turn and face the strain
January 26, 2012

Explanation of my absence: Due to a recent upswing in my workload at the office, and Spouse's return to the workforce, I really haven't had the time or energy to spend on writing diary entries.

The news, in a nutshell, is this--
My Health
I am back in the "normal" range for TSH, which doesn't really mean shit, but makes the doctor happy. I have been fluctuating wildly between feeling pretty good and wanting to die, for whatever that may be worth. The fiber drink the surgeon recommended seems to be doing what it is supposed to, and the thrombosed roid has settled down to the level of a minor annoyance. I got my period last night. Yesterday marked the one-year anniversary of the beginning of my battle against my cigarette addiction.

My Work
Work is insanely high-pressured right now; tons of deadlines looming and me the only experienced software tester in a huge, multi-state corporation! In addition, The Corp. is moving to the competencies model for our annual reviews this year, and all I can say is--what a scam to screw people over. Achieving concrete results was too objective, I guess. Since meeting or exceeding core competencies is much more a matter of (your boss's) opinion, it is a lot easier to screw people out of raises and promotions using this model.

And speaking of that kind of stuff--got my year-end raise. The usual top-of-the-range 3% (yeah, I know--but that's as high as they go!) put me at one of my long-held goals--I finally broke the $1000/wk mark. BY AN ENTIRE ONE DOLLAR! Got my consistent rating of 3.9 out of 4.0--it's always that, because A: I'm good, and because B: 4.0 would mean they had to give me a promotion and a REAL raise. The promotion went to another team member this year. One who actually earned it, so I am not too sore. She's been waitng a lot longer than I have.

In other work news, the company FINALLY conceded that the home office people might ACTUALLY have a valid point, when we went on and on about the reprehensible condition of our desk chairs. Hard to believe, I know, but they do wear out after fifteen years or so. And since these were rattling around for nearly TWENTY-SIX years...yeah. About freakin' time! They are nice chairs, too. Very comfortable. Considerably less crippling. And, as a bonus--they are apparently NOT included in the nationwide product recall of this particular model and brand of desk chair that came out this very week, because they were manufactured after the problem was discovered and fixed.

Of course, my department was the LAST to get them, and also of course, even though they had had two previous rounds of switching out before us to perfect their game...they totally screwed it up. Half the folks in my wing had their old chair removed--and no new chair installed. Came in, no place to sit. And for some screwed up reason, they also took away all of our nice, comfortable conference chairs (the ones I could use to pop my back!) and replaced them with...THE OLD, WORN-OUT DESK CHAIRS.

One thing is for sure where I work: you can always trust the power-monkeys to blow through employee good will as fast as they accrue it.