Ooohhh!!! I had a FRUSTRATING day at work today!!! First of all, I find out that three of my surveyors had trouble on their Saturday assignments. So that meant three assignments with trips needing to be redone - I was able to attach two of them to other assignments, so that wasn't so bad. Then, by the end of the day I still had FIVE surveyors who had not checked in. So I started calling them. I was able to get ahold of three of them. I found out that two of them (the two who had gone to New Orleans last week) had not gotten back till Friday, and that when they got back they were sick as dogs - so of course they didn't do their assignments! Then the third one supoosedly had a family emergency and so he didn't do his Saturday assignment. Then of course there is the fourth surveyor (Candice) who'd had emergency surgery about a month ago, but who won't return any of our phone calls - and so today Lynn at the employment agency left her a message letting her know that if she didn't call or come into the office to download her assignments by 4pm that she would be considered to have not fulfilled her job committments and not be paid for any assignments she actually had done. Guess what?? She didn't call or come in!!!

So what this basically means is this. Today I had 16 assignments left to hand out. With the three redo's, that gave me 19, but I was able to attatch two of them, which left me with 17. Then I assigned 6 which left me with 10. Then I found out about the three undone assignments, which put me at 13. Then, add Candice's assignment, and that gives you 14. Without Candice I have 10 surveyor's right now. I have two surveyors without an assignment - that would leave me with 12 assignments for Dec 17. Do you see the problem??? We really were supposed to be finished on Dec 10 (this coming Saturday.) A few weeks ago I had it planned out perfectly, with even a little wiggle room for redo trips. What I didn't imagine in my wildest dreams was that more than one of my surveyors would just plain NOT do their assignments!

When I was picking up my check this afternoon I was telling Lynn about how frustrated this made me, and how it just boggles my mind that people could treat their job like this. She told me that I'm feeling the frustrations they feel everyday. I told her that what frustrates me the most about it was that I was really looking forward to being finished with the limited hours and be able to have a chance for a full 40-hour work week. She basically told me I could count on one as soon as this job is finished.

I guess I was just raised differently. When you say that you're going to do something, you get the job done, and you do it to the best of your ability. If something comes up that is unavoidable - you use the new fangled invention called the TELEPHONE so people who are counting on you know what's going on and don't have to make guesses or get worried. Maybe it's because I've always worked with professional level people that makes it hard for me to accept this kind of work ethic. I hate to say this, but of my 10 remaining surveyor's, the ones who've NEVER let me down are the ones with college degrees. Maybe that has something to do with it. Maybe not. All I know is that it is SO frustrating!!!

Ok, stepping off my soapbox. I sure hope I'm not coming off sounding holier than thou or anything. I sure have my vices and not so good points. Just when it comes to how I'm going to pay my bills, that's not one of them.

No spending today.

Keeping It Frugal in Texas,
Laura