Trusty's Magic 8 Ball

8-14-15

Breathe in, breathe out. Find your Zen or the idiots will consume you.

Yeah, that’s been the motto of the week. This morning I found myself in yet another perplexing exchange in which a customer has been requesting a return authorization for a part for about 2 months. Said customer has indicated that the Parts department was supposed to get him this a couple weeks ago with no reply. The communication with him has been through email so I responded and cced the parts department rep who should be able to get this for him. I ask them to work together since truly I can’t do much for him and communicating through me is just inefficient.

Parts emails me back and asks me why they want to return the item.

**Face-Palm**

Look, how hard is it to go direct to the person who is returning it and ask them??? I not only provided an open line of communication via email, but on said email was the guy’s direct land and cell line. Fucking talk to the customer! Don’t make this more complex than it needs to be.

Sadly, this seems to be the SOP around here. As my ball-less manager continues to accept responsibility for all items to be handled by our department despite our lack of resources to properly help these customers, I find myself more and more in a position of customer service instead of allowing for time spent collecting money that all of our bonuses and technically our paycheck is dependent on. I am embarrassed by my company in so many ways. I continue to do my job description to the best of my ability, and truly I exceed all expectations by kicking ass and taking names with my results. This does in fact leave me with gobs of free time (which provides hours of blog writing and book reading while still shattering goals). I could use said free time to be an outstanding customer service rep, yet my paycheck doesn’t increase and yet my stress does. I have to clean up so many errors from other departments, including my own, so taking on additional stress that accomplishes nothing seems repulsive.

I also am becoming increasing disgusted with my boss. I determined yesterday that the way he must assign credit lines is all based on some kind of magic 8 ball he has at his desk. Sure, the credit report for Joe Blow Construction shows 3 bankruptcy filing over the past 6 years and slow pay tendencies, but Magic 8 Ball says, “Outlook Good” so we give that guy a 50K credit line.

I am actually considering purchasing him one of the novelty items and just leaving it on his desk for the hell of it.

There was a job posting for our department I discovered for a position that is just below Trusty and above his right hand man. Ken thought I should apply, but I am glad I had the smarts to not even consider it. It entailed gobs of travel and talking to customer at their yards, which all sounds mind numbingly boring and not something I can handle with kids at home that require homework help and soccer transport. The Right Hand Man even turned it down, recognizing the stress of what they were asking was not worth the amount of pay being offered. It speaks volumes for the direction this department is going in and I must admit I am now at a true point where I want to start considering a new job once the boys are safely in middle school.

Teams for soccer are mostly made and it appears that Bobby will have an incredibly fun group of boys, most of which I know since they all go to Adams. Dax’s team is good simply because the coach he will have will be able to truly add to his skill level. In addition to this, this is a coach that often does a travel team which presents a possibly opportunity for Dax to be included on a travel team come the end of the fall season. This would yes, decrease the number of free weekends for us, but it will add amazing soccer time for Dax which is very happy making. We find out team colors tomorrow, so my fingers are super crossed that the boys are matching in order to make my cheerleading aspects easier. I don’t have to do any coaching this year so I am quite thrilled. With Dax I will truly get to sit back and enjoy watching him play, which is heaven for me. With Bobby’s team, I know many of the parents, who are great folks and I am betting the atmosphere will be quite jovial which sounds divine. I may end up being team parent for Bobby’s what with Big Lou being the coach, but I am not 100% opposed to team mom on Dax’s team also. I would prefer not to if only to allow myself a little less stress over those 16 weeks but I can manage either way.

Our evening is filled with binder creation, which sounds daunting but at the same time probably fun. There are a fair amount of people showing up tonight to work on these so I am betting the evening will not be completely crazy and in reality spent with some good people. We have to be at Hull tomorrow morning at 9, but it is way less hectic than the registration events. In fact, I am only going because I love my region. In reality, I don’t need to be there. I am dragging the boys along if only to allow Dax to kick the ball around on the field.

Sunday looks to be fun what with the Lomita Railroad Museum is doing some kind of Harry Potter event. Not sure what it entails, but we have been saying we should go check out the museum anyway just for the hell of it, so this gives us great incentive.

We meet up with the UK coaches Sunday evening. I am unsure if one of them comes home with us that night, and in reality they probably do. It means Saturday afternoon I will working on prepping the guest room.

This afternoon when I get home, I think the plan is to go get boy boys new cleats. I think there are a couple of other errands before we head to binder land, but really, I think it will be mostly painless.

Now I need to make the rest of today’s work agenda happen.