Let me climb up on my soapbox real quick....

People are dumb.  Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb...  Some days it feels like people expect you to hold their hands and walk them step by step through things that they have done a million times and should be able to do on their own!  And it leaves you wanting to do any combination of scream, cry, or bang your head against your desk.  At only three and a half hours into my day today it felt like I had been there for twelve.  Ridiculous.

Now, I will be the first to admit that I don't have much patience, but I have FAR less after the alarm going off 40 minutes early because Josh had an early job to be to and I could NOT fall asleep again no matter how hard I tried.  Even less after fielding a barrage of stupid questions...  And even less after you add in having to deal with the fact that the woman that sits next to me was over reorganizing the coffee supply cabinet for TWO HOURS!  Now that normally wouldn't be much of a problem... Annoying, yes, but a problem?  Not necessarily... But right now the company is kind of in "crisis" mode and her managers' phones are ringing off the hook.  And when she's not at her desk to catch any of their missed calls, they ring to me.  And I don't have time to do her job as well as mine.  Plus, as fun as it usually is for me to get to tattle, it was getting really annoying when one of her managers kept asking if she was back yet, if I knew where she still was, if I could watch for her because he really needed her to work on something...  That's when it all becomes problematic.

And sends me back to wanting to scream, cry, and/or smack my head on my desk.

How hard is it to do your job??  I just don't get it.  I understand the fact that she has to put away the coffee stuff when it gets delivered, but does that need to take two hours of her completely reorganizing the closet?  And then stopping to chat on her way back?  Nope.  It doesn't.  And then she complains about not having enough time to get everything else done.  I can't stand that.  If you want to screw around, you damn well better be able to get your job done.

Now, I get that EVERYONE screws around on the clock.  Everyone does personal stuff - check e-mail, go on Facebook, chat with friends, make personal phone calls - I get that.  I've even been known to blog at work.  But only if it's a day where I really don't have much going on or if I am helping out by covering the switchboard and am really limited as to what work I can bring down there...  I would never sit and play at the expense of my job.  I know that there are plenty of people that would kill for my job, and I am not about to step aside and hand it over to them.  See, I love the company I work for.  And I like my job.  And I'm damn good at it.  I work my butt off and deserve every big raise and bonus that I have earned for myself.  I do more in this job than anyone else before me has, my bosses know that, and they reward me for it.

I'm always shocked when people here that are known for screwing around constantly complain that they didn't get a big enough raise or bonus.  DUH! You didn't earn it!!  Be happy that you got ANYTHING and MOVE ON.  Last year was a hard one for everyone and we didn't get raises or one of our usual bonuses...  These same people were ranting and raving about how unfair it was...  Be glad you still have a job and that we didn't have to do any layoffs, people!  This year is looking to be even harder for us and I am definitely not expecting raises or bonuses.  But I am expecting them to complain again.  In times like these, you have to work harder to show that you need to be kept around just in case things go badly and layoffs happen!  You have to buckle down and kick some butt!  Now is not the time to take long lunches and 30 minute breaks and sneak out early just because your manager isn't there to see it happen...

Plus, we are coming up on review time right now.  These same people think that the reviews are pointless when we aren't even going to be getting raises...  Not realizing that if there were layoffs, good results on your reviews may save your job.  I don't like the whole review process either, but I do it.  I put so much information in my self-assessment, it's borderline obsessive.  I do it to show them EVERY LITTLE THING that I did all year.  Just in case they somehow missed something.  Like the fact that I had to review over 14,000 repair orders for bonus points for incentives... Or the fact that I personally handled over well $1,000,000 worth of payouts or 1099's for incentives... That's just how I roll...

Basically... As I climb back down off of my little soapbox here and take a seat... I am just saying that people need to earn things and stop expecting to be handed everything.  And they need to stop complaining about having to actually DO work when they are AT work...  Do you want a paycheck?  Then that's what you have to do.

I am SO glad that I have ripped a bunch of cd's onto my work hard drive so that I always have a nice big selection of music to choose from to get me through the day because I'm not listening to any more whining...

Plus, The Beatles make me smile...

Bonus.