Mutual Weirdness

On Friday I had my annual performance evaluation. I am pleased to report that my boss had nothing bad to say and I even talked her into giving me a couple more easy responsibilities. She's been so swamped with the start of the new manager that many smaller things are slipping past her and I made sure to remind her that I'm here to help. We also discussed the PR Director a bit in regards to the news papers. My boss spoke to her about it and all she could get out of her is that she has decided to take care of the papers herself. She didn't give any other explanation. There probably is another reason, but since she didn't disclose it, nothing to be done. My boss let me know that she is intimidated by the PR Director also. So it isn't just me that feels like she looks down on them. So I'm in zero trouble there. And because I had a good evaluation I'm guaranteed a % increase to my pay for next year. Probably no more than 2% as is the normal, but it's better t

The new head honcho boss officially started work yesterday. Not a bad guy so far. He comes to us from the Military where he was a Brigadier General. This title was apparently a huge selling point for him getting the job from what I can tell. I'm certain he is qualified, but the chairman of the board has made a big deal out of the fact that we've managed to hire a Brigadier General. This has become apparent to me though the fact that the chairman insists on using the title even though the Manager does NOT want to use it anymore. He has left the military and just wants to be a normal guy with a job. To welcome the new manager to the community, a reception has been planned for Dec. 1 and invites have been printed to send out to the local community leaders. It is my job to print labels, stuff envelopes and make sure they get sent out. I was working on this yesterday. Around 3pm I started sealing the envelopes and as I am about halfway through I'm told to stop, wait. The invitat

On Monday mornings we have a staff meeting at 8:30am. I prepare for this meeting by setting out water and coffee in the conference room. Normally on Monday I make 2 pots of coffee as with the meeting we'll end up drinking it. But today I only made one as the main coffee drinker in the office is on vacation this week and a second pot this morning will just go to waste. I put most of the single pot in a coffee pitcher and put it in the conference room leaving about two cups worth in the pot on the burner. I did this because the CFO comes to this meeting and will always get coffee from the pot rather than pitcher. I have no idea why. He also always grabs the largest mug he can find in the cabinet rather than using the disposable cups I put in the conference room with the pitcher. This annoys me to no end but I've learned to deal with it. After the meeting is over I cleaned up the room as normal but upon going into the kitchen with the coffee pitcher to put what was left back in th

As coffee is the main life line for many office workers we of course of a coffee maker in the office. It is fairly old, but it gets the job done. This is what it looks like: We do not use the burner on the top though as that end of the machine is under the upper cabinets in the kitchen. But two is plenty as we have never needed to have more than two pots of coffee going at once. Water is poured into the opening at the top right and comes out at the pot in the bottom left. The general rule for our office is that the first person in in the morning starts the first pot of coffee. Most of the time that's me, no big deal. Just put some coffee in a filter, add some water and we have coffee. So simple that I'm amazed at how many people have trouble doing this. Before I go home at the end of the day, one of the things I do is make sure that the old filter and grounds have been dumped out and that one of the pots is empty and ready in the bottom left burner for coffee the next mo