Change, change and more change

I have not felt like writing of late. Felt her but not here, overwhelmed and unable to find the time and the energy to dig out.

To try to get a bit of coherence and a time line... Monday March 10 I started training at Microdyne, having been hounded and pushed into accepting a job much more quickly than I had intended. "Training" was to have been 2 weeks, and the first few days did not start off well... Our trainer was easily distracted and one of the trainees was even worse -- a disabled vet with as bad a case of ADD as I have ever seen. They attempted to teach us version 6 of the software we were to be supporting, which will soon be replaced by version 7 and it seems we hopped back and forth from one version to the next, with much time lost due to having to set up equipment to display the projection from which we were taught. The only time we were able to explore the program for ourselves was during brief moments when we were called to the projection system to repeat what we had been shown, kinda like in the MSF learn to ride classes where we got shown a maneuver 3 times and then got two tries to replicate it successfully, before moving on. Stress...

Eventually we got on to the tools we would be using to actually help the customers, which were allowed to log onto and explore... all except me. Seems they could not figure out now to get my name to work with a log-in... not on Wed (I tried the combination the told me) nor Thurs ... nor Fri... each day I tried repeatedly. By the end of the week I was getting MOST frustrated by the amount of time we spent sitting while the trainer fussed with equipment that "should have" been set up, chatted with friends, etc. When she projected the training schedule on screen to check off the subject covered, it was obvious she was not working from any sort of plan at all; each day from the beginning we were to have spent the last two hours listening to actual calls/resolutions. Instead she had us making up scenarios. Us, who had no knowledge before this of the software or the industry in which it was used.

When I left Friday afternoon, still without login, the training schedule was also in a turmoil. You see, most of the class are college students and they began class on Monday. The distractable Vet and I were not, so we were told to "be here at 8 on Monday." Since we were standing in the training room at the time, and no other instructions were given (though in the discussions as to how the rest of training would be conducted there had been discussion about "being on the floor" the second week it was not really settled) both the Vet and I assumed that was where we were to meet. However as we were waiting in the training room that second Monday, we were discovered by another trainer for another class and she searched down our trainer, who came down from the floor with a "You were supposed to be on the floor..." comment. Right...
Then I discovered from the team leader that "your logon has been active since Wednedsay..." and, yeah, of course, when I tried it THIS time, it worked... I knew there was no reason to bother to ask why it had not worked for me on Wed, Thurs, Fri on the multiple times I tried it.

So, I sat and watched and listened to an experienced tech, wondering about the confusion and lack of communication I had seen and been subjected to during the past week. It seemed like on every call he took something was done "to cover my a$$"... and when I went on break I was treated to overhearing a table full of other employees bitching amongst themselves over ways in which they had been jerked around for petty this and that and it confirmed a feeling that had been not so slowly growing, that there was way too much BS in this company for my liking, especially as it in no way involved raising bovines.

So Monday, at the end of my shift I handed in my badge and my training manual and explained to the HR employee who had hired me that it was not a good fit, that there was way too much confusion, mixed messages and lack of communication and that, even though I could do the job, I was leaving. The fact that there was NO RESPONSE to this.. no change in expression, not even a professional and superficial expression of regret confirmed that this was the right decision.

And the next day, running errands and thinking I still believed I was on the right path. The day before NOTHING felt right and on Tues, even though I was once again unemployed EVERYTHING did.

I needed a few "full stop days" to do what I should have done after we arrived. REST.

And in the mean time we have gotten the bifold doors installed and the cats released from their tiny bedroom holding cell (I felt that they and I were released from purgatory about the same time!) and the last couple of nights have been wonderful with cats on the bed and purring in my ear. Even Kindness, one of the two "ferals" we caught just before leaving, was on the foot of the bed thei morning, though her sister, Sherrie, AKA FuzzyButt, is as scarce as always.

And we have gotten a bunch of stuff shuffled from the storage building to the trailer and vice versa. I have almost found all the stuff I need to cook in basic kitchen mode, the majority of my winter clothes have been found, and the fridge and freezer are beginning to be stocked in a more normal way.

We have gotten our "land line" phone set up with Vonage and just today got US Cellular phones with a local number. Soon the cell number that I have been using for clients in NC will become a virtual line with Vonage and I can get business cards printed with the new cell number for use here. So even though things are not moving, they are.

I have determined that I need to visit a local friend prior to touching base again with the tshirt company that I wanted to work for (she and her husband are friends of the owner) and will be attending a tourism development meeting here in Milo this evening, to get a feel for the town, meet and greet and get to know the TDA folks here.

more later... time for TDA meeting