Archives for Work rambles

I’m back to work on this Thursday, but it’s just for today.  It’s not as quiet as I thought it would be.  One of my co-worker, Ms. E, is here which I thought she’s off this entire week.  Been here for two hours and I have not done a thing.  There are a few prescription claims I have to submit, almost $600+ money right there.  Maybe I can get my pair of Clarks I want so bad.  Yeah, not that easy.   What will I do for the rest of the day?  Probably write paid posts and act busy.

Cooper barked for no reason and I yelled at him for doing that coz that bark scared the shit outta me.  He kept barking, and his barks got really loud and serious.  Looked out the window and saw a shadow by the front windows…..Oh, now I know why he barked.  He saw the UPS truck pulled up by our yard.

By the time I walked to the front door, both of them with me, the parcel was already at the front door.  Pulled it in trying to see who sent it and to whom.  Saw it was for me but no sender except for the manufacturer – HoneyBaked Ham, Co.

Opened up and DB came out to help me figure out who the gift was from.  I didn’t even occur to me he will send such a handsome gift – an eight-pound honey glazed ham and a 4 pound roasted turkey breast.  Then DB saw the message:  Thank you for a great year and all your support.  Happy Holidays. R***

The gift was from my boss’ boss.  I was telling DB he is not taking us out for a holiday luncheon since he is already out for the rest of the year.  The ham and turkey is enough for 5 meals!  So, thanks, Mr. Boss, for this wonderful chunk of meat, and Happy Holidays to you, too.

P/S:  Will post the picture up later.

Whew….thank goodness this whole thing is over with.  How much noise there were.  Every one at each table sure has a lot to talk about.  I never chipped in in these sort of conversations.  I’m sort of a party pooper with my coworkers who I never like to hang out with.  Too bad, I’m that way, like it or not, I will only answer when I’m asked.  They even played a game call “White Elephant” gift game, which turned out to be an annual thing now.   How this game is played:  anyone who wants to participate in this game should bring in a gift-wrapped.  Two dices will be used; time will be allocated for tossing the dices by each player in a circle.  Each player tossed the dices for doubles.  If they do get doubles, they can pick any gift that are now laid out on the center of the table.  Some players might get two gifts depending on how many times they are successful with the doubles.  When the time comes to a stop, those who has no gift, they can go around the table to pick one from those who have two gifts.  When that is done, time to unwrapped the gifts and will be put on the table in front for the player.  Again, the dices will be tossed for about 2 minutes.  Those who gets doubles from the dices can “steal” other peoples gifts.  Those who didn’t get doubles, will just have to be satisfied with their gifts.   What is cool about this game is whoever brought in the gifts remain annoymous.  No one knows who brought in which gift.  Needless to say, I didn’t participate in this game because Pigs are not a very socialable bunch, and Pisceans are shy, too  I’m just waiting for 2:30 p.m. to leave and take the remaining satays home.

Yep, it’s the time of the year again.  Time to just open up your appetite and munch all the goodies.  The HR department’s luncheon is today which will start at 11:00 a.m. on the nuts.  I wanted to take the day off but since I’m taking this Friday off, I will be nice and brought in satays.  Wanted to bring in paper plates but that was taken by other person.  Oh well, I spend approx $16 bucks for that tray of satays, hopefully they will be eaten up, if not, I will bring them home for mine and DB’s stomachs!  Right now these party coordinators are busy prepping the place up. 

My boss told me I should read this book – the whole book as it based on what we are doing for a living.  I can flip through the chapters and pick the one of my interests.  So far I have gone through 3 chapters out of 24.   They are short chapters but I can’t read them like a story book!  Wish I could.  It needs to be studied, analyzed and apply them to my work.  It is time consuming but it is already helping me with the tons of narratives I have to edit for the organization.  This is what challenging means to me.  Analyzing the reports and data.

My company is promoting eat and live healthy and brought in this Wellness program about 3 years ago.  It is a program the Benefits Center of Excellence has promoted year after year and I think it will stay for good. 

This program actually did help me quit my smoking (a little) for good, and logged my miles I pound the streets/trails.  There are also articles on healthy living, nutrition, fitness and a section for medical resources.  By participating in the healthy living programs, employees will be given points for the specific program.  And additional points for participation in certain contest like eating 5 servings of fruits, veggies; walk 10K steps a day.  At the end of the wellness program, employees can pick a gift from the points they have accumulated. 

I have accumulated enough points to pick out a set of steak knives.  The picture is not too good.  Did not use the macro feature when I took this picture.  Anyways, I’m working towards accumulating another year’s of points again.  Some of the gifts are the same each year but some are not.

It’s the time of the year again to enroll in our annual benefits.  This year’s medical is the same as last year’s where we can build our own benefits’ plans.  We can build it by choosing a lower or higher co-pay, deductible and how much co-pay and deductible we want to pay for presription drugs.  If DB does not take so many prescription drugs, I would have picked the cheaper one, but, I can’t.  I told him to take a look at his company’s benefits’ package which could be better and cheaper than mine.  One thing about the benefits’ package from my company is the amount an employee pays for his/her benefits is based on his/her salary.  So, if my boss and I build the same plan, hers will be more expensive because her salary is much higher than mine.  Pretty neat.  No complains about that, but it would be better if employees do not have to pay for their medical at all like Microsoft company.  I found out from my friend.  That is one heck of a deal there.  She told me to look for a job there….hahahahaha!!  Not that easy.

It’s the time of the year again for mid year reviews.  Mine was actually two months late but it was alright.  It gives me more time to think what I want to discuss with my boss.  I told my boss how bored and unchallenged my job is right now.  I was not surprised that she noticed that, too.  I told her my job is getting too mundane and I need a thorough understanding of Affirmative Action.  I even told her I snooped around the EEAC and OFCCP websites to learn more about this complex subject, however, those two websites did not help much, and she agreed they are not helpful.  She then told me that she will register me for an affirmative action training with Berkshire Associates out in Maryland.  Yeeeehahhhh!!!!  That would be so awesome, I get to go out East.  So, I checked out the training schedule which turns out to be a two-day training on Thursday and Friday in January, 2008.  My plans are spend the next day or two touring DC and take the train to NYC and return to Minneapolis on Sunday or Monday! (Take a day of vacation.)  That would be just what I wanted. Did it perk me up?  Hell,  yeah!!

At last, she’s in an office.

We need to get a cake to celebrate!

We don’t have to listen to her loud conversations anymore. Conversations that sounded so condescending.

“LISTEN TO ME.”
“NO, YOU CANNOT DO THAT…. NO YOU CAN’T! HUH!!”
“CAN YOU HEAR ME?” Yeah, we can hear you loud and clear, clear across 4 offices away.

We don’t have to listen to her shouting from her cube to couple of cubes next to her or across her.

“ABC, ARE YOU READY FOR COFFEE?”
“ABC, ARE YOU THERE?”

We don’t have to listen to her telling her husband or her kids what to do.

“ARE YOU PICKING ____ UP? ….WHY NOT?”
“YOU HAVE TO FINISH YOUR HOMEWORK BEFORE I GET HOME.”

I’m so glad she‘s out of our area. This co-worker of mine whom I shall call Ms. Patronizing, can never talk or speak in a softer tone. Her volume is constantly set on high. Ever since I have started with this company, she is always sitting at a close proximity within my work area. The only one time I don’t have to listen to her was when I moved to the new File Room on the third floor. I was all by myself. Happiness was short lived. I moved out from the File Room after a year to a cube which was two cubes away from her. I could hear every single word in her conversations. Conference calls and Webex sessions were the worst. Sometimes other colleagues of mine would stand up, look at each other, and shake our heads.

When we knew she was going to move to an office, we were counting the days for when she will move to her office and shut that damn door.

Now, we are hoping she won’t yell from her office to speak to her co-workers 2 cubes outside her office.

I’m still working on my work stuff, Excel spreadsheets, tonight. Told the boss I will be able to do it this weekend. Since I took the day off tomorrow, I will continue to work on them. It is a pain in the butt…didn’t know the reports from the query were so complicated. So, it made my life tougher to work with VLookups for multiple rows. I’m sure I will figure it out.

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Boss took us out for our holiday luncheon at Chiang Mai Thai at Calhoun Square in uptown Minneapolis. I rode with E and P drove R. It was quite some time since I went to Calhoun Square. It just feels good to be in Minneapolis. Anyways, the restaurant has a great atmosphere with very “Thai” decorations. The food, it’s not too bad. I ordered Massaman curry with shrimp (they omitted the squid) and papaya salad, Thai style. I have not tried the curried before, thought I would check it out. P and E each ordered Pad Thai with chickie and a cup of Tom Yam soup. R ordered fried noodles with shrimp and squids. I should have ordered noodles. The curry was, first of all, not spicy enough for me. Secondly, it was too sweet. Thirdly, there was no kick to it – not much of a taste of curry in it. Lastly, there was so much coconut milk in it, it was too icky. I had probably a few spoonfuls of it and the rest went into a doggie bag. The papaya salad was good. Had enough chilies to burn my butt hole tomorrow morning (it could be tonight!). R and I prefer super hot and spicy food. He and I kept adding chilies to our meal – there is no kick to it without adding chilies to the food. Well, I will find out tomorrow if I will have ABS!!

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