elfinblaze

It's been a while since I updated. Oops? Blame work. It's been stressful.

But I've left that job now, both because it was soul-destroying work over the long term, and because my manager was a bully. And also a terrible manager. Asking for help does not mean you're incapable of doing the job. So I'm glad to be gone.

I'll miss some of the people I worked with, and I'll miss the office, but I won't miss the work.

And now that I don't work there anymore I can tell you all: never work in Workers Compensation. I don't know how I lasted as long as I did, because it is depressing and stressful, and not nearly paid enough to be worth it.

But hey! At least I get Christmas off now (which was not necessarily going to happen when I was employed).

- Had my introduction/orientation at work today. Most people find it boring because it's all business and how the company functions, and your legal obligations and just what the laws mean and how they apply to your particular situation. I thought it was interesting. *nerd*

- Also got my period in the middle of the day. At least it wasn't in the middle of a CPR course again.

- Is it bad that I really like the song Que Sera by Justice Crew (Australian boyband)? It's ridiculously catchy.

- I'm just bumming around online looking up my name sakes. Apparently I was born in 1628. I'm also a biomedical expert, an author, a retiree, and I have a street named after me. I also share my real full name with almost 200 people currently in the German phone book. I keep telling people it's not an uncommon name over there. Two hundred Regis! Woo!

- You know that slippery slope of sexual ethics argument? The slope actually goes the other way round.
See, it turns out that building a sexual ethic around consent is actually a good way of discouraging incest. Because, it turns out, most people don't want to have sex with people closely related to them. Believe it or not.

Well, today was productive. I got all my filing done! Yay!

How much filing, you might ask. Well, take a look.

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Look what contract just landed in my inbox!

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Blacked out identifying details, obviously, but I can tell you that it doesn't involve working for Torchwood.

Still, it's exciting!

As of Friday my workplace is closing and I will no longer have a job.

So expect to see me living under a bridge in a month's time, because job ads are still confusing. To me they read like: This job is Jabber and includes Wocky as well as blahblah. Only bother appying if your name is Bob, and your surname starts with BR and rymes with "down", or else you will be fed to the dragon. Vaguely menacing and completely confusing.

I've already had my little meltdown in the break room at work, and it won't be the last. Well, it'll be the last in the break room, but not the last time crying till I have a headache.

So if I never update this blog again you'll know why, but you can still get hold of me under the nearest bridge. Or by carrier pidgeon, I suppose.

- Listening to my boss and a patient comparing babies: "This one only crawls backwards. She hasn't figured out forwards yet. She pushes herself backwards under the coffee table, anything she can get under, and then she starts crying because she can't get herself out again."

- The blue winged flower wasps are back! Seeing little flashes of bright blue flying through the air outside my office window. It's beautiful.

- I might not be able to say anything if I'm unhappy with a patient, but you'll know I don't like you if I give you a pen from a funeral parlour to sign your name.

- Update for starwolvie and viciousdisorder: the house is fine. News from one of our patients who's been down there.

- And this is in Drum Media this week, if you can get your hands on it. It's only a paragraph on page 62, but he wasn't expecting this when I showed him:

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Who wants to hear a story about how not to run a business?

There used to be A Medical Supplier near my workplace, which was handy because we could drop by in person to pick up supplies and we didn't need to pay for freight. Especially because the only other supplier in the state - let's call them Nice & Good Supplier (N&G Supplier) - was out in the middle of Tumbleweed No Where. So we were very happy with A Medical Supplier.

Until American Juggernaught decided to come in and monopolise the medical market. They bought A Medical Supplier along with all the warehouses and staff across the country (not to mention several other companies). Over the course of a few months American Juggernaught decided to implement some changes. They shut the Sydney warehouse, despite the fact that this is the most populous state in the country, so all goods had to be shipped from interstate. They made most of the old staff redundant, despite their experience. They moved the remaining staff and offices into a different part of Sydney, complete with new phone and computer system that took a while to get off the ground, which made all their customers cranky because no one could get through to them to place orders. It was a mess for a while.

In the meantime, the savvy guy who runs the N&G Supplier saw his chance, and pounced. He moved out of Tumbleweed No Where into the old warehouse space of A Medical Supplier in suburban Sydney. He then re-hired all the former staff who had been made redundant from A Medical Supplier, along with all their years of experience.

So now all the old staff are in the same place they were before, operating out of the same offices, just with a new boss. A Medical Supplier on the other hand has succeeded in alienating their entire customer base. Guess where everyone is shopping now?

A Medical Supplier doesn't like this. A Medical Supplier has now decided to sue not only N&G Supplier, but all the old staff they made redundant in the first place! A Medical Supplier is clearly full of hot air and no court in the land will side with them, but it's a huge waste of time and money for everyone that has to defend themselves now.

The lessons that can be learnt from this? Be smart with your business. It shouldn't be that hard. Do your research and don't treat people like idiots. Don't be arrogant (see also the American movie studios vs iinet case, the Burger King vs Burger King case, etc). Small Australian businesses might not have a lot of money or resources, but there's this idea of "the little Aussie battler" for a reason, and they will fight to the death for every right Australian law grants them, and they have a history of winning (see the above cases).

Because egg on your face is never a good look.

So this happened:

Mr S.: Is Regi having holidays too?
Boss: She is.
Mr S.: Aww. I was hoping you'd be here so I could drop by and talk to you.
Boss: No, I warned her about strange men coming in off the street.
Mr S.: Oh, she'd be alright. She doesn't like boys. She plays for the other team.

Meanwhile I'm standing there thinking, "How did you work that out? Or was that supposed to be a joke?" Because I don't think I come across as any particular queer lady stereotype.

Anyway, yes, I'm officially on holidays from next week until early October, so if anyone has some time off and wants to meet up, we can!

The most interesting thing I did this week was to defrost the fridge. So unless I tell you all how thick and cold the ice was, I really have nothing to write about.

So I'm going to leave it to one of our patients to tell you the interesting story for the week.

*eherm*

One doctor I work for calls me, while I'm on holiday, and do you know what he asks me? He asks me, "How do I get one of the girls to stop saying 'yeah' to the patients instead of 'yes', without upsetting her?"

I told him, "You have a sense of humour don't you? Try singing the Beatles next time she does it. 'She loves me, yeah, yeah, yeah.' And tell her you wish they'd sung 'yes, yes, yes,' instead of crucifying the English language."

They take me so seriously down there, I dare say that's what he did.

Glee review is coming, I'm just feeling a bit emotionally vulnerable after reading the most shattering book since The Bell Jar, and that last episode just stuck a great big pin in on top of that. v.v But I'm working on it.

In the meantime, I still love our patients (except for that one guy). Yesterday:

Mrs J: Now I've been here, I've learnt how he should stand.
Me: Now you can nag him at home.
Mrs J: Yes.
Mr J: No! That word is banned in our house.
Me: Well, she'll just have to badger you instead.
Mr J: That's even worse! You know, I liked you when I first came in here.
Mrs J: *laughing madly to herself in the background*

Nope, I still haven't learnt to restrain my tongue. But our patients really are awesome.