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Positive and Negative

November 18th, 2017 at 03:26 am

So ... the positive. DH has FINALLY found his all weather vehicle. After over 1 1/2 years of looking.

A 2000 Honda CRV for $4k. We now have FIVE vehicles. We WILL be selling one ... I just am not pushing it right now with Sunny and more fun with SIL's estate.

I might even be willing to drive this thing. It is in nice shape - nice enough that DH plans to put in some of his numerous speaker systems to try out.

I'm just glad to not have DH say - lets drive to Des Moines to look at such and such car - not call till we're nearly there - and find the car is sold. Or look at it and find its rubbish. Done with that!

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I am seriously hating my job right now. One of my responsibilities is dealing with lost and found. A few weeks ago my supervisor and someone else cleaned out the lunchroom and threw out the umbrella box w/ a month's worth of umbrellas. No mention of this to me. No asking if I wanted to do something else with them. I found out only because I noticed the box was missing. When I brought it up to my supervisor, she just basically shrugged and said the lunchroom was overrun with stuff and the umbrellas were old ( time wise) anyway.

This on top of how almost *every time* I go away for a few days, I come back to find my space rearranged or the work flow rearranged to a way that suits my supervisor. This irritates me to no end, although I try to tell myself that she probably thinks she's doing something nice for me.

Then there's dealing with the people in dispatch and lost items. They've trained multiple new people, and some work with me, and some want to do as little as possible.

I get that we are not responsible for lost items ... but when someones lost something, they *don't* want to hear that.

I don't call down for everything I get calls about. I try to deflect as much as possible. Especially since I never know who is actually going to answer in dispatch.

So today I have this mom call about her daughter leaving a $1300 violin on the bus. I call down asking for dispatch to contact the driver. I basically get blown off. I try to tell mom that we are getting in contact with the driver and she can check back on Monday after 8. (because its 3:40 and I have no idea if or when I'm going to get a call back from dispatch)

Mom wants to leave her info so I can call her - I have to tell her that I can't do that (Supervisor's policy)
I do find out when the bus will be back - so tell her she can wait for it at Dispatch in case the violin is on the bus. (not our normal policy, but was ok'd by another supervisor due to a fiasco we had a few months ago with a family heirloom violin stolen on a bus)

Mom calls principal unhappy with my not helping her.

Principal calls the supervisor/school liaison to find out the deal. Asks me what's going on. I admittedly did not react very well. Was so frustrated with not being able to get answers and then getting the blame!

Got the bus driver supervisor to call dispatch - of course he didn't get blown off. The violin was secured.

Mom calls again and I seriously didn't want to speak to her. I was just ready to have the day over!

This is just ONE example. There's another dispatch that gives me a one word answer and hangs up on me.

Then thanks to the latest iOS and Android updates killing all 32 bit apps, the past month I have had SO many phone calls from people complaining about "our" apps not working. They're 3rd party apps people! We have NOTHING to do with them! I'm sorry if you paid $4 to upgrade it - but you didn't pay us that money. Most of them just whine and moan for 5 - 7 minutes, but there have been at least 5 who have gotten totally irate.

Today I had one call me back asking if we could help her get her money back or figure out how to stop the payment. I asked her when she bought it - she said sometime last year and she couldn't remember if it was a yearly fee or a monthly. I was incredulous ... but told her that while we can't do anything about it, I would suggest she keeps an eye out on her account and if she sees a charge, dispute it!

I tracked the calls for a few weeks and got my supervisor to bug the main honcho enough that the links to the apps were removed from our main website. (There was a disclaimer, but who reads disclaimers?)

DH has suggested I sit down with my supervisor and come up with a written out list of needs/expectations wrt lost and found / dispatch. Something we give to anyone working dispatch.

Hopefully by Monday I won't be so ticked off and can approach the matter calmly.

Sorry for the vent.

Tomorrow after church I'm supposed to be going to the Center for People in Need to volunteer at their Thanksgiving give away thing. I know I'll have fun, but right now I really don't want to go. I just want to sleep and be away from people. I'm peopled out.

6 Responses to “Positive and Negative”

  1. creditcardfree Says:
    1510978923

    Customer service jobs take their toll on some of us! I've been there. I hope you continue to look for other opportunities.

    I'd drive a Honda CRV in a heartbeat. Smile

  2. Amber Says:
    1510998537

    Aw what a day. I'm glad you all found a car, and I really hope things work out for you at work. Enjoy your day at the church

  3. PatientSaver Says:
    1511005731

    Ugh, I'm sorry for all the hassles at work. It can be very frustrating when others meddle with things we're responsible for. The cleaning woman at my current job drives me nuts. I keep leaving big notes for her saying, "Val, please don't clean this desk." Because when I come in the morning, everything is pushed to the very edges of the desk, or things are "rearranged." I don't really like people handling "my stuff," and cleaning, to her, means running a dirty rag that's already cross-contaminated with every one's desk across mine.

  4. Bluebird Says:
    1511015608

    Hi Laura, sorry you had a rough day at work. With regard to the lost and found, I suggest you take charge of the situation. Develop a protocol to solve the issues and present it to your supervisor for approval, if you need to, or just let her know that it's a problem and this is your plan to deal with it. Can you find a cabinet to store the lost items in and lock it (of course leaving a duplicate key for when you're not there). I'm sure your supervisor will appreciate your initiative, which may extend to other responsibilities and possibly even a promotion.

  5. frugaltexan75 Says:
    1511044689

    Thanks CCF, I am looking. All the time.

    Thanks Amber, I did enjoy myself.

    PS - exactly! That's what irks me. It's supposedly my space and my quasi office - hands off!

    Thanks Bluebird. We have two cabinets now plus two plastic boxes. I plan on putting together something which can be given to dispatch as well as everyone upstairs - so we're all on the same page.

  6. rob62521 Says:
    1511129442

    Hope you have gotten some rest and some time away from people so you can recharge.

    As for the workspace. I know exactly how you feel. A few years ago, my work area was moved to another room and I shared it with another person. He and I had figured out how we wanted to configure the space. He had gotten this lovely desk and shelving unit from someone who had retired and had it moved to the school building we were in. I had a desk and a small book case and we had agreed his area would fit better around the wall (it was huge and had all kinds of storage and mine would be better on the other side of the room and we would then have a table in the middle of the space so if we needed to test a kid, we could do that and still have someone there as a witness. (You cannot be too careful working alone with children.) Anyway, we draw this whole thing out and when we get in the next day, it isn't that way at all. The administrator decided she would choose the way it was to be. Neither one of us was happy, but the stuff was way too heavy to move. I resented it the whole time and we had to figure out a way the other one could watch if the other was testing a student so we had the witness thing going on.

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