There’s an old man in our office who has a habit of finishing his comments with “Okay?” at the end. Okay? It’s so funny when I hear him talk or overhear his conversations (he speaks loudly, because he might be mildly deaf?). Okay? He reminds me of Mr. Mackey from South Park, okay?

I think half my job is occupied by meetings to nowhere. Today, we had one such meeting where everyone left going, “WTF, if that wasn’t the most useless meeting.”

Here’s how I occupied my time.

A car alarm went off at 4:30 AM today. Not cool.

I’m on a crowded metro car heading into work one morning. The A/C is broken, the heat is climbing and the air is stuffy. It’s bad, but not as bad as going home the previous day on a packed car with no A/C on a hot and humid summer afternoon. Seems to be luck of the draw these days if you get A/C in your metro car. A guy standing behind me starts to breathe heavily and then I hear him give a small groan. “Are you okay?” I ask him. He sort of shakes his head as he mumbles a no. I start fanning him with my newspaper and then he turns around face against the wall and starts to vomit. It’s not a lot and the train is coming to a stop. He quickly heads off the train as he mumbles an apology. I’m worried I’ll have sympathy nausea but it doesn’t smell and I warn a guy stepping into that area not to step in the puddle. It’s the oblivious guys who step without looking. Three different guys had to be warned and one just stepped right in it before another woman had a chance to stop him. I ride the rest of the way trying not to look at the small puddle of stepped-on puke.

I went back to work this week. They told me about the exciting events that happened while I was out. Then they told me that I was not to take anymore vacations in the future during the busy season. I don’t hate my job but I feel so trapped. I feel like sometimes, it’s better to make yourself replaceable. Don’t let it get to the point where they rely on you so much that you can’t take vacations or even go to training sometimes. My boss is generally nice though. Maybe by next year he’ll have forgotten and will let me go on vacations in the winter. At least short ones are okay.

Today was kinda’ rainy and overcast. It helps with the allergies but I do find myself looking at our pictures from the beach and reminiscing about the 80 something weather.

Working with unqualified employees is exhausting.  My entire team including my management cannot use Excel.  They come up with multiple ways to present iterations of similar information and I’m left coming up with multiple tables to satisfy their ridiculous, oftentimes, redundant or unproductive ideas.  If that wasn’t tiring enough trying to appease their demands, on top of that they hired a lady who is exhausting to work with.  She asks the same questions OVER and OVER again until I don’t know what to say anymore.  It’s not really her fault though, basically, my boss shouldn’t have hired her because she’s unqualified.  I feel more productive without having to train her but unfortunately she is a director’s wife.  I call her “The Wife” to remind myself to be extra nice to her but having to explain the most fundamental things to her ad nauseum is draining.  I heard that the next rotational staff our brilliant boss is looking to hire is yet another unqualified person.  I think it’s time for me to rotate myself to another team.  This time next year perhaps.  He’ll have to find another peon to do his bidding.  I am exhausted.  Thankfully, I’ll be going on vacation soon.  I need this break or I will break!

I don’t mean to sound ungrateful to have a job but some days I just wear thin. I get a headache from dealing with dumbasses for 10 hours straight. I was sitting in one manager’s office because she wanted to meet with me to give me yet another pointless assignment, wishing for my old job back but then remembering the relief I felt when I knew I was leaving there to come here. The grass is brown EVERYWHERE!

I went to our (mandatory) office holiday party today.  I ate no more than $10 worth of food.  I chit chatted.  Then I left after an hour.  It wasn’t even worthy of getting seconds.  And who doesn’t go for seconds at a buffet?  A $25 buffet at that.  That’s on par with Philips Seafood.  And believe me, there were no oysters on the half shell.  Chicken, beef, potatoes, vegetable medley, and salad.  I may have left before the dessert was served.  Anyway, it was more or less obligatory.  When my boss came late, everyone was asking me if anyone else on my team was coming.

My office holiday party this year is at Union Jack’s and it’s $25!
1) The food is bad.
2) $25!? What are they serving??

I paid, of course. Like the lemming that I am. Must do the yearly mingle to fake nice.

One girl on my team paid and she’s thinking about not going. She just paid so she can bail. I told her she has to at least show up for the food!! My lands!! I plan on eating at least 5 slices of foie gras on toast and some caviar.

On top of this shindig, our subgroup is also doing a cookie exchange where people bring in cookies to share and extras for folks to take home. My insurance company doesn’t like the sound of that. And there will also be a lunch and a movie event. Oh and my teammate who doesn’t do anything also wants to plan a team lunch to Cheesecake Factory.

Where do these people get the idea that I want to hang out with them during my spare time? Even if it’s spare time at the office, I’d much rather sit in my cubicle and watch my fingernails grow.

I am teleworking today. I sit at home in front of my computer, cell phone by my side and check my email and do my oh so complicated work right in the company of the chinchillas and the calming hum from the fish tank. It saves me from a 1 hour each way commute ($10.20 each day on the metro!), a windowless cubicle, and the clock watching. Yes indeedy, I’m not all antsing to go home because hey, I’m home!  I guess I like my job afterall.