Are you bored of these dailies yet? I am, but I am still going to try and give you one each day for at least the first few days. Kinda detailing my acclimation to DADC. The only real thing to say about my acclamation is that my feet still hurt and I still don't know everything...imagine that. I did learn some more today, and I am more comfortable jumping in and doing whatever I feel is what needs to be done instead of waiting for input. I also think my coworkers are more willing to think I know what I am doing and letting me do it versus the telling me to do something I had no idea about and wondering why I did not know how...which reminded me of helping Dad with any construction project I thought I could help him with when I was a kid (It took me a long time to appreciate that my brother Alan just understood things I would never comprehend. Interesting aside on this tangent, I made better grades than he did all through school, and he has a reliable job while I have been unemployed for the last year and a half. Billy Joel was right.).
Ok, anyways, now to talk about the drama I said I probably wouldn't mention yesterday. One of the guys in our orientation group was about 22, hyped himself up with five or six cups of coffee before he did anything, and pretty much went off on the head of HR on Monday. It was not a violent affair, but he kept asking questions, refused to let the guy answer the questions, and then would go off that everything was changing. (Admittedly, yes things have changed, but it really evens out for the most part. I mean insurance would be nice, but we need the money more right now.) So they basically gave him an ultimatum, calm the fuck down or don't show up again...which was reasonable. However, the rest of us had to hear about this kids problems for the entire day. Before the battle with HR, he was whining about not making enough money. He had apparently set aside everything including his social life so that he could work his ass off this fall so he could go back to school in the spring (much like I am wanting to do). After the meeting, he was going off because even thought we knew we were working 12 hour days and that it was 4 days on 4 days off, he was suddenly working too much. Somehow he had also totally disregarded it when they told us about 5 on 3 off mandatory overtime we would have as we got closer to the end of the year. 60 hours was just too much for him because he had obligations like doing the dishes and mowing the lawn...and living with his mom who paid all the bills. He is now known as the lawn mower man.
Ok, so that brief mention turned into an entire paragraph...and it was only supposed to be a quick segway. Oh well, I failed. Get used to it, I have. So, today at lunch, one of the other guys from our orientation group clocked out for lunch and realized that his badge wasn't reading his name and was in fact clocking the lawn mower man out for lunch. Slightly miffed and very worried, he headed over to HR. And from the retelling, they basically said they would fix his badge later, the lawn mower man was going to get his pay for the last two days, and that they were going to lunch. Needless to say he was livid when he walked back across the street to join us for lunch. After a series of expletives and poking fun at the idea of the lawn mower man being elated when he got his check, we offered the guy a list of good advice on handling HR. He went back after lunch and everything was set into motion. It is still just amusing that 2 of the three days I have been there a huge piece of drama involved the same person, and hasn't even been there since Monday.
