Crankypantsing

Got Cranky?

Shelly

One of my cube neighbors asked me yesterday if I could keep a secret. Well, yes, sort of. I won’t tell anyone who could possibly know the person in question, which I think is what she meant.

Story number one: Our supervisor came up to my cube neighbor a few days ago and asked her whether or not she’d told our unit that she’s retiring. She honestly couldn’t remember whether or not she’d said anything. It’s a little weird, but she’s had brain surgery, and I know she has memory issues, so I think it’s understandable that she might not remember, and that, knowing herself she has memory issues, she might be paranoid that she’d said something and then forgot she said it. I get that. It makes perfect sense to me. But she hadn’t told us that she’s retiring. The thing is, though, she told my coworker that her supervisor insists that she did tell everyone she’s retiring. It’s that last part that has me boggled.

So, I was feeling a little sorry for our boss yesterday. That is, until she got cranky with everyone. Story number two: Another coworker asked her the proper format for something, and she got exasperated, saying “You people and all your questions…!” Now, she’s the boss. She trained most of us, right? If we have questions–and questions are inevitable, I don’t care how long you’ve been cataloging!–how the hell else are we supposed to get them answered? Yes, there are lots of resources available, where we can look stuff up, but sometimes it’s impossible to find the information you need, or you need someone higher up food chain to make a judgment call. She’s the supervisor, so it’s her J-O-B to answer questions and consult with us.

I would never, ever, EVER respond like that to an employee, no matter how stupid the question is. In fact, I go out of my way to make it absolutely clear to my students that they can ask me about anything, no matter how stupid they think it is. I want them to do their jobs well, and I think that requires good, open communication. Duh!

Which brings me to coworker story number three. My cube neighbor had a meeting with our supervisor yesterday, to go over questions about some ebooks she’d been cataloging. She was told that she is not to consult with other ebook catalogers (bosslady is a micro-manager and hates it when we go to other people with questions). If she has questions, she’s only to ask our supervisor. M’kay. Except that our supervisor is clearly not so good with the whole answering questions thing. Then, when my coworker tried to explain why she’d done X, bosslady got snarky with her and told her she didn’t care why. It was wrong, as in, “You misinterpreted my directions, so it’s your mistake, not mine.” Well, okay, it’s wrong (though I don’t think it’s appropriate to assign blame!), but again, part of being the bosslady is keeping communication lines clear, which in turn requires that bosslady acknowledges how and why communication went pear shaped. If she doesn’t take the time to listen to why an employee interpreted directions in a certain way, she’ll have no idea how to write better instructions in the future. And I should hope it goes without saying that it’s spectacularly bad management to blame someone else for your own poor communication skills.

I’ve had the exact same experience as story number three. The directions seemed to be written in pretty clear language, only they didn’t say what bosslady said they said. Even after she reinterpreted them for me, I still couldn’t figure out how on earth they were supposed to mean what she said they mean. She’s just plain bad at training and writing directions, and to make it even worse, she’s also really bad about blaming us for misunderstanding her training and directions.

But this whole retirement thing? While I feel bad for her on the “Am I losing my mind?” front, I think it’s good news. Rumor has it, though, that she won’t be leaving until next summer. It could be a really long year.

Uncategorized

Weird Semi-dream

Shelly

I half-way woke up from a dream last night, enough to know that I had been dreaming, but not enough to be completely clear headed. I didn’t open my eyes, because, even though I was awake, I was seeing some Very Fun Stuff. It was like millions and millions of crazy images were flashing by on a giant, spinning cylinder. Flick, flick, flick, they flew by. In super-saturated color, but silent, and with dark, cloudy edges and scratches, like old home movies.

Crankypantsing

Did That Just Happen?

Shelly

It’s storming. Thunder, lightning, wind, rain, the whole enchilada.

So, of course, my pedantic coworker says, “It’s not storming yet. It’s not supposed to start for another couple of hours.” Well, gee, someone should tell Mr. Storm that. So then pedantic coworker says, “But the radar isn’t showing anything.” Look out the window, you giant ass! It’s storming! Duh.

And then, a couple of minutes later, he says, “Oh. The radar image I was looking at was from two hours ago.”

Jesus wept.

Crankypantsing

Padiddle

Shelly

A coworker pointed out yesterday morning that one of my headlights was out. Damn! Since I don’t (yet!) have a personal secretary, this meant that I had to put on my Big Girl Pants and call repair shops myself. I hate, hate, hate making phone calls. Aieee!

That nasty little job is done now, though. If I did have a personal secretary, I could tell him to cross it off the list. Since I don’t, I’m going to have to do it myself. Right after I make myself a tasty adult beverage.

Pets, Photography

Polly and Henry

Shelly

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The cats have discovered the Amazing Cat TeeVee (AKA the patio windows). They spent most of the weekend out there, either napping or watching the birds and chipmunks.

(And, my photos are any indication, I never put my shoes away.)

Oh, and Harriet’s ear? Totally F-I-N-E. She made a big, fat liar out of me! Dr. Koch said he scoped and prodded and even tugged on the (supposedly) sore ear, but he couldn’t find anything wrong, and Harriet didn’t complain. And he’s right. She’s back to normal now. That ear sure was sore this morning, though. Weird!

My Garden, Pets, Photography

Dew

Shelly

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All the flower seeds I planted, at least the ones that sprouted, were eaten one night by either bunnies or Mr. Groundhog. I’m going to have to replace them with mature plants or maybe with containers. So far, they’ve left the stuff in containers alone. The tomatoes are getting big, and so are the peppers I got from a coworker. The peppers I planted from seed are still really small, though, so I’m about to give up on them. Since the tomatoes still need to be thinned a bit, I may sacrifice the baby peppers to make more tomato space.

In other news, Harriet spent Friday at the vet. She was chewing her feet again and suddenly developed a sneeze and runny nose. I was afraid it was something contagious, but after spending the day observing her, the vet thinks it’s just allergies. He recommended putting her back on Benadryl, and if that doesn’t help, then Chlor-trimeton. If those don’t work, then we’ll try prescription antihistamines.

The Benadryl seems to be helping. She’s not chewing her feet and her sneezy, snotty nose has improved. But, now she’s developed what I think is a bad ear infection. One ear is super painful, and I can feel where it’s swollen, along her neck. Poor dog! She’s feeling too rotten to police the cats, so I know she has to be miserable. There’s not much to be done for it until I can call the vet tomorrow morning. In the meantime, we has sadcakes.

Speaking of the cats, they have finally decided that they’re in charge. They spent last night doing Indy 500 laps around the living room, chasing each other, while I was trying to watch TV. It wouldn’t have been so bad if they hadn’t kept cornering off the couch. Also, Henry has discovered the kitchen counter, and it doesn’t matter how many times I push her off, she bounces right back up. Ditto Polly with my computer desk. She jumps up, I push her off, and she bounces right back up again. They are nothing if not persistent. Alsoplustoo, cute. Very, very cute.