Order and Chaos

Deep yogic breaths...

Today at work was less frenzied but more exasperating. I'm getting the hang of the system, both formal and informal, but am finding it hard to play nicely with other people.

There are about two people I genuinely respect among the group I work directly with. One woman doesn't know how to do many of the things I'm responsible for, but she understands the flow of paper from person to person and is orderly and tidy. (Such a relief!) The big boss gains my respect by staying out of my way except when he has a specific task for me to do; having given it to me, he goes away and lets me do it, and so far nothing he's asked me to do has been impossible to figure out logically. His only quirk that's slightly annoying is dropping by occasionally to play with the thermostat in my office (our two offices are on the same system) and make it colder than I'd like. Small annoyance, easily dealt with.

Then there are two women who are very frustrating to work with and with whom I'm required to have regular encounters. One woman I'm starting to think of as the Burrower, because she was driving me mad on her endless hunts for Joe Blow's and Jane's Smith's files. There are two file cabinets, and three small piles of files in my office. I have been through all the piles by now and know more-or-less which students' folders are in them. Ms. B. comes in at the beginning of the day desperately needing Bob Frank's file, and asks me if I've seen it. Nope. Not believing me, she digs through each pile. Not there. Next she goes to the main file. Also not there. Then the secondary file for students on leave. Not there either. I express sympathy, she annoyance, and she bustles out of the office on her quest for Bob Frank's file. Annoying, but I can deal with this. However. Two hours later she's back (and later still, her gofer, who is apologetic), still looking for Bob Frank's file. This is repeated throughout the day AGAIN and AGAIN.

Unfortunately, the Burrower knows a lot about the students' files and about the various requirements and caveats governing things like attendance, leaves, etc., so I can't avoid her however much I'd like to.

Then there is the Bait-and-Switch woman. She also knows a lot, and is therefore useful to ask questions of. Unfortunately, this question-asking on my part has so far failed to register in her mind as "Hey, this person has never worked with our system before and is therefore unlikely to grok things that we all take for granted." What BandS does is to give me something to do (such as drop Jill Kirky from Course B this term and sign her up for Course B in the next term. Okay. Dropping Jill from the course was easy, but then I discover that there is no Course B offered next term (or at least during the dates BandS gave me for when the new course should be). After much fussing about I manage to create a new slot of Course B (on Bait's advice, as she told me that they always offer Course B every term) and duly sign up Jill for the course. But wait! Later in the day I am informed by Ms. Switch that the dates for the new Course B are wrong (though they are the ones she gave me) and that I was not supposed to drop the course from the student's record but instead delete it. So I go back and change all of this stuff, again, and now (?) she seems satisfied. ARRGHGH!

What I wish for is a really big clue stick and the authority needed to apply it forcefully, and hard. I did content myself with thinking that today represents about another $80 in the pocket, and consoled myself with a visit to the used bookstore across the street during lunch.

And when I came home, D. was baking a pie. Fresh peach pie. With a flaky butter crust. *sighhhhh*