It’s been an… interesting… couple of days.

Monday:

    I had to get up at 6am to pick up Mom and take her to the airport. She was flying standby (one of my stepsisters works for an airline), so we had to get her there early so that she could check in and get on the standby list.

  • When we checked her luggage, we had to wait while it was taken to another area for a “random x-ray.” *sigh*
  • When that was done, we headed for the security check and had to wait while they waved their magic wand over her for about 3 minutes. *sigh* On to the gate…
  • Mom checked in… and we waited.
  • The flight that she was “supposed” to get on came, reloaded, and left without her… so, we waited for the next flight (four hours later).
  • The fact that I had only gotten two hours of sleep before going to get Mom were beginning to wear on me… and the waiting wasn’t helping.
  • We’d called my uncle after Mom missed the first flight. He checked out of the hotel and took a shuttle and met us at the airport a little before Mom’s second abortive attempt to get home. When he got there, he waited with us for the second plane.
  • It came, reloaded, and left, too.
  • I called another airline and asked about flights heading to Raleigh, about an hour from Mom’s. They had one that would get her there by 10pm EDT. As far as I was concerned, that was perfect. I led Mom and Uncle Ronnie down to the ticket counter and said my goodbyes there – I had Jess’ car and had to get back so she could make it to an appointment… and I WAS TIRED!!!
  • I took a rather refreshing two-hour nap when I got home, got up when Jess came in, and got ready for work. I went to my car and turned the key… and nothing happened. *GRRR* So… I took Jess’ car to work.

Work was actually pretty good… for work. Jess had been taken off of the supervisor’s schedule at the last minute to be replaced by Ryan. This is okay – I get to have her here at night. This is good. Ryan has to give training classes this week – some of those classes are during the time when he is supposed to be on Operations.

BRAINCRAMP

This meant that the Ops schedule that I did last week was about to be thrown into a chaotic cesspool whose depths would prove almost unfathomable. We had to adjust everyone around Ryan. I did not consider this “good,” but it was necessary. And it worked, more or less. Around midnight, Bruce – one of our Ops Managers – came out and informed us that Ryan would need to come in early on Tuesday and Wednesday to give the training class to our early-starting workgroups… and asked Desiree and me if we wanted to switch schedules on one or both days with him to accommodate this.

BRAINCRAMP

Des and I decided to split the days: She would close on Tuesday and I’d close Wednesday. I called Jess to let her know about the change – she said that she was amazed that they had caught the snafu so quickly. *sigh* The rest of the worknight was pretty uneventful.

I left, came home, watched DS9, went to bed. I slept VERRA well.

Tuesday:

  • Woke up and called Sandi and asked her to jumpstart my car – Jess left for work while I was still in bed.
  • Dragged myself into the bathroom, performed the daily rituals, and waited for Sandi to get here. She arrived, we started my car and life was good again.
  • I took the car to an auto parts store so that I could get the battery checked. It was bad. *sigh* On a positive note: The alternator checked out fine. So, I bought a new battery. The store didn’t do installations, so I put the battery in the passenger compartment and came home – I figured that I’d get a change of clothes, go to the inlaws’, use their tools and install the battery before work. No problem. I had plenty of time.
  • I came home, got the clothes, packed my lunch, and headed south.
  • I got to Riverton and changed clothes, got a carpet scrap to put on the ground (my battery compartment is inside one of the wheel wells) and went out to the car. I took out the battery, and got ready to make like Kool Moe Dee and “Go to Work.”
  • It started raining just before I got ready to start, so I decided to move the car back a little and get some cover from the garage. I did NOT, however, remember to move the battery before moving the car… and ran over it. When I realized what I had done, I moved the car back to its original spot and then worked the battery free. Something punctured the battery and it started to leak. GREAT. Now, I’m out TWO batteries (old and new), time and money, and I have to get ANOTHER battery.
  • Frustrated, I put the battery – on the carpet remnant – on an unused part of the driveway, and went inside to change.

I left and went to work.

There was almost NO mail. Whoopee. We moved people around as best we could and swallow a lot of idle time waiting for the plants to send mail. Then the issue of MORE supervisors’ schedule changes came up. With Ryan doing the classes, he would be unavailable for parts of his shift. We all accepted that. Now, we had to figure out how to compensate for filling in gaps because SOMEONE hadn’t considered what changing my off-days AND taking Jess off the schedule would mean in the long term.

BRAINCRAMP

Long story, short version: Des had been essentially promised Wednesday off by one of our Ops managers… who completely spaced off that conversation and informed Land that he WOULD take Wednesday off, that she would get his shift covered, and that Des would take Friday off. Problem: Des made plans for having Wednesday off.

We’ve gone straight from BRAINCRAMP to CLUSTERFUCK.

When we finally got Des, Land, Lisa (supervisor who’s covering Land and Des’ shifts), Barbara (OUR supervisor/scheduler) together, we FINALLY got all of the scheduling kinks worked out. They were not necessarily “ironed out smoothly,” but we had something workable. Then, I had to revise the Ops schedule to reflect these recent changes. *sigh* Providence smiled upon me: Making the changes was fairly easy.

The rest of my shift was pretty easy to deal with – no problems, a steady supply of mail, and plenty of keyers.

After work, I came home, talked with Jess, had a bowl of cereal, watched DS9, talked to Jess some more, and just chilled.

And that’s how I spent most of the past two days.

And now, it’s time to rant.

Today’s rant is about “change.”

Change can be a good thing. It can bring fresh ideas and new ways of thinking. It can be a great boon in the way that we do things. When properly focused, it can help us to grow, both individually and collectively.

I don’t understand what is SO DIFFICULT to understand about when change is good and when it is unnecessary. There is a very fine line between those two points. I, personally, look at change as a “good” thing. But, I like to think that I can tell when the climate for change or even the reason for wanting the change isn’t kosher.

It seems to me that the concept of “leave well enough alone” is as elusive as quicksilver to far too many people. The case-in-point that comes blazing to mind is our supervisors’ schedule for this week.

If Person A is working Schedule B during Week C and all is going according to plan, DON’T FUCK WITH IT.

That seems simple to me. Elementary, even. But maybe I’m oversimplifying things; I don’t think that I am, though.

If Person A is working Schedule B during Week C AND Person D needs to do Task E, then factor D’s hours into the schedule and budget. This comes under the “Well, no shit” heading to me.

Our hours of operation are from 10:00am until 4:00 am (approximately, this can and often does vary) Mountain Time. This means that in order to process the mail, we must have crews scheduled to work within this timeframe. Simple. Our crew shifts vary in length from 4 to 8 hours, depending on the crew. Again, simple. While the keyers are there, there have to be supervisors there to oversee operations. Fundamental. Going back to the first “equation:” The job gets done… IF you let people do their jobs ACCORDING TO A SCHEDULE THAT WORKS. The schedule, as it was posted last week, worked. Period. Here’s where what I consider “logical, rational thought” goes right out the window:

“Let’s take Person A completely off the schedule and put Person D in that spot. Now, let’s have Person D give training classes during the times when Person A would have been other things to do according to the Operations Schedule. Hey! Let’s even move People F, G, and H around to do this.”

How in the Nine Hells do you expect to run an efficient – and EFFECTIVE – business if you hobble your staff like this?!? As my father would say: “That doesn’t even make good crazy peoples’ sense.” I would love to know what the thought processes were that led to the formation of the thought “Hey, this is a good idea” let alone the pursuant processes that obviously did NOT follow… the ones that would have set off the bells and whistles that would say “Hmmm, if I move these people around like this, I’m not utilizing manpower and resources as effectively as I could.” To me, it’s the SAME kind of lack-of-foresight vision that makes a person say “We have a perfectly good telephone/intercom system AND a fully-operational P.A. system, but what the Hell: Let’s go spend lots of money on brand new radios!!!”

Things like that make me want to go up to people and say: “This is a tree. This is a tree, too. So is that. And that. And that. And all of those. Together, they make up a forest.” Don’t get so wrapped up in ONE TREE that you forget about the ENTIRE FOREST!

Point: Sometimes, people get so wrapped up in the pros – or what they perceive as pros – that they don’t think about the cons.

WORSE point: They may so believe in the pros that they either ignore the cons… or even worse – they ignore the fact that there could even BE cons.

Don’t get me wrong: I know that people are going to make mistakes. I make mistakes… but I try to learn from them. Most of the time, I *do* learn from them. I hate to sound cliché, but the adage “Those who ignore history are doomed to repeat it.” And too often, it seems that we are stuck in a loop.

In conclusion, let me say that I think that change IS necessary for healthy growth, both in people and in business. But I also think that common sense is just as important. The next best thing isn’t always THE best. It may be bright and shiny, but in the long run is it good for you and is it worth doing/pursuing? Even more simply stated: Do we really need to change A, B, and C to get D and E done… or can we leave them alone and add D afterwards and get as good, if not BETTER, results?

Maybe it’s just me.