04.29.09
Posted in wls at 11:52 pm by Shari
The last meeting to let folks know if they were staying or going are done, so I can officially say that I’m staying on as an off-season agent - doing the same job, just a much smaller group of folks doing it. At the same time, we get to move. We’ve been in a leased area, away from the main location, for the tax season so they could ramp up and have enough room. But that area is far too large for the off-season, so we go back to the company’s main site for the next however many months. That will happen this week. The other location is just 1/10th of a mile further from home, which when you are talking about 26.3 and 26.4 miles, is nothing.
Fortunately the Y is nearly on the way to the new-to-me site, so the other step I took this week is still a good one. I signed up at the Y (one of the ones close to downtown) so that I could start taking water aerobics classes. I had gone last week to get all the info on signing up, but didn’t do it until the first class I could attend. That was yesterday. Today I’m only a little bit sore - surprising because we did a lot of arm stuff that I expected to make my shoulders very sore.
I’ve been working on a sweater in Vanna’s Choice purple yarn. It’s from… umm… damn, the magazine’s in the car and I’m not going out to get it. Anyway, I had done 2 full repeats (12 rows, just over 200 sts) , into the 3rd when I decided that I had to restart it. I had decided to do the fronts and back as 1 piece - no big deal - and to decrease 1 stitch at the edges - the one that would disappear in a selvedge. Well, I kept finding myself off a stitch here or there, and thinking I had corrected it, but i finally decided enough was enough, it was time to go back to the beginning, re-start the lace and try to keep a closer eye on it for awhile. Derrick thought I was nuts when he saw me rip it all out, but I know myself and I’ll be happier having a more solid start on it.
Permalink
04.21.09
Posted in wls at 8:57 pm by Shari
So it looks like I have gotten what I want, but it’s “confidential”. Since nobody from there knows about here, I think I’m safe saying that I know where I’ll be working after the tax season finishes winding down. I’ll leave it at that for the moment.
I promised myself that if this came to pass, and since I’d be on a regular schedule that dovetailed perfectly with the Y’s aquafit classes, I would re-join the Y and go back to taking water aerobics classes. To that end, I stopped this morning on the way to work at the Y and got info on joining. The joining fee is exactly what my “health dollars” will reimburse me for. I also stopped tonight on the way home and bought a new bathing suit. Found something that actually looks pretty good on me and hides the saggy skin of the gut and upper thighs. Doesn’t is sound like everything is aligning for me to do this?
So Monday morning I’ll arrive at the Y about 3o minutes before class, routing number and cc in hand to join and go to my first class. I am really looking forward to this because I KNOW that I love the classes, I know it’ll get me moving away from the plateau I’ve been on for way too long and I’ll feel so much more energetic after the classes. There’s plenty of time after class to get myself together before work with a bit of time to spare, so even if our workplace moves, it’ll continue to work. Win, win, win!
Permalink
04.16.09
Posted in daily life stuff, Crafts at 2:36 pm by Shari
and I made it!
My metrics look mostly really good. One of them isn’t hitting the goal, but that one has to do with getting in the queue and out on time. I get in on time at the beginning of the shift, but getting out on time is sometimes difficult due to being on a call, so I can’t do a lot to change that one and I’m not going to sweat it.
The end of the season brought a change to the types of calls. Mostly they were problems with getting the e-file done, or payments for e-files. Also people are up against a deadline, getting pretty peeved and need someone/thing to blame, so there’s more frustration and anger that needs to be dealt with. During the rest of the 3 months I only had 2 times that I had to direct a call to the OOP due to a threat of legal action and last night I had 2 in one shift.
Somewhere along the line I started getting random Mac calls, and was doing well with resolving them, I guess, so for nearly 2 wks I got almost exclusively Mac calls. Since there were a couple of common scenarios occurring, I got pretty good at tackling them even though I am not a Mac person at all.
I’ve gotten a little more knitting done of late - working on a cotton tote bag that I thought I’d use for a gift, but now that I’m seeing it come off the needles, I’m thinking I might keep it myself.
Nearly time to head to JA’s to get some time in. I won’t be able to be there tomorrow morning, so I’m putting in the time tonight. And of course, I’ll be there on Saturday, as always.
Permalink
04.07.09
Posted in wls at 10:46 am by Shari
… I’ve accomplished next to nothing, as long as we’re not counting the hours put in at work.
I’m continuing the f/t job but switched my hours for the last 2 wks of the season. I’m working 3 - close, meaning that if there’s calls in the queue at 12, you stay until all the calls in the queue have been handled, and finish the last call you’re on. Only 2 days so far, but I got done at 12:15 the first night and 12:45 the second. Last night I had 3 team leads over my shoulder telling me how to resolve the problem I was dealing with. Think they were anxious to have all calls completed? Anyway, I KNOW it’ll be different as these 2 weeks progress - getting later and later. As I said when I volunteered for the change though - you can do almost anything you need to if you know it’s only for 2 weeks.
I have some knitting and crochet done, but it’s all little samples for classes at JA’s. Scott, one of my coaches at the f/t job, assures me I’ll get lots of knitting time during the off season. Of course, that assumes I actually make the off season team. That’s yet to be revealed. I heard a rumor that we’d know yesterday, but I’ve also heard that it’ll be next week, so I’m still waiting and not assuming the worst yet.
Stupid weather - a couple of inches of snow last night. It’s within my general “we’ll get a storm during the 2 wks after my birthday” guideline. Hopefully it’ll be the last of it for the season?
One cool thing that happened, though… I got an employee of the month award for February (and found out on April Fool’s day)! It’s different from the earlier recognitions because this one is from the company, not the team. The big deal is that you get privileged parking if you work at the main site since parking there is pretty scarce. That doesn’t impact me since I don’t work at that site, but it’s still pretty cool to have that recognition. I guess there’s a recognition dinner somewhere along the line that I’ll be invited to as well - though with my schedule, I probably won’t be able to go. Oh, well… my name was recognized and it’s fodder for my resume for an internal transfer if/when I need to take that step.
So now that I’ve pretty much blown the entire morning off, it’s time to get ready to go out into the white world.
Permalink