Tuesday, February 27, 2007

What a day

Yesterday was one of the worst days I've had in my professional life. It started when I got into work and found a network download had quite a few bugs working themselves out at the expense of the branch system. We kept bouncing from on and offline all day, and for the majority of the afternoon we hovered in this weird limbo place where we thought we were online only to get booted off right when we'd get close to the end of our task. All in the name of progress, right?

I can usually handle the stress of system/computer issues. Our bank does an update or download about six times a year and I haven't seen one go without some sort of hiccup. You just calm down the customers and try to get by. Not a big deal, all-in-all. But to add to that already big headache, I had to drive 45 minutes to meet with my boss and our collective boss. (Hereafter called boss 1 and boss 2.) I have a tendency to weave a good conspiracy theory now and then, so I hesitate to say this next thing for fear that no one will believe me. But I'm pretty sure my boss(1) set me up to look like a fool.

Our bank just got re-organized into a new district at the beginning of the year. With that, we got a new boss(2). Yesterday was our first one-on-one with her to discuss the branch trends, sales, goals, and all that other boring bank crap. I asked my boss(1) what I should bring to the meeting. He said, "Nothing. This is probably just an informal meeting." As soon as she (2) sat down, she started reviewing numbers and reports, of which I had brought none. I looked across at my boss (1) as he brought out a stack of reports and figures for himself. In other words, he was prepared and I wasn't. I looked like a complete fool. I hate that. You have no idea how much I hate that.

The first thing most people would think was that I should've called him out. But if you've ever spent any time in the corporate world, you'd know the only thing that does is make you look even more incompetent. Like you need a babysitter to do your job correctly. So I didn't say anything. I did what I could to keep up. The meeting went into a bunch of other stuff I won't bore you with that only made the day even worse. Let's just say the %?#! was definitely rolling downhill. I returned to the office to find the computers even worse and the line of customers at my office even longer.

I made it home alive though. I rarely take work home, physically or mentally. And I'm not one of those people that need a beer or two to get over the day. But last night I stopped and got some Great Lakes seasonal Conway's Irish Ale and enjoyed a couple bottles. It was definitely what I needed to calm me down.

On a completely unrelated note, I haven't been seeing too many deer on the way home from work due to hunting season, longer days, etc. But yesterday I saw 66 deer! That's right....SIXTY SIX!!!!! 4 on the way to work, 57 on the way home, and 5 on the way to Ell's brother & sister-in-law's house. Is that amazing or what? 66!

4 Comments:

Blogger Sweet Peripety said...

you blogged and you even had a bad day..wow..hope it gets better for you. I've been on no sleep this week, so I know tough days..but having to deal with that stress at work..can't imagine.

We saw 6 deer in our backyard Friday..and I thought that was a record for city of Salem HA! 66??!!!!! That's wild!

2:07 PM  
Blogger Kimmy said...

I saw 72 today. Okay, not really.
66 is a lot of deer. You must be REALLY good at spotting them!

7:45 PM  
Blogger kimw said...

I'm lucky if I see 66 deer in a year! Maybe it's because I'm not looking, but still. That is a lot of deer.

Sorry to hear about your being thrown under the bus, so to speak. It's happened to me before, and it's not fun. I'm sure the ale was a welcome stress-reliever, though. I do love a good Great Lakes myself.

9:35 AM  
Blogger drifter said...

I know this blog is a little old now and your over it but hey at least you have info. In the corp. world, as you know, information is everything - and now you know where your boss(1) stands. I don't mean to say you should not forgive him. But from now on (In the words of the great man who ended the cold war) "Trust but Verify"

9:30 AM  

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