My 8 AM to 5 PM has been working my nerves this week. Okay, that’s dramatic. Maybe not working my nerves, but I’ve been having some conniptions about it. There are major issues that seem oh so simple to fix along with too much information floating around in my head. 

Last year when I started this blog, I went on a vacation to the Outer Banks in North Carolina  with Kris’ aunt and his grandad. We left on a Monday and planned to come back on Thursday, but I took the full week off so I could rest and recover before hitting the clock at my job again. However, the higher ups at work asked if I could come in and cover on that Friday since no one else would be there. Begrudgingly, I sucked it up and did the right thing by going into the office. 

Would I do that at this current point in my “career?” Absolutely not. I put in my PTO requests months in advance because I refuse to be penalized because we are short staffed or because no one else knows how to answer calls in the queue or create tickets. Absolutely not. I haven’t received any type of raise after doing this position for a full year, so unfortunately, I’m not going above and beyond for an organization that ultimately is making decisions that I disagree with. 

Even though it’s still relatively early in the year, I already have my vacations planned out AND I’ve submitted my PTO requests so no one has any excuse to deny my time off due to lack of coverage. The dates I have requested are: March 31; May 24 - 26; and December 26 - 29. The only other day I will request is October 27 and I’ll probably use a floating holiday instead of PTO hours to cover it. The March and May dates have already been approved but the December week is still floating in the air. I have a feeling someone is going to ask me to adjust those dates, but honestly, Krissy and I are planning on going to Vegas during that time so if it gets denied I’m going to have to pitch a fit. 

My manager asked if the May dates were flexible at all because he is on PTO the following week and complained that there won’t be any overlap time for us to touch bases. I told him that I’ll be out of town, but can adjust to be there that Wednesday in case. Ultimately, my time got approved as is, but that whole situation rubbed Krissy the wrong way. He’s in HR so he knows better than I do on what’s illegal, unethical, and whatnot. For me, it goes back to what I said earlier about not going above and beyond for an organization that’s making decisions that I disagree with. 

As the managed employee, I’m not responsible for making sure I have coverage whenever I put in a PTO request. I’m also ultimately not responsible for scheduling time for the engineers to manage the queue when I’m out. That’s the part of being a manager that my current manager seems to not understand. When I’m out, I don’t expect things to run as smoothly as it does when I’m here, but I also don’t expect to come back to a pure dumpster fire. Every time I come back from a vacation, I have to spend half of my day correcting things that were done incorrectly during my absence. And I don’t mind, but when I’m asked if my PTO dates are flexible, it makes me not want to work with the organization that refuses to hire additional coverage when it’s clear that’s what’s needed to grow and progress. 

I understand that an organization has to manage staffing and make sure that when staff take PTO, that there’s not multiple people out from the same one department. However, when I’m the only person that does my job function, unfortunately the business will suffer if there’s no redundancy. And that’s simply a fact. Because of that fact, I’m going to take the time I want when I want and put in my PTO requests multiple months in advance to at least give people time to work around my absence (newsflash, no one ever takes advantage of that initiative so it’s a moot point.) 

Another conniption that reared its ugly head recently is that I found out the girl currently in the part time service coordinator role got offered to move to the project manager role on another  team. Now, I’m definitely not one to knock anyone’s growth or progress, neither do *I* want to be the one to mull over accepting a position like that. However, I must admit that I am pretty bummed about her leaving the team primarily because she was a major help with the phone queue. 

If I could permanently get rid of ONE function of my job, it would be answering the phone calls. I’m not sure why I hate it, but it’s literally the part that I dislike the most. The girl who got offered the different position loved taking the calls and when she worked, I let her answer the majority of them to free up my time to focus on other tasks. There are some things that I have to go behind her and double check, but that’s the perk of being the most experienced team member in the role. With her moving to another team, that means I’ll be fighting for my life in the queue yet again. 

Similar to her, there’s been some more movement around the office and tickets haven’t been getting completed nearly as fast as they once were. I understand why, but it seems the leadership team might be ~blind~ to the reasoning. More to come on this topic in a future blog. 

The last conniption is surrounding lights. Everything on my phone and computers that has a dark mode feature, is in dark mode. That said, I dislike bright backgrounds and rooms. Even in my house, I don’t turn on the lights until it’s too dark outside and there’s no natural sunlight coming in. Sitting in the office underneath artificial yellow lights on ~Fridays~ is really playing a number on my mood. There’s only one reason and one person that dictates the lights and recently that person has been coming in more and more on Fridays, which is strange. 

The lights being on at the end of the week don’t scream ‘Oh let’s attack the day.’ Instead, it screams ‘Underpaid, highly stressed, and no one cares about your well-being.’ (Of course I had to give a little drama at the end too.) Anyways, I prefer sitting in the dark, answering calls, and moving tickets. I don’t think that should be such a big deal. However, I guess it is since Friday after Friday, it’s as bright as a summer’s day in July in this office. 

All in all, my job function, role in the company, and compensation are NOT high enough for all of these fake trials and tribulations to steal my joy. 

Signed, 

Jessica Marie