So for the past several months, due to one person leaving after many years, I have had to fill in at Filing off and on during the week. I appreciate being cross-trained; it helps in case the company downsizes at our campus. But I have documented on Wailing And Failing many times how I find that department frustrating, and sometimes how I just flat-out hate it. There are the things that I've forgotten despite making those mistakes several times, there's the intermittent scrutiny from my supervisor, and there's That Guy who no one gets along with because he's equal parts insular and weird.
This may change now that I have been in Filing every week (even if only for short periods), but I've been working in there enough where I can say that, at least when it comes to working the day shift, it is not my favorite. Not by a long shot. I would say, in fact, that going to the lab is the only thing that might be worse, and depending on the day it might not be.
And this is where I get wishy-washy. Whenever I go into filing and either screw up or take some passive-aggressive bullshit by That Guy the wrong way, I totally want to squirrel away and go to, like, Data Entry, where I can put my headphones on, listen to satellite radio, and key stuff. It's those times where I would even prefer going into the lab, where I have to go down to the end of the building and grab a lab coat, walk all the way back, knock on the door and hope someone lets me in, then put on gloves, find some work, find a desk, set up my radio, set up the printer, log in, sit down (or stand up, depending on whether my back is hurting me), then finally start doing the actual work. Leaving isn't all that much fun either. I have to clean up, make sure the forms go through this window and the specimens are put there, then I have to wash my hands, hope I got everything, then wait for someone to open the door to let me out like I'm a dog who needs to pee in the backyard. It's a total pain in the ass. I did that last Monday, and the only thing I could think of was, "Damn, I wish I were in Filing!"
Which brings me to today -- well, Mondays in general. Right now, as I have been for the past few months, I start off Monday mornings in Filing. It's gotten better now that I think I remember how to do things, but between the work and getting set off by That Guy, more than not I wish I weren't there. But then I remember that my two co-workers at Data Entry, where I usually am supposed to be Monday afternoons, usually have no work in Data Entry and therefore have to go into the lab. And when I walk to our desks out in DE Monday mornings and they're not there, I imagine having to knock on the door desperately hoping someone hears and sees me. And that's when I'm glad I'm in Filing. A couple weeks ago I e-mailed my boss suggesting that since there is only one person in Filing on Mondays and two people out in DE trying to find work, maybe it'd be a good idea to stay in Filing all day. And last Monday he told me to stay in Filing all day.
That idea, however, is not for the long-term. They have finally found a replacement for the full-time Filing person, and she began training a couple weeks ago. Once she's fully onboarded, there will be a slight cascade of shifting shifts that will eventually lead to a second person in Filing on Mondays. I don't know when that will happen. But once that does, I highly doubt that my boss will still tell me to go in there to start my Mondays. That leaves me out in Data Entry ... and that means I will actually be in the laboratory, finding work that two people are more than capable of covering throughout the course of our Monday. That change borderline terrifies me. And I don't like it ... unless I do do it and somehow come to realize that I prefer that over Filing. Or something might happen today that would make me run to that lab coat and happily wait by the door to do forms in there. Who knows?
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