Wherein We Make a Terrifying Discovery

[dalesys]

Just make sure they watch the road, remember what happened to GBH and Really Cool People...I forgot the name of the other one.

Good Omens was such a good book.

The Bikers of the Repocalypse:
Greaser, Pigbog, Scuzz & Big Ted.
AKA:
1) Cruelty To Animals
2) Ansaphones/Really Cool People
3) Embarrassing Personal Problems./No Alcohol Lager/Things Not Working Properly Even After You've Given them A Really Good Thumping/All Foreigners, Especially the French/Treading in Dogshit/People Covered In Fish
4) Grievous Bodily Harm

[lupo pazzesco]

Before even reading your post, GK

I had to stop, check the dates, and wonder if I traveled back in time, unknowingly.

I MISSED YOUR WRITING SO MUCH!

Now that I've embarrassed myself.... off to read and bask in your wit.

[csquared]

I MISSED YOUR WRITING SO MUCH!

The same can be said for you. So... When are you heading back to the Kroger?

[Deserted]

Add me to the list of folks who have missed seeing your posts. You're not the reason I joined, but you are one of the people whose stories had me laughing.

[WishfulSpirit]

OMG LUPO. I thought she died or something!

[Racket_Man]

OMG LUPO. I thought she died or something!

I second that thought. Have not seen a Lupo crazy shopping story in years.

[Blue Ginger]

Ok, now the world really, really needs to be worried. We have Gravekeeper, Seraph and now Lupo back. All we need now is Jester and we know the world is going to end in a few days.

Here's hoping we all have enough booze to party the end of the world away. Or maybe Raps can save us all?

[lupo pazzesco]

The same can be said for you. So... When are you heading back to the Kroger?

New city, no Kroger! :P

OMG LUPO. I thought she died or something!

Oh come on, it hasn't been that--

I second that thought. Have not seen a Lupo crazy shopping story in years.

Seriously, I haven't really been gone that lo--

Ok, now the world really, really needs to be worried. We have Gravekeeper, Seraph and now Lupo back. All we need now is Jester and we know the world is going to end in a few days.

Here's hoping we all have enough booze to party the end of the world away. Or maybe Raps can save us all?

*checks last log in date*

Well, all right then. Nevermind.

Sorry, all!! I am back. I still have the crazy magnet, but personal life is imploding right now. I actually logged back in to reread some GK to lift my spirits some.

and brace yourselves - I'm a manager now, y'all. Full on, salaried, make all the decisions, have my own staff MANAGER.

Yeah, some days, I still don't believe it much myself.

[RootedPhoenix]

HI LUPO.

Also, Congrats on being a manager (or I've got a plate of cookies handy if that's not a good thing.)

<3 Glad you weren't eaten by gremlins or something,

[csquared]

and brace yourselves - I'm a manager now, y'all. Full on, salaried, make all the decisions, have my own staff MANAGER.

How did you manage that? You're not qualified. You know your @$$ from a hole in the ground.

Congrats! I think.

[lupo pazzesco]

HI LUPO.

Also, Congrats on being a manager (or I've got a plate of cookies handy if that's not a good thing.)

<3 Glad you weren't eaten by gremlins or something,

How did you manage that? You're not qualified. You know your @$$ from a hole in the ground.

Congrats! I think.

There has been a LOT going down. My company got bought out, and the new company actually focuses on their people (still a corporation, BUT a little focus on the people makes a WORLD of difference. I've actually had lunch with our CEO. Holy crap!!)

[xxscooterxx]

I have to ask. Gravekeeper, is there any way you would let me use your concussed deer comment as my sig? I've been on here for a while and never had the desire for a sig till now

[Alpha Strike]

Gabapentin can help, so can cymbalta. Also, and this may be a weird suggustion, but hubby has severe nerve pain and medical marijuana takes it away completely.

Not a weird suggestion at all; it seems like medical marijuana has a variety of uses, and it wouldn't surprise me at all that it helps with nerve pain.

It's just too bad it's not yet legal in my state.

[morgana]

If medical marijuana isn't legal for you, you might want to check whether you can legally get hemp oil. Allegedly legal in all 50 US states (no idea about Canada). I started on it about a month ago, and it's really making a difference.

[Gravekeeper]

And to be grateful that I have managers and supervisors that take care of their people and don't try to just work us to death.

We sort of had the worst of both worlds. Worked to death but upper management was steadfastly convinced we were all one big happy family and our CEO was a complete flake. He was convinced he was running the bestest, happiest company evar.

So on one hand you were either worked to death ( or had your hours cut to death to meet "traffic volume" ) and on the other hand they were forever badgering you to take part in Company Events(tm) to build Team Spirit(tm). The latter would drive me crazy because I would get docked on my annual raise for not attending said events. They didn't understand why it would be so hard for me to show up somewhere at 3pm for a bowling party when I only got home from work at 8am and had to leave for work again at 9pm.

Our collective bosses would always hire from outside the company for middle management. So basically no one above operations manager / floor supervisor actually had any experience on the lines or handling our clients. I can name at least 3 great long time employees we had that left after they were passed over for a non-operations promotion.

By which I mean some of the best operations / supervisors we ever had who were with the company for 5-10 years. You know, the people with the crucial skills and experience you want overseeing your company. But nope. They would hire some outside recent uni grade. Then wonder why they lost good employees and why their new hire left after 6 months because they couldn't figure out the job. >.>

I thought about "GK Stalker" for a bit, and then read that someone had actually stalked him in RL!

Ugh, that whole affair really sucked and was rather disturbing. I don't remember how much detail I gave about the situation at the time. NDA's and all. The company did not stick up for me whatsoever which irked me quite a bit. They only stepped in when the RCMP showed up at the office after they made me file a report myself. Even after that, the stalker in question actually started calling and taunting me about how the cops couldn't stop her.

Which is pretty much what the RCMP told me. That she was known to them, disturbed, and this was a regular pattern so there wasn't much they could really do. It was actually the client that put a stop it <cough>.

Little protip for you would be stalkers out there: If you're stalking someone working at night as a sub contractor for a US "security" agency don't call their office during the day. They're really not fond of crazy sounding callers phoning them up post 9/11.

I have no idea what actually happened. All I know is we got an inquiry from the client about a problematic caller and then we never heard from her again.

Personally, I like to think she's in Gitmo.

Amen to that. Our current call center supplements our staff with contract or "Vendor" staff, who aren't paid well, don't get benefits,don't get the full training regime, and are tossed into very tough situations. It's no wonder we lose about 95% of them within a few months.

We would supplement with temps when we needed to temporarily ramp up. Which was kind of even worse because they would get about 15 minutes of training on software they had never seen before in their lives. Then cut loose. We typically did this during drives or ( worse ) during crisis.

A good chunk of our day time business was subcontracting to non-profits to handle fundraisers, telethons, etc. However, we also subcontracted to major humanitarian organizations such as the Red Cross during major disasters. Katrina for example was one of the worst experiences I have ever had during my career.

I say worst because it was a double whammy between the sheer scope of the tragedy we were getting on the lines and because management was completely and utterly unprepared for the volume of it. So on one hand you had your humanity and on the other hand you had the frustration of being abandoned to trying to handle having upwards of 50 calls in your personal queue for 5 hours straight. Without ever being able to make a shred of headway. Let alone do the rest of your job at the same time.

My coworker liked to repeat the tale as it was the only time she had ever seen me snap so to speak. I was somewhat infamous for my ability to stay calm in the face of the sheer madness I dealt with on my shift. So she thought it was particularly telling ( and kind of hilarious ) that I quietly stood up at my desk after several hours and just told her something to the effect of "I need to go outside now". Then left the office for 5-10 minutes before coming back without a word. >.>

All we need now is Jester and we know the world is going to end in a few days.

Where is Jester? Let's get this apocalypse started. Its not like it could be any worse than the current state of the world~

I have to ask. Gravekeeper, is there any way you would let me use your concussed deer comment as my sig? I've been on here for a while and never had the desire for a sig till now

By all means.

If medical marijuana isn't legal for you, you might want to check whether you can legally get hemp oil. Allegedly legal in all 50 US states (no idea about Canada). I started on it about a month ago, and it's really making a difference.

It is legal up here. I've had CPD(?) oil suggested to me before. The one without the THC. A good friend of mine is a military vet the Afghanistan war so him and his social circle have very similar problems to me. One of his war buddies pretty much has exactly the same things I do and CPD oil did him a world of good.

So I have thought about it. I wouldn't want anything with the THC side of things. I have enough trouble keeping my mental faculties together between the PTSD and medications as is. PTSD has pretty much shot my memory. I can tell you stories from my many years at work but I could not for the life of me tell you *when* they happened.

I couldn't even tell you when I suffered my initial injuries and first breakdown. I'd have to check the paperwork. I know they happened but a lot of it is blur or I blocked it out. They were some incredibly dark times and I never saw any shred of light in that tunnel until the first time I ended up in the ER. When they drugged me with Good Stuff(tm). >.>