Decisions

I was going to blog about this dog and pony show we had at work, with a senior VP "gracing" us with her presence and ultimately kicking us collectively in the nads.  I still will, just not right now.  Instead there's a different topic I'm going to blog about, though its still work-related.

Awhile back I mentioned my dissatisfaction with my job, how I felt like I was accomplishing what was expected of me (and beyond) and yet how I didn't see the dangled carrot of a promotion drawing any nearer for a bite.  Things may change.  They may not of course, but now an entirely new path may be in front of me.

About six months ago our 3rd shift supervisor quit.  Nice guy, but he found something better I guess and that was that.  That was six months ago.  They still haven't filled the position, which is nothing short of disgraceful.  I'm not referring to the management within my facility, I'm referring to HR who has kind of shrugged and looked the other way regarding the needs of our facility.  Our DC is pretty much an unknown, unheralded asset to the company.  I'll get more into that when I talk about the town hall meeting we had, but like I said this spot has been open for 6 months now.

We've had HR send 3 candidates to my bosses for interviews, and from what I hear only one was worth considering and when he found out what the pay was he passed on it entirely.  Pretty much anyone with half a brain has been approached about taking the position, and some folks with less than half a brain have expressed an interest.  There are some good lead men on 2nd shift, but they don't want to move to 3rd shift.  It was suggested a while back to me that I apply for it, but I really didn't want to go to 3rd either.  Plus the guys on 3rd, while nice guys, are long timers we inherited from the main plant closing last year and their attitude isn't the greatest.  But there is no leadership at all on that shift and its hurting our accuracy ratings.

So today I was bullshitting...er, I mean strategizing...with the 1st shift supervisor as he was going through the local job openings.  He finally got to our posting and opened it and commented as he was reading the qualifications that I could do that.  I asked him if he seriously thought I could, and he looked and me and asked "Are you interested?".  I replied that I wasn't, and he said "good" and we moved on to other subjects.  But then I brought it up again...seriously, if I were interested do you think I'd be able to handle it?  He again said yes, he thought I could.  So then we talked a bit about that and I got to thinking a little.

So after lunch I went to my boss and asked him the same question.  I got the same answer.  I told him that I really wasn't particularly interested because I'd rather pursue the path I was on, but I did value his input.  If he thought I'd be in over my head, just say so.  But he said no, if I were willing to put in the work he thought I could handle the role.  But his question was along the lines of "do you really want to do that?  Because once you go to 3rd, thats pretty much the only place you'll go". 

So my next meeting was with the facility manager.  Keep in mind that overall I have a good rapport with all of management at our facility, and overall they seem to like and respect me.  So I asked the manager what he thought.  His response really surprised me.  He said first of all, in my position they'd have to offer me a lead spot first because I'd not had an "official" supervisor role in the past and because it would be too massive of a labor grade jump to go from where I was at to a supervisor.  At this point I want to go on record and state that our company's view on advancement is sad.  One step at a time, thats it.  Nevermind qualifications or performance, I guess.

So anyway, the manager tells me that I was actually one of the first people he thought of to put in there (I kind of doubt that, but whatever lol) but he had heard I wasn't interested in 3rd shift.  We had a lengthy talk and basically he said he believed I could take it on and succeed.  Now at this point I was actually beginning to consider throwing my hat in the ring.

The way I'm looking at it, I don't know how the situation in my current position is going to work out as far as advancement goes.  If I wind up not getting the promotions I feel I deserve, where do I go from there?  Thats pretty much it unless someone quits.  On the other hand, this opportunity is still right there.  It might be the only opportunity I get, or I might choose it and wind up screwed.  I don't know.

To be honest, the supervisor position would be a massive pay increase.  Of course I'd have to do the middle step as a lead, which probably wouldn't be as massive an increase but it would be something.  And lets face it, its all about the money.

The position has been sitting there for 6 months now, as I mentioned.  Everyone and their brother has had the opportunity to put in for it.  The manager pointed out that I hadn't been with the company very long (I haven't) but I've gotten a good handle on the business in that short period and he felt I was being underutilized in my current position.  I added that I was also being underpaid.  He ignored that and continued that this was the reason I was brought up to the office from receiving, to get more out of me, and he felt that even now they could use me in better ways.

So thats where I stand.  I talked to my son already and told him about it, asked him his thoughts.  I mentioned that with me working 3rds that things would change as far as during his visitations, with me having to be gone Friday nights at work and him being there alone.  He was ok with it though, so thats good.  I'll probably take a few days to think about it (and I really should), but the more I think about it now the more I'm leaning towards applying for it.  Of course HR could just say fuck no, and that would be the end of that.  But we will see, I guess.

Posted by pp2 @ 10:01 pm EDT | Permalink | 3 Comments

Movies

As I mentioned, I rented a couple movies over the weekend.  I already shared my thoughts on Death Proof, the only thing I'll add is that 2 and a half days later I still don't regret not watching the final 25 minutes of it.  'Nuff said, I guess. 

Then there was Ocean's 13.  It was pretty much what I expected it to be, but still not that great.  If it were just a standalone film it would have been only moderately clever.  As part of this "series", its not that clever at all.  It kind of replaces the desparate cleverness with bored smugness, if that makes any sense.  In the first movie you liked the cast, liked their chemistry, and wondered if these misfits would be able to top a very convincing Andy Garcia.  When everything was revealed, you realized that it had all been there in front of your eyes the whole time.  They duped you along with Garcia, and it was really enjoyable.  In this one you know (after having learned this in the last one) that these guys are going to win no matter what ridiculous and unbelievable plot device they need to pull out of their asses.  I still watch the original from time to time (not the orginal Rat Pack version which I find terminally boring, but the first in this trilogy) and even though I know whats coming, I still enjoy it.  Ah well.  I wouldn't recommend not seeing it, I just wouldn't recommend having high expectations.  Oh yeah, and Ellen Barkin is still hot in her 50s.

I was going to watch it Saturday night except because of our ice storm, as mentioned before the power went out.  I just don't think I mentioned the "ice storm" part.  I was out driving in that slop earlier in the afternoon.  I suppose I should get out more or check the weather more or something, because I had no idea it was coming.  I peeked out the back window here by the computer and saw what looked like a moderate dusting of snow.  I opened the blinds a little further and it really didn't look like it was snowing anymore, so I figured I'd run out to a few places and call it a weekend.  Ha.  I realized my folly as I got to my car, freezing my ass off and trying real hard not to slip in the mess that was out there.  And then of course nobody remembers how to drive in this stuff, because its CHICAGO people, we NEVER get snow or ice here.  EVER.  NOT EVEN ONCE EVER.  Fucking morons.  And I always get behind them.  Oh, and my personal favorite driver was the one who actually sped up in the left lane to cut in between me and the car in front of me just after 83rd st.  Now there was nobody behind me, but this douche has to get between me and the car ahead of me.  So I really slow it down because I figure numnuts there is making a quick right turn and I didn't know if I would have time to slow down enough once he did it.  But then as we got towards 87th st (where I was turning to go to Meijer) I realized this prick wasn't turning at all.  He fucking cut me off because he basically felt like it.  Fuckstick.

Ah well, thats it for now.  Next up I'll talk about our fun visit from a senior VP at our facility last week.  Stay tuned for the recap of the dog and pony show!  Thanks for reading.

Posted by pp2 @ 7:37 am EDT | Permalink | 0 Comments

Well well well

I was taking a little nap yesterday evening when I woke up to discover the power was out.  Checked the cell phone and it was about 9 (nice nap lol), called a buddy a couple buildings over to see if his stuff was out too.  Turns out there was a power line laying across 75th st, just down the block from me.  Great.  So I hung out a bit (should've recharged my Zune, dammit!) and then decided to call it a night and go back to sleep.  Of course now I'm up early, but nothing fatal.

I rented a couple movies Friday night after work.  I was hoping to rent College Hoops 2K8, but the Blockbuster I have my gamepass at is starting to suck again with the new titles.  When I renewed it last month it was because they had gotten in some of the new titles I was looking for.  Since then they've gotten in crap, and there's still a lot of titles that have come out in the last 2 months or so they aren't getting in, not to mention they are missing a lot of older stuff.  But they did get in 3 copies (yes, THREE!) of that Avatar game.  Corporate must hate them.

Right, the movies.  I rented Death Proof and Ocean's 13.  I watched Death Proof Friday night.  Bleh.  I like Tarantino's penchant for dialogue usually, and Kurt Russell generally makes anything he's in at least watchable, but Death Proof was...well, it was really really boring.  Not sure what Tarantino was trying to accomplish with the overall product, but he let his love for dialogue get in the way of the story and eventually you just stopped caring.  Also consider that it took like 50 minutes before the whole "DEATH" part of Death Proof came into play.  I never bothered finishing it, there was still about 25 minutes to go when I shut it off.  I know there's supposed to be some sort of really cool car chase at the end of it, but by that point I just didn't care anymore.

I was going to watch Ocean's 13 last night, but again the power thing happened so I didn't.  Maybe I'll watch it when I finish blogging here.  I really liked the cleverness of 11, but 12 tried to hard to be clever instead of just letting it happen, and 12 sucked pretty bad.  I understand that 13 isn't as good as 11, but its a lot better than 12.  So we'll see.

Maybe I'll make a little breakfast too before I fire up that movie.  Mmmm, waffles and movies!

Posted by pp2 @ 6:50 am EDT | Permalink | 2 Comments

Placeholder

I have some random thoughts to blog later, but for right now I wanted to steer you peeps to Mojo421's J-Spot blog:  http://www.2old2play.com/Blog/Mojo421

2 issues up, its a fun read and has some cool ringtones and cell wallpapers.  I plug it because I believe in it.    Check it out, I know you'll dig it too.

Posted by pp2 @ 1:29 pm EDT | Permalink | 0 Comments

Money!

Well, a little bit anyway. I talked to the facility manager and point-blank asked him for a favor: can you throw me some overtime to help me out at Christmas? I wasn't asking for much, maybe 8-10 hours over this next 2 week check. Happily he agreed, so I stuck around 5 hours tonight and helped out on the floor and will stick around hopefully another 5 tomorrow. The goal? To afford Rock Band for my son (and me!) for Christmas. Of course I'll have to find it once I have the money, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it.

I miss overtime, I really do. This time last year I was swimming in it. I was in receiving on second shift and we were working 10 hour days pretty regularly. Then when they decided they were going to move me into the office on first shift at the beginning of this year, I spent the last couple weeks of December coming in at noon to train up front for a couple hours then I would go back to receiving. We would work til 1:30 in the morning or so, then sometimes they would need a hand in shipping so I'd get stopped at the time clock before I punched out and asked to stick around and help. Had some days that went til almost 5am. Good times. Good checks. Sadly, its all gone now so I have to scavenge what little OT I can, when I can.

This will help though, so I'm pretty happy about that.

Posted by pp2 @ 11:18 pm EDT | Permalink | 0 Comments