Tag: backtoreaity

Work Day 13: I need to be cloned…

The good news is that I finally got the docking station. It’s an odd-looking little cube, like something out of Star Trek. The first one they brought up wasn’t the right kind. We (I’m using the royal we here…I had no clue) figured this out when I looked down and realized that my laptop was on battery power, and draining. The tech support guy came back up with the little cube, which is working like a charm. I’m still fiddling with where I want to put my two monitors and laptop. I’m aiming for that three-screen configuration, but I can’t decide if I want the open laptop in the center or to the side. I know…ludicrous first-world problems…

The bad news is that I’m still trying to fit everything into my now-bustling life.

I have TWO events over the weekend, one of which I’d love to jettison, but I’d feel guilty doing so. I’m still trying to get through my tutorials and my Udemy course (which, honestly, I’m getting much more out of than the tutorials, because they give you exercises to do). On top of everything else, I’m trying to finish the little sweater for my great-niece Maddie’s shower on Sunday. I’m on the final sleeve. It’s a baby sweater—you’d think I’d blow right through it, but the pattern is an 8-row repeat, so it’s slow going.

I’m still scratching my head over our instructor saying that he always has home coding projects going. I honestly have no idea where I’m ever going to find the time for a home project. I may have to skip that for now, seeing as a lot of my spare time is being sucked up trying to learn Java. I’m also still trying to look at our user stories to figure out how they were done and what jobs were used, so that I can possibly find some rhyme or reason to it all. My mentor confirmed today that there is NO documentation denoting which jobs go with which parts of the app. Also, there are hardly any comments in the code to give you any clue.

And don’t get me started on the README files…

Work Day 11: Bureaucracy Redux

We have new and improved bureaucracy today…this time, HR bureaucracy! HR, as in Human Resources, or as my spouse calls it, “Inhumane Resources.”

I know one can argue that I just spent three months having an awesome coding vacation, during which time I barely knew what was going on with the rest of the world. However, believe it or not, I actually do need to take REAL vacation days before the end of the year. I’m one of those old company fossils who has over five weeks of vacation time a year—six, if you want to count the inevitable one week I carry over every damn year due to not being able to take the time because of some project or other that just HAS to get done (not that I’m resentful…). I’ve accepted the fact that I’m going to lose a few weeks this year, due to Code Academy, but I did want to use some of my time. Today, I put in for all the vacation days I’d like to take, concentrating on time periods where they aren’t going to miss me (granted, they aren’t getting much out of me right now, anyway, so I’m not sure what my point is).

Anyway, my manager approved my deluge of requests until the point where my vacation day balance suddenly went into the NEGATIVE. He showed in his system that I only have 11.60 hours of vacation time left. I showed in my year-to-date report that I have 225.20 hours left (and before you ask, I have NO idea where the .60 or .20 come from…).

So, I called HR. You’d think this would be a simple matter, easily cleared up—oh, you would be SO wrong. They have this massively confusing voice menu from hell. I chose the wrong option and ended up being transferred to THREE different departments, including our main company number, where the switchboard operator was under the impression that I was a former employee. I finally got to the actual HR department I needed…and was promptly put on hold.

After 45 minutes of my life that I’m never getting back again, the long and the short of it is that, due to my job change, the system somehow hosed all my available vacation time, save for 11.60 hours, which was “accrued.” Accrued from WHERE, I don’t know, seeing as I’ve only officially been on the new job since 10/16/2019.

It don’ git no better’n dis…

We hope this will be rectified by the holidays, so that I can get more that ONE day off for Christmas.

Work Day 6: Back to reality…

One of the lovely things about being in training—holed up alternatively in a basement classroom or in front of my laptop at home until all hours—was that I got to put off a whole host of day-to-day responsibilities, a lot of which I really hoped would just fade away into oblivion. Sadly, three-months’ worth of backed-up, put-off, ignored, and/or pushed-aside everyday obligations have started to creep back into the picture.

For one thing, I haven’t balanced my checkbook in over three months. I’m not overdrawn, probably because we as a society rarely write checks anymore, so I don’t have a float on anything.

Also, it occurred to me the other day that I need to get my 16-year-old Beetle into the shop for maintenance service. Otherwise, I’m going to be driving in the dead of winter in a snowstorm in back of some enormous 18-wheeler, where I’ll find out the hard way that I have no windshield wiper fluid. I know what you’re thinking…grow up and check your fluids! Honestly, I check the oil, but I never bother to check anything else, as the mechanics usually do that during said maintenance service.

I went back to the gym, which in itself has been hilarious; especially that part where I really thought that walking and doing push-ups for three months was going to be a viable substitute for ALL 10 Bodypump tracks. Oh, sure…that was last Friday and my muscles are STILL in screaming agony. I can’t even get dressed without needing Advil. Even YOGA was a stretch for me after a three-month absence (no pun intended).

I’m still sneaking about, avoiding other things, evaluating whether or not I need to continue them. If nothing else, I do need to carve out free time to do my continuous coding/learning. That’s not going to happen if I still have knucklehead stuff I’m making time for.

Speaking of which, the new work laptop is at 32.49%.