Power Lunch

I wish that I was in charge. I know I know, I would have all those extra responsibilities, I would be the one that gets blamed if things went wrong. But I would also be able to do so much good! People wouldn’t hate their jobs as much anymore…well they might still hate their jobs (we’re not exactly curing cancer here) but they wouldn’t hate coming to work.

Isn’t it important for your ‘mental health’ not to hate coming to work every morning? Can you imagine waking up every morning and contemplating if its worth taking a sick day? Will it come back to bite you in the a** later? Can you imagine having to work with a rag tag bunch of imbeciles? It happens every day.

Yesterday, shortly after I posted, the power went out. All the computers shut down. The lights came back on directly, we all moaned thinking that the power had come right back on. But it hadn’t. Just the lights. For nearly three hours we sat without power. In most normal offices, we would have been let go after about an hour, hour and a half. The new team that is now sharing our space, they were let go. The rest of us? We were told to clean the office. We had to clean the office. Anna and I took our lunch at 2-- an hour and a half after the power had gone out. At 2.30 Amy comes into the lunchroom and tells us that everyone is cleaning the office and that we will see where things are at at 3.30—meaning if they can keep us busy until the power comes back on they don’t have to let us go home. I don’t know what she expected really. Did she think that Anna and I were going to jump up, forgo the rest of our lunch break and help? To be scammed out of the rest of our lunch and an afternoon off due to power loss? I don’t think so.

We didn’t move.

Fifteen minutes later she comes back in and with her steel face (not blue steel, just scary steel) on she says to us, still seated enjoying our lunch break, “I guess you guys are cleaning the kitchen!”.

“We’re on our lunch.”

In the end, the power came back on at 3.10. Did I mention that I lost practically all the work that I had done that morning?

And today Amy came in and had a chat with me. But she seemed normal again. I tell you, it is exhausting trying to keep up with the mood swings of these managers! I never know if I am going to chastised or rewarded (well rewarded is a strong word, left alone is better), if a reaction will be a smile or a scowl. Its impossible to get it right. Its also slightly unnerving. I wonder if she feels like she has to be extra nice to me today because in our meeting this afternoon she is going to rake me over the coals? That would be bad.

In other news, our newly confirmed Senior Rep is parading around here today in flip flips and pigtails. Braided pigtails, the likes of which haven’t been seen since…well since I was on the playground. So authoritative. I’m really taking her seriously today. But in a small measure of karma, she tripped over a box and hurt her ankle. Am I a horrible person? Probably. But the Universe obviously thinks things need to be evened out a bit. And who am I to stand in the Universe’s way?