weather and work
Feb. 5th, 2015 07:10 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
edenfallingI left work about two hours early this evening, on account of weather. It's not currently snowing (though we may get scattered showers overnight, and probably more snow starting Friday evening), but the temperature is dropping like a stone. Tonight's predicted low is -5 degrees Fahrenheit (approx. -20 Celsius), and there's windchill on top of that. So I caught the last #13 bus rather than catch a later #30 bus and have to walk a mile home from downtown.
I mean, I have walked a mile home from downtown in similar conditions. I did that multiple times during my years at the smoke shop. But since I had the option to avoid it... hey, call me crazy, but I like not risking frostbite. :-)
(We did actually see the sun briefly this morning! Then the clouds moved back in and show no signs of dissipating. *sigh*)
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In other news, it was interesting to work a shift at the valley office after settling in at the hill office. They are part of the same company, of course, but they have radically different internal cultures, and of course the valley office is currently in the middle of its busy peak while the hill office won't hit its own peak for another week or so and even then will not be nearly as hectic. The hill office only ever has one receptionist working at a time, and said receptionist is often at loose ends, whereas the valley office has to double-schedule receptionists just to have a prayer of getting the requisite tasks dealt with. And they have completely given up on a certain type of file double-checking that the hill offices try to keep on top of, because they simply don't have time for those details.
I spent a bunch of my Wednesday shift multi-tasking, which was useful practice at prioritizing things and keeping clients in the loop. It was also just as draining as boredom (though in a different way, obviously). And I did one thing while answering the phone -- namely, ask for the name of the caller so I could pass it on when I transferred the call -- which is something that was required at the smoke shop but which I was told is forbidden at Not the IRS... or at least it's forbidden at the valley office. I should ask Hill Boss about that tomorrow, come to think of it, in case that's just an office idiosyncrasy rather than a company directive.
I mean, I have walked a mile home from downtown in similar conditions. I did that multiple times during my years at the smoke shop. But since I had the option to avoid it... hey, call me crazy, but I like not risking frostbite. :-)
(We did actually see the sun briefly this morning! Then the clouds moved back in and show no signs of dissipating. *sigh*)
-----
In other news, it was interesting to work a shift at the valley office after settling in at the hill office. They are part of the same company, of course, but they have radically different internal cultures, and of course the valley office is currently in the middle of its busy peak while the hill office won't hit its own peak for another week or so and even then will not be nearly as hectic. The hill office only ever has one receptionist working at a time, and said receptionist is often at loose ends, whereas the valley office has to double-schedule receptionists just to have a prayer of getting the requisite tasks dealt with. And they have completely given up on a certain type of file double-checking that the hill offices try to keep on top of, because they simply don't have time for those details.
I spent a bunch of my Wednesday shift multi-tasking, which was useful practice at prioritizing things and keeping clients in the loop. It was also just as draining as boredom (though in a different way, obviously). And I did one thing while answering the phone -- namely, ask for the name of the caller so I could pass it on when I transferred the call -- which is something that was required at the smoke shop but which I was told is forbidden at Not the IRS... or at least it's forbidden at the valley office. I should ask Hill Boss about that tomorrow, come to think of it, in case that's just an office idiosyncrasy rather than a company directive.
