Anything-can-happen Day

[rolanni]

Oh, let’s see. . .the day-job. The less said on that head, I think, the better. On to pleasanter things, like –

The arrival of a royalty check! Yes! Royalty check! Not, I’m sorry to say, for Duianfey, nor for Longeye, neither of which has earned out — but Fledgling has.

Honestly, that kid. . .

What else? Did the dishes, took out the trash, opened up George’s file, meaning to write “a page” — that’s about 250 words, for those who count.

Wound up with a little more than five pages, finishing up a scene and a chapter. Not too bad on the day.

Tomorrow, alas, it’s back to the day-job and the damned data entry. A colleague suggested that I take a picture of the fruits of my labors, to include in my self-evaluation at merit report time. I can take the picture, but I’m pretty sure that no one who is actually in a position to do something about merit raises is going to understand what the picture means in terms of pure, physical labor.

. . .I once — no, I’m wrong — I twice left jobs where the ex-boss had to hire two women to replace me.

You take your black humor where you find it.

Progress on The Book Presently Known as George:
3,528 words/100,000 OR 3.53% complete

Originally published at Sharon Lee, Writer. You can comment here or there.

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

Take the picture! You'll probably impress them with your whiz-bang-iness, if nothing else. Although be aware that you may end up with taking photos as a new part of your duties... could you document this for us? With one of those photos you do so well?

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

whooops. LJ forgot who I was again. Sorry about that. It is I!

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

Taking photos is occasionally a part of my duties, anyway. This proposed photo -- I'm pretty sure someone would get corked off if I posted a picture of Application Mountain in my blog.

Admin presently has a teensy internal PR mess on its plate, what with The Chronicle having reported to Planet Academia that the president of our college makes in excess of $659,000 annually, plus, yanno, free housing and whatever else is appropriate to his station. Yes, this is the same college that froze faculty and staff merit raises because there was no money in the cookie jar. So, anyway, I imagine they're a Little Testy over there at the moment.

[magda-vogelsang.livejournal.com]

I recall a year where the president of the university I work at was bragging about the fact that his percent raise that year was below the average raise for faculty and staff. That didn't really impress me once I'd calculated that his raise was nearly as much as my annual salary (as an entry level research tech).

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

No fair doing arithmetic!

[mbarker.livejournal.com]

Ah -- I meant that they would say "Could you please document this for us? With one of those photos you do so well?" I've learned that revealing talents such as being able to wield a camera, video, etc. sometimes is seen as volunteering to be the recorder and reporter of all things... The funniest one was a conference where they asked me to PLEASE report on all four simultaneous tracks, and seemed stunned when I pointed out that I could only be at one.

[attilathepbnun.livejournal.com]

Pictures are good, yes ... and congrats on the George-progess!

[saruby.livejournal.com]

Honestly, that kid. . .
I love that kid!

I find that it is both affirming and scary to know how much a job really needs you. Good scary, in a "I've got the power" way. Better if they know what you're worth.

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

The job -- by which we mean Admin, which is in charge of deciding whether I keep my job -- actually thinks I'm a PITA -- and they're right. Mostly, you'd really rather have somebody who's nice and compliant in a job, even if their performance is somewhat less. It's just more comfortable for everyone.

[trolleypup.livejournal.com]

Oh yes! My old job (bookkeeper) the bosses disliked me (and it was mutual) for being generally uncomfortable and unrestful...the only reason they didn't fire me was because they were too cheap to replace me (with the number of hours it would take to do so) and too lazy to do my job themselves (never mind doing it correctly).

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

Similarly, when my mom left her HR job they had to hire 3 people to replace her. What is it with people not doing their jobs?

[rolanni.livejournal.com]

What is it with people not doing their jobs?

I know, right?

My problem is, having been doing the secretarial gig off and on for 40ish years, is that I make it look easy (Kids! Don't try this at home!). I wish I had the knack of letting the work pile up, messily undone, around me, and always looking harried and rushed. Instead, I dig in and do it. Unfortunately, the response to this is not, "Hey, you're all caught up! That's great!", it's "Rolanni never has any work to do."

[mizkit.livejournal.com]

They ("They") say 20% of the people do 80% of the work, by which I more or less extrapolate that 20% of the people are competent and 80% aren't. Which would explain pretty clearly why it takes two and three average people to do the job of one competent one, wouldn't it?

[trolleypup.livejournal.com]

And some people just have better skills to start with, not to mention better general work habits.

Every time you call it George

[(Anonymous)]

I think of '...hug him and pet him and squeeze him and call him George.' Steinbeck and Looney Tunes have a lot to answer for.

Lauretta@ConstellationBooks

PS Go royalties, go Theo!