Under the Lash...
Tuesday, 1. July 2008, 13:58:14
Work is being a pain this week. A large, unusually complicated order has landed at my feet - around 180 sites all needing careful Planning and documentation for each one made up MANUALLY. I've had some fun redesigning the old documents to match the new equipment specs; had to teach myself a little Macro VBA scripting in Excel but the new version is vastly improved on the old, not that I'm blowing my own trumpet at all...
Sadly, all that's left is lots and lots of repetitive filling-in of boxes and sending of emails, which is doing a thorough job of putting my head into coma. I even have a helper, Duncan, but it's doing the exact same thing to him too. The bad news: we're only half-way through!
I wouldn't mind so much but it's bloody typical of [COMPANY NAME DELETED] leaving everything until the last minute and then expecting me to pull miracles out of various bodily orifices. Judging by the due dates on these things (some of which have passed already!) they've had months to sort this all out but noooooo. God forbid common sense ever becomes a valued business practice!
Rant over. Thanks for listening while I take the opportunity to enjoy a wee break from the monotony.
...no, wait, let me put that cup of coffee down again. I have more ranting to do.
Our office is currently in the throes of choosing which resturant we want to book for our Xmas meal. Yes, you heard that right. For those not used to the ways companies work, bookings for the exceptionally busy month of December are made ridiculously early. The theory is that some companies make provisional bookings in JANUARY, with others catching up as the winter/spring/early summer months go by. We always seem to leave it too late, meaning every JULY we have this nightmarish process of finding a date we can all agree on (Old Marrieds VS the rest of us) and then seeing if there's anyone left in the whole of the city able to take us.
This year, we look like we're going back to the place we had last year, a place called Dizzys. I'm pissed off about this because I seem to be the only one (apart from Suzanne) that thought they did a piss-poor job of hosting us; everyone else seems to have these rose-tinted specs on. "Oh, the food was great!" Well, it was if you could get your elbows away from your sides to manage poking a fork into it. The seating was terribly cramped, but I'm starting to think this is because people at the top end of the table (hint: the management clique) were taking more than the rest of us...!
"And they had that great smoking area outside": I don't smoke, and it was cold. Next? "There was also a wee bar at the back where we all got a seat": Yeah, a better seat than we had at the dinner table!
Oh, and get this: when we arrived at half one they told us they were shutting the kitchen down in half an hour! We all had to hurry our orders through to be sure of getting a meal at all! How is this worthy of a second go??!
I made one suggestion, based upon fond memories I had of a previous year's locale - a place called Howies. I loved my food there, had plenty of room to sit because they'd given us a room to ourselves and not squeezed 14 people into a space designed for 10 MAX, and they supplied free champagne! What could be better? But no, apparently - and you're not going to believe this for a reason - the Xmas pudding fritters "let people down". Okay, xmas pudding covered in batter isn't the most appealing dessert ever. In fact I left that one well alone, but we're seriously discounting a perfectly good choice of venue because of a dessert??? Even if it's on the menu this year - and there's nothing says it will be - ORDER SOMETHING ELSE.
*squeezes smiley foam stress ball harder than ever before*
PS: I vote this as the first xmas rant of 2008!
Sadly, all that's left is lots and lots of repetitive filling-in of boxes and sending of emails, which is doing a thorough job of putting my head into coma. I even have a helper, Duncan, but it's doing the exact same thing to him too. The bad news: we're only half-way through!
I wouldn't mind so much but it's bloody typical of [COMPANY NAME DELETED] leaving everything until the last minute and then expecting me to pull miracles out of various bodily orifices. Judging by the due dates on these things (some of which have passed already!) they've had months to sort this all out but noooooo. God forbid common sense ever becomes a valued business practice!
Rant over. Thanks for listening while I take the opportunity to enjoy a wee break from the monotony.
...no, wait, let me put that cup of coffee down again. I have more ranting to do.
Our office is currently in the throes of choosing which resturant we want to book for our Xmas meal. Yes, you heard that right. For those not used to the ways companies work, bookings for the exceptionally busy month of December are made ridiculously early. The theory is that some companies make provisional bookings in JANUARY, with others catching up as the winter/spring/early summer months go by. We always seem to leave it too late, meaning every JULY we have this nightmarish process of finding a date we can all agree on (Old Marrieds VS the rest of us) and then seeing if there's anyone left in the whole of the city able to take us.
This year, we look like we're going back to the place we had last year, a place called Dizzys. I'm pissed off about this because I seem to be the only one (apart from Suzanne) that thought they did a piss-poor job of hosting us; everyone else seems to have these rose-tinted specs on. "Oh, the food was great!" Well, it was if you could get your elbows away from your sides to manage poking a fork into it. The seating was terribly cramped, but I'm starting to think this is because people at the top end of the table (hint: the management clique) were taking more than the rest of us...!
"And they had that great smoking area outside": I don't smoke, and it was cold. Next? "There was also a wee bar at the back where we all got a seat": Yeah, a better seat than we had at the dinner table!
Oh, and get this: when we arrived at half one they told us they were shutting the kitchen down in half an hour! We all had to hurry our orders through to be sure of getting a meal at all! How is this worthy of a second go??!
I made one suggestion, based upon fond memories I had of a previous year's locale - a place called Howies. I loved my food there, had plenty of room to sit because they'd given us a room to ourselves and not squeezed 14 people into a space designed for 10 MAX, and they supplied free champagne! What could be better? But no, apparently - and you're not going to believe this for a reason - the Xmas pudding fritters "let people down". Okay, xmas pudding covered in batter isn't the most appealing dessert ever. In fact I left that one well alone, but we're seriously discounting a perfectly good choice of venue because of a dessert??? Even if it's on the menu this year - and there's nothing says it will be - ORDER SOMETHING ELSE.
*squeezes smiley foam stress ball harder than ever before*
PS: I vote this as the first xmas rant of 2008!
(67%)
