Predator Caught

Ever since the camera has been up it's been quite boring since my suspect has not been into the office.  The only footage would be people walking around and getting up from their desk about fourty times during the night.  

Then came Friday night!  I was excited since it would be a few days and the better chance of something being caught on the camera.  Well it wasn't more than one minute after I leave my desk and start recording that I see the suspect come up to my desk and pick up my phone.  I don't know if she was making a call or if she picked up the phone since it was ringing, but in either case she shouldn't be on my phone!

She sits less than ten feet behind me with her own phone, if my phone rings she isn't my secretary and shouldn't be answering it.  Now I need to wipe down my desk, my phone, my keyboard everytime I come into the office knowing that there's someone using my shiz.  

This wasn't one time, this happened twice.  It's quite disturbing, even with this small incident happening.  The rest of the weekend was spent with people getting up and out of their seats, and early Monday morning, the camera caught another lady (one that I didn't know worked here or ever met) get up from her desk and make her way in between my desk and my coworkers.  I don't know if she took some change, some anti bacterial, or what she did.  All I know is that she was by my desk twice during that morning which again disturbs me.

From the pictures above you can see that the angle of the camera isn't that great.  It's supposed to catch someone who sits in my seat, which I thought was happening.  I needed to adjust things and make it so that I can get a better angle and actually see what was happening intead of seeing an arm or half of someone coming into the picture.

All those episodes of McGyver worked well.  My mirror that I use to see behind me came in very useful.  I couldn't move the camera farther away to get a wider shot, so I positioned the mirror so that it catches most of the area around my desk and my desk as well, then pointed the camera to the mirror to catch the images.

So that's the setup and here is what it actually looks like.  I'm hoping this catches more of what's happening.  The only thing I'm scared of is if they grab the mirror to look at themselves, then the camera will be pointing at a ruler and some pens!

 

I haven't said anything to my boss yet.  Instead of trying to catch the small time criminal acts and having a simple slap on the wrist ... I'm waiting for that big fish to come onboard and then we'll get a bigger feast!

+ mon

No Predators ... Yet!

I was a little scared of what I might see on the video when I got in this morning, we've all seen those shows that have hidden cams set up in the office and the next thing you know they catch someone doing something extremely lude and nasty.  

There's one suspect that I have in mind who might be sitting at my desk and doing all sorts of things ... it's not the "stinky old lady" that I posted about before, that's just her neighbor.  But this other lady likes to be nice to us when we are here, but when we're not around she talks crap about us.  There was an incident where I went to the bathroom and she came in with my coworker still here.  I had a few boxes of documents around my desk and she gets upset saying that I think this is a college dorm room and then starts to kick my boxes.  When I get back to my desk it's like it never happened and I'm greeted with a "oh hello Simon, how are you doing?"  She sometimes comes to my desk to check herself out in my mirror that I have to see if anyone is coming up behind me.

She wasn't in last night, so the video only showed her stinky neighbor sitting at her desk and talking on the phone for about an hour, the cleaning guy coming and cleaning the carpet, then someone painting the wall.  Nothing awesome yet ... so I won't post up the boring video.  It also caught this other old lady who seemed to get up out of her chair about forty to fifty times in the span of two hours.  

I will keep this updated and hopefully she comes in tonight and we catch someone on video!

+ mon

Update on Wednesday, June 3, 2009 at 12:04PM by MONStar

After a few technical difficulties we're up and running again.  The suspect came in yesterday but nothing was caught on video, so we'll wait and see.  Who knows, maybe I was wrong and it wasn't the person I was thinking about!?

To Catch a Predator

It's been a few months now that this has been happening, but my coworker and I just decided to ignore it in hopes of it going away.  Besides the smell factor that comes in around 4pm everyday we have to go through something else here at our desks.

Being that we lost our cubes and offices, having these desks out in the open makes me feel very vunerable.  During the past few months we have started to notice things start to disappear from our area.  

Mine is a cluttered mess that I can't help because there is no other place to put my things, but in the clutter I do have my little hiding places.  To think, with the mess people won't want to go near my desk but apparently they do!  I had a bunch of change that was hidden undernearth the monitor that was covered with other junk ... this would be our vending machine fund and when that afternoon hunger would hit, this would be our little change heaven so we can get some much needed munchies!  

There were quarters galore there, and I even left a $1 bill or two lying around sometimes.  After all it was covered and why would anyone look around my desk for anything.  I was greeted one morning by seeing that my quarters were all gone!  They had left the dimes, the nickles and the dollar bills, but the quarters were all nowhere to be found!  Hmmm maybe they had to use it for parking?  I thought that somehow the thief would put the money back the following night ... but that wasn't the case.  I moved my stash and haven't noticed anything missing from that lately.  

The big heist took place right next door to my at my neighbors desk.  Since the vending machine change incident we decided to go just buy the granola bars, candy from the store and have a good supply for when that urge hits.  I have the small boxes that only had about six granola bars in them ... him on the other hand got his from Costco and had a box of ... well the big boxes.  After a few days he was down to about twelve bars left, and off we went that night after all the work was done.  The next morning came and he was down to three bars, so nine of them suddenly disappeared!  

We all know that granola bars don't get up and walk away so someone had been casing our desks and took the opportunity when no one was around to strike.  Mine was some quarters, but my coworker had been hit hard ... that was his snack supply there.  

So this trend has been going on and we decided to hide our "goodies" from now on.  But that didn't stop the person(s) who were snooping around our desks!  I would often find my desk dirty and with crumbs on it when I get in in the morning, but I would always wonder if I had left that there from the day prior.  Ahhh well today was the day that the proof was right there ... yesterday the only thing that I had eaten for lunch were two apples that were already sliced.  I remember cleaning the desk afterwards and leaving it spotless clean before leaving.  This morning I come to discover spots on my desk and it looked like someone had been eating something with mustard or curry ... or maybe some sort of sauce that was yellowish.  It was right here in front of my keyboard and all over the side of the desk ... 

Well enough is enough.  Sometimes we have to take the law into our own hands and today ... tonight is the night!  This is the left side of my desk and it's "clutter."  Do you notice anything, anything that stands out in particular???  

Hopefully you didn't but if you check out the lamp post ... you'll see it clearly.  

The original positioning of this was a little better, but it was too obvious that there was something that was being covered ... so I left it like this.  The ones I suspect are using my desk for their entertainment are old and won't be paying attention to this lamp.  

Good old fashioned survellance!  The camera is set to capture images when there is motion detected, so once someone comes to my desk ... bam!  This should be fun and I can't wait to find what I catch on video ... or should I be scared of what I might catch!?

Hopefully I can haev something entertainint to post here tomorrow by catching someone in the act of using my desk!  Mess with the best, die like the rest!

+ mon

Man Funk That!

There was a song in the 90's where this guy just went through a list of things that annoyed him ... so here's my list ...

Why is it that everytime I go to the movies, I end up sitting behind someone with the biggest head and behind the only person in theater that doesn't slouch down in their seats!

Why is it that when you're driving 85mph in the fast lane on the highway, there's always one car that merges from the next lane over and goes 60mph in the fast lane right in front of you!

Why is it that when the weather is so nice outside and everyone is out in the sun, you're the only one who can't enjoy it because of your allergies! 

Why is it that you have a coworker who sends you an email and they minute they click on send they call you and ask you if you received their email!?

Alright those are the four things I can think of right now and I know I'm going to have more so there will be a part two to this coming up ... soon.

+ mon

Poop Magnet

For the frequent readers on here, there is a recurring topic that comes ... it's the whole "poop" thing.  Either it's me or it's my dog ... or just poop in general.

This one starts when I get home everyday and the ritual is to take Shadow outside to the pack to pee and if he can, poop.  There are some days when he does his #2 early and when I get home he's already done so all he needs to do is pee.  This was one of those days ...

As I was carying Shadow up the stairs to the back, it was just another normal thing and he did his business in the back.  I didn't notice till the next day that I had a mark on my dress shirt that I was still wearing coming home from work.

Apparently this day Shadow just finished taking his #2 and he still had a "crayon" left or just some sort of left over on his butt.  This ended up on my shirt and I didn't know until I tried to figure out where this "stain" came from.

I carry him on my left side under my arm like a bag, and well his butt wiped off whatever excess was there onto my shirt. 

So if you're wondering, I did end up wearing this shirt to work a few days later when I did realize it was poop while in the office.  Thankfully there was no smell and that it was dry and looked just like a normal stain ... but now the world knows what it really was.

+ mon

Back to the Reality

Ahhhh yes I'm back in NY, I landed yesterday around 5:30am and it's that "horrible" feeling of coming back from a nice "vacation."  Going to Cali wasn't a vacation when I go during Holy Week, it's time spent with the other BNP people from all over the world and it's definitely a great way to jump start that spiritual part of your life and is always a great experience. 

The day started out with us landing in JFK and the rain welcoming us back to NY.  One of the worst parts of being at the airport is waiting for checked-in luggage!  I don't check luggage in but I had to wait for everyone else that had their bags checked.  That's the worst when you're sitting there just waiting for the belt to start spinning ... and it's even worse when your luggage just happens to be one of the last ones to come out of that chute.  Here it is about 6am now and the belt starts, people are crowded around it shoulder to shoulder waiting for their bags to come.  I find it funny how some people stand about 10 feet away from the belt and hope to snag their bag up when it comes out.  There was one guy who had that hope ... as his bag came out of the chute he seems it and instantly bounces up from sitting against the wall.  Now his bag is on the belt and as he's slowly walking parallel to it there is a wall of people in his way until he finally finds that small opening, just big enough to get his hand through.  It was with his skills that he was able to grab one of the straps on his duffle bag ... but now comes another problem!  He has to pull the bag out of that small opening ... while other bags are still coming and about to push his bag further down.  Sounds like a video game huh???  Now the success of this plan lies in how heavy his bag is and how strong he is.  If he's not that strong and his bag is too heavy for him to pull with three or four fingers on the strap, then he loses.  His bag will get swept away with the other bags and he'll have to wait for it to come back around.  But fortunately for him the combination of his strength and weight of his bag was perfect and he was able to snag his bag and pull it out of that small opening from the wall of people.

We all know that feeling of taking a "nap" because we're so tired but then when we wake up from that short sleep we feel so much worse!  It was about 6:30am when we got home and I changed real fast into house clothes in hopes of getting some sleep in my bed for an hour or two ... but saw what became of my room for the past week.  A bad part of "vacationing" for me is that when I leave Shadow (my dog) alone, I think he gets mad at me ... either that or he just has some problems with his butt.  He greeted me as happily as he could when I came in the door, but when I looked into my room, I saw what he had been doing for the past week.  He was virtually alone except when my brother was there feeding him, so there was no one to take him out to do his business when nature called.  I won't go into detail but if you want to know what it was like, it's similar to the movie Dumb and Dumberer.  That scene when younger Lloyd was in the bathroom with a Hersey bar in his back pocket and it melted on the radiator.  The chocolate went everywhere and when the father (Bob Sagat) later went into the bathroom he saw the chocolate everywhere but thought it was something else and all you could hear him yelling was that "he sh*t everywhere!  ... Look what he did he sh*t all over the wall!"

I ended up sleeping on the rug in the living room and couldn't fall asleep for a while, I wish I just got up and started cleaning up instead of trying to knock out.  But I did end up falling asleep and woke up around 10am and had to be at work by 9:30am.  Woke up with that feeling of "damn I wish I didn't sleep" but somehow made my way to work.  I don't even remember what happened at work ... the day went by and I had volleyball that night but wasn't sure if I was going to make it.

Going home on the train, you know you're tired when you knock out immediately after sitting down.  Also, when you wake up because your face is cold from the drool dripping down your chin and down your neck.  Yes I was drooling ... again.  Ended up missing my stop and the only reason I woke up was because I had one big snore and it made me jump to see that I passed my stop. 

At home I cleaned up the mess in my room and ended up weighing myself ... it wasn't surprising to see the results.  I knew that I had gained some weight during the trip and it was about eight or nine pounds, you'll find out why later with all the food that we ate while there.  So I had to go to volleyball to try and work some of this new poundage off! 

Back to the daily grind ... wishing I was in Cali or going back soon.  Now I have more time to blog, blogon!

+ mon

Invasion of Privacy

What would you do when you're faced with a situation where you felt helpless, you felt somewhat paralysed and didn't know what to do?  I'm sure some of us have gone through this before and have experienced many situations where these different feelings do and can come up.  

Today I had an experience where I did feel all of those feelings and thensome.  

It started out as a normal day here at work and then I decide to take a short trip to a place that I like to call my "smaller office."  The trip started out as I went to my normal spots, but all of them were occupied by other employees who seemed to be going to their small offices as well.

So what choices do I have, as nature was calling ... actually yelling at me.  I decided to go to one of the higher floors to see if there was anything available and usually they are quieter and you can spend the whole day up there.  I found one where there was one out of two available and made my way into the small office.  

One thing I noticed was that the door swung outward and I looked at the "lock" on the door, it was very shaky and I made a mental note that if there was a sudden impact on the door or someone would try to open it ... that it would simply give way.  My neighbor was very quiet ... and as nature was yelling at me, I was trying to be as quiet as he, but it was to no avail.  Nature yelled, and I yelled back.  That feeling of having a neighbor in these situations who is being quiet makes things uncomfortable, you try to be as silent as possible, but sometimes that's just impossible, then you start to wonder what they are thinking and then you remember what you were thinking when you were in the situation but you were the silent neighbor and how your face cringed with each noise the person next door did.  I waited for him to leave, but it seemed as if he was situated there for a while.  I could hear people coming in the door, then immediately leaving because they saw that both doors were closed and occupied, I guess at that particular time, nature made it's roll call to a lot of us here.  

I won the battle of patience and my neighbor decides to finish up and leave.  As he was leaving, he opened his door and as he did that the worst feeling came over me.  It was a feeling of not knowing what to do next, that reaction of fight or flight came and I had to make a choice as to where I would go next and what I should do.  

What would you do if you saw this scene about 3 feet in front of you, with your pants down around your ankles?

This picture was taken after the fact and when everything was over and done with.  It's a reenactment as I would not have been able to take this while everything was going on.  

So what would do you???  Good thing for me is that I noticed the shaky lock mechanism, if you could even call it a lock.  I would have had better luck putting tape on the door and the frame to keep it closed.  

As the door swung outward ... yes outward, a panic in me started to set in.  It would have been easy if it swung inward, but that wasn't my luck today.  I could see my neighbor through the opening of the door now and I'm sure he could see me looking into the mirror and seeing the door swinging open!  I quickly decide to leap forward to close the door ... but there's no handle on the door, only a small turning metal part that "locks" the door.  I couldn't grab onto that and had to think quickly.  

See it wasn't just a matter of finding a place to hold the door and close it ... but time was also a factor here.  The door was swinging open more and more, the longer I waited the more exposed I would be, and the harder it would be for me to find a way to close it as well!

I ended up grabbing the hook on the top of the door where you use to hang your jacket or coat and slowly pulling the door closed and putting it in the "locked" position again.  

For that brief moment after the sweat drips off your forehead do you find peace.  Then you rush to finish your business because this could be a recurring issue.  

I think this is actually one of my worst fears coming back to life.  I say "back to life" because this isn't the first time this has happened to me.  The first time was in an airport and the same situation happened when a neighbor slammed the door shut, and mine opened outward, but there was some complications with this as my bags were in the way and I couldn't lean forward enough to grab the door as it swung FULLY open.  The good thing was that it opened towards the urinals and there was no one there.  I leaned as far foward as I could trying to reach the door but with no luck ... what felt like an eternity, but I'm sure was only a few seconds, 30 seconds at most, the door started to swing closed again and I was able to lunge forward to close it.

These things always seem to happen to me!  Becareful out there, and bring some Scotch tape for those doors!

+ mon

The Illusion of Work Attire

I do hope that people at work don't read my blog ... if they do then they'll know some of my secrets!  So this one is being put out there so everyone can benefit from it and maybe you can do it too!

When you have to dress in business clothing there's a whole process that is involved, as some of you know.  The big thing is ironing the clothes - the pants and especially the shirts.  This is mostly for the guys but I think the girls might be able to find this useful as well.  There comes a time in people's professional lives that you just can't and don't want to sit there for hours ironing dress shirts that you just got out of the laundry.  Sure you can take them straight out of the dryer and hang them, but they aren't crisp and they don't have those iron lines on the sleeves and or legs of the pants.  

Dry cleaning you say?  I've been down that road before and although it's a good place to take your dress clothes to be cleaned and ironed, it often gets pricey at about $2.50 a shirt.  So if you buy a $50 shirt and wear it a lot, then you're going to end up paying more for the cleaning and ironing of that shirt in the long run than the actual purchase price.  I know a lot of us aren't that loaded (but I soon will be thanks to Monica!) so we have to find other means.

There have been days where I would have sweatshop type labor since I needed my clothes ironed.  I would pay my niece and/or nephew $20 for all my shirts, there was a good amount of shirts so it was cheaper than the dry cleaning.  The problem with that was they would constantly complain that there were too many shirts, or they didn't get the wrinkles out.

The following rational isn't going to make sense to some people but it did to me at the time I was doing it.  Instead of washing my dress shirts and ironing them, I would just buy new ones and use those for about a week, then they would go into the pile of clothes that need to be washed and ironed.  This only went on for a few weeks as I started to run out of money, and ended up with way more dress shirts than I needed.

So the solution to all of this madness is quite easy.  It's not sitting down on a Sunday aftenoon and ironing all your work clothes, noooo that's the hard way out!  Quite possibly the best solution, but also the hardest.  Well for me it takes me about 5-10 minutes a shirt as I try to get it nice and clean with the iron and the lines on the sleeves, so it takes a while!

Now the results will vary, but it's better when you have the white button down shirts instead of the colored ones.  The reason being is that the colored shirts are remembered moreso than the white ones, and the one shirts have more combinations that can be made.  What combinations is he talking about?

Monday comes and you only have one shirt ironed, luckily it's a white button down shirt that you happened to iron and is clean.  Nice and fresh, so you go into work wearing that and black slacks ... see the pants are not as important because people don't look at your pants as much as they do with the shirt.  

Tuesday shows it's ugly head and you find that no shirts are fresh and clean anymore!  You see that white shirt you wore yesterday, but do you dare wear it again?  Yes you do, but this time you add a nice tie to the mix!  Ahhhh brand new outfit, the white shirt loses focus as it's a common fact that guys have more white shirts than other shirts, so it could just be another white shirt and not the white shirt you wore yesterday.

Halfway there, Wednesday is here.  So now you have the option of keeping the shirt and just changing the tie color, or you can go a little further.  In the colder months, you can add a sweater on top of the white shirt to, again bring out a brand new outfit.  

Thursday comes and there is that white shirt sitting there, make sure there aren't any food stains or odors coming from the shirt, if there is ... then you have to ditch this plan and actually iron another shirt.  But if you're still alright and the shirt looks clean, then add a simple sweater vest to it to jazz it up.  No one will be the wiser and no one will notice that it's the same white shirt since Monday.  Guaranteed!

Friday, almost home free!  Put that clean looking white shirt on one more time, don't put a tie on, don't put a sweater on or a vest even, we're going to go a step up and add a nice suit jacket to the onsamble!  If you want to make the best impression, add a different colored tie too.  See now the white shirt again is forgotten and the only thing people can focus on is you're wearing a suit on a Friday!  Wow you must be a real good employee when you're wearing a suit (and possibly a tie) to the last workday of the week.  Either that or you must be meeting with someone important or you yourself are very important!

You see what we just did here, we were able to pull of wearing the same white button down shirt for a five day work week without having to iron.  It's just like a magician, you need to direct the attention away from the meat of he trick.  So divert the attention away from the white shirt with the sweaters, the ties, the vest and the suit jacket.  Remember the key thing is to keep the shirt stain and odor free, that's the key.  If there is a stain, it will easily be remembered ... "hey Bob, didn't you stop that slice of pizza on yourself yesterday?  That stain looks like it's in the same spot" ... bam your cover is blown!  

There you have it, if you can pull this off, come Friday when you're heading home, you'll feel this sense of accomplishment, just make sure that you wash that shirt well during laundry day because going more than one week will not be good.  It will take David Cooperfield to pull that off and I don't think we're even close to that level.  Don't get overconfident, that's what causes the downfall of most people trying this.  

+ mon

Fabreeeeeeze Pleeease!

One thing I don't understand is that when something is off, or something isn't right you'd think that a friend, or even someone who they talk to would let them know what's up.

Here at work around 5pm everyday we under go this cycle. I sit at my desk, then I turn on my fan to high and put it to my face. A little while later I'll spray some Gap Scent into the fan and in the air.

Reason being there's a lady who comes around 5pm, and to put it frankly smells like used ktty litter, yes that cat pee pee smell!

At first we speculated that it was kitty litter but then it was confirmed when I heard her talking about er cats and seeing the cat stickers on the monitor. I have nothing against animals, infact I love cats too! But when you stank you stank. Shew has these friends at work who she talks to all the time but they haven't said anything to her! Why not? Just even a hint! I feel like putting Lysol on her desk before she gets there but she might know its me.

It's the same principle as if you have an ugly girlfriend your close frieds should tell you. So I do hope, WE hope that someone does tell ... soon!

If you look closely you can see the little cat stickers on the monitor.

+ mon

Getting in Trouble

Do you remember those times in school when you knew you were going to get in trouble for something?  Be it something you did and you knew the teacher was going to talk to you, or you did something and someone was going to find out.  

Those moments when the teacher knows you did something and says "Simon, I want to see you after class" or something similar are the worst!  You sit there the rest of the day with nothing else on your mind except that, you worry about the impending doom that is coming your way at the end of the day or whenever you're going to talk to your teacher.

I thought those days were long gone where you'd sit at your desk with that feeling in your stomach and just watching the clock tick away.  You think of what you're going to tell them but even though you have your "excuses" or your "story" it makes no difference, the anticipation of getting in trouble is still there.  It's even not limited to school, it's for when you're at home too and you know that you're in trouble when your parents get home from work.  So it's 3pm and you're home from school, the teacher or principal has already called your parents.  Now you wait till 6 or 6:30 until they get home ... those 3 hours are horrible!  You can try to keep your mind busy but it's never going to work.

So now I'm 29 and I'm in that situation again.  I have to talk to my boss about something I did here at work and I'm still waiting another 45 minutes to talk to him.  I found out at noon about this and it's been eating at me the whole day.  

No matter what the issue is in school, family or work, it could the smallest thing, but it's just that waiting to get yelled at or waiting to get in trouble is the worst part - it's sometimes even worse than the actual "punishment."

I sit here waiting for what lies ahead ... should I start packing my things in that all too familiar cardboard box that we see when someone leaves their job?  The anticipation is killing me!

+ mon

Another Worst Feeling

The story of the morning actually started yesterday when I had some White Castle. We all know what happens after having that oh so wonderful burger, don't we? If you don't know, the only way to describe it is that it goes right through you right after you eat it and/or the day after.

So here I sit in a meeting today for about an hour blogging about instead of actually doing it.

I had a meeting first thing in the morning and tried to make my way for a White Castle deposit but my coworker was in the bathroom and started to chat with me at this point I couldn't just walk into the stall and let it out. Who knows what insane sounds might have accompanied the deposit. So instead I walk with him to the conference room and the meeting starts. Now I'm in a bind as I can't leave to go to the bathroom since my coworker just saw me. I'm sitting here barely listening to what is being said, instead my focus is on "holding it" until the meeting is done.

Goose bumps, yes, I think we all know this feeling. The feeling where you are just begging for more time and strength to keep it in. This is another one of those horrible feelings when you need to deuce it up but just can't get out of the situation for a while.

Yes I'm sure some of you are thinkg "wtf" or "that's nasty" but you know its happened to you in your life at least once! As a coworker once told me when she mentioned she had to go deuce and I made a comment, her response was "What?! You act like you've never had to take a sh*t!"

+ mon
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

Running Late

A friend of mine told me this story ... and this story for security reasons will have to remain anonymous.

So the story starts off in the morning as he/she is going to work and ... ok let's give him/her a name.  Hmmm after a few IMs, I have four different names, Pauline, George, Bok and Montgomery.  I guess if you put them all together you get Paugeboky (pronounced Paw-Gee-Bok-Ee).

Alright let's start the story, so my friend Paugeboky was running late to work, really late (over an hour late) and I'll try to leave out unnecessary details to keep this short and to the point.  He gets in and sees a coworker in the elevator and some chit chat goes back and forth.  As he gets out of the elevator on their floor, they make their way past the first security door.  

With the first steps through that door he notices at the end of the hall that his boss is just arriving too.  But instead of turning towards where their offices are, the boss made a quick detour into the bathroom for a morning stop.  

Paugeboky saw this as an opporturnity!  So he left his coworker and ran as fast as he could down the hall ways and past the other offices while taking off his jacket.  Got to his office, threw his coat on the hook and sat in his chair.  Turned on his computer and grabbed his coffee mug.  Then he makes his way back up the way he just came from his coffee mug in hand ... sees his boss coming down the hall and greets them good morning!  

I think this was ingenious how he ran by his boss and picked up that coffee mug as if he'd been sitting there for at least an hour already!  Hopefully his boss didn't notice or hear someone running by the bathroom door.

+ mon

Working for the Weekend

This has been on my mind for a while now, and well it's not that I'm ungrateful for having a job in these "hard economic times" but it's just the anatomy of the job and what it entails and takes you away from.

We'll take the typical office job into consideration, say from 9am till 5pm. 

So here we are at 7am in the morning waking up and getting ready for work, because we also have to factor in the travel time so that we can make it into work ontimat 9am.  The day ticks away and we're here pounding on the keys of this board, going to meetings, meeting clients, reading emails, etc etc.  As the clock ticks, 5pm finally comes around and we're ready to get outta here and head on home.  Given that this is the rush hour and everyone rushes to get home, we get to our front door at about 6:30pm.  Now just because we're at home means that work is behind us, we have to get out of that work mentality and change and get comfortable for our life at home.

7pm is when we're in our house clothes and finally comfortable.  Now it's time to cook, watch tv, spend time with the family.  The clock hits 10pm or 11pm ... uh oh it's time to go to sleep now because we have to wake up at 7am to start the work cycle again.

Now taking a look at that, we spend about 12 hours a day either getting ready for or from work, being at work and traveling to and from work.  That's 12 hours, 7am to 7pm.  Then we have 3 or 4 hours to "relax," watch tv, spend time with the family, or whatever we have in mind before we have to hit the sack to get enough rest for us to make it through the next day.

What is that?  We only have a quarter of the time to spend at home during the week to be with our families, to relax and get away from work???  That's ridiculous, seriously it is. 

My boss always talks to us about quality of life is what's important, and what kind of quality of life is that when you come home at 7pm and spend the smallest amount of time with your kids and family.  I've always said that it's so much better to be working at a job that doesn't pay a lot, but does give you the time to be with your family and friends. 

The ideal job is to work on the beach and sell drinks.  The money probably isn't that great, but you're relaxed and you have time to be with the ones you love. 

Whomever invented the "work week" is an idiot!  Yes I said it!  Why couldn't they come up wtih a more balanced approach, 4 days of work and a 3 day weekend, or vica versa. 

Gotta love working for the weekend, us being behaved little robots for those 5 days gives us the reward of having 2 days to ourselves, awwww isn't that great!  This doesn't even take into account overtime, and those who are tied to their jobs with their ever so wonderful Blackberry's. 

Ahh well, back to work for me, another 9 minutes of regular time and probably some more overtime here.

+ mon