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And they've been poking the hell out of it lately. Everybody in my department has been hit with a huge run of bad luck.
2 employees left for other opportunities - fair enough. We hire highly overqualified people to start with, so we expect turnover, and everyone pitches in to cover when we're short-staffed. We post the positions up and start taking applications.
Then, one gal's car gets rear-ended and has to go in for repairs. The insurance company spells her name wrong on the estimate, fails to report all the damage, and gets the VIN number wrong (delaying repairs by an extra week due to ordering the wrong parts). They put her address incorrectly on the first rental compensation check so she doesn't get it. They spell her name incorrectly again on the second check, so the bank won't cash it and she's stuck taking the bus. Then they argue about covering the <i>internal</i> damage, so her car is held hostage for another four days.
Another lady is out for her walk when she twists her ankle on a rock, goes down hard on her left arm, and fractures her wrist and elbow. She's out for three weeks. Everybody buckles down and picks up more responsibilities. We start to get more and more duplicate paperwork (because people assume if it isn't processed in two days, we didn't get it) and more and more phone calls interrupting the work getting done to ask why the work isn't done.
My car goes in for an oil change and to check out a bit of an odd noise, and the mechanic tells me the engine has to be replaced at a total cost of $8000 due to shoddy work on my last oil change that caused a leak. It takes 2 weeks of hassle and car-less-ness before I finally get it back, running abso-friggen-lutely fine now that fresh oil has been replaced, and now I have no mechanic I can trust.
Another lady got hit by a car walking across the street in front of our building and fractured her spine and a couple of other places. She's out for nearly a month - for those of you who are counting, that's FOUR empty desks in a department that staffs 9 at that level. So nearly half of my Processor I's are down for the count, and the further backed up we get, the more nasty the phone calls and emails get. Our sister department starts taking on some of the most time-sensitive work, which puts them behind on their own jobs.
We finally get the stack of applications - a grand total of 8 prospects for a position that usually receives 30-60 apps. On the bright side, I guess that means the economy's getting better? Of those 8, only 2 score high enough for an interview. They both do well and get offered a position. The first decides she doesn't want to take the pay cut (her previous job was incredibly high-stress and demanding, but paid better). The other accepts the position, puts in her 2-week notice, and on the last day when she's boxing up her stuff, they offer her a promotion and a raise to stay. So we're back where we started.
Thankfully, the two who were out injured are now back, albeit on very light duty (no lifting, bending, etc). So they can at least answer calls. But the department that was helping us is now hitting their most difficult time of year (mid-April through mid-July) and can't help anymore; and the more they get behind on their work, the more angry and stressful calls my department has to take, with a lot of questions that have no answer; like "when will it be done?" (When you stop calling and let us get to work) "why didn't you get my mail?" (Because it's not here, have you asked the Post Office?) and "why are you so incompetent?" (Uuuuhhhhhh....Cause my brains are leaking out my toes from answering the same questions over and over).
I'm taking three days off for my birthday this week, and I have never ever looked forward to a free day so much in my life.
2 employees left for other opportunities - fair enough. We hire highly overqualified people to start with, so we expect turnover, and everyone pitches in to cover when we're short-staffed. We post the positions up and start taking applications.
Then, one gal's car gets rear-ended and has to go in for repairs. The insurance company spells her name wrong on the estimate, fails to report all the damage, and gets the VIN number wrong (delaying repairs by an extra week due to ordering the wrong parts). They put her address incorrectly on the first rental compensation check so she doesn't get it. They spell her name incorrectly again on the second check, so the bank won't cash it and she's stuck taking the bus. Then they argue about covering the <i>internal</i> damage, so her car is held hostage for another four days.
Another lady is out for her walk when she twists her ankle on a rock, goes down hard on her left arm, and fractures her wrist and elbow. She's out for three weeks. Everybody buckles down and picks up more responsibilities. We start to get more and more duplicate paperwork (because people assume if it isn't processed in two days, we didn't get it) and more and more phone calls interrupting the work getting done to ask why the work isn't done.
My car goes in for an oil change and to check out a bit of an odd noise, and the mechanic tells me the engine has to be replaced at a total cost of $8000 due to shoddy work on my last oil change that caused a leak. It takes 2 weeks of hassle and car-less-ness before I finally get it back, running abso-friggen-lutely fine now that fresh oil has been replaced, and now I have no mechanic I can trust.
Another lady got hit by a car walking across the street in front of our building and fractured her spine and a couple of other places. She's out for nearly a month - for those of you who are counting, that's FOUR empty desks in a department that staffs 9 at that level. So nearly half of my Processor I's are down for the count, and the further backed up we get, the more nasty the phone calls and emails get. Our sister department starts taking on some of the most time-sensitive work, which puts them behind on their own jobs.
We finally get the stack of applications - a grand total of 8 prospects for a position that usually receives 30-60 apps. On the bright side, I guess that means the economy's getting better? Of those 8, only 2 score high enough for an interview. They both do well and get offered a position. The first decides she doesn't want to take the pay cut (her previous job was incredibly high-stress and demanding, but paid better). The other accepts the position, puts in her 2-week notice, and on the last day when she's boxing up her stuff, they offer her a promotion and a raise to stay. So we're back where we started.
Thankfully, the two who were out injured are now back, albeit on very light duty (no lifting, bending, etc). So they can at least answer calls. But the department that was helping us is now hitting their most difficult time of year (mid-April through mid-July) and can't help anymore; and the more they get behind on their work, the more angry and stressful calls my department has to take, with a lot of questions that have no answer; like "when will it be done?" (When you stop calling and let us get to work) "why didn't you get my mail?" (Because it's not here, have you asked the Post Office?) and "why are you so incompetent?" (Uuuuhhhhhh....Cause my brains are leaking out my toes from answering the same questions over and over).
I'm taking three days off for my birthday this week, and I have never ever looked forward to a free day so much in my life.
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