Furlough time has arrived!

Last night they started the furlough process. They asked for volunteers and were taking up to 40. Only 24 volunteered and so that meant that they had to start the force volunteer process. There are 322 in the department and my number at this point is 235 so I was not involved in this first one, they went to 305. There was 1 volunteer in our team and 2 forced to furlough last night. Now it is time for the worrying every night when I go to work if they will tell me it it time for my furlough. I am currently applying for all permanent jobs that I am qualified for and hopefully I will be able to get one of them and then not have to worry about it, I will keep my fingers crossed and be on my knees asking the good Lord above for help.

Furlough time is officially around the corner!

We were called into a "meeting" in the hallway and they officially gave the "5-day furlough" notice. They are right now asking for 15 volunteers to be furloughed on Friday. If they get that many (which rumor has it that there will be more than 15 willing to go) then they will not use the recall numbers. My recall number right now is 235 out of a possible 322, so I have 87 people below me that could be called out before I am. The girls in my team that were there last year said that they did not even get a warning. They showed up for work and were told that if your number is between 250 and 310 (I think that was the number) then you are furloughed, clean our your desk, leave your badge, and go home. WOW, I hope that I takes at least a few weeks before I am furloughed. The longer I stay the better we are financially speaking. I was also told that if you opened a claim for unemployment within the last year, if you have not used it all up (which I did not) then you will receive the same amount as last time until it it all used up. That will really suck because I received unemployment in March for 2 weeks and it was based on my part time job pay, YUCK!!!! Also I applied for some detail jobs, where you work for a specified amount of days in a position; the ones I applied for were a day position and a swing shift position. I was informed that they filled the positions (16 in all) with permanent employees. That really bites my ---! They know that seasonals will be leaving soon due to the season is at the end and yet they filled the positions with permanent employees so that they can add that to their resume, while the rest of us have to figure out how to survive for the next say 6 months! UGH!!!!

Well I am off to take the kids to swimming lessons!

I Like FUNDER, but not RAINGING!

This is what was said by my littlest one the other night. I wanted to laugh so hard, she just cracks me up. Her brother was all upset about the thunderstorm and we had to sit him down and explain that he would be safe inside the house and not to worry, it was just noise made by he lightening. So then we have a discussion about "funder and rainging." Evidently "rainging" is not fun because you get wet but we like to see the "lightnin" and hear the "funder." I just love my kids, they keep me laughing which helps my sanity.

Last night at work I heard a rumor that they are furloughing the mail department which in essence we will be furloughed soon, probably in about 3 to 4 weeks. I have also heard that it will most likely be the end of June so that they do not have to pay holiday pay. DARN!!! I have been enjoying my new job (have a hard time with the last couple of hours though). I have enjoyed my coworkers and being able to get out of the house. I did not realize how hard it was to work from home, but now being back in the work outside the house force, I realized that I have so much less stress, not having to worry about getting my quota every day. Now I just have to worry about what recall number I will receive and when we will be called back. My manager warned me that it could be as long as January, but it will all depend on callback numbers and how many people they need. Oh boy, now the waiting......

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY TO ALL!

I am sitting here without my kids today, they are spending the weekend at my mom's so that we can go out to dinner tonight to celebrate Mother's Day with my mother-in-law at our favorite restaurant. It takes me back to the days before marriage and children. I would dread going to church on that day because I was "old enough" to get the gift (usually a flower to plant) to honor mothers. I truly appreciate now the wonderful blessing of being a mother and know that there are many out there that do not get the opportunity to have children. I am truly greatful for the fact that my children are all healthy and I pray for those mothers that have children who are not, it must be a real struggle for them, but I also know that they will receive wonderful blessings for being a great mother in raising their children.

I have realized that those that have not been able to have children are just as influential in the lives of others around them. For example, I have an aunt that was unable to have children but she has been there for each of her nieces and nephews and you can always count on either a card, phone call, and/or email on your birthday, she never forgets.

I was raised by a wonderful mom and had the priviledge of having a wonderful grandma and aunts to help me in my path in life, I salute all of them this Mother's Day.

Happy Mother's Day to all moms and women of influence!!!

Hmmm I thought I was doing a great job?

Last week I was informed that I was receiving incentive pay, YIPEE!!! It was $67 and I was so excited, only a few weeks of working and I had made incentive. When I got home I showed John the paperwork and he was happy and then as he was looking at it closely he asked why there were 2 different columns and I was not making quota for one of the columns. I took a closer look and realized that I made incentive on the extensions, which were a piece of cake to do only a few entries per document, and my regular forms that I work on I am under the incentive quota. DANG!!! We are through working on the extensions and therefore I will not be able to get incentive for those. My manager was impressed that I made incentive, she said that most people do not get incentive until their 2nd year and sometimes not until their 3rd year. I felt good to hear that but now I know that it will be awhile until I make quota for incentive pay and probably by the time I make it they will taken incentive pay away (they are talking about doing that within the next couple of years). Oh well, I will just keep plugging along and hopefully get to incentive before it is taken away. It is kind of nice to have a little extra money.

Ughh! Key Drills!

So last night at work my manager comes up to me and shows me that I had 2 errors on my review and therefore I need to do key drills for half an hour. 2 errors out of over 200 documents, they were finger errors which meant that my finger hit the wrong key such as a 7 instead of a 4. We were originally told that those types of errors were nothing to worry about and now I get 2 and was put on drills. Drills are like a typing test that you took back in the old typing class in school. Yeah, boring!!! The girl next to me said we should protest and go to the union office but I said if they want to waste 1/2 an hour of pay for punishment instead of having us work to get the workload in that was their fault. So I plugged through it and was able to keep my eyes open the rest of the night. The worst part was that the other girls next to me asked if they had errors and she said no, so they gave each other high-5's as I am sitting there doing the stupid drill, that really pissed me off!!!! If this keeps up I just may end up slapping them.

Now if I can just keep my fingers where they belong.....

I'm just too darn old!

Last night at work we had a "pajama" party. It was thought up by two 20 something girls that each weigh no more than 130 lbs and say that they are fat after having 1 child. Are you kidding me? I wanted to slap them both and tell them to shut up! I am bigger than the 2 put together and they have the nerve to say they are fat, give me a break! So last night I wear a T-shirt and sweats for my PJs and felt like a dork all night long. Now when I worked from home that was my attire most days of the week, but since going back into the out-of-house work force I feel that it is important to dress up somewhat, still casual, but definitely not sweats. The whole night I felt like something was wrong and then I would look down and think oh yeah, I should not be wearing these to work. Well I survived and did not even once raise my hand to slap them when they said "do these make me look fat to you?" Give me a break, I would love to be that little again but it is just too much work and so I am content for now to be this size and maybe lose a few pounds to help improve my overall health.....then again I do like my Coke and chocolate, and it would be too much of a sacrifice to give those up, hehehehe