I Think I Now Hate Data Entry

Hey, first of all (even though it's a bit late), I should add one clarifying detail to the Christmas Song Blog Post from yesterday/Monday/Christmas.  Even though Donny Hathaway was plagued with paranoid schizophrenia, he was diagnosed with that in 1971, and he wrote and released "This Christmas" in 1970.

OK.  I was going to blog post about this last week, but the damn car drama dominated my thoughts and Wailing And Failing.  I worked in The Fourth Department all week last week, and it may be the last time I will ever do that at work.  I had pulled in many weeks, and in fact (if I recall correctly) several weeks strung together (months maybe) this past year as one person who can do the job was busy supervising and the other who can do the job had to take leave.

This position is still a pain-in-the-ass many times, and I reserve the right to bitch about it here on WAF perpetually.  But yes, I have grown to love it.  For one, I like the variety of problems that crop up, even though I beg you not to tell the people at work I complain to about those problems.  It keeps me on my toes and makes the day go by, even if the work forces me to extend that day.  Also, I like the independence that goes with it.  I am the only person working in this department most times, and I have few people peering over my shoulder ever micromanaging me.  That autonomy has become very important to me.  (Have I talked about all this before here already?)

But the arrangement, at least for now, is that I do the first half of the week and the person who is back from leave do the back half.  Understandable since I can't be the only person who does this job and it's the type of job where you need to keep doing it from time to time to keep your skills sharp.  But for the back half of the week I am back in The Main Department, and while I am happy that no one is e-mailing me about a problem when I work there, I am bored to death keying all day.  Plus, I am back working in a hallway, and I hate having people walk around me while I'm at my desk.  Maybe saying I hate data entry now is harsh to say.  But The Fourth Department has such tangible benefits that I think they now outweigh most anything My Main Department can give me.  But alas, that's where I am going to be Fridays and Thursdays and every other Wednesday.  And, by the way, another person is going to be trained in The Fourth Department after the New Year, and she works the first half of the workweek, so technically she will be able to work the same days in The Fourth Department I am working now.

So I need to count my blessings that I work in The Fourth Department today/Tuesday and tomorrow/Wednesday, because I will just be banging keys Thursday and Friday, and slapping the sides of scanners that don't work and trying to stay awake at my computer (sigh).  Great.