I'll just keep telling myself that...

The reason why the Advisors (one who doesn't even supervise him) keep having the other assistant in their offices is because he's so incompetent that they need to keep coaching him. Yeah right. I'm sure the outbursts of laughter have to do with work. Oh, and that the reason why I haven't met with them (when both of them -are- my supervisors) to discuss my files is because they have so much faith in what I'm doing that they don't need to check my progress to make sure it's going okay. Oh, and that meeting I was supposed to have with one of them, never happened because they're too busy. They're so cliquey, it's ridiculous. And it's pretty hard to work with people when you suspect that every time they invite you to join them is because 1) you're on the board with them 2) they were told to quit being so cliquey because they were called out by their manager 3) they want some future favour from you, like to cover their long-@ss breaks even though they're on the schedule to cover the front. And you're getting paranoid that they're mocking you behind your back, and that's why they seem to have a smirk on their face every time you see them.

Yeah, not really motivated to do any work when they take 2 hours to review a draft that should take them 10 minutes (mostly because they're too busy yakking with previously-mentioned assistant), and then suddenly tell you that it needs to be up right away. Or ask you where you got something from, when it's in the file that you'd handed to them so they could use it as reference when they're reviewing the draft. Or blame you for a mistake you copied & pasted from a document that they'd approved. Or you have to remind them to get required documents or that certain steps have to be taken before a process can proceed. Or have to explain a staffing request to them... again. Or have them hand you work, but they don't even understand what the work is about. Or you ask them a question about a program that they've used for over a year, and they can't answer it because they only know how to do a few limited things, and should have encountered the problem that you're currently facing. (no wonder why the assistant and them get along fabulously!) And this is when I've had half the experience and none of the training that qualifies them for their position.

They are entirely the reason why everyone hates HR and views HR people thisas lazy and incompetent. I never thought I'd end up working in this branch because I`d always hated the HR people that I'd encounter. I've had a semi-famous row with them, and my nickname, partially in jest, was "the walking HR-issue" (ok, that was given to a lot of people in my previous workplace, and it was a badge of honour). Yes, it was because we weren't toadying layabouts, who preen ourselves for the UPS delivery guy, and weren't two-faced liars who harass the victim and praise the useless. But because I worked in another govt HR dept, where it was filled with hard-working, dedicated professionals, that I thought it was a worthy profession. Ugh, what a change a different department makes. Which is not to say that everyone I currently work with is like that. 75% are professionals, the other 25% are causing the problems for us all.

I keep telling myself, their uselessness and lazy ways will catch up with them, but how can that happen when I have to keep cleaning up for them? Don't know how to do something? Oh well, I'll just call the (hopefully) correct people and look like a fool to find the answer. Need that document right away? Oh, well I'll just push my break back until I take it in my last hour and get that produced for you. Never mind that you take breaks that last twice as long as they should.

What really sucks is that I really like the department. The managers are approachable, I get to do neat things and hear interesting lectures, and have new expensive equipment ordered because I want it. But yet again, I'm faced with having to decide whether I should abandon all that to go back to being in a department that's completely the opposite, but I'll be working with professionals. It really irks me that I'm having this conversation again.

Nice to feel needed, if only it wasn't forced

Major update needed. Haven't written for a long time because I've been horribly behind on (fluff)friends and other Facebook applications. I'm also watching my week's worth of Daily Show and Colbert Report. I haven't turned off my computer in about a month because I have to keep track of which people I haven't returned pets/gifts/feedings too. It's fulfilling when you get to connect with people, and they give you Valentine's gifts, fulfill your wishlist and keep your elefant's speed up, but it sure takes a lot of work. And perhaps it's pretty sad when you feel more connection with strangers (I've only got 4 friends on Facebook that I've never met personally), than with your parent. And you feel more appreciated online than at work.

Work's been...annoying. Not the actual work itself, I can't believe how much time I've had so that I can clean up files, do extra things, or just spend 15 minutes trying to compose an e-mail. It's more trying to deal with a certain group of people who are loud, unorganized and have little work ethic. I really wouldn't care about their doubled break times, messy files, and lack of usefulness...if it didn't cause them to be useless and increase my workload.

We're supposed to cover each other's breaks, and there's even a printed schedule. So, I've already covered for his shift twice because he just has to go out to a restaurant for lunch with the same group of people he goes out to lunch with every day. And of course they approach you in a group and say it's only going to be for the period of the allotted lunch time, but then they somehow manage to stretch it out to an hour. So I end up taking my lunch an hour or two later (depending on if I get caught up in something)

And I have to audit whatever he does because it's so sloppy. It's not my job, but when he gave me a file he'd worked on, I found 2 mistakes, and then it turned out that they had to take down the poster once already because of his errors. He doesn't look things up or do a lot of work. And he nearly threw a fit when I won the coin toss on who was going to be on the assessment board for the Co-Op student. And boy, did he remember to remind me that he gets to go on the next out-of-province trip and assessment board. In our meetings, the advisor keeps saying that we should help each other out, but there's little reciprocity.

So 2 weeks ago, I was telling my friends about deploying back to my old department because even though the workload is 4x more, at least everyone had a great work ethic and didn't have high school cliques. And at least when I talk about anime, there are people who know what I'm talking about and even if they don't, they won't roll their eyes. And if we're working in a group, at least I'm included and don't have to hear them having a party, loud enough that I can hear them laughing through a closed door and headphones.

So I ended up going to my manager with a list of my concerns. And even if it weren't for the fact that they're reorganizing the structure so that we're losing her, our other senior advisor and our most senior assistant, I think she still would've listened and acted. And 2 days after that talk, one of the perpetrators calls me into her office and explains that they never meant to leave me out, and she has a different sense of humour. And day after that, it was the other person who did the same thing. And suddenly I was included in the process (since I am an assessment board member). Huhn. And the other problem person is much nicer to me, although it might be because I'm the assistant for the process she's applied on. I guess we'll just see how long it lasts. But it's going to totally suck when they split off the other people. Aside that I will be much busier (since the workload will be split among 2 assistants instead of 3), it was always nice to be able to talk to her about anything.