Thursday, August 18, 2005

Its Looming

My bride is working late this eve and while I await her call to retreive her I'll toss in an update of things. Unfortunately since we have been consumed with such, it is about work.

For openers my honeymoon at the job appears to be over. For the past few weeks The Odd One has been slathering me with praise about how well I've been doing, all the while I smirk and say, "Yea, right. I'm barely learnin'!" Anyway, the past few days she has been pressed into service as Underwriter, about 2-3 weeks earlier than planned. As far as my training it will have to be complete ASAP. She has occassionally been helping me learn more from my end at home(funny story to follow) but it leads to other interesting ramifications.

First, loan processing is rather like many things in life in that the more you learn about it the more you realize how much you don't know. In this case the more you understand what to do to a file the more time it takes to properly process said file. Conversely the more you learn the more people expect you to get done. This week has been a blur of people coming in and expecting a rapid turn-around time on their files. And this brings up my Odd One's promotion. She is in the desk beside me, pouring through files with a fine-tooth comb, trying to decide whether they are proper to be funded. This has led to the past two days of her saying to me, "I can't believe you missed this! It is all part of the learning curve. Guess I'm on the downslope of that curve.

Two nights ago she brought some files home and we sat in bed as she showed me what she does in underwriting so it would help me process better. The next morning she told this to our boss and the woman became grave in tone, telling us to never do that. Our bed is our sanctuary, she told us, and we should never do things like work while in bed. We looked at each other and shrugged. While I can grasp her sentiment, believe me, this will never be a threat for us. For the record we had drinks, we were shooing our pets away, and we were watching Futurama. It was hardly a serious and stressful work environment, and I certainly would not have felt better sitting morosely at the table grunting over figures. The two of us sprawled over the sheets, working shoulder to shoulder--I actually liked it.

Now tommorow should provide more entertainment. Heads are rolling and jobs will be lost. Our Closing department has bordered on ineptitude for weeks, and repeated meetings are not helping. Also some of the old-guard/dead-wood is slated to be removed as well. In fact My Wife today was promised her own office, which, as an indication, is currently occupied by the former Ops-Manager. And if that is not enough, there have been complaints bubbling up from select few people lately and today a full-on attack was launched by one in particular. This gal decided to go to the owner to lodge complaints about every person in the place, The Operations Manager and my wife included. Bear in mind she has been employed there scant weeks longer than myself. This dismays me because I wouldn't think of raising my voice at a new job for the first few months as I learn the ropes. She and others have been groaning about the lack of bonuses, despite the fact that we are fighting to right the company to the point of break-even status right now, which is something repeatedly hindered by said Closing dolts. Not coincidently most of those complaining are the same in the pink-slip cross-hairs tommorow.

By nature I am mostly out of the gossip loop, but when TOW mentioned this woman's tirade about those not doing their jobs I asked if her husband was included on that list. He actually sits at his desk with his PSP playing movies, and spent most of last week playing with Google Earth (earth.google.com), things on view for anyone to see. Now not to be the one to preach on professionalism--after all, I have martini glasses for pen holders and a tiki god on my window sill--I don't see the logic in this woman last week carping about being able to feed her kids and then essentially greasing the skids for both she and her husband's unemployment.

Me, I'm happy to have a good job and a nice desk, with a gorgeous woman working beside me. And did I mention that I also have a window?

That's where I keep my tiki idol.

Posted by Anonymous :: 8:02 PM :: | ---------------------------------------