House of the Chakram

geebus, it's been 6 weeks

...since I posted last. Things have been..."interesting"...in the Chinese proverbial sense.

In the words of Inigo Montoya..."No, there is too much, let me sum up."

... hubby had back surgery a month ago which he's still recovering from. It pretty much incapacitated him from the standpoint of helping to take care of the Booga Boy..couldn't pick him up, couldn't bend over, etc. So, I've been very tired lately. Very tired.

... Booga Boy is slowly gaining new words, but he's still behind other kids his age (from what I can see comparing kids at his day care). He has developed a love of talking on the phone to people. He says "Hi...hi...hi." I'm now trying to teach him "Bye bye". =) And I'm teaching him to wash his hands. I stand him on a chair at the kitchen sink and we run our hands through the water together, I put soap on his hands and show him how to wash his hands. Lucky for me, he loves water, so he gets excited when I say, "Ok, let's wash our hands!"

... My friend Julie is expecting and due in November. I ran the "games" at her baby shower. It was only the 2nd baby shower I'd ever been to. My shower was the first, heh. It seemed to go well. She got a lot of cute stuff. I felt kind of weird though, because my gift was "practical". Gave her the "Helping Baby Sleep Through The Night" book (from my recommended list here), and a set of really cute Carter's wooden blocks, and another book. Seems like everyone else's gifts were cute clothes or whatever, and their cards were humorous. My card was sweet, so halfway through reading it aloud, Julie stopped reading it because I said "It's a sweet card, not a funny card." And she said, "Oh, I was waiting for the punchline." Sigh.

... Work is getting me down. My boss (the owner of the company) came to me at the end of August and said she was going to be reducing my hours. I only work part-time for her already. Anyway, she said she didn't want me coming in Wed and Thurs afternoons like I had been, because...and get this...because she didn't feel like she was getting enough take-home pay herself, and she wanted more money! I couldn't believe she said that! I mean, even if it was true, you don't tell the employee that! Great motivational tool, I tell ya.

She's the sphincter through which all work flows...she has control of all the workload, and farms out stuff for us (the 3 employees) to do for the various clients. She hasn't been giving me much stuff to do lately, so I've been spending part of my time at work with nothing to do. And because I haven't had as much to do as before (because she isn't giving me anything), therefore I might as well have my hours reduced so she can have more take-home pay. God forbid she give me stuff to do! No! She works long hours, and has more to do than she can handle, and still she doesn't give me stuff to do! It's a control issue, I'm convinced.

I got home after work that day and told my dad (who owned his own business for 20 years), and he just laughed. He shook his head and said "Well, she's not going to have a successful business running things like that."

I had asked her during the conversation whether one of the other employees was going to be taking over my Wed and Thurs afternoon hours. She told me No. Well, what do I find out when I come in the next day and look at the schedule? One of the other employees is now scheduled to take over my Wed and Thurs afternoon hours! Nice. She flat out lied to me. I asked her about it, and she said it was a mistake. Well, the schedule still has this other person on slate for those afternoons...2 weeks later.

Mostly I've decided to try not to let it get to me. I figure maybe she really just wants to get rid of me altogether and is choosing a passive-aggressive way of dealing with it. If I quit, I don't qualify for unemployment. But if she lets me go, I do qualify for unemployment, which would cost her money.

Every once in a while I get annoyed about the situation though. I just wish people would be honest and forthright. I mean, just come to me and say "I am letting you go because I want this other person instead." (or something)

ANYWAY...so I've started looking for another job. Still trying to find a part-time gig, because spending as much time as I can with the Booga Boy during these years is incredibly important to me. And I'm going to try and "up" my skillset too. Maybe take a Flash or Illustrator course. Those appear to be the skills I'm lacking most for the market.

...So yeah, stuff has been going on, I've just been too distracted and exhausted to post about it. I'm still exhausted. But I am sitting here at work with nothing given to me to do (again) and figured I'd share what's been happening the past few weeks.

posted by Michelle @ 9:37 AM