This week has been the week from hell and unfortunately it doesn’t look as though it’s going to let up any time soon. On Wednesday it was announced that we’re switching over to the new system at work that has been in the ‘creation’ process for the past couple of months. The problem with this is the fact that there has been absolutely no training put towards this system so everyone is basically lost right now.
We had a little bit of a ‘training’ session on Wednesday and come Thursday morning we were all kind of thrown into the system that has so many errors it’s unreal. It’s heavily coded with ASP/AJAX and with the way it’s trying to read the database things just aren’t working out the way they’re supposed to. I don’t think I’ve ever seen as much choas at work as I have in the past few days. We’ve wound up switching over to the old system mid-way through the day on both Thursday and Friday because the productivity that we usually have with the old system was well beyond what we’re able to accomplish with the new one. So it’s my hope that we’ll get to use the old system a little longer just so we keep moving at the pace that we’re accustomed to. This new one has slowed us down so much it almost feels as though we’re wasting our time with it.
Over the course of the day on Thursday we were able to input about 100 assignments with the new system – this took us 8 hours. However, when we got fed up and switched back to the old one we managed to put in about 150 assignments in the course of 45 minutes. This has to tell you something when it comes to how things are going to look within the next few weeks. As of right now I’ve got about 6 hours of overtime, this includes the two hours I’ve just spent at the office this morning (Yes, I also go in on Sunday mornings for a few hours – I told you this place was sucking the soul out of me!) – so my next paycheck should at least be for something decent which helps me considering there are a lot of bills to be paid in upcoming weeks.
On Friday I left at 6:30 – when I’m actually supposed to leave – and ran home in time to wash up and wait for Alicia and Dave to get to my house. We were treating Dave to dinner for his birthday and went to Friendly’s. Yesterday Alicia and I were out for a few hours at KMART and Dollar Tree to pick up stuff for the surprise party we’re holding for him later this afternoon. So right now I’m finishing things up at work and Alicia’s going to pick me up and then we’re going to head back to her house to finish getting things together.
We have this pretty elaborate plan in order to keep Dave out of the house for the afternoon. He keeps wondering when Sean and I are going to get married. So I said “RING SHOPPING!” So I gave Sean my dinky $7 walmart ring and said “Here, this is a half size too big for me, go to Zales and do some ring shopping – take Dave with you and then I’ll text you when I want you guys to head back to Alicia’s house”. Alicia thought it was a great idea, Sean was confused (as usual) and Dave is completely clueless as to what’s going on so it’s working out VERY WELL right now. As of my last text from Sean he and Dave are eating lunch at Johnny Rockets and then probably surfing through a few jewelry stores in the mall to see what he can ‘find’. So that gets Dave out of the house and gives Alicia and I plenty of time to get the rest of the stuff setup.
I also told Sean to throw his bathing suit in the trunk of the car cause it’s a rather warm day and I know the pools open at her house. Granted there really isn’t anyone going in the pool but I know Sean will more than likely dive right in anyway so at least it gives him something to do. We more than likely won’t be there for that long, everyone has work tomorrow so she’s expecting things to clear up around 6:30. Which is fine for me, I still have some things to do to prepare myself for the week ahead.
We’ll be down one person in Dispatch tomorrow, she’s taking a much deserved day off. But Monday – unfortunately – is one of our CRAZY BUSY days. So on top of going to the new system plus all of the claims we’re bombarded with on a Monday morning/afternoon – I’m hoping things run smoothly!
In any event, Alicia’s on her way here to pick me up. Sean just sent me a text where he sounded surprised because the waiters/waitresses dance at Johnny Rockets during certain songs. Boy is it going to be an INTERESTING day!