Sunday, September 23, 2012

Working Woman

Work is moving along workily.  After a month and a half, I am still trying to get the actual program set up correctly, but it is finally looking like implementation is imminent.  While I kind of enjoyed the challenge and the independence and the decision-making and people listening to my expertise, now it's starting to wear on me and I have to keep telling myself that I don't have to do everything.

We've decided that to make things more efficient all the agents have to either be flexible with their schedules by 2 hours (meaning their start times could vary by up to 2 hours week to week) or come up with a really good reason why not. But it's me telling the director this, then the director tells the managers, the managers tell their supervisors, and the supervisors tell their agents. I am completely positive that there are agents who really don't understand what's about to happen, and since they were hired to work a set schedule, I have every sympathy for them.

Still.  Reassuring them/helping them understand is not my job. If there are a bunch of upset people when the first schedules are released, at least I can take comfort in the fact that I am in the other building, and none of them know who I am.

So the first day of agents looking at the new program to see their schedules, and of supervisors and managers looking at the supervisor version, will be Monday, October 1.  Which is my 9th wedding anniversary and a day that I typically take off to spend with my sweetie-pants. And it's also the next workday following the ADAM ANT concert.  It's also the day after my mother's 91st birthday. This is not great timing, especially if things are getting behind and I'm having trouble.

I'm really hoping I can get all the info loaded into the program and get everything ready to go by mid-week, and then have at least a day or so at the end of the week to review stuff and make sure nothing was missed. I also have to train the director and managers on it, so that they can train the supervisors who will then train the agents. The massively simplified version will be very quick and easy to learn, hopefully just a few minutes. Then the next step will be to get everyone trained on the full version, and roll out all the other things it can do besides just show schedules. That'll take at least a month or more.

I have to wonder if my bosses (ie, the two people I report to) aren't talking about me and wondering what the heck I'm doing and why it's taking me so long. They don't understand the program well enough for me to explain. I assume that when I give them quick overviews of what I'm doing I at least sound knowledgeable, whether or not they have the slightest idea of what I am actually talking about. I assume they trust that I am actually doing stuff.

I do, I must admit, enjoy getting my paychecks.