?  They can treat their work the way they drive a car.  They ease into first gear, change smoothly to second gear, move on to third and eventually end up in fourth.  If they ever make it to fourth that is, some folks shift into second gear and stay there.  Or as a friend of mine once said ... “Second gear?  I feel like I’m in reverse!”

When I started this new job last week, I thought I had found a cushy job.  Sure there was a lot to learn, but there wasn’t any pressure.  One task smoothly followed another and from what I could tell it was a case of ... whatever doesn’t get done today, gets done tomorrow.

However, that all changed yesterday.  My boss, who had been out of town last week, was back in the office and that made all the difference.  She has me on my toes from the moment I walk in, until the time I leave for the night.  I can’t smoothly shift from first, to second, to third and then fourth, I’m in fourth gear from the moment I get to my desk.

Yesterday I even went into overdrive.  She came to me at 4:30, asking if I was expected home or could stay for a while.  Of course I could stay, refusing to finish a job isn’t in my nature.  It was only an hour, but that extra hour really finished me off.  By the time I left I had a headache, my eyes were burning, my stomach was rumbling, my legs felt like two pieces of lead and my feet were killing me.

Today wasn’t much better.  I barely had my computer up and running when I was presented with a memo that needed to be typed.  Not an easy task considering that my boss’ handwriting is chicken scratch.  She tries to write nicely, I could see that from the beginning of the memo, but as her inspiration kicked in, so her nice handwriting went out the window until only a clairvoyant could make out what she meant.
 
Fortunately I have lots of practice deciphering bad handwriting.  You should have seen my dad’s.  He had a doctor’s handwriting.  At times it was so bad, even he couldn’t make out what he had written.

The good thing is, I’m no longer troubled by insomnia.  Where I used to go to bed and lay staring at the ceiling, I’m now asleep the moment my head hits the pillow.  So for all of you who have trouble sleeping ... get a job, you’ll be counting zzzzzz’s in no time.

2 comments:

  1. Don't even get me started on bad handwriting ... One of my colleagues even made it into a novella chapter because of it. I dreaded getting work from him.

    Great driving references, love the talk about gears.

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  2. LOL I knew you were going to like that detail Alex.

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