I’m home sick today with a wicked bad sore throat and bodyaches that seem to be making the rounds. I have no immune system at all, so anything that goes around usually finds it’s way to me eventually.
This is about my third day sick, but I’ve been working through it. One of the many joys of being a temp is that I get no sick time, so I have to sit back and ask myself just exactly how sick I am. Am I $ sick? Or $$ sick? Would I rather work through the discomfort and infect the whole office or buy that great mirror I saw on Craigslist?
This is an issue that comes up nearly every day at my new job. The work flow is arranged around the yearly quarters, and we just finished Q1 before I got there. The start of the new quarter is always very slow, and then it picks up for a mad dash to the end. So I had the perfect timing of coming on board right for the slowdown and I’ll be leaving just before it gets busy. Great.
As I’ve mentioned before, it’s totally dead right now. I spend most of my days begging for work to do, even if that means reorganizing filing cabinets and spending hours knee deep in data entry. I made a point in the interview of stressing that I work best in a high volume environment, and they promised me that they had one. They lied. When we finish up every task we can possibly come up with, the sweetheart I work with always tells me I can just go home, and every time I have to do the complicated algebra in my head:
How bored I am now x how much longer I have to work – amount of money left to make = n
Is n <> than the gorgeous Italian dining table?
I spend a lot of time on the internet, which I always feel is dangerous. My computer screen is in a very public area, so everyone can see exactly what I’m looking at. Which is why I can’t blog from work. I tried one day. And just as I was typing my boss came up behind me and totally acted like I was busted. I wasn’t writing anything special, but he’s the boss and supposed to disapprove of that sort of thing. So now I stick to websites that no one’s ever gotten fired over. And I make it abundantly clear that I am chomping at the bit for productive work to do.
I’ve also spent a lot of time creating seemingly appropriate office documents to keep track of things that entertain me. I have a complicated Excel spreadsheet telling me exactly how much money I need to buy all the furniture I need, and exactly how many days and hours I’ll need to work to get there. I also have a plethora of calendars I’ve created for the sole purpose of crossing the days off. I’ve actually collected so many that I get to cross one off every hour. I have a serious sickness.
I do feel really guilty for hating this job so much. If I had to work, this would actually be a great job. I’m surrounded by awesome people and the atmosphere is totally casual. In fact, I absolutely adore the sweetheart I work with. Last Friday the company celebrated earth day with a speaker and some booths and a lot of free beer. I gave my beer tickets away to a guy in my cubicle and sweetheart and I walked around looking at booths trying to sign up volunteers for environmental causes. I actually found one I was really interested in, and I’ve really been anxious to dive in to my new community and get involved now that I know I’m going to be here for a little while. Sweetheart and I had a great time, and I thought that she would be the only thing I’d miss from this job. I have about five weeks left, I’ll have to see if it’s possible to cement a friendship in that time.