Sometimes, however, it can't be Fridays. One example is this week's example: The woman who works in filing second shift wants to take that day off. And if you fill in for her, you should be working all eight hours. I don't mind volunteering for that shift because of the complete freedom I feel, as I have stated here before. But in exchange for that, I have to pick another half-day (always an afternoon; I don't mind waking up in the morning to make absolutely sure I have work to just key in my four hours that day) of the week to take off.
I had stalled as long as possible telling my boss which half-day off instead I should take. I have finally realized something I guess I should have been hip to earlier; these other forms that serve as the second priority of my usual day at data entry do not often come on Wednesdays. Therefore, it seems as though we are scrambling for work more often on Wednesdays than Thursdays. (Note, however, that I don't have concrete proof that this is actually true.) And if I'm working second shift on Friday, taking off Thursday afternoon basically gives me a whole day to myself, which is something I like. (Oh, I guess I should insert here that taking off Mondays and Tuesdays are options I do not consider. I am one of only two people working on Mondays, and Tuesdays is my department's busiest day.)
Despite my preternatural fear of having no work and getting cut early, and despite my thinking that a greater chance of that would happen Wednesday afternoon instead of Thursday afternoon, I finally told my boss last week that I would take Thursday afternoon off. But then the ice storm down south hit earlier this week. The shipments of our forms (at least the way I understand it) come from two mid-sized cargo transportation hubs: Memphis and Indianapolis, although the greatest bulk of work comes from Memphis. Well, despite all the news centering on the energy grid of Texas completely failing, what is affecting that state is ravaging the mid-South and the Northeast ... so much so that shipments from Memphis were cancelled Tuesday, Wednesday and yesterday.
Tuesday afternoon, well after we got done with our main forms and blessedly were working on the second priority forms (we got a more than a thousand of them, the biggest single-day shipment of this type of form I have ever seen working there ... did these come from Indianapolis?), I got an e-mail from my other boss that things aren't looking good for work to do Wednesday. With that, I e-mailed my main boss asking if I could change my half-day off from Thursday afternoon to Wednesday afternoon, in anticipation of both not having work Wednesday and, assuming that the ice storm cleared by Thursday, having all the work that was supposed to come Tuesday and Wednesday come in Thursday. He didn't exactly believe my assumption, but he switched it.
So on Wednesday there was a trickle of work from Indy. Thankfully my bosses had this side project they were able to whip up Tuesday, which I believe the rest of my department was working on for much of the afternoon. (Don't really know because I was assigned to filing for the morning.) I left at around 11 Wednesday thinking I did the right thing changing my mind. It was snowing and I didn't get tested where I wanted to, so my plans were sort-of ruined, and maybe that would have been a good day to just work all day, but whatever.
I really thought that the ice storm would have cleared by yesterday, and that good ol' American capitalism would have demanded the shipments get back in the air ASAP. Maybe I should have paid more attention to the weather report. But I checked weather.gov Thursday morning and saw that much of the state of Tennessee, probably including Memphis, was still under an ice advisory. So, the output of main forms yesterday morning, like that of the previous two workdays, was meager. Moreover, since everybody was working on this project Wednesday afternoon, everybody was pretty much done by Thursday morning. Everybody, that is, except me, because I was working somewhere else Wednesday morning and not working at all Wednesday afternoon. I pawned off part of my work to two other people, and the vast majority of work was still done by 11.
There was a chance that was some work with the secondary forms -- assuming some came in that afternoon. But the decision was made to let everybody go at 11. I, however, volunteered to stick around. There were some folders that had yet to be "closed," meaning that not all the forms that were supposed to be in that folder had been processed and put in that folder, and someone had to stick around to see these folders through to the end. And I, somewhat humiliated for making a calculation, changing my mind, and seeing that decision blow up in my face to the tune of extra paid time off I would need to take, was now doing damage control. I was just trying to find as much work as possible in order to cut down on the time I would have to take off.
But then a few things happened. First, these folders did not close for some time. There apparently were forms that the technicians inside were waiting on for hours. Then, a small stream of secondary forms came in, from Indianapolis or wherever. It wasn't much, but I was now the only person in the department, so it took some time scanning and then keying them. But then the relatively big news came: More folders were coming. Just a few more, but again, such a workload that would have been devoured by a dozen people overwhelms one.
I thought I would be done by 11:30. Then noon. But then I heard that these new primary forms were being driven in, and so I had to take a lunch. And then I saw that these folders were as full as they were allowed to be, so my revised thought that I would be done by 2 went to hell. And not only were these primary forms, but these were forms that, per policy, should be completely keyed and looked over by 2:30 each day. I finally got all these folders (courtesy of my boss, who stuck around and scanned them in) a bit past 2. That's when it hit me: I, somehow, was going to pull in a full day at work, and when no one else in my department did. In fact, I was going to be late with the work that was supposed to be done -- there were extenuating circumstances concerning the time the work came in and the labor that was dismissed earlier in the day, but it was going to be late. Furthermore, I had planned on leaving 20 minutes earlier than I usually would because I have been working late earlier in the week, but that went out the window, too.
Miraculously, I got done around the time I would usually leave. Stressed as all get-out, but I think I got everything done, and I hope I didn't forget or miss anything. But I and the other people in my department probably don't understand how this day went from nothing to, well, more than nothing. And since I was supposed to leave Thursday afternoon at 11 (and sure, if I hadn't stuck around someone else would have), it turns out I made the right decision. I had no forethought this would happen, but I made the right decision!
And now I just need to get to work late and/or leave work early today!
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