It's funny that someone mentioned Office Space in response to that last entry, that's exactly what it feels like.  Most people around here refer to BossMan and NPM as "The Bob's."  I don't, but that's just because I like them.  Maybe it's because I'm getting the Peter Gibbons treatment.  See, yesterday morning, BossMan comes up to me and says, "Well, I just wanted to let you knot that NPM and I discussed it on the way into the office this morning, and we're giving you a 10% increase effective immediately.  We're going to take care of you"

Dude, I cannot put into words exactly how speechless that left me.  BEYOND speechless.  I looked like Cletus-the-slack-jawed-yokle.

THEN, today NPM comes up to me and says, "I'm off to some off-site meetings, I won't be back in the office today.  I wanted to congratulate you on your increase, you really deserve it.  You have the best attitude of anyone I've worked with in my entire professional career and I think you're essential to our success.  You are truly a gem."

DUMBFOUNDED I tell you.  There towards the end of that little spiel, I really felt as though (as Kim would say) he was "blowing sunshine up my ass."  I'm going to take it though, because it comes with a 10% raise!  Right on.

That all being said, you'd think I'd be in a peachy freakin mood though, right?  Just sickly giddy?  No, I'm not.  I have had a crappy-ass week and I hate everybody.

So, I sat down and talked with both my new BossMan and the new President of the company concerning my position.  It was pretty decent actually.  I was assured I was "safe" and that I "don't have anything to worry about."  They even suggested moving me down to the 2nd floor with the rest of my department, which isn't going to happen (at least not until we hire someone to, at the very least, sit at this desk).

Here's how I wrote it up earlier this week:

I talked to BossMan about my position here late last week (Friday?).  Basically just told him of my concern(s) and asked him if he thought my position was safe because, "I didn't take this job to be a receptionist."  He assured me that it was positively safe and he apologized for freaking me out.

Fast forward to Tuesday.  New President Man (NPM) has been going around talking to every employee individually asking them what they think about the company, what they think needs to change, what they do, what they want to do, etc.  Today it was my turn.   During our talk I told him about my purchasing background at former employer and why I left (title change and lack of growth potential) and started talking about what I do here.  Then he chimes in, "You know, I was just thinking while you were talking, you were probably a little freaked when we came in and moved BossMan and Tempie to the second floor weren't you?"  When I replied to the affirmative he said, "Well please, let me apologize for that.  That was not at all my intent."  Then he went on to suggest that I actually move down the the second floor as well.  Well, I'm quite certain OwnerMan wouldn't go for that, but he wanted me to talk to BossMan about it none-the-less.  Oh, and because it was such an ego booster I'll throw this in, he and BossMan are both "impressed with my work and enthusiasm."

 

So reluctantly I bring it up to BoxxMan, because I know OwnerMan won't be on board with it, and BossMan's response is basically this:  He would love to bring me down to the second floor.  First, however, we need to get to a place where we can hire a receptionist, one that would also help with some of the accounting clerical responsibilities.  He wants me to become more involved and pretty much take over AP as well as most HR responsibilities.

 

So, that being said... I think I'm going to stick around.

So, old BossWoman called me just now... there's a position opening up in May at her new company that she thinks I'd be superb for.

Decisions decisions...

Okay, I'm having a panic attack.  My heart is beating uncontrollably, my right eye is twitching and I'm feeling all claustrophobic.  Our new CFO started today.  Don’t get me wrong, I really like him so far.  He seems to be a genuinely good guy.  The thing is, he’s come in here and is totally rearranging everything.  They’ve moved my Tempie Boss down to the 2^nd floor offices and that’s where he’s going to be living too.  Not only that, but they’re taking all of the files with them.  So the Accounting Dept will be officially located on the 2^nd floor.

Here’s the thing: I’m staying put.  I’m not moving down there with them.  They’re taking my boss, my boss’ boss, and all the files I use on a daily basis and relocating them to a completely different floor in the building.  I’m terribly afraid that I’m going to be stuck here and everything I enjoy about this job is going to be stripped from me.  I’m going to be the freaking receptionist/office manager/admin bitch.  The only reason I took this job was because it afforded the opportunity to get into the accounting dept.  This morning, it’s almost as though I’m seeing that opportunity wheeled down on carts to the 2^nd floor, out of my reach.

Did I mention the fact that my eye is twitching.  It’s driving me crazy.  I need to talk to the new CFO, because I want him to be straight with me.  If I’m having every aspect of the job that I actually like taken away, I need to start looking for a new job.  I think he’ll be straight with me.

Maybe I’m totally jumping the gun.  I hope so.

So, right now I need some encouragement.  I need everyone to tell me how great I am, how they know I can do this and that I shouldn't let it all overwhelm me.  I'll be fine... no I'll be great because I do my best in situations when it counts most.  I don't care if you don't know me from that wad of gum stuck to the bottom of your shoe.  I need someone to pretend to believe in me right now.

So both my bosses, BossWoman and Jersey, are gone.  I've been orphaned.  I am the only one left to take care of HR and Accounting and Office Management.  They hired a temp to sit in for BossWoman, but she's not giving me good vibes.  BossWoman, she was great.  She set a standard that I don't believe anyone will be able to live up to.  I'm trying very hard to keep that in mind and give Tempy the benefit of the doubt... the thing is though, she's supposed to be my supervisor and I'm having to show her things on a daily basis that she should be able to figure out on her own.  When I don't know the answer right away, she calls BossWoman (Who's gone.  GONE.  She doesn't work here anymore.)  She doesn't try to figure it out on her own, she immediately picks up the phone and calls BossWoman.  If BossWoman doesn't answer her phone, she freaks out - this happened yesterday.

So, with a not so inclined "supervisor" I'm left to deal with more crap than I thought I'd ever have to deal with 5 months into this job.  I'm doing the office manager stuff (which includes all the admin duties for the office of 30 people), I'm doing HR for the whole company (40 people - and open enrollement starts soon), and I'm doing full time Accounts Payable as well as picking up slack from Tempy.  Did I mention our 2005 audit is supposed to start soon?  I'm overwhelmed.  BossWoman says this is my time to shine.  My time to show CEO and Co. what exactly I'm capable of... but there's so much going on I'm afraid I'm gonna screw it all up.

Help.

It’s amazing to me that as of today, I have been with new company for 3 months.  Even BossWoman said that it feels as though I’ve always been here.  It kinda does, but it also kinda doesn’t.  Oh, and Jersey quit.  He went back to Jersey.  He decided that he didn’t want to move his family down here after all.  Hindsight being 20/20: I’m not too surprised.  I mean seriously.  He did over 6 months commuting back to Jersey on the weekends to spend with his family.  He has a 3 year old and a 5 year old.  You could not PAY me enough to spend the entire week away from my Itty Bitty… however if someone were willing to pay me to stay home with her, I’d definitely take that option   Anyway, they posted for his job.  We’re not hiring a replacement CFO, just a Controller… which is appropriate.  This is where it gets sticky though.  The job description, is basically what BossWoman does.  CEO says she has nothing to worry about, but if I were her I’d be livid.  They should just give her the freakin’ title (and subsequent salary) and then hire another person for her.  They also need to hire an Office Manager.  They’ve got me doing so much accounting stuff that the Office Manager stuff is WAY on the back burner for me.  While I don’t think that will be happening any time soon, there is hope.  In the new Controller posting it says that the Finance Manager (a.k.a. BossWoman) and the Assistant Accountant (a.k.a. ME) will be reporting to them.  I would be all over that title, and another $5K would be nice too, but I’m not holding my breath on that one.

Have I mentioned, I’ve gotten every woman in my office addicted to knitting?  I just started teaching them about a month ago, maybe 6 weeks now.  They’re all hooked.  It’s awesome.

Man, it’s been so long since I’ve been able to post anything, I don’t even know where to go with this.

Valentines Day was awesome.  Husband hooked me up!  I wasn’t expecting a thing, but first, he had tulips delivered to my work (they look and smell glorious).  Then, when I got home, he’d cleaned up the kitchen and had started making dinner.  Not just any ol’ dinner either: Crab Cakes, Seared Scallops, sautéed squash/zucchini/onions, and a salad with a vinaigrette that was simply killer.  BUT WAIT, there’s MORE… he also picked up a keylime pie (one of my absolute favorite desserts ever); he’s such a sweetie.  You know what though… I didn’t get him a thing.  Not a single thing.  Didn’t I feel like an ungrateful wench?  I let him have the quality Itty time while I cleaned up after dinner though.  I still owe him.  I’m so lucky.

Itty… Itty’s not so itty any more.  She’s such a big girl.  I could go on forever about how awesome she is and all the adorable things she does on a daily basis… but I can see you’re already getting bored with that.

Oh, and I had to get a new car.  They declared the jeep a total loss.I ended up getting a used Mazda Protégé… I didn’t care what we got.  I wanted my jeep back, and I couldn’t have it.  I let Husband pick out whatever he wanted because it will probably be his replacement car when the Toyota dies (which I’m sure it will eventually because it’s 11 years old and has nearly 150K miles on it).  Maybe after he takes over the Mazda I’ll get to get another car that I like.  Maybe.  The reason I didn’t get to get another Jeep… well, we’re trying to cut down our expenses.  I COULD have gotten another Jeep and probably even kept the same payments.  The thing is, I want to eventually be able to stay at home with Itty and future tiny one(s).  We downgraded our DSL, our phone lines and our second car, have all of our credit cards paid off, have most of that second car paid off (give me a year or so to do it and I bet I can), plus Husband is exploring his work options by requesting more time on overseas trips (he makes extra money for these).  I figure, if we can get the car note paid and the last of his student loans AND he gets another raise… we can do it.  It’ll be tight, but it’ll be doable (even though he may have to give up NFL Sunday Ticket).  That reminds me… I need to upgrade my Quicken software.

Did you catch that “future tiny one(s)” in there?  I think we’re going to try and get pregnant again within the next year or so.  Wish me luck on that… because last time it took us over 2 years.

I'm a sucker... I'll fully admit it.  I entered Itty into a
contest so I can win some free photos of her so now all I need is for
you all to go vote for her

Would you PLEASE??? Just go to this link and rate her 5-stars

I'm alive... really truly I am.

Every time I see the word "truly" all I can think about is:
Tru-ly Scrumptious
You're truly truly scrumptious
Scrumptious as a cherry peach parfait

Anyway, as I was saying... I'm here.  It's amazing how difficult it is to get on here to update these days.  I mean, before, I was just being lazy.  Now, I'm actually really busy.  Whoda thunk it?  I love it though.  I've gotten everything organized to my specifications (for the most part) and after 7 weeks, I'm really starting to feel at home.  I've never worked for such a small company though... it's a TOTALLY different atmosphere.  No one is just a face in the crowd here.  Everyone has a specific job and most everyone else knows what that is.  There is no sliding by and I think it's awesome.  Fact of the matter is... Evil Manager from the Old Job was sliding by.  He had/has no right to be in the position he's in and if anyone took the time to really look at him they'd see that; but they don't.  Here, that sh*t don't fly.  My thoughts on that?  Right on.

So, Jersey is our CFO.  He's ultimately who I report to.  I call him Jersey because he actually lives in NJ.  He keeps an apartment down here and then goes home on weekends to see his family.  They're looking to relocate to this area soon.  Anyway, so Jersey... rocks.  Did you hear that?  My Big Boss Man ROCKS.  He's so awesome.  All y'all should be jealous that my Big Boss Man kicks.  He's absolutely hilarious... I never ever thought I'd like a boss so much.

Our Business Manager, she's who I directly report to, we'll call her Cat Woman.  That's pretty self explanatory but for those of you that need help: she loves cats.  She's got two and refers to them as her kids.  They even get their own bedroom in the house.  It's like my Doggies before Itty.  That's all beside the point though... get this... she rocks too.  Did you hear that?  I'm 2 for 2.

Not only does my upline kick... but I pretty much like everyone here.  It's almost freaky.

I suppose you're bored with the work stuff.  That's okay.  I was gonna stop there anyway.  If you've made it this far into the blabber you deserve to hear the juicy stuff:

I wrecked the Jeep.  We had some nasty nasty weather here a couple of weeks back, and the roads all completely froze over.  Anyway, I was taking Itty to day care and was going down this hill and a light down the way turned red.  So... I start to break.  The Jeep starts to fishtail, right?  Well, I try to correct for it and everything goes horribly wrong... first thing I think is "Please God don't let me hurt my baby."  The Jeep does a total 180 and we slide backwards into a tree.

It was obviously not my, nor my daughter's, day to die.  SO MANY things happened "just right" so to speak.  To get to the tree we had to go between one of those big electrical hub boxes that sits on the side of the road, and a light post.  The tire tracks where we skid up the curb show a less than 12" margin of error on either side.  No one was hurt; not Itty, not me... not the 3 dog-owners walking their dogs.  We went rear first... heaven only knows what would have happened had I gone head first into the tree.  The jeep was not totaled... it's fixable (though with a hefty price tag).  Oh, and did I mention yet that Itty suffered not so much as a bruise?

So that's the big accident.  There was almost another this last Monday.  I almost got T-boned by a car that decided to run a red light.  Yeah, THAT was fun... yet again my daughter was in the car.

I'm going to Denver!  I haven't seen my parents since we went home LAST January.  They haven't seen Itty since she was 5 months old.  It's crazy how much she's grown.  I look at pictures now of that trip and cannot fathom that it's the same child.  She's so awesome.  I'll have to do another post someday all about just how awesome she is. 

This post, however, has been me grabbing 5-10 minutes here and there for the last 3 days.  So don't hold your breath.

So... I'm getting as settled into my new job as I can.  See, the girl I'm replacing, she's still here.  Talk about awkward.  In all actuality, she's pretty cool.  Yeah, she's got some pretty serious issues, but she's a good person.  She called out sick on my first day because she just couldn't face me, talk about uncomfortable.

I took her to lunch the other day.  I mean honestly, how can you hate someone that treats you to lunch? HA!  No, I was heading out and asked her if she wanted me to pick anything up for her, then decided just to invite her along.  Much to my surprise, she accepted.  We talked.  She's really cool.  She admits she's got the issues, and in the long run this will probably be better for her because her 4 year old son is in Utah with her parents and now there's nothing keeping her out here.  She can relocate to be with him.

It was odd really... my supervisor, she warned me that there would probably be some hostility there.  That they'd try to keep me busy and out of her way until she left.  It was all absolutely unnecessary.  Of course, then again, she could be blogging somewhere about what a bitch I am and how she can't wait to see the office fall to pieces after she leaves.

I cannot WAIT to reorganize everything.  I wonder if my need for organization at my workplace is an OCD.  I'll be the first to admit it... I'm pretty anal. But dude, it's so efficient!

Anyway, Husband, Itty and I all have sinus infections.  We're miserable.  My eyes: it hurts to even open them.  I feel like there's a little miner back there with a pitch fork trying to dig his way out through my optical nerves.  My teeth: it hurts to chew.  Any pressure at all and they're all screaming for me to stop.  My ears: have you ever had the feeling that someone has shoved a balloon up your ear and they're trying to blow it up?  Yeah, it's kinda like that.  Oh, and did I mention it hurts?

Itty hasn't hardly eaten a thing since last Thursday.  She just doesn't feel good.  BOY is she grumpy about it too.  She'll look you dead in the eye and take every piece of food on her tray and THROW it over her shoulder screaming, "NO!"  Nothing... she want's absolutely nothing. 

Husband has it too.  We both went to bed at 8 last night.  How pathetic is that?

Needless to say, this year Thanksgiving is going to be pretty pathetic.  We've had to call and cancel on our guests because we don't want to get everyone else sick.  We'll still make the Turduken and pumpkin pie, but most of the other items that were on the menu are being scrapped.  We'll probably just pick up a sweet potato on the way home tonight and bake that... and maybe some sugar snap peas (cause I love those).

Dude, I'm kinda bummed.  I miss my former co-workers.  I miss getting to talk to Chun every day on AIM.  I miss talking to Kim too.  On the bright side, I'll only be the new girl until Monday... then there's another new guy starting... followed shortly by yet another new guy.  I wonder though... will any of these people be "friends" like those I had at the last job?  Don't get me wrong, I had to leave.  It was the right decision in regards to my career, but I miss the people.

Okay, I'm going to work now.

I got a new job.  I'm putting in my notice just as soon as BossMan gets here.  For all the complaining I've done about Evil Manager... I'm still finding the fact that this day has actually come quite surreal.

See, I like BossMan.  He's a good person (even though he told me once that I'm "just an Admin").  I don't think it's entirely his fault that I'm miserable here, but I don't think he's entirely faultless either. 

When I started here, I actually came in applying for another position (Executive Assistant to the General Counsel).  When they asked me where I saw myself in 5 years, I told them that I'd eventually like to get involved in computer training since I'm pretty adept and most core software products used here, and am a quick study on those I don't already know.  When they heard that, they transferred my resume over to the IS department, because there was an opening for an IS Assistant.

I then officially became a candidate for the IS Assistant position.  They told me how the person before me was sent to school and promoted to Jr. Software Developer, and the person before her, promoted to Help Desk.  There was "a lot of potential for advancement" in this position.

So, I get the job... fast forward 2-1/2 years.  I note on my annual review that I've not been given any training that I've asked for to better complete the duties listed on my job description.  BossMan sits with me in his office, going over said review and says to me, "I know you've asked for training, but since you're just an Admin I can't justify sending you to these classes."  I never brought the subject up again.

Fast forward 3 more years, to September 2005.  I go into BossMan's office with another annual review and request a title change (I even make it a point to tell him I'm not entirely concerned with the salary adjustment, but the title, as petty as it may sound, is what I'm more focused on).  He goes to HR with it, comes back to me and says he's not entirely sure the title I've chosen is appropriate so he's done some research himself and he'll talk to HR again and get back to me.  The following week I receive what they're calling a raise (though when you take in the cost of living adjustment reported by the Bureau of Labor and Statistics I'm actually making LESS now).  I am told that this is completely separate from our "other conversations" and I could be hearing back from HR on the title change request soon.  Not another word has been said about it.

That being said, it has been made perfectly clear to me that this position is static... stagnant.  All that talk about potential for advancement was BS.  As long as I work here I will never be anything more than an "IS Assistant."

So, I started sending out resumes and going on interviews.  Most were during my lunch hour, so I didn't have to miss much work... one was after a dentist appt of Itty's.  I landed a job.  I've actually known for over a week, but I don't start the new job until 11/15 so I'm giving my two week notice today.  My last day here will be 11/14.

I cannot imagine that they will be surprised at my departure, but you never really know.  As soon as BossMan arrives, I'll turn in my letter.

(now let us just hope that my car doesn't get towed... different - long - story)