Ow does it feel

[j4]

Phew, sorry for the long silence, here and (as some of you may have found) on email. I have had a good couple of weeks (some of which I will catch up with writing up on LJ at some point) including some birthdays (one mine), a wedding (not mine), a hen night (ditto and unrelated), a gig, and a film; but right now I am underslept, overstressed, and the inside of my head feels like it's been scrubbed with wire wool.

I am also heartily sick of work politics, and would be much happier to just get on with my job... if only any two people could agree on what my job is supposed to be and for whom I'm supposed to be working.

I really need a holiday.

Comments

[rysmiel.livejournal.com]

*hug* It is good to have you back.

[ultraruby.livejournal.com]

It's lovely to see you around here again. And it was your birthday? Happy birthday! I owe you e-mail and a visit and lots of other things; I promise to deliver before very long.

x

[rgl.livejournal.com]

That reminds me, I've had a post-it lying on my desk with the URL of this image just waiting for you to update:



Yes, it's a badger in a teapot, as stolen from the London Sinfonietta's latest mailout.

[vinaigrettegirl.livejournal.com]

Welcome back!

My Very Ace Woman Friend who worked her way up a corporate ladder and then soooo enjoyed quitting really did persuade me that Contracts And HR Reviews Are Your Friend. They're binding and you are entitled to clarification if anything you are being asked to do, or by whom, is either unclear or not within your terms.

The process is also Your Friend. So you review the terms of your job description, get your facts fairly straight, tell your boss you want to review your work (there is probably a protocol allowing you to do this in the university's handbook), and take notes when you get there. Agree a way forward and a second review period to ensure it happens. :-)

[j4.livejournal.com]

I've been thinking about this one (which is why I didn't reply sooner) and wondering if any of this would help, but to be honest ... hm, I'm not sure how to explain without going into boring details, but basically this situation already has so much Process in it, and so much Reviewing Of Stuff, that it's pretty much a denial of service attack on anybody involved who's still trying to do any work, and I fear that adding more Process is only going to make somebody else's life a misery.

The people who could do anything about it know that the situation is untenable, and they keep saying "it will all get sorted soon". I no longer believe the "soon", but I do still (naively?) believe that it will resolve itself eventually, and that adding more layers of Process will only slow it down.

I will, however, dig out my contract and write up some kind of summary of what I'm doing over and above that, and ask if there's any possibility of getting some kind of formal acknowledgement (preferably in HARD CASH) that I have been acting up (I mean, in the sense of doing the job one up from me, not in the sense of throwing toys out of the pram, which is what other people are doing!) backdated to some mutually-agreed point at which this all started going pearshaped.

The money wouldn't actually reduce the stress, but it might make it feel like it wasn't all for nothing.

Hopefully as a result of my having done two people's jobs all this time, however, I will be in the best possible position to apply for the other person's job when somebody finally admits that she is no longer doing it, and they are allowed to advertise.

It's all stupidly complicated and also stupidly stupid. :-(

[vinaigrettegirl.livejournal.com]

There you go, then: procedurally correct without going all Processy. And I expect that you putting it in writing will help move the situation on without causing aggro. Which is rocking. You go, girl!

(And thx for clueing me up on the situation without being indiscreet. Definitely stupidly stupid. sigh)

Quad-biking in Prague

[(Anonymous)]

I forgot to mention, it's my second hen night next week, and we're all going quad-biking in Prague! It's part of this new therapy that drives you beyond endurance so you can have a full breakdown and then recover, kind of like drinking hot drinks makes you sweat and therefore cools you down.

NOT REALLY. But, seriously, sympathy x 1000 for social overloadedness and work stress and everything stress. And thank you so much for bringing cake and general rockingness to proceedings.

Kate

(who really genuinely doesn't normally read LJ, right, but I'm waiting for this goddamned Chechen to turn up and J-P told me that Suzette Haden Elgin was on your flist and I had to see if this was true, and it is.)

P.S. Lot of ugly munters on this weeks How Does It Feel site. Things have gone downhill since our day.

P.P.S. J-P is shouting at the radio again. "GOT ANY EVIDENCE FOR THAT, CUNT?"