work

I am glad I read Susan’s diary first. This was going to be an entry full of complaint. I dislike my job. I dislike my work environment. I feel a bit trapped.

I realize things are going to maybe get better, but that is not important. What is important is serving the Lord and doing things that please Him. I needed that perspective. That will get me through the next few days. ‘

People at work are so grumpy. Plus the way things are run is so wasteful and inefficient. It is so frustrating. My boss, BIL, hired me away from a very carefree enjoyable job in a nice environment, for very little more than what I am making there. He hired me to “fix things” that are going wrong. Believe me, no “one” can fix these thigns. They have taken years to deteriorate to where they are now.

A few years ago, I poured my life into improving things there. I worked long, long hours at the expense of rarely seeing my kids and a lot of stress to me. They made the mistake of putting me in a position I did NOT want, and I just had to quit. It really bothered me a lot. The guy they hired to replace me was full of himself and claimed credit for all the thigns I did for the company, and proceeded not only to run down the company with his words, but let all my work go without following up on what I started. Now the company is in worse shape than when I left it in 2000 or 2001 (I can’t remember which) and it gets worse all the time. The systems we put in place to prevent errors are used, but not in a way that they mean anything. Any shortcut that could be taken is now normal procedures and the whole purpose of the paperwork is circumvented. What a waste of time. SO it ends up that the paperwork is not sufficient, so they throw more forms at ppl who are not that great at paperwork to begin with. It breaks my heart.

The biggest problem is one I complained about earlier. The ppl in one dept cannot think outside the box, or think at all for that matter. They are just not with it at all. They need a lot of hand-holding, but if there is a problem, they are the first to claim they do everything right and complain about other depts not doing their job. Very frustrating for me cuz I can see right through it and no one will listen to me. The solution is so very simple, but no one will change their mind about the inefficient way they do things. I am constantly told, “we can’t.” Sigh.

Oh well. I have to just distance myself. I cannot solve all these problems. They are larger than I ever imagined.

One of my coworkers has been a grouch lately. Just a week or two ago they were saying how much they “needed” me, and now she barely will speak to me. I tried to ask her about a load today that was held for delayed delivery schedule, and she wanted me to call the guy. I couldn’t figure that out. Later, she is yelling at the dispatcher about where is load such and such. I said to her, that is the load I asked you about earlier, dispatch won’t have it, you told me not to put it through till I called the guy again. I couldn’t figure out why she would do that. She just wants to snap at someone and I was an easy target. She made A LOT of errors today too. So I had to ask her what she wanted on these orders because they weren’t filled out all the way. On one of them, she told me that it says on the order form. I said, well, no it doesn’t say, that is why I am asking you what they wanted. The next one, I just called the customer who ordered to confirm because she was being such a pain about it. She was on the phone anyway, but I wish she would get a grip.

My choice in this grumpy attitude stuff has so far been to just blow it off and wait for her to come around. Do I keep doing that? It bothers me. Or do I just confront her and say, what is wrong and how can we fix it? So far it has worked to just do my job and stay out of her way, but this week I asked her for several things:

1. a copy of any changes that go through so I can track them (I am getting complaints that too many changes are slowign us down and she is the one who puts them through, and doesn’t tell anyone)

2. from the top orders came to have an inventory load on the floor for one customer, but it has sat on the floor getting outdated for 3 weeks. I told the boss about it and he said, get that product out. So I told this gal and she gave me a fit about it. I said, boss says get it out on loads. She said she would not put it on any current loads, but would watch for later orders. It is getting very outdated I told her. So, I started watching the orders and asking her to put it on the loads that come across. She said there were only 2 products left (so she did go out and change previous orders… when she said she would not). I still have to figure out how to deal w her. When she put the inventory order through she asked me all about it, now she is telling me what to do, etc, etc, when she is not at all in charge of me.

Well, it turned out to be a complaining entry anyway, but I do have a much better perspective on it than I did when I first sat down to type. It helps me to get it out on paper (or whatever).

I will just trust the Lord to direct me. I didn’t really want this job and I don’t know why I felt led to take it. I have to ask the Lord if this is really what He wants me to be doing. I am a bit stuck right now, but maybe if we can get the company on track, I can back off a little and have less hours. I pretty much refuse to throw everything I have into it like I did a few years ago. It is an all-consuming type of job if you let it be so.

faith hope and love, but the greatest of these is love.