Today was just one of those days, you know? We had some serious storms blow through last night and there was debris everywhere on our ride to breakfast.
Here was one large branch on the path that we moved out of the way.
Nothing will stop us from bagels! 😀
It was funny, just yesterday I was saying to John how I was starting to feel more relaxed because work had calmed down, I was going to be stopping tutoring andwith that stress and feeling sort of more relaxed about the endless house closing.
As soon as we pulled in to the driveway, my phone rang and it was work. Â The first of 16 phone calls between me and work today… Not good when the call starts with “Do you want the good news or bad news first?”. Â Always take the bad first, right? Well, my main account has been threatening to leave for a long time and today they pulled the plug. Â That is probably 80% of my paycheck right there. I am not surprised, but still this was not news I wanted. Â The good news was that they had a new account they wanted me to start on right away. Â However, due to their poor planning and dinking around – it was utterly urgent that I start the account pretty much immediately. Â That meant new software, which had to be installed on my computer. Â At first one of the tech guys was going to come to my place, then they wanted *me* to drive up there and pick up the disk. Â Really? Â Your emergency is not my problem. Â Anyway, I agreed to meet them half way – about 20 minutes or so from home – to pick up a thumb drive with software on it. Â It was like doing a drug deal. Then I had to wait all day while the tech guys virtually installed the stuff on my computer. Â So, not only did I lose my main account, but then I couldn’t work on any of my backups because my computer was busy. Â I was not really a happy camper about that because I hate losing money and knowing I have to make this up over the weekend. Â That’s the bummer about being paid by production and not salary.Â
Anyway, the new software is *finally* installed and I got ‘training’ on the new account, which was basically “They are really picky and do things weird, so good luck.” Â No account specifications, no samples, just thrown to the wolves. Â I wasn’t even put on QA review for the account because they were so desperate to have me working on it right away. Â
So, I hope this works out, but it doesn’t sound like a great situation. It is really an overflow account that apparently is terribly behind right now to the tune of 3 weeks (should be a 24 hour turnaround).  I don’t know what will happen when it gets caught up, but I guess I will just have to wait and see.  My company told me that I was their priorityall  of the MTs to find work for.  Finally some acknowledgement of appreciation for how much work I do for them on weekends and such. Â
I am trying not to stress too much about it. Â I will take a money hit for a while until I get up to speed on the account. Again – a downfall to production work. Hopefully it won’t take too long. And I will be polishing up my resume in the meantime.
Never a dull moment around here, I tell you.
OH – so sorry – not something you want to hear right now!!!
I hope the new client works out well!!!
Time will tell 😀
This is definitely the “down” side of MT work. Clients want the work turned around in 24 hours but then they pull the plug with no warning and leave us hanging as well. Here in S/W Michigan we had some horrible storms last week and myself and my colleague lost power for 4 days. Couldn’t do any work, of course, and now it is catch up with the client’s office calling constantly for this dictation or that. We are only as good as the fastest time we turn the work around. On the plus side it is obvious that you are the go-to person for your company and they knew who they wanted on the new contract. Sorry about losing your main client, though. Where do they think they can find someone better? Obviously no place. They will regret it.
It’s hard. You can only do so much and when others don’t pull their weight – we all suffer.
Aw geez, sorry to hear this job mess. What a royal pain!
Doesn’t it just seem like one thing after another? I am going to have to find myself a sugar daddy and keep John around on the side 😀
Was thinking about you girlfriend and all the storms in your area….glad you guys are okay! Work work work… hubby just found out his big boss is leaving for greener pastures and they will have a temp for a while… problem is hubs knows the temp and knows he pushes all HIS work down to those below him (aka hubby) So hubby who is already overloaded can expect it to get really , really crazy……… funny hubby came home from work and started brushing up on his resume too. 🙂 Hope it gets better Lori! Hugs! deb
Yes – those storms were rough, especially the wind!
Well, can I be a Pollyanna? If you had a 9-5 job, you wouldn’t get to bike for bagels for breakfast with John. But those phone calls–that would really get to me. And the whole thing about trying to manipulate you to do their work–like you said, their emergency is not your problem. Do you know, most people have a hard time thinking that way!
You can be Pollyanna. There is a lot of upside to my job when there aren’t these issues, which seem to come more frequently lately. I actually had to change the ring tone on my phone today because I was so tired of hearing it LOL!
ugh, I’m sorry! I hope you get a new (good) account soon. No one knows the stress of working at home until they’ve done it. Our internet went out for 2 days a few weeks ago & I was screwed! I ended up searching all over the surrounding area for a place withr WiFi at 2 in the morning to email something that had to be there at 8 am. I ended up sending it a gas station parking lot.
Working from home definitely has its own challenges. Still better than being in an office, though 😉
That sucks that you lost your main account and that you got new stress by the new account. But I always look at things positive: it could be worse. You could have lost the account and didn’t get a new one. Don’t stress too much about it and when you have to work this weekend, please take some time to do a bike ride, even if it’s a short one, you know that makes you feel better when you are busy.
Good luck.
I will ride some this weekend, although we do have a barbecue to go to, so not as much riding. But BBQ is good, too! 😀
UGH Lori – so sorry for this added stress!! Bagel was definitely needed!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I can sympathize on the work stress. We’re getting a new boss and my old boss just gave us our mid-year evals and she was scathing on mine. Never a bad word the other 3 years but going out she just dumped it on. Not fair, nothing you can do. I’m considering looking for something after the wedding but in the meantime, you just have to focus on the good things about it. The money (even some is better than none) and the perks (flexible hours for you, Friday afternoons off for me). What else can we do, right? Hang in there girl!!!!
That stinks about the bad eval. I hate it when stuff comes out of nowhere. I worked in a job once and thought I got along great with the manager. After she left, the new one told me the old one didn’t like me and I was totally floored.
I used to have a quote up in my office: Poor planning on your part doesn’t constitute an emergency on my part. Sometimes I’d just point to it when someone came into my office with their newest “crisis.” 🙂 I’m sure you’ll have it all under control in no time.
It’s just going to take time. Learning a new account is hard, not to mention how ill-prepared they are with account specs and stuff – which just makes it slower. The next couple weeks will be hard on the noggin, but then it should be better.
I hope they meant what they said about making you a priority – you deserve to be treated well with all you do for them!
You never know if they really mean something like that or if it is just CYA so I don’t leave LOL
I’m sorry. It sounds like it was a big blow to lose a big client. I hope that you get other better business. Hang in there.
On a side note, your setee looks amazing!
Thanks! I will be posting more detail on the settee later today. 😀