I was blessed with a light workload in a lot of areas. I usually am bombarded for requests as to when a result for a test comes in. Those usually take a lot of time researching and e-mailing people, and that's usually between tasks in which I am waist-deep. Those tasks are usually faxing and e-mailing people to retrieve information that we need, and there are a lot of categories into which all these forms are separated into, I have to treat each category differently. I'm usually inundated with so many forms in all categories that I sometimes nudge up to the ten-hour workday limit I have set for myself before I just have to leave and abandon the rest of the work I couldn't get to.
Well, the main reason I was able to leave on time was because I didn't get too many forms in any of the categories. For example, we have to touch a form when we initially get them; there were only seven forms yesterday when I sometimes get up to two dozen. After three days, we have to take another shot at contacting people to retrieve the missing information. This category isn't too bad, and the four here is way manageable. After five days we take a third and final swing and reach out to anybody who can tell us what the hell is missing. There were seven of those, which actually is average. Finally, if we do get responses, we have to process the forms. That takes time, but I didn't get too many responses back. That might be the end result of not sending out a whole lot of faxes and e-mails from the start, but regardless, I didn't get many responses back before I got to leave.
Another time suck with this job is just BS that comes up. There sometimes are issues involving ... something where I am at a complete loss as to what to do. In cases like this, I have to go to my supervisor and beg for her help. And by the time I remember to do what she told me to do, I have to regather my bearings and remember where I left off. That takes a lot of time; I think I likened that to spinning around an aircraft carrier at sea 180 degrees. I just cannot think that fast or else I will completely miss steps and then sit there for several minutes figuring out what steps I missed, then take even more time to go back and do those steps. Honestly, there were as much, if not more, of those stupid unicorn cases that it took most of the morning to start dealing with them. Thank goodness, then, I didn't get as many requests or forms as I feared. That meant that the time I had to borrow to deal with these special cases I made up by zipping through the relatively meager amount of forms and responses.
Finally, what I dread the most is having unpleasant interactions with prick clients. There was one back-and-forth with some stubborn woman who would just not give me the code that I needed. I e-mailed her back saying that the number she gave me was not in our system, to which she replied that I mixed it up with another number she gave me. I think she thought she put one on me, but I replied that, while I did mix it up, the actual number she intended to give me also was not in our system. Finally, someone from a different department in my company -- a person who this arrogant nutjob asked to "help me understand" all the wrong codes she gave me -- said that our laboratory did something wrong. I've been replaying this insufferable woman's crap from time to time tonight, but I don't feel -- feel being the operative word -- as upset as I felt after dealing with this prick because here, a third party dropped in, deus ex machina style, and said a party beside me and this dumb lady made a mistake. That absolves me of any responsibility.
Sure, she probably thinks I'm stupid. She's wrong. I think she's stupid. I'm right.
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So, with all that said, karma can be a bitch. Everything I was spared from yesterday is coming back on me twice as hard and worse today, isn't it?
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