whybother?

So I’ve been with Clayton’s for nearly 3 weeks. There have been MASSIVE dramas in the department to coincide with my arrival (sheer coincidence, I swear!). I have been tucked safely away at induction training, and today was my first day in the ‘real’ world.

When I first accepted the job, I was assigned to my local office (yay! Walk to work, duck home for lunch, etc, etc). With all the problems that have occurred recently, I have been reassigned to an office a 45 minute drive away. I found out at lunchtime on Friday, so that kind of fucked up my weekend. I was less than impressed. However, such is life, and I’m more or less over being pissed off.

So off I trotted this morning, eager to meet my new workmates. I would not say my day was riveting. I wouldn’t even say I really achieved anything. The good news is that my manager seems really nice. She gave us a bit of a lecture this morning, about being ‘old school’ and ’straight down the line’, but to be honest, this style of management really appeals to me. I’m sick to death of managers who want to be best friends with everyone, who are all ‘touchy feely’ and can’t make a decision to save their lives. I get the distinct impression from ‘The Chief’ that there will be little room for error and fools will not be suffered gladly…fine by me! I will not be going out of my way to piss her off, that’s for sure!!

I managed to get my teeth into a couple of little jobs that befit my lowly station…..the Uni student who has been on placement for the past 3 months was showing me what to do!! It’s good though, because it means we’re not being chucked in the deep end. Oh, when I say ‘we’, I’m referring to the girls who have joined me. There were six of us for induction, three of us have gone to this particular office. Does that give you some idea of the trouble this office has had recently? I did ask why they chose to appoint new workers instead of more experienced ones, but the answer did not inspire me with confidence, so I won’t share it here. Anyone who knows me understands that I’m in a kind of sensitive job. Anyone else will be wondering why I’m talking ‘in code’. Basically, there’s not much I can say without revealing who I work for, and once that penny drops, my professionalism, confidentiality and just about everything else may be called into question, so I’m pretty much covering my arse!

Anyhoo, that’s my first day! Not a lot to report, really.

I have little to report about my weekend either. I shopped til I dropped on Saturday. Didn’t get anything for myself, but got Daz some nice new clothes and a couple of little things for the Mol. Hi, Mol! I can’t say what things I got, because she WILL read this. She can’t help herself.

What else did I get up to? Oh, that’s right. I spent a few hours (yes, HOURS) cleaning Mollie’s room. I’m not sure it’s ever been quite that bad. It’s always messy, but this time there was a rather nauseating smell emanating from her vicinity. I tracked it down to the school bag, which now resides on the verandah (I will NOT be cleaning that out: purely her responsibility!). I emptied out the entire contents of the wall length built-in wardrobe. I removed six garbage bags of rubbish. I have a carload of items to go to the local charity store. Everything else has been put back using a fool-proof system of labelled storage boxes. Think underwear in the underwear box. Socks in the sock box. DVD’s in the DVD box. I know what you’re thinking, but I am at my wits’ end with this child. She does not have an anal bone in her body. She is frighteningly disorganized. Example: six months ago she lost her maths workbook. We searched high and low for it. She searched high and low at school. The teacher searched high and low. She was issued with a second copy. She also lost it. Guess what I found? Two copies of the maths workbook! Guess what else I found? A library book she borrowed LAST YEAR! Yes, that’s right, 2006. Oh, and four manky sandwiches. In varying states of decay. And a little jewellery case filled with M & M’s. The mind boggles.

The room now looks lovely, and I’m pleased to say that she got up and made her bed this morning, for probably the first time in her entire life! And when she came home from school, she hung her uniform up! Good girl, I’m proud of you.