The Human Tornado

I started working at the permanent location for my new job on October 14th. The first thing I noticed was my desk area was a disaster. It was piled up with random stuff, tons of old paperwork that should have been shredded, and just general disarray everywhere. I grabbed the Clorox wipes and went after it. After lots of degerming and shredding (that part took me a couple days as the shredder kept overheating), my desk space was what I would consider usable. I've already gotten compliments on how nice it looks, with one person saying "I've never seen it look that good." My only regret is that I didn't take before and after pictures. Words don't do the transformation justice.

Once my immediate area was acceptable, I started looking around. I saw a divider that blocked off a small hallway as soon as you walk in the office.

 I'm a naturally curious person, so I had to know what was back there. I understood why curiosity can kill the cat after I saw what was behind it.

Yes, a huge pile of JUNK. It was mostly empty boxes that "some lazy slob" (one of my dad's favorite phrases) was too lazy to break down and get rid of. This just would not do. I broke down all the boxes and took them to the recycling center on my way home, threw away lots junk, put other items into proper storage areas, and appropriately recycled an old fax machine & printer (They're e-waste. You shouldn't throw them in regular trash).  I also found a bulletin board and literature sorter we don't use, and I got permission to get rid of those. I offered them for free to the other agencies in our building. Apparently there was a fight over them while I was off on vacation. Here's how it looks now:

This area had been known among some of the staff from other offices as "the graveyard" for pretty obvious reasons. When I asked my coworker how it got to be like this, she said "I don't know. I've never looked back there". She's been at this office for 2 years! I was flabbergasted.

I do believe my coworker might be slightly intimated of me by now. She probably thinks a human tornado has come to her office.

Mayhaps it's time for some heat

One of my goals is to not use my furnace until at least November 1. When I got home from vacation on October 26th of this year, here is what I saw:

The number on the bottom was the temperature inside my apartment. Needless to say, the furnace went on right then.

You Know It's Bad When... (Part Two)

You know that your present and former coworkers aren't/weren't as pleasant as they could be when a person from another agency in your building tells you after meeting you: "You may be the answer to my prayers. I prayed for someone nice and helpful to work with."

I told her "I try."

It's nice to be appreciated. :)

Nothing like waiting until the last minute

On October 15th we had a customer come into our office at 12:35 PM requesting tax return data for 2010, 2011, & 2012. She needed this for a 1:00 appointment with her tax person who is located 20 minutes away. Yes, cutting it down the wire don't you think? Oh, but it gets better. We can't print these in our office. We have to fax the request to another office, and they'll process it in around an hour. But wait, there's more. The data for 2012 can only be mailed to the person's home address. Oops. The customer was getting a bit frantic because that day was the last day of the extension to file taxes. To summarize, she waited to get data she needed until 25 minutes before her appointment which was 20 minutes away by car on the very last day to file 3 years of taxes. This is definitely a case of waiting until the last minute.

Your Tax Dollars at Waste

You might wonder if my life as a state employee has given me insight into whether or not your tax dollars are being wasted. The answers are yes and yes. Case in point: all the offices of my division open at 8. My office however, is located in a building that opens at 8:30. Some of you already get it. For those of you who don't, here goes: No customers can get in before 8:30. Our staff is let in at 8. Thus, for the first half hour of the day we are guaranteed no walk-ins. Very few people call before then either, so we essentially get paid to chill. Life is hard.

Thank you dear taxpayers for this paid break every day.

You Know It's Bad When...

You know you aren't the only one who thought your former employer was bad when you get an e-mail like this:

Hi [me],
I was surprised to learn from [President of former employer] (then [my former boss]) that you had left. I understand. Please keep in touch. I periodically come to [my area].
[former coworker]

This person quit not long before I did. My favorite part of his e-mail? The "I understand" part. I love it.

Great quote on finances- UPDATE

I contacted the journal that published the article which I referenced in my last blog post telling them how much I liked the article, mentioned that I would have liked to have posted a link to the article on my blog, and asked them to relay my compliments to the author. I got an e-mail from the author thanking me for my comments, and he gave me a link to a free site where his article is posted. Enjoy!