Finally settling into a pattern at work in the new department. They started training me on the phones around the 18th of July, I had one week of training by sitting with someone while they took calls, and then by having them sit with me while I took calls. Then on Monday the 26th, I was left to my own devices with only a schedule to follow - Answer phones from 7am to 3:40pm, and take lunch at 11:30am. It was like being thrown to the sharks in a manner of speaking. Those sharks being angry customers whose dental benefits have not been paid due to some contract regulation they were never made aware of...allegedly. "Well, no one TOLD me I could only get a filling once every three years." Didja read your contract? No? Then shaddup.
Next week, the first week of August, I start my brand new schedule of working four 10-hour days with Mondays off. Three-day weekends every weekend? I can totally handle that. The 10-hour days? I'm not too sure about. I'll be working 'til 7pm every day except Fridays, when I'll be working 'til 6pm. I've been so used to getting off work at 3:30pm every day, this is going to be a huge change for me.
Home life is pretty uneventful right now. I definitely have some projects I want to work on around the house on Mondays while I'm off work, mostly to do with sewing or organizing. Aaron's parents are coming to town on Wednesday and staying through Sunday, so we're going to be pretty busy, along with a concert and a wedding to go to during that time, as well.
The weather's been very typical of summer lately - hot and muggy, with rain storms every few days. Grass is still growing like mad in the backyard, which is a good sign - means the sod they put in last summer is probably going to do well, I think. If only we could finally get gutters up on the house (we have estimates from three places, just need to call them) and have the tree trimmed down (the low-hanging branches are really close to the power wires that run to our house and the neighbor's house).
Last weekend I got a Barnes & Noble Nook, their e-reader, and I am loving it. I think it'll realy come in handy at work on breaks, and it allows me to multi-task - I can read my books and knit at the same time! I do have a ton of paperback books left to read, including the entire Dune series, and I need to finish off the last couple of books in the Ender's Game series.
Guess that's about it for now!
Saturday, July 31, 2010
Sunday, July 18, 2010
It takes a lot more effort to be miserable than it does to be happy
So over these past few months, I've done a lot of complaining about my job. Complaining that it was too hard to do both Disability and Dental in the same day and be expected to get anything done. Complaining that I had been switched do Dental for an indefinite amount of time. Complaining when I learned that my position in Disability had been eliminated, and that I was going to be transferred to the Dental office permanently. And complaining about the horrible hours I'm going to have to work starting in August when the call center is required to be open until 7pm.
And then on my way home from work on Friday, I realized that it has been taking me more time and energy to be upset and complain about this whole thing than it would to just suck it up and deal. I've been over in the Dental office now for two weeks. Everyone over there is really nice, really happy to have me over here. It's pretty quiet over there, as most of the employees work from home now, and only about a third work in the office. One of my friends from Disability is going to be moving over to Dental soon, and I'll have someone I know.
It takes a lot less of my energy, and let's face it, makes my husband a lot less miserable to hear about it, when I don't complain and whine about the current position I've been placed in. I have a job, I work with good people for a pretty good company. I still have benefits and health insurance, vacation, and the option for a more flexible schedule (I'll be working four 10-hour days beginning in August, with Mondays off, so I'll always have at least a three-day weekend). I have a wonderful husband, a roof over my head, a car to get me to and from work, and family who cares about us. I'd say I have it pretty good right now, even if it's not "perfect" as far as work is concerned.
But you know what? Even if it's not an ideal situation right now, I have plenty of time in my life to find something better, something that works for us, and something that makes me happy. This is only going to be a very small part of what goes on in our lives, and it probably won't last for that long. It'll be okay.
And then on my way home from work on Friday, I realized that it has been taking me more time and energy to be upset and complain about this whole thing than it would to just suck it up and deal. I've been over in the Dental office now for two weeks. Everyone over there is really nice, really happy to have me over here. It's pretty quiet over there, as most of the employees work from home now, and only about a third work in the office. One of my friends from Disability is going to be moving over to Dental soon, and I'll have someone I know.
It takes a lot less of my energy, and let's face it, makes my husband a lot less miserable to hear about it, when I don't complain and whine about the current position I've been placed in. I have a job, I work with good people for a pretty good company. I still have benefits and health insurance, vacation, and the option for a more flexible schedule (I'll be working four 10-hour days beginning in August, with Mondays off, so I'll always have at least a three-day weekend). I have a wonderful husband, a roof over my head, a car to get me to and from work, and family who cares about us. I'd say I have it pretty good right now, even if it's not "perfect" as far as work is concerned.
But you know what? Even if it's not an ideal situation right now, I have plenty of time in my life to find something better, something that works for us, and something that makes me happy. This is only going to be a very small part of what goes on in our lives, and it probably won't last for that long. It'll be okay.
Monday, July 05, 2010
Holiday Weekend & Then Some
So, they moved me over to the Dental office for work on Friday morning - I was informed of this on Thursday during a meeting with my new supervisor and office manager. A co-worker of mine in my former department is going to be transferred over the first of August, so I was hoping that they were going to keep me over on the Disability side of the department until they moved her over, too, that way we could move together and go through training together. But that will not be the case.
I got moved over Friday morning, bright and early, before a lot of people in Dental had arrived. It took three trips to get all of my stuff moved across the hall, four trips if you count my computer and whatnot that our IT person brought over for me to get set up. I put up all my decorations and bobblies and doo-dads right away, because 1) they would be all over my desk and in the way if I didn't, and 2), it just makes it feel more homey when it's all decorated.
My new desk is a little smaller, and has less storage space than the old one - fortunately across the hall, everything is done either electronically or by scanned image - there is not much actual paper that I will be working with, so no need for the bigger desk or more storage. Everyone seems really excited about us moving over to help out and whatnot, and everyone is really nice. They seem to have a really fun attitude over there, so I'm hoping that will help out during this whole transition. It's really overwhelming and kinda makes me nervous.
This weekend was really good. Three day weekends are awesome in two ways. First, THREE DAY WEEKEND, duh! Second, the next week at work is only four days! Doesn't get much better than that. On Saturday, we lazed about, got some stuff done as far as running errands and getting plans ready for the rest of the week.
We were busiest on Sunday. We had a baseball game to go to at Target Field at 1pm, Twins versus the Rays. It was the LONGEST game evar in only nine innings. Three hours and 10 minutes. So it probably wasn't the longest game evar, but things stopped going well for the Twins in the 5th inning, and all the innings were incredibly long. It was a warm day, but we were in a shaded area, and it was cloudy for most of the day. Somehow, I still managed to get a sunburn...yeah, that's how white I am.
Afterwards, we ran back home to rest up before the fireworks. We went to St. Louis Park with Nathan and Megan. The fireworks were about 40 minutes long, and pretty good, we were RIGHT under them. Lots of fun, minus the ridiculous people to our right who were loud and obnoxious on purpose. On the way back to my car, there were mobs and mobs of people walking back to their cars, as well. Somehow, Nathan found a cell phone on the sidewalk and picked it up. This was the biggest mistake ever. The phone rang right away, and it was the owner, hoping to find us among the crowd. She had no idea where anything was as far as streets, so trying to find her in the neighborhood was not going to work. We agreed to meet at the nearby Knollwood Mall in front of Kohls. She called another couple of times, saying, "Uh, there's a lot of traffic here, can you just stop and we'll come find you?" Nope, not doin' it. Not turning around, not stopping, not parking. We'll meet you at Kohl's as planned. We ended up taking a wrong turn and had to loop around in the traffic-clogged streets again before getting out of the neighborhood to the mall. We still ended up waiting around for the girl and her boyfriend for about 10 minutes once we'd parked. She called the phone several times, and texted it a few more, although I think the last text was from her boyfriend, because it was rather coherent and thanked us for all of our help. We'd seriously considered leaving the phone somewhere and sending them a text message saying where it was, but we followed through, and she got her phone back before the night was over. Nathan will never pick up another stray phone again.
Today was fairly relaxing, we ran some more errands and got the lawn mowed finally - it had been about two weeks since we last mowed, and it was starting to look jungely again. Odin has been sitting outside on his leash most days while we're home because it makes him so happy that he gets to sit outside in the sun, watch the birds, and eat the grass. We set him outside after mowing the lawn, and he looked around, then looked at us like, "Hey! Where'd all my grass go?!"
It's been SO HOT out here this weekend that Aaron and I haven't been able to go take any walks. We were doing really well last week, walking about every other day, 3-4 miles each walk. Feels good to get out of the house and go do something good for us, that doesn't cost anything. Except it might cost me a new pair of shoes, my feet get pretty tender near the last mile or so.
Tomorrow I start my contract training at work, and then I will start training on the phones. It's basically a call center for members or dentist's offices to ask questions about what their plan covers and why was this or that denied. Phones aren't my favorite things. I'd really just rather process the claims and not do phones, but I know that's not an option because they need phone coverage. Starting the first of August, the phones have to be covered from 7am to 7pm, and I will have to be on the schedule until 7pm. That really really sucks. I am currently working 7am to 3:30pm, and LOVE getting off work early and having the rest of the day to go do stuff or stay at home, or whatever. Seems as though that's not going to be an option anymore, which seems really unfair to me. But I know that they had to have several people in the Dental office re-arrange their schedules so that the phones were covered until 7pm, because previously, they were only covered until 5:30pm, so there was no need for anyone to stay later. It just sucks.
One of the things that I always did in the Disability department was to put up a bit of trivia or "this day in history" on this company whiteboard that was hanging up on someone's cube wall, but never being used. I've been doing this for over a year, and people at work look forward to reading it every day. I'll have to come over at lunch or at the end of each day and put up some trivia for them so they know I'm still around :). I also bought myself a fancy schmancy dry erase board to go up on my desk at work so I can put up trivia over in Dental, too :) That made me feel a lot better about this whole transition.
So, that's that. Tomorrow is a new day!
I got moved over Friday morning, bright and early, before a lot of people in Dental had arrived. It took three trips to get all of my stuff moved across the hall, four trips if you count my computer and whatnot that our IT person brought over for me to get set up. I put up all my decorations and bobblies and doo-dads right away, because 1) they would be all over my desk and in the way if I didn't, and 2), it just makes it feel more homey when it's all decorated.
My new desk is a little smaller, and has less storage space than the old one - fortunately across the hall, everything is done either electronically or by scanned image - there is not much actual paper that I will be working with, so no need for the bigger desk or more storage. Everyone seems really excited about us moving over to help out and whatnot, and everyone is really nice. They seem to have a really fun attitude over there, so I'm hoping that will help out during this whole transition. It's really overwhelming and kinda makes me nervous.
This weekend was really good. Three day weekends are awesome in two ways. First, THREE DAY WEEKEND, duh! Second, the next week at work is only four days! Doesn't get much better than that. On Saturday, we lazed about, got some stuff done as far as running errands and getting plans ready for the rest of the week.
We were busiest on Sunday. We had a baseball game to go to at Target Field at 1pm, Twins versus the Rays. It was the LONGEST game evar in only nine innings. Three hours and 10 minutes. So it probably wasn't the longest game evar, but things stopped going well for the Twins in the 5th inning, and all the innings were incredibly long. It was a warm day, but we were in a shaded area, and it was cloudy for most of the day. Somehow, I still managed to get a sunburn...yeah, that's how white I am.
Afterwards, we ran back home to rest up before the fireworks. We went to St. Louis Park with Nathan and Megan. The fireworks were about 40 minutes long, and pretty good, we were RIGHT under them. Lots of fun, minus the ridiculous people to our right who were loud and obnoxious on purpose. On the way back to my car, there were mobs and mobs of people walking back to their cars, as well. Somehow, Nathan found a cell phone on the sidewalk and picked it up. This was the biggest mistake ever. The phone rang right away, and it was the owner, hoping to find us among the crowd. She had no idea where anything was as far as streets, so trying to find her in the neighborhood was not going to work. We agreed to meet at the nearby Knollwood Mall in front of Kohls. She called another couple of times, saying, "Uh, there's a lot of traffic here, can you just stop and we'll come find you?" Nope, not doin' it. Not turning around, not stopping, not parking. We'll meet you at Kohl's as planned. We ended up taking a wrong turn and had to loop around in the traffic-clogged streets again before getting out of the neighborhood to the mall. We still ended up waiting around for the girl and her boyfriend for about 10 minutes once we'd parked. She called the phone several times, and texted it a few more, although I think the last text was from her boyfriend, because it was rather coherent and thanked us for all of our help. We'd seriously considered leaving the phone somewhere and sending them a text message saying where it was, but we followed through, and she got her phone back before the night was over. Nathan will never pick up another stray phone again.
Today was fairly relaxing, we ran some more errands and got the lawn mowed finally - it had been about two weeks since we last mowed, and it was starting to look jungely again. Odin has been sitting outside on his leash most days while we're home because it makes him so happy that he gets to sit outside in the sun, watch the birds, and eat the grass. We set him outside after mowing the lawn, and he looked around, then looked at us like, "Hey! Where'd all my grass go?!"
It's been SO HOT out here this weekend that Aaron and I haven't been able to go take any walks. We were doing really well last week, walking about every other day, 3-4 miles each walk. Feels good to get out of the house and go do something good for us, that doesn't cost anything. Except it might cost me a new pair of shoes, my feet get pretty tender near the last mile or so.
Tomorrow I start my contract training at work, and then I will start training on the phones. It's basically a call center for members or dentist's offices to ask questions about what their plan covers and why was this or that denied. Phones aren't my favorite things. I'd really just rather process the claims and not do phones, but I know that's not an option because they need phone coverage. Starting the first of August, the phones have to be covered from 7am to 7pm, and I will have to be on the schedule until 7pm. That really really sucks. I am currently working 7am to 3:30pm, and LOVE getting off work early and having the rest of the day to go do stuff or stay at home, or whatever. Seems as though that's not going to be an option anymore, which seems really unfair to me. But I know that they had to have several people in the Dental office re-arrange their schedules so that the phones were covered until 7pm, because previously, they were only covered until 5:30pm, so there was no need for anyone to stay later. It just sucks.
One of the things that I always did in the Disability department was to put up a bit of trivia or "this day in history" on this company whiteboard that was hanging up on someone's cube wall, but never being used. I've been doing this for over a year, and people at work look forward to reading it every day. I'll have to come over at lunch or at the end of each day and put up some trivia for them so they know I'm still around :). I also bought myself a fancy schmancy dry erase board to go up on my desk at work so I can put up trivia over in Dental, too :) That made me feel a lot better about this whole transition.
So, that's that. Tomorrow is a new day!
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