Blogging will be sporadic for a while yet. I worked 60 hours this week, and the only reason it wasn't 70 is because they're moving our office all around. Everyone on the first floor will now be working on the second floor, and everyone who was on the second floor will now be working on the first floor. So we had to stop work at 3:45 yesterday afternoon, pack up our desks, take our personal belongings to our cars, clean our desks, etc. And we couldn't go in today because that's when the movers are doing their deal. Next week, though, is going to be quite the week.
Here's the dealio. In my team at work, there are only two of us right now working the process I work. The other guy is a very likeable--for the most part--guy who has absolutely zero work ethic. I've worked his queue twice before, once when he was out for a couple of days, and then 3 weeks ago when he was out for a day. He left Thursday afternoon for vacation and will not be back until the 18th. So we've got a new person on our team who is going to be working my queue, which should be pretty straightforward because I keep it clean. I look at every account at least every other day, and I stay on top of things. And I'm going to be cleaning out my co-worker's queue.
When I ran the report at 5:00 Thursday afternoon, he had 178 accounts. By the time I left the office at 7:45, I'd already closed 15. Not because I did anything particularly heroic, but because I did a quick run-through of every account. Some had already been closed on our vendor's website, and he just had to take five minutes to approve fees in one system, remove a code in another system, make a note in another system, and then close it in our database. Then yesterday I did documents to secure several vehicles that we needed to get picked up. I wrote up requests for 12 accounts that needed pre-charge-off letters sent. I sent at least a dozen pre-charge-off letters. If I'm on top of my game, his queue will be down to fewer than 100 accounts when he returns.
He's going to be really pissed at me. I already know that. He didn't talk to me for 3 days after the last time I worked in his queue, despite the fact that I saved him from two lost liens and did the charge-off process for 15 of his accounts. It's because he doesn't care about his work. He wants to coast on appearance and personality instead of actually doing his job. It pisses him off that I came onto the team in late September and our team lead and manager consider me an SME, and come to me for special projects instead of to him.
If he didn't talk to me for 3 days for working his queue one day, I figure I'm in for at least a week or two of the silent treatment after working his queue for a little over a week. That's cool by me. Frankly, I'd be just as happy if he decided he wanted to go work for a different department or even a different company.
I feel bad about this. I want to like people. I want to respect them. I believe most people deserve my respect, even if I can't manage to like him. After seeing how he mismanages his work, though, I don't have any respect for his work ethics. None. There's no reason for this state of affairs. Fortunately, in the rearranging of our group due to the move, I'll no longer be sitting right next to him, a state of affairs for which he is undoubtedly as devoutly grateful as I am.
I'm not doing his queue to show him up, and try to make him look bad. I'm doing his queue to help my team and my company. Lost liens cost us money. Charge-offs cost us money. Picking up cars that we should be charging off costs us money. Abandoning cars that we should be picking up costs us money. Last year, the team to which I now belong was performing so badly due to being understaffed and having a totally burned-out team lead who retired, that our company would have saved money by picking up every car and paying fees without even trying to negotiate. That's a sad state of affairs. We've made a lot of progress in turning things around. We're no longer quite the red-headed stepchild of our department, and I want to keep that momentum going. We're not going to do it if we sit around and complain about our jobs and don't actually work.
So next week I'll be at work by 6 every morning, and will be there at least until 7, or later if my team lead doesn't chase me off at 7, and I'll be there on Saturday. Because like it or not, my co-worker will be back the following Tuesday, and within a month or two, his queue's going to be back up around the 200 account mark. I want to clean up as much as I can so that when I give it back to him, it's in the condition I'd like to have someone give me.
I take pride in my work. I remember once a professor I worked for many years ago telling me angrily not to correct his punctuation when I prepared his documents. I calmly agreed, but then told him that I would not put my initials on any of those documents. He backed down immediately. If my name is going on a piece of work, I want it to be as accurate and complete as possible.
I wish there were a way that my co-worker would come to that feeling. I know this isn't his ideal career. Hell, it's not mine. But as long as I'm there, I'm going to do my damndest.
So thanks for visiting, know that my search for meaning is definitely continuing, but right now I've got some immediate matters that require all of my energy. We've got a few more people joining the team, and our team lead already said the overtime is going away once everyone's trained and we're fully staffed. So there's light.
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