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...sort of.
This is going to be long and rambly. You have been warned.
I've been working a temp gig for quite a while. I was originally working for this company under a temp gig, and was only a few weeks away from being brought on full-time, when they had a massive layoff (something like 50 people total, mostly in the production area), and naturally, temps are high on the list of "expendible assets."
After a few months go by, with me struggling to get by on 1- and 2-day temp gigs, I get a call from the temp agency, asking if I'm willing to go back to work for this company again. "Yes, tomorrow. They asked for you specifically."
So I go back to work for them as a temp employee again. In my first week, I called up the temp agency and asked whether my previous time counted towards the contract buy-out, and they said yes, and that I only had about 100 hours (2.5 weeks) to go before my employer could buy out the contract.
That time passed two weeks ago. I alerted my manager to the fact at that time, and he said that he had to talk to the temp agency representative that handled this account. Nothing further was said. Note now that I work in Parts. When I last worked here, Parts was its own department of 3 people - myself, another clerk, and the Manager. The other clerk was fired a few weeks prior for, "pissing off the wrong people," and my Manager has been doing all of the work himself. He's not really competent at the data entry end of the job, but he's good with the customer service half. Parts was swept into the Sales department, with my manager reporting to the Sales Manager.
Last week, something big started happening in the company. The conference room is constantly in use, with the windows papered over, and most of the managers (and higher execs) spend almost all of the time in meetings. Some of the execs actually lost the use of their offices for extended periods so that mini-meetings could be held in them. I don't know what's going on, but it's something major - and it's not a buy-out. My manager disappears into these meetings all of Monday and Tuesday.
I'm rambling a bit, but I'll get there eventually. It all ties together, trust me. =^_^=
On Tuesday, I'm asked to go out to the Shipping department and train a new guy. Remember, I'm a temp? The old Shipping clerk was getting less and less reliable, with more and more returns, complaints, and so on, so they summarily sacked him, and I'm the only person in the company with any experience dealing with both the company Shipping department and knowledge of how to use the UPS system. The only person. The new Shipping clerk was chosen, I believe, because he's completely fluent in both English and Spanish (The old clerk was "mostly" fluent in English, which is what caused a lot of the problems. Side note: Most of the production staff is Hispanic), and has a basic understanding of computers. I'm doing all of my work, PLUS all of my Manager's work, while he's in the meeting, and this puts me even further behind schedule. But I do it, because someone has to, and there's nobody else available.
Wednesday, I called in sick. I was actually, genuinely sick - I should have stayed home Tuesday, too, in all honesty. I come back in to work on Thursday, and at least a half-dozen people tell me, "Hey, glad to see you back! We missed you!" I get to work, and my manager is again nowhere to be seen. About an hour later, the Sales manager calls me over, and says, "Your manager is... not going to be here for at least the rest of the week. Sales will be helping you out taking Parts phone calls."
I nod, and get back to work. About two hours later, I go back to the Sales Manager, and tell him, "I'm so badly backed up, I'll never catch up if I keep taking calls. I'm not getting any actual work done. Can I please have all of the Parts calls sent to Sales for a little while?"
He gives me an appraising look, and asks, "How long do you need? A couple of hours?" I nod, and he says, "Sure, do it."
So I get my ass in gear, thankfully not having to deal with interruptions - or so I thought. I get several walk-in customers and a few other minor emergencies that HAVE to be handled by me, as I'm the only person around who has even half a clue about what my manager has been doing. I do manage to get mostly caught up by the end of the day, however. Friday was a typical day, both gaining and losing ground as I get time (and fail to get time) to write up orders. One of the other department managers makes an off-hand joking comment about me having a fast-track to being a Manager...
Everything will be back to normal on Monday, right?
Wrong. We're now up to yesterday, for those of you keeping score. My manager is still gone, and nobody will tell me what's going on. The official story is that he's, "on vacation." I'm losing ground on orders, because there are just too damn many interruptions to get my work done in a timely fashion. I can't enter orders into the computer while I'm on the phone, and I'm nearly always on the phone. Around midday, the General Manager calls me into his office. I'm a little nervous, but I know that I'm the only reason that both Parts and Shipping aren't total disasters right now.
I'm informed that a former employee - a good, competent guy who I know by name-reputation only, because he quit long before I ever started working there - has been brought back on board to help get Shipping back on track. Then, he asks, "How long do you have left before you can be brought on as a full employee?" I explain to him that as far as I know, I'm eligible for that now. He nods, and says, "Do you want to be a full employee?"
I nod, and say, "Sure." He looks pleased, and says, "Great. I'll talk to HR about it. Do you have any questions?" I ask him, "Is there going to be a raise with that?" He raises an eyebrow, and asks me, "What are you making now?" I tell him.
He snorts - almost a rude noise - and says, "Yeah, there'll be a raise involved. You can't live on that." After that, we started discussing non-work-related matters - it turns out that we share a hobby and a few philosophical views (especially with regard to trackball vs. mouse).
So, as of today, Parts is about a day behind, but I plan to kick some ass and get caught up tomorrow. Don't you love plans? They work so well, don't they?
I'm going to be getting a raise - and probably not a small one. I might be taking over Parts, if I'm understanding some of the subtexts going on. I'm generally well-liked, and certainly well-appreciated here.
So what's going to go wrong here? =^_^=
This is going to be long and rambly. You have been warned.
I've been working a temp gig for quite a while. I was originally working for this company under a temp gig, and was only a few weeks away from being brought on full-time, when they had a massive layoff (something like 50 people total, mostly in the production area), and naturally, temps are high on the list of "expendible assets."
After a few months go by, with me struggling to get by on 1- and 2-day temp gigs, I get a call from the temp agency, asking if I'm willing to go back to work for this company again. "Yes, tomorrow. They asked for you specifically."
So I go back to work for them as a temp employee again. In my first week, I called up the temp agency and asked whether my previous time counted towards the contract buy-out, and they said yes, and that I only had about 100 hours (2.5 weeks) to go before my employer could buy out the contract.
That time passed two weeks ago. I alerted my manager to the fact at that time, and he said that he had to talk to the temp agency representative that handled this account. Nothing further was said. Note now that I work in Parts. When I last worked here, Parts was its own department of 3 people - myself, another clerk, and the Manager. The other clerk was fired a few weeks prior for, "pissing off the wrong people," and my Manager has been doing all of the work himself. He's not really competent at the data entry end of the job, but he's good with the customer service half. Parts was swept into the Sales department, with my manager reporting to the Sales Manager.
Last week, something big started happening in the company. The conference room is constantly in use, with the windows papered over, and most of the managers (and higher execs) spend almost all of the time in meetings. Some of the execs actually lost the use of their offices for extended periods so that mini-meetings could be held in them. I don't know what's going on, but it's something major - and it's not a buy-out. My manager disappears into these meetings all of Monday and Tuesday.
I'm rambling a bit, but I'll get there eventually. It all ties together, trust me. =^_^=
On Tuesday, I'm asked to go out to the Shipping department and train a new guy. Remember, I'm a temp? The old Shipping clerk was getting less and less reliable, with more and more returns, complaints, and so on, so they summarily sacked him, and I'm the only person in the company with any experience dealing with both the company Shipping department and knowledge of how to use the UPS system. The only person. The new Shipping clerk was chosen, I believe, because he's completely fluent in both English and Spanish (The old clerk was "mostly" fluent in English, which is what caused a lot of the problems. Side note: Most of the production staff is Hispanic), and has a basic understanding of computers. I'm doing all of my work, PLUS all of my Manager's work, while he's in the meeting, and this puts me even further behind schedule. But I do it, because someone has to, and there's nobody else available.
Wednesday, I called in sick. I was actually, genuinely sick - I should have stayed home Tuesday, too, in all honesty. I come back in to work on Thursday, and at least a half-dozen people tell me, "Hey, glad to see you back! We missed you!" I get to work, and my manager is again nowhere to be seen. About an hour later, the Sales manager calls me over, and says, "Your manager is... not going to be here for at least the rest of the week. Sales will be helping you out taking Parts phone calls."
I nod, and get back to work. About two hours later, I go back to the Sales Manager, and tell him, "I'm so badly backed up, I'll never catch up if I keep taking calls. I'm not getting any actual work done. Can I please have all of the Parts calls sent to Sales for a little while?"
He gives me an appraising look, and asks, "How long do you need? A couple of hours?" I nod, and he says, "Sure, do it."
So I get my ass in gear, thankfully not having to deal with interruptions - or so I thought. I get several walk-in customers and a few other minor emergencies that HAVE to be handled by me, as I'm the only person around who has even half a clue about what my manager has been doing. I do manage to get mostly caught up by the end of the day, however. Friday was a typical day, both gaining and losing ground as I get time (and fail to get time) to write up orders. One of the other department managers makes an off-hand joking comment about me having a fast-track to being a Manager...
Everything will be back to normal on Monday, right?
Wrong. We're now up to yesterday, for those of you keeping score. My manager is still gone, and nobody will tell me what's going on. The official story is that he's, "on vacation." I'm losing ground on orders, because there are just too damn many interruptions to get my work done in a timely fashion. I can't enter orders into the computer while I'm on the phone, and I'm nearly always on the phone. Around midday, the General Manager calls me into his office. I'm a little nervous, but I know that I'm the only reason that both Parts and Shipping aren't total disasters right now.
I'm informed that a former employee - a good, competent guy who I know by name-reputation only, because he quit long before I ever started working there - has been brought back on board to help get Shipping back on track. Then, he asks, "How long do you have left before you can be brought on as a full employee?" I explain to him that as far as I know, I'm eligible for that now. He nods, and says, "Do you want to be a full employee?"
I nod, and say, "Sure." He looks pleased, and says, "Great. I'll talk to HR about it. Do you have any questions?" I ask him, "Is there going to be a raise with that?" He raises an eyebrow, and asks me, "What are you making now?" I tell him.
He snorts - almost a rude noise - and says, "Yeah, there'll be a raise involved. You can't live on that." After that, we started discussing non-work-related matters - it turns out that we share a hobby and a few philosophical views (especially with regard to trackball vs. mouse).
So, as of today, Parts is about a day behind, but I plan to kick some ass and get caught up tomorrow. Don't you love plans? They work so well, don't they?
I'm going to be getting a raise - and probably not a small one. I might be taking over Parts, if I'm understanding some of the subtexts going on. I'm generally well-liked, and certainly well-appreciated here.
So what's going to go wrong here? =^_^=
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