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By Threelight, 5 July, 2010 8:59 pm

I’ve had a funny relationship with my blog over the past month. I’ve not felt ike posting at all, mainly due to things happening around me, both at home and at work. I can very easily blame work for this, and I think I will.

I work shifts as I’ve pointed out before. Sometimes I have a run of earliy shifts, and sometimes a run of lates. Also the nature of the work I due is fairly soul-destroying, but in this current economic climate, I am probably best off where I am. That’s the paradox (or contradiction, if these are the right words to use) that I just have to live with.

Unlike previous jobs I’ve had, this one has me going in at weekends, and working evenings, sometimes close to midnight. There are some runs of shifts like the one I have just gone through, I am only able to have the one day off, and then back to work for a few more days.

When I first got the job, the Bigwig told me that I would not want to go back to a normal 9-5 Monday to Friday existence again. I now know that that is complete and utter bullshit (pardon my language, kids!).  I enjoy going into work during the day and finishing during the day, and I loathe the fact that when I start the early afternoon shift, I know that quite a lot of people in the same office (but not the same department I should add) are leaving in a couple of hours time, so I always ask why I’m there at such an hour when the office is not as busy.

The nature of the work I do is soul-destroying, and the environment in the department I work in is not conducive to good working (I can go on about the latter, but I daren’t). But I think I’m best where I am.

Weird.

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By Threelight, 5 June, 2010 9:42 pm

Must have been one of these one-day/two- day bugs going round, but yesterday morning I was feeling like I’d swallowed sandpaper (I hadn’t), felt like I had not slept all night (had at least 4 hours, but am certain I got a good night’s sleep), and generally felt a bit down-in-the-dumps. I’d gone to work on Thursday feeling marginally in a better state than Friday, and saw the shift through.

As a result of waking up one hour (8:00 approx), having some breakfast, and then going to bed for even more sleep (an hour), and not feeling any better, I decided that, under the circumstances, the best thing would be to call in sick. Now I’m not one to just call in sick because I want the day off because it’s a sunny day; there has to be a reason why. And I had the reason why.

When I phoned in, I was made to feel bad for taking a sick day. Hmmm, in all my working life I’ve never come across that before. If you were sick, you were sick, simple as. At least in a largish department where I used to work, you were at least trusted (well, I was).

My line of work means you have to be 100 percent just about all the time.  If not, you’ve had it. That’s not an excuse for taking a sick day admittedly, but if I had gone in yesterday I would have been worse.

As it happens I feel a lot better today (the first day of my “rest weekend”), but am spending the weekend not doing much to make sure I’m at 100 percent when I get back in.

I suppose it doesn’t help when your’re doing important work (as a department, not just me), and your superiors don’t see you in that light.

Oh well.

*sigh*

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By Threelight, 2 April, 2010 9:36 pm

One of the downsidesa of where I’m working is that the only day that is universally recognised as a day off is Christmas Day. Because, as I know you have probably guessed, the organisation is a 24/7 type operation, there is really no distinction between Bank Holidays or weekends and such like. So, while the rest of the people around you observice the usual 4 days off for Easter and the Bank Holidays, unless I am not down to be in that day, or I decide to take it as a day off (arranged well in advance of course), then I have to work it. Such is life. I am working mid -afternoon to late evening tomorrow, Sunday and Monday.

Not to worry though. Yesterday I took my car to our “designated” garage, where it had a full service, which I’m happy about. Nothing serious, but there’s two tyres I have to get later on in the week, when hopefully the place I think is still there, will be open.

Today, I went with Polyhex and Agent to the local park to do a a number of geocaches, which was fun and a bit muddy. I remember last time that my GPS was all over the place, mainly because I didn’t know how to work it. But now, even though I still don’t’ know how to properly work it, I was able to navigate reasonably well. I didn’t find any caches myself: I left that to the seasoned professionals. Thanks to Polyhex and Agent again for allowing me to get some fresh air (not to mention making 4 burps).

Blog wise, I’ve re-arranged and updated my links again. One thing I’ve noticed is that I have to get new links to include on that thar right hand side. I have a particular process I go through when selecting the links, and looks like I have to make some time to do that (or maybe taking my time is the best thing to do) I know from just looking athrough a few blogs that it’s not as popular as it used to be, and that quite a lot of bloggers have silenced their keyboards. It may be slightly difficult to look for new ones. Oh dear.

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By Threelight, 21 March, 2010 8:42 pm

This weekend has been, and next weekend will be, a bit of a novelty for me.

Because of the job I work in, where weekends aren’t really counted, but a way for the company to get more money, we are given our “timetable” well in advance, and as it so happens I have 2 weekends in a row off. That’s never happened in my “new” job, not including holidays or sickness.

Oh, and because of the hours I can work, Monday to Friday will be a bit of a novelty with me. I’m working 9am to 5pm, with the weekend off next weekend. Just like old times.

Today was also quite sunny to begin with. So I managed to get some sorting out done (moving stuff about and throwing some stuff away that I now longer need.) I really think that it’s going to be a warm summer – no doubt the “global warming” lobby will start up again. But it’s true, I feel a lot better when it’s warm and the sun’s shining.

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By Threelight, 11 March, 2010 9:24 pm

Well, I ‘m back. I’ve been back since Saturday, but have only now decided to put a post together. I am off work until Saturday, so I’m happy I have more free time other than my holiday in Spain.

The holiday went fine, and the time went really slow. I suppose that’s probably because I was so relaxed over the 15 days. The weather was kind, and I managed to get a small tan, which is now doing it’s best to vanash. The most important thing is that you can tell that I’ve caught some sun, which to me was very important throughout the holday. When it was sunny, it was really warm, so I managed to get some rays at every chance I could.

I met a few new people that I hadn’t met at other times I’ve been there, and went to a few new restaurants, some good and some particularly bad. In the past we went to a few Chinese restaurants in the area, but in the end we only went to one: the evening I arrived. I suppose there’s a number of reasons why that happened: getting sick of Chinese food, or not many of them being around the area like there used to be, or maybe because eating habits change over a period of years. Saying that, I mostly ate fish and chips. The fish was good, but the chips varied from restaurant to restaurant.

I also drank a lot more beer on this holiday han what I have in the past. Normally I like my usual drink of Southern Comfort, but, as this is in fairly short supply in restaurants these days, I was sticking to beer. Also, when with friends, out came the beer (not to the falling down stage and drunk, but just enough to relax). At one stage you couldn’t even buy Southern comfort anywhere in the shops of the area, but the local shop now stocks it. That’s mainly because the area is changing to give the people of the area (mostly ex-pats and holiday-goers) like their home comforts, after all.

I have also read all the books that I took with me, thinking that I wouldn’t do a lot of reading this holiday, but reading I did (mini reviews of two of the books definitely coming up in future posts – hopefully). Shows again that it was a relaxing holiday.

When i got home, I had my work shift rota to have a look at, and oh dear, it’s going to be a particularly bad year time wise, I have loads of early shifts, and probably an equal number of late shifts.

Over my holiday, I did think about the future of this here blog, and the good news is that I’m not giving up quite yet. I plan to continue my posts on “DVDs In My Collection” and also branching out a bit with books. Posts about work and how crap it’s going will be few and far between now, but I do want to mention a few people I see and talk to, but it will not be a bitching session that this and that happened. Probably, in the past I’ve wanted to say something about how the work’s going, but always change my mind, hence very few posts.

So, welcome to the first post of March.

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By Threelight, 1 February, 2010 11:15 am

Five posts over January, which to me is shocking. Compared to what I had in mind. But the best-laid plans never seem to go as you want them to.

I can go on blogging about the work I do, but that would only bore you, and at the same time depress me a bit. Something yesterday that happened at work (which I’m going to keep personal – very personal) made me realise that there are better things I can do in my working life rather than the work I am doing now (or supposed to be doing).

What I really need is a holiday. And that’s precisely what I’m doing. In 2 1/2 weeks time I am flying out to Spain for 15 days, and then after that I have another full week off (the type of office I work in allows that sort of thing: if you can get the time off by holiday and swapping shifts with your fellow work-mate, then you can).

I think I need it. 2009 was a blur, and something that, based on what I now know of the organisation and the area I used to work for, should not have happened. What is becoming clear is that I am not suited for this type of work. It doesn’t help that the work I was doing was work I absolutely loved. But that’s the usual way. You like doing the work, and someone pulls the rug from under you.  

And I moved over to the new business area because I thought the any job is better than no job at all.

But it’s good to get new skills and experiences, innit?

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By Threelight, 19 January, 2010 1:05 pm

A process that started last Thursday, I am now half-way through a time when I’m working 8 out of 9 days. I had a day off yesterday, but it’s back to work today, or should I say this afternoon. I start at 3:30 and finish at 11:30. This is the first such shift I’m doing since I joined that nice place (sarcasm indeed intended) 4 months ago.

I suppose I can’t complain about it: at least it’s not an early 6:00 in the morning shift. I’ve managed to do shift swaps for those, for all except one, where I couldn’t even get the day off.

So, I’ll have to see what happens. The weather is supposed to be turning from the thaw that everybody is experiencing to colder more wintery weather. As the work I do can sometimes depend on the weather, I’m expecting it to be quite busy as it has been the last few weeks. A Customer said to me the other day that because we’re busy there is no chance of being made redundant or anything like that. While not worried that what he said may happen again shortly, I didn’t like to tell him that that I was moved from a place where we were very busy and doing quite well to a situation that is quite chaotic at times (as in dodgy computers and other such hardware problems).

Again, at least I can’t complain. I have a job to go to, even though it may be one that I absolutely hate.

Therefore, the posts may be a bit silent while I’m either at work, or fast asleep the next morning. I’ll see whether I can do any posts.

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By Threelight, 27 December, 2009 11:18 pm

Well, that’s Christmas over for another year.

This year it was a bit quiet. Just a tad (not a lot) bored on Christmas Day when we went to my Uncle’s house, which is something that we normally do anyway. When we came back – using Polyhex’s car – we discovered that the roads around where I live were similar to an ice-skating rink. As I got out of the car, I nearly slipped. There was a thick slab of ice there. But even more drastic, was that Polyhex’s car had a bit of trouble moving again, as it was stuck on ice. A couple of minutes later, that problem was solved, and Polyhex was able to go home.

The next day, we were supposed to be going back to my Uncle’s for a second day (myself, my Mum and Dad). But we never got there. I maybe should add, they never got there. I  chose to stay anyway, not wanting to be very very bored (I had the option to), so my Mum and Dad were going to go. But the weather conditions and the state of the roads were near enough the same as they were on Friday, so the decision was made not to go anyway.

A bit of the Groundhog Day with today, as nothing happened – the same as yesterday. So I was able to clear a level of the X-Box 360 game I’m playing, which is superb (maybe I’ll do a post later on this).

However, even though it’s a Bank Holiday for some, I’m off to work tomorrow. I suppose that’s the penalty for having 6 days in a row off, where I’m in tomorrow and for the rest of the week, including New Years Day, which I really wanted off, but was not able to. I’m still a bit angry about that, but there is nothing I can do about it at all anymore. In a way, I’m not looking forward to going back in to work after my Christmas break, but it pays the bills (the few I have).

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By Threelight, 21 December, 2009 11:20 pm

To say that I’m relieved that it’s Christmas week (meaning the week that Christmas Day falls on) is a bit of an understatement. I now have 6 days off before a week of Monday to Friday working (and even a 9 – 5 exsitence too!). The one disappointment is that I have to work New Years Day.

I have found it difficult over the last couple of weeks to get into the Christmas spirit in any sort of way. The place where I work seems to not be festive at all. Yes, we all got gifts of food and drink, but it just doesn’t feel right. Added to that, when the weather changes like it has done, we are being worked quite hard. And it seems to be taking it’s toll on the managers we have around rather than us ”grunts”. We just get on with the work, and get into even more trouble by the managers. Such is life.

As a result, there has been a lack of Christmas cheer. In the past years I have been in offices where you are looking forward to Christmas in a big way, and you get into the spirit quite quickly. Not this year. It is bad, and at times very depressing. I also believe that my strengths lie elsewhere (i.e not in the job I am doing). I come away feeling I have not put in a satisfying day’s work. That has happened with such alarming regularity it’s untrue.

I need to change jobs.

In other news, I tried to update my blog software last night and got lost when my website refused to even work. Thanks to Polyhex, now it does. And I’m not going to upgrade any time soon.

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By Threelight, 14 December, 2009 8:31 pm

After working 9 hour days on and off for a few days, the thought of having 3 whole days off filled me with some glee. Apart from having 8 hours sleep each night for 3 nights (muchly needed. And I thought those days were over), doing a small amount of Christmas shopping, and sorting a few things out. Oh, and my Dad’s 65th birthday celebration.

My brother bought his X-Box 360 round yesterday and we played for a couple of hours. Asked a few questions about it, and have now decided to take the plunge and get me my own X Box 360. I should be getting one quite soon. The graphics on the games impressed me, so I’m looking forward to playing on it (once I get some games for it!)

I am working from the ungodly hour of 7.30am tomorrow and Wednesday, which is surprsingly okay, but I still have a block/phobia/fear (delete as approriate) of 6am/6.30am starts. Waking up at 4.30 on those days doesn’t appeal to me one bit. I go into a bit of a tired phase for a few days afterwards.

I work in a bit of a dark office. The place is essentially one big room with windows on 2 sides. Even these are tinted to keep the sunlight out, and all you are left with is artificial light. As a result, this autumn and winter, I haven’t a clue as to when the sun goes down, and, if I am there early enough, the sun rises. The only bit of pure light that shines in the building is from a sky light in the break area. It’s a bit odd. From now until the weather changes or the clocks go forward, when I am working, I can’t see it going dark. In a way it’s a bit of sensory depravation. Unintentional I know, but sensory depravation all the same.

Can’t really complain. The countdown to summer starts next Monday (21st December, shortest day and all that).