Thursday, October 22, 2009




So sorry I haven't been a good blogger lately. My reality seems to be infringing on my writing time and that simply will not do!

As many of you know, I run a small company with about 25 people working under me. That can definitely have its challenges and the past two weeks have piled on more bullshit than I have dealt with all year.

First of all, the secretary administrative assistant fell and broke her arm in three places. You can imagine that injury causes her major duty of typing to be quite the bitch. She has been out for about a month now after some surgery to realign everything with bandaids and crazy glue or whatever it is they use. In the meantime, I replaced her with a temp that I found through an ad on Craigslist.

This temp ROCKS. The position's productivity has increased almost 50% and this is from someone that is still training. However, the major benefit is that she doesn't feel the need to stink up the employee bathroom twice a day like Ms. Broken Bone.

I am only half kidding. I think Ms BB eats road kill covered in shit sauce three times a day. The damage she does to an entire side of the building is that bad.

But I digress.

Ms. BB has been an employee for over ten years. Even though I am a hard ass, I do have some loyality and throwing someone out on their ass because their twice daily dump stinks up the place, because they are slowing down in their old age, doesn't seem like the right thing to do.

However, I do want to keep this temp.

The new woman does annoys the shit out of me with her yammering, but I can deal with a little annoying as long as I keep getting the work out of her.

Besides, once she is perm, I'll just tell her to shut up and get the hell out of my office like I eventually do to everyone that works there.

Ms. Temp definitely wants the job and asks me every other day if I know what Ms BB's status is on coming back to work. Well, as of tonight, her status seems to be she is coming back in another two weeks.

So I need to put on my manager cap and figure out how to increase the budget to load up on the lysol, keep the temp while still finding a position for Ms. BB.

Sigh. I need a vacation.

14 comments:

The Dish said...

Hope you get everything worked out! Mr. Burns had a temp after my ovary revolt and she was a nightmare! 2 months later I was still fixing her screw ups. Sigh.

Libby said...

good for you for getting a good temp! you KNOW, that rarely happens!
"My reality seems to be infringing on my writing time and that simply will not do!"
i'm glad you recognize that...too many people don't!!

Shiny Rod said...

I need a vacation too! Where should we go? Hawaii is nice this time of year...

Christine said...

If you're payin' Im in! lol

razorbeck said...

Hey Chris as long as you are hiring, how do you feel about illegal aliens

I am not much of a typist but if you need an intimidating security guy to stand behind you and look dangerous I am your man.I wouldn't cost much as I am ultra low maintenance, a room, a tv and a bathroom is all I need. NO I will not share with the cheese. Garden shed is acceptable as long as I can pee in the bushes and have a shower every day

Anonymous said...

I would have thought about hiring Razorbeckmyself but a shower every day seems awfully demanding. :)

Going through an office move has put tons of work pressure on me, so I get how you are feeling. As if my REAL life doesn't have enough suckiness in it.

That's a real dilemma about the Temp and BB. I'm glad you have loyalty to time honored staff but I think it's great that you recognize potential when you see it. I think they call that good management!

Evil Twin's Wife said...

Could you make Ms. BB the "office administrator": the person who keeps track of office supplies and does the reorders, etc. and then keep temp in as the AA?

Christine said...

ETW, that would be great if the economy didn't suck so bad but I don't have the budget to pull that one off. In my mind I am moving people around trying to see if I can manage it. What I didn't mention in my post is that this WOULD be totally doable if I could fire my personal assistant who is a nightmare. Problem is, I promoted her, filled her job so I would have to completely let her go.

I am not happy with any of these choices!@

Special K said...

I wanted to hire Razorbeck too except I thought my dog might not like the competition with the bushes! :)

Christine, I have no advice, it is safe to say that I am a hardass more than I thought, I was trying to think of ways to ditch the BB for the new chick.

Christine said...

K. Usually I am a total bitch when it comes to letting people go when necessary. However, I do have a problem when it comes to my long term employees that begin to f-up. We aren't a major corporation so it becomes like a family. The ugly red headed step children family but family nonetheless. That makes it harder. It took me a year to fire my last assistant and I would take her back in a second because what I ended up with is far worse. I took some bad advice on that one.

The Girl said...

oh damn that's a tough one. I have no advice other than .. Good luck

Olly said...

Surely there has to be a weakest link to let go. That would make the shuffling a lot easier.

Coffeypot said...

Typical managerial stuff. I say put BB in charge of cleaning the bathrooms. Give her a filing job along with a bucket, mop, rubber gloves and a hazmat suit.

Golden To Silver Val said...

You may want to offer her a retirement package that's so good it will be hard to turn down (if she's old enough to retire). That's what they are doing to two workers where I work...they've both been there over 30 years. Its a one time only deal...getting paid for all sick time they have on the books (no cap) and health benefits for spouses after retirement. Once they go, their positions won't be filled, however.Good Luck...I know you'll think of something. Good employees are like pure gold nowadays and I can understand you not wanting to lose this temp.