Early Release Day
Nov. 11th, 2004 06:37 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eggwardsToday at work, I was browsing some web pages, and having that great feeling of wanting to be productive, when the power went out in the building. This was somewhere around 11:45, about the time I was considering heating up the pepperoni Hot Pockets that were defrosting in my lunch cooler.
Like I had said earlier, my CPAP had broken, so I was groggy and out of it. The power going off meant that it would probably be back on in another fifteen minutes. In the worst case, it would probably be out for about an hour. It was just bad that this happens at lunch lime, as part of our staff had already gone to lunch. As we waited, people were trudging up nine flights of stairs to return to our cubicle farm. We had some emergency lights, and our brand new phones, sadly worked so we were still getting calls from clients, even though we couldn't help them.
The Denver office takes some of the overage, but my team doesn't have a remote mirror, so I have to make sure we're covered, and call those that went out to lunch. Higher management tells people to take their lunch (which half had already done), and come back at one. I have to sit in the stilled air, playing Toss-Across with some of the other supervisors, as my team uses it as a reward game. more than once it's been a boredom buster.
I finally give in and start munching on the cold Hot Pockets, enjoying them less than I do normally, and you know, they are pretty monotonous as far as food goes. The other problem was having to grab tap water as the cola machines were also inoperable. Someone asked me what the name of the lead shark was in Finding Nemo after a moment I went to Google it...
So much we take advantage of.
One might wonder why a guy working for a financial services company was working on Veteran's Day, as I was saying to my team in a meeting yesterday "It's a bank holiday, if you wanted it off, you should have worked for a bank." The Stock Market hasn't taken it off in years. I have no idea why. Still, it seemed that fate might have a hand in it...
Management, is slow as molasses at actually making up their minds on something. It's a damned slow workday, and with the "holiday" there was little work, so I don't know why we didn't call it then and there, but management at 12:30 seemed determined to hold on for awhile.
Every ten minutes building security, in a huge waste of generator power would come over the loudspeaker and announce, in slurred English "There has been an electrical issue, Reliant Energy is looking into the problem." I'm not sure if naming the electrical services company was a way of assigning blame, but it was amusing to me, and the word "issue" seemed to come across like someone asking for a Kleenex in the middle of a sneeze. The true annoyance was the sound of an egg timer that would announce the next reading of the same, dreary reading of the message.
So, two cold Hot Pockets consumed, a mishandled game of solitaire down (you know, I don't know how to deal it anymore, I'm so used to the computerized version!), and another indecisive meeting, and we still don't know if we're coming or going.
Finally, at 1:30, Ivy McLemore, one of my company heroes -sort of, calls across the loudspeaker. He's a hero because he used to be a sportswriter and covered the Houston Astros for years, and probably saw several of them naked, but I'm sort of grafting on my wishes there, aren't I? He's not my hero because when he lost his job at the Houston Post when it folded, he took a job as a flack for a large mutual fund company. Sure, I bet he's being paid well, certainly better than he was, and better than I am, but I'd rather do the job he once had.
Still, I heard his voice ring out, "To all employees, we are evacuation the building. There is no emergency, but we are closing for the day. Please call the emergency hotline to check on work tomorrow." This is a good thing - except...
They didn't really explain this to any of our management that it was going to happen. Suddenly we have to contact Denver and tell them, we have to stop people and check on them, but they are bolting for the doors. Luckily Lisa took the day off, so I didn't have to deal with her, but other Managers are running around trying to barricade doors, shouting orders. I think they were unhappy they didn't make the decision themselves, nor did they get a call, being surpassed completely by the voice of a long-dropped sportswriter. Finally, realizing the futility, they let our workers go. They Pyramids will have to wait.
I call up one of the phone groups in Denver to let them know my group won't be available for calls the rest of the day. They already knew of our situation, so no troubles there (the person I call is named Denver - that must suck, Denver in Denver?)
So, seeing I have half a day to waste, I check and see if Kip needed saving from the bus, but I'm already on the wrong side of town. I call all my people to tell them to come in early tomorrow to resolve any issues that may have lingered, and run out to Tomball to get the CPAP fixed, since they couldn't help me on the phone earlier, and get embarrassed when he pulls off one little adapter and says "there you go". Great. My humility pushed to the test.
Just another odd day with electrical issues here in Houston Town. Off for a late nap.
Like I had said earlier, my CPAP had broken, so I was groggy and out of it. The power going off meant that it would probably be back on in another fifteen minutes. In the worst case, it would probably be out for about an hour. It was just bad that this happens at lunch lime, as part of our staff had already gone to lunch. As we waited, people were trudging up nine flights of stairs to return to our cubicle farm. We had some emergency lights, and our brand new phones, sadly worked so we were still getting calls from clients, even though we couldn't help them.
The Denver office takes some of the overage, but my team doesn't have a remote mirror, so I have to make sure we're covered, and call those that went out to lunch. Higher management tells people to take their lunch (which half had already done), and come back at one. I have to sit in the stilled air, playing Toss-Across with some of the other supervisors, as my team uses it as a reward game. more than once it's been a boredom buster.
I finally give in and start munching on the cold Hot Pockets, enjoying them less than I do normally, and you know, they are pretty monotonous as far as food goes. The other problem was having to grab tap water as the cola machines were also inoperable. Someone asked me what the name of the lead shark was in Finding Nemo after a moment I went to Google it...
So much we take advantage of.
One might wonder why a guy working for a financial services company was working on Veteran's Day, as I was saying to my team in a meeting yesterday "It's a bank holiday, if you wanted it off, you should have worked for a bank." The Stock Market hasn't taken it off in years. I have no idea why. Still, it seemed that fate might have a hand in it...
Management, is slow as molasses at actually making up their minds on something. It's a damned slow workday, and with the "holiday" there was little work, so I don't know why we didn't call it then and there, but management at 12:30 seemed determined to hold on for awhile.
Every ten minutes building security, in a huge waste of generator power would come over the loudspeaker and announce, in slurred English "There has been an electrical issue, Reliant Energy is looking into the problem." I'm not sure if naming the electrical services company was a way of assigning blame, but it was amusing to me, and the word "issue" seemed to come across like someone asking for a Kleenex in the middle of a sneeze. The true annoyance was the sound of an egg timer that would announce the next reading of the same, dreary reading of the message.
So, two cold Hot Pockets consumed, a mishandled game of solitaire down (you know, I don't know how to deal it anymore, I'm so used to the computerized version!), and another indecisive meeting, and we still don't know if we're coming or going.
Finally, at 1:30, Ivy McLemore, one of my company heroes -sort of, calls across the loudspeaker. He's a hero because he used to be a sportswriter and covered the Houston Astros for years, and probably saw several of them naked, but I'm sort of grafting on my wishes there, aren't I? He's not my hero because when he lost his job at the Houston Post when it folded, he took a job as a flack for a large mutual fund company. Sure, I bet he's being paid well, certainly better than he was, and better than I am, but I'd rather do the job he once had.
Still, I heard his voice ring out, "To all employees, we are evacuation the building. There is no emergency, but we are closing for the day. Please call the emergency hotline to check on work tomorrow." This is a good thing - except...
They didn't really explain this to any of our management that it was going to happen. Suddenly we have to contact Denver and tell them, we have to stop people and check on them, but they are bolting for the doors. Luckily Lisa took the day off, so I didn't have to deal with her, but other Managers are running around trying to barricade doors, shouting orders. I think they were unhappy they didn't make the decision themselves, nor did they get a call, being surpassed completely by the voice of a long-dropped sportswriter. Finally, realizing the futility, they let our workers go. They Pyramids will have to wait.
I call up one of the phone groups in Denver to let them know my group won't be available for calls the rest of the day. They already knew of our situation, so no troubles there (the person I call is named Denver - that must suck, Denver in Denver?)
So, seeing I have half a day to waste, I check and see if Kip needed saving from the bus, but I'm already on the wrong side of town. I call all my people to tell them to come in early tomorrow to resolve any issues that may have lingered, and run out to Tomball to get the CPAP fixed, since they couldn't help me on the phone earlier, and get embarrassed when he pulls off one little adapter and says "there you go". Great. My humility pushed to the test.
Just another odd day with electrical issues here in Houston Town. Off for a late nap.
