My boss was gone today. And the office manager was gone for most of the day too in meetings. So...yipee for me...I manned the fort solo! I actually really enjoy it. It gives me the space and privacy to do things the way *I* want to do them...and I get to do my best. I get the freedom to shine without fear. I don't have to ask permission. Or do things in a stupid fashion just to respect the unthinking bureaucracy which is in power. I can just calmly focus, and be happy. Be present. Be of service. I guess I really do resent the my way or the highway approach that Niki has. And the petty office politics which sometimes bite me in the butt. :P I reorganized her filing system, and put them in a logical left-to-right orientation, and also created color coded labels to clearly mark the year, and the alphabet, so that ANYONE(ahem...let me say that with pride again...) ANYONE can find a file EASILY. I tried to make it organized, simple, and clear. (As clear as I can...) Honestly if I had complete carte blanche, I wouldn't have these weird file drawers here and there intermingling with the 2010 files...but NIKI likes it that way. Meh. Stupid. But what's a girl to do when she's not the boss? -Answer: follow orders. Meh. In the past, Niki had all of the files from the current year, and the year before going right-to-left. She also had many of them unmarked, wrapping around the office in a way that really made no logic. She would have random file drawers here and there with unrelated objects too...like FedEx supplies...Home Warranty Information...Toners...Phone books...Stationary...and my personal favorite, a vast collection of broken, or outdated machinery, like fax machines, phones, and accompanying cords and doohickeys (circa 1984!!!) Really now! WHO NEEDS THIS JUNK!?! Oh...and magazine ads dating back 40 years. Yet again...who needs this??? Anyhoo...I couldn't get her to put all of the files *together*. So I at least marked them with bright-colorful-easy-to-read labels. Finding a file now reminds me a bit of Hansel and Gretel leaving/following a trail of bread crumbs in the forest. -That's what my labels are to me. They're the bread crumbs of order in the forest of chaos. :) I also spaced them out logically, improving upon Niki's system of squishing them all together, and then having to constantly lug, and move files down, down, down...making room for the new ones because you started out putting A-Z (or rather Z-A the way she does it) in ONE FRIGGING FILE!!! The 2009 files are all in now, and we're not expecting any more. So at this point, I could (oh goody) make them as compact as possible, and squish them all down towards the end. The funny thing is...my boss told me yesterday, that she wants the 2010 files to go Z-A. She wants me to pull all of my labels and reverse them. I asked her why? Because it honestly makes no sense to me, or anyone else -apart from her. She said that when we had to move the files down next year, we wouldn't have to move them as far. (Which is complete nonsense...since we have to move ALL of the files...and they are going the same distance any way you cut it. In my perfect universe...we would never move the files like that. We would leave them where they are, and in 2 years, box them for storage. Leaving clean empty files to start anew. The moving them down bit makes it very labor intensive with no real logic or pay-off. It's just faux-busy-work to me. I would much rather have the free time to help the agents or do something that would make our company better. But I am just a grunt. Sorry to drone on about this. I'm just venting. :P I gotta get it out in a healthy appropriate manner like writing...so I can let it go and be happy.
One last thing...Dave Fahrner (one of my favorite agents...and one of our best) said to me today, that he actually likes it when Niki isn't there. He liked the energy. (I think it's mainly because I don't bitch out the agents.) I'm nice, I smile, I help. We get the same work done Niki and I...we just do it in a different way. I'm also ironically more organized at work than Niki. Things get laid out neatly, and then cleared and put away swiftly. It's easy for people to find things when I am working. With Niki, it's a different story. She passively-aggressively hides things in places where the agent is forced to ask for her help (They need her. She's important. Indispensable!) Oftentimes this is a trap. It gives her a chance to wield her power over them and bitch them out...or take her time making it so they don't get paid as soon. All day long I was reading e-mails from various people regarding one file which has already closed. It was a bank deal...and even though the bank was generating the paperwork and it was a done deal with no complaints...no official from the bank had signed the contract (which THEY GENERATED mind you) as the "seller". The bank owned it...not John P. Smith from accounting...so of course Mr. Smith didn't put his signature on it...The fact that they generated the contract is sufficient. I see it all the time on REO's and short sales. Niki does too...but for some reason she decided to make a big fuss with Aya and tell her that she (Aya) had gotten her (Niki) in big trouble with our office manager (Brian). Niki fabricated this big fake-drama. And today I was reading all of the e-mails from the involved parties. When Aya came in, she was stressed about it and tried explaining it to me. I told her that I knew what was going on, and not to worry. It wasn't a big deal. Just to do the best she could to get the signatures and if she couldn't it would be ok I'm sure. I advised her to talk with Brian. She did. He also said it wasn't a big deal. Things like that just annoy me. There's no reason to get people so riled up. Ask them nicely. Do your best. Be calm and enjoy what you're doing. Have a little fun and smile. Dave Fahrner isn't the only one who's told me that they like the atmosphere better when Niki isn't there. He also noticed how things just ran smoother. They were organized. Calm. Positive and stress-free. And that I just did a great job. He seemed to think that more work got done when I was there. That I was actually more productive. I think the same stuff gets done with Niki and me...we just do it differently. Our approach and philosophies are different. He came back with..."I'll tell you what...you definitely play less free-cell than Niki!" I teased him and dared him to say that to her face. Ha! Right!
- Groups:Inner Circle Peeps
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