But starting today/Wednesday, I am back to my first position, The Main Department. Don't know how long. I know I will be at Data Entry for the rest of the week. I am slated to be back in The Fourth Department all of next week, but I'm sure that will change. The other person who had recently filled the same position as I is slowly integrating into, uh, what I will call The Third Department. There are some new tasks she has just trained in, and the next step is to see if she can do it by herself ... but with her (and my) supervisor working alongside her. This sorta trainee's workstation is right next to the one for The Fourth Department, so it stands to reason that they work side-by-side as her training wheels slowly come off, but if she has any questions she can immediately lean over and ask our supervisor.
Eventually, this trainee will train and work The Fourth Department. Ideally, us two and my supervisor (and, in a real ideal world, a third person in the same position as I) will be fully versed in everything, and so we can swap out and rotate regularly. But frankly, I will miss The Fourth Department. Yes, yes, I think I blog posted in the past about how much I hated it there, to the point where I wondered whether I should quit because I was no longer happy at the company. But within the past several months, something clicked. Maybe it was the lessening workload, which people say is always thinner in the winter months. (That means things will get hectic starting in the spring; maybe I won't feel so confident in myself back there once the season changes.) Or, like a quarterback who "gets it," the game (or in this case work) slows down for them.
Take, for example, the big responsibility in The Fourth Department, which is gathering missing information before we run tests. When I started, I had no idea where to go. But as I got more familiar with the account numbers and the company names, I remembered that, "Oh, that number looks familiar, I can talk to this person," or, "Oh, that company I've seen before, I think this goes to this person." And I get replies from contacts for these employers and clients that slowly make me think I can rely on them. Now, it is rare that I come across a name or an employer I haven't seen before. It's fairly automatic that whenever I see a form, I usually know which person to contact and, in some cases, I know his or her e-mail address by heart. That instant recall is something that really cuts down on time and, more importantly, eliminated the anxiety and anger that welled up in when I was just starting out.
With most of the stress gone from The Fourth Department, I could now enjoy all the benefits working there. I am largely left alone, since this position is only manned by a single person each day. I am tucked away from prying eyes, not like keying where my desk is literally in a hallway. The workload has been such (and I go through said workload at a speed) where I have some downtime to surf the Internet. (I complained when I started out that I was staying the maximum ten hours a day back there. Now, I can leave after eight hours if I want to.) And I have to say that I haven't gotten too much crap about the quality of my work or the use of my time, either from my supervisor, the people who work next to me, the people in the other buildings within the company, or the clients I have to reach out to. Now, it's not fine and dandy all of the time. Just yesterday/Tuesday I sort of got into it with my supervisor over these urine samples that were returned to us. But those clashes have gotten fewer and farther between. I think I confessed this before here on Wailing And Failing, but I'll say it again: I used to hate this position, but now I like it. A lot.
So it bums me the hell out that I have been taken out of this cocoon of safety and thrust back into the cauldron that is data entry. I don't have any responsibilities out there that's like The Fourth Department. I just type and type and type. But honestly, I see that as a problem now. I will get bored as hell just doing data entry. I might fall asleep, and I don't want to do that out in the open with people continually walking behind me at all hours of the workday. (Which means, by the way, I should wrap this up and get as much sleep as possible.) That bustle doesn't stop me from surfing the Internet while I'm in The Main Department, but I always feel as though I am getting caught not working, and while it doesn't deter me, it makes me self-conscious. Also, keying is a regimented day, which means I have to take breaks and lunch at a specific time. When I'm in The Fourth Department, I can take them whenever the hell I want, and I haven't really gotten much static from anybody, at least not as of late. Finally, my shift starts an hour earlier than it does at The Fourth Department (which means, by the way, I should wrap this up and get as much sleep as possible).
I was a temp for two decades, and when I got hired for those gigs, I did data entry. I was initially hired at this job just for data entry until my real boss saw my resume and thought I could do other things, such as The Third and Fourth Departments. Keying is my bread and butter. But I don't look forward to going back to simply typing fast, at least not right now. I'm not going to say that I will hate it out there ... but it sure as hell is going to be awkward. And shoot, I'll say I'll hate it for now.
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