Wow. Just wow.

So it looks like the remaining 6-1/2 days I have left of vacation before the end of the year (assuming my vacation time is prorated) are a wash. Apparently, trying to take an extended Christmas break (7 days) isn't allowed when a fellow co-worker is taking 3 of those days off. "We can't have more than one person off at a time." Which somehow means that I can't take any of the other requested 4 days off when my co-worker will be in the office.

I've taken one day of vacation in the entire slightly-under 5 months I've been with the company, because CFB deemed it somehow wrong of me to want to take two days off during my probation. For the record, this means I will have taken one day off in an entire 6 month span entirely because it seems like I "don't want to be [t]here" if I take any more time off, whether or not I'm entitled to it.

Time to start forming my exit strategy, kids. Notice is being given on Monday. Any of you in "the field" who know of any openings are encouraged to contact me.

One listen, and I was hooked

One of my co-workers alerted me to these guys

Every week, the same again

1. Relations


2. The (Mostly) True Story of Helvetica
   and the New York City Subway


3. Victory in Vomit: The Sickening Secret of Mirror's Edge


4. What’s the Point of Daylight Time?


5. The End of Wall Street's Boom


6. Lehman's bankruptcy '10 times more complicated than Enron's

Status update

The all-employee meeting was — as expected — about how the economic downturn will affect operations. The company will be cutting costs by doing things such as not providing office supplies any longer. Also, "inefficiencies" are going to be addressed, and the upper levels of management are not going to be exempt from scrutiny on that front (this is when my ears perked up). Apparently, roles which are "vacated" are not going to be filled in again (although I don't see how that's possible in Studio, which has 3 Studio Artists running at capacity and a single Art Director — oh, and a useless office manager).

Work's been so insanely busy over the past two weeks that I've been putting in overtime on an almost nightly basis. One of my co-workers slept in her car over her lunch break some time the week before last. When she mentioned this in passing to CFB (Control Freak Boss, as deemed by Roy), CFB laughed and said it seemed like a good idea.

On the day that my friend stopped by the office (and I got in shit for it), I was covering for the aforementioned co-worker who had a funeral to go to. It turns out that a giant rush project, which CFB pulled me off of a slightly lower priority project to work on, wasn't really all that giant a rush after all, CFB just got her scheduling wrong. You know, the person in charge of scheduling time for everybody in Studio just got a major deadline wrong — and gave an employee shit while doing it because she was under the mistaken belief that Studio time was too hectic for an employee to take a break. Of course, my real issue with this is that my belief is that when things are stressful, that's exactly the time that you take a break.

So yeah, it's looking like I'm not horribly likely to make a career out of this role.

That said, at least the utter stupidity of the schedule at work has gotten her out of our hair for the past while. I've been remarkably pleasant with her when she does come to bother me, and I'm hoping she learns that keeping out of my way will make things more tolerable for everybody.

Ultimately, I suspect I'm going to have to have a confrontation with her about the difference between problems with my professional conduct (about which she has no complaints) versus my personal conduct (which I think is none of her damn business).

A quick chat with Big Pimp last week proved remarkably supportive of my position.

I have a major project I want to see finished with my name on it, and a bit of morbid curiosity about the type of work environment that imminent layoffs brings (the remainder of the day immediately following the all-employee meeting was like Christmas), but otherwise all bets are off. I have until December 9^th to walk away without obligation.

Every week, the same again

1. Blind pilot guided to land by RAF


2. Now in Sight: Far-Off Planets


3. Space cowboy


4. The Top 5 “Crazy” Michael Crichton Ideas
   That Actually Came True


5. The discovery of the neuron


6. Another look at why people are reluctant
   to exchange lottery tickets


7. How East River Bridges Stayed Toll-Free


8. Starbucks' 4Q Profit Down 97%,
   Same-Store Sales Drop 8%


9. Where Homes Are Worth Less Than the Mortgage


10. The High Priests of the Bubble Economy


11. The End
    The era that defined Wall Street is finally, officially over. Michael Lewis, who chronicled its excess in Liar’s Poker, returns to his old haunt to figure out what went wrong.


12. Belief that country heading in right direction is at all-time low


13. Democrats to White House: Preserve your records


14. The Uses of Adversity
    Can underprivileged outsiders have an advantage?


15. Real Ad Execs Talk About Mad Men: Jerry Della Femina


16. 'An Aston Martini, stirred not shaken, please Pennymoney'


17. Jennifer Aniston finally talks about Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt


18. Lindsay Lohan on Samantha Ronson: 'I love her very much'


19. Experts: Lindsay Lohan may be sexually confused


20. One in four women would bed another woman

All of which might be moot

Since there's going to be a 30-minute All-Employee Meeting on Friday afternoon to have "a candid update on our progress and our plans".

GD, I hope I get canned. Maybe I can go back to the gift-wrapping gig. I think they'd want me back.

Worst day ever

So: you know when you've been raised by a woman who leaves jobs at the drop of a hat and says it's 'cause co-workers/managers have something personal against her, and it makes you all paranoid and scared that you're gonna turn out doing the same shit when you get a job of your own?

And you know how then you end up being pleasantly surprised at the group dynamics at that crucial first job, and you're all happy? And then you find that management starts just messing things up so bad that you don't want to be there any more and you decide to move on, but everywhere you go, management has no idea what they're doing?

And then you spend years freelancing so that you don't have to stick around anywhere long enough that you discover how horrible a place is run? Hoping to avoid that kind of disappointment, at least for now?

And then you find a full-time job and you're so excited that you've finally found a role that might work out: but it turns out that it actually sucks 'cause your manager's this micromanaging control freak who wants to know the details of how to complete every single job even 'though she doesn't have to do them herself, and she keeps taking umbrage with your comparatively lackadaisical attitude to work because you don't call in on your day off "just to check in on things", or want work to be the centre of your existence? That coming in to work 5 minutes late somehow means the Gods of Graphic Design will die today, or that taking a slightly longer lunch on the rare occasions a friend or relative stops by means that the Cogs of Industry will stop turning, or that when you're sick, you sure as Hell better come in still reeling from it on penalty of not being Believed that you were sick, or that taking 5 minutes while a massive file saves to read an article online or call a family member means you're being Unproductive, or asking for time off while on probation, even if it is in the summer, means you've got an Attitude Problem.

You know how that happens and it makes you wonder how to tell if somebody is management is actually "out to get you"? No? Just me? Right then.

Mostly for Bruce's benefit