Yawn

I work on the 9th floor of a glass building. There is no air-con and the windows open about 10degrees. There are not too many of these opening windows. So you can imagine when it gets hot or even warm in Summer everyone breaks out their little desk fans which helps bit. It gets very hot and close around our pod. Also I am five months pregnant so I tend to get over heated and tired easily.

Anyway the other day I got shouted at for yawning. From the middle of our open plan office. Quite a bit away from my desk. By a manager 2 steps ahead of me on the ladder of corporate hell. I pretty much ignored what was said because it was rude to shout at me and a pretty childish thing to do.

The whole team got into trouble after I had left for the day for talking. They were brought into the office and dressed down. Then a week later it was brought up again in the team meeting. Now my direct manger (back from her hols) keeps talking about yawning and how it shows nobody cares about the job. She keeps checking if the windows are open. This is over week after the great yawn took place.

This has to be one of the most ridiculous things that has happened to me where I work. It has stressed me out which I think is connected to being pregnant because usually I wouldn't care about these little things. Just over two months to go thankfully.

Taking the money and running

Redundancy is scary. Volunteering for redundancy does give me a slight sense of control but still makes me wobble at the knees a bit.

Funny how I was offered one leave date at first and now it has been altered to just before I would apply for maternity leave. Our dear leaders have finally figured out they don't have to pay my maternity and can push me to go before hand. They have done this to everyone who is pregnant for around the same time. Moral...never let anyone know you are pregnant until you have to. Anyway I freaked at first as the leave is worth thousands. Then again it is not worth as much as the PFO payment.
And I hate the job, the work, the industry. I made a suggestion to my boss the other day which could potentially save money and make for more accurate reporting. The boss immediately started to talk across me and tell me how we do things now and that way is best. The boss had no interest in my suggestion and never will have any interest in my suggestions. I realised that I needed to leave there and then. Several thousand will not make me happier or more productive.

My particular place of work is so despised by staff that they were over subscribed for voluntary redundancy at a time of serious unemployment.

I am going to leave. Take a chance for once. I cannot wait.

the other day...

at work I assigned a private investigator to someone. The PI has to follow a person to check out what she is doing about her work cause we have a feeling she is attempting to exaggerate her loss of earnings. I would like to point out that our policy holder rammed her stopped car at traffic lights and caused 8k worth of damage to it because he was pissed and not paying attention to the cars stopped in front of him. She was actually hurt.

Anyway the PI will follow her, record her about her day, take pictures of her and send in a report on her movements. I will use this report to discredit everything she claims.

I have moved one step further into the dark side. I may not be able to see light anymore

Almost there

Friday is the big day. We get to hear all about the redundancy plans.

tick tock tick tock.

Of course it has to be a Friday before a long weekend.

It is hard to do any work at the moment as you can imagine.

Dilbert Envy

I was having trouble sleeping the other night. So I listened to Dilbert read by Scott Adams on the ipod.

I am now jealous of Dilbert and people. They all get cubicles. I have to work in an eight of a pie. Oh yes I sit at a round desk that is divided into 8. I can stretch elbow to elbow at the near end and it gradually tapers upwards into a point. I would love a cubicle.

Now I know for sure I am becoming a complete basket case. Cannot believe I am jealous of a cubicle.

work

WTF? Interesting times in work. The company has gone into full time administration. The company accepted the administrators.
A funny thing considering that rallies were organised to go against the regulator for today. Then yesterday they turn around and decide to accept it.

Although I have to say I am not surprised it has come to pass. SQ made a mess of the Anglo deal and put his insurance company into danger. I suppose the next worry is will we be sold? If we are sold will our jobs be safe? I doubt it. I suppose the only thing is to keep on saving and hope for the best. Shame I didn't get a Christmas pressi like the Quinn Kids, that money would see me through the recession too.

I am in the funny position where I cannot look for new work as I am going on maternity leave before the end of the year. I hate my job ( as usual) so I don't care about that, however I do care about my mortgage and I do care about my bills. I am lucky in that I am not the only wage earner in the household but I cannot afford to just take time off. All very scary.

medical story

Some of the injuries are interesting. Obviously all of them have a negative impact on the life of the sufferer. But funny if you read them from an objective point of view.

One of the stories that circulates is of this woman involved in an accident who had a bizaare reaction to her injuries. I am not sure what her condition is called but it is real ....

This lady was on her way to work waiting at a bus stop on Wednesday morning some time after her accident. Suddenly she started to feel flushed and seriously hot and bothered. As she found out later she had an orgasm at the bus stop. She had not had sex for a few days. She was experiencing a delayed reaction to stimulus by her dear husband. This was caused by her injuries........ as a result of a rear ending.

working day.

I work on a pod with 3 other podmates although there is room for 8. We work in the grim and grit filled world of motor insurance. I read all sorts of stories about people everyday. I get to see the part when people have injured themselves badly enough to get a solicitor on board. We (all the pod people) have to decide what these injuries are worth and them try to give less money than they are worth for a good result (for the company). My job is to decide on liability, value all injuries and damage and try to close the file as quickly as possible keeping costs down.

The pressure to close off files is immense and we are heavily bonused on our peformance. For example a few years ago when I joined the company the average person was earning a 37% of basic salary in bonus. I have even approved a 90% bonus back when there were people managers. Now in the recession (yeah apparently insurance industry was hit hard too!) the average is supposed to be 28% of basic salary. Still high for a non sales job I reckon. I haven't seen anywhere near 28% recently myself but there is a rumour it is out there.

The amount of information I get to read about lives is incredible. Medical history, earnings, family history, how much people are worth, criminal records, trustworthiness ....all stuff that helps put a price on the tragedy whatever the size that they have suffered.

Anyway I will write some about the work for the next while.