So I work in a small law firm. It's not fun work, it's not easy work but it's not rocket science either. My attorneys, as much as they get on my last nerve every so often, really are great people. They grasp the concept of parenting, they understand having children, they know that sometimes life happens and it requires you to miss work or be a little off your game or whatever. Everyone actually cares about everyone else.
One of the secretaries retired in September of 2007. We have since been trying diligently to find someone to replace her. It's been so bad, that she has come back to work twice and retired again, twice. I can't even remember all of the replacement's names. I've just taken to calling them Nu-Girl. We had one that had tons of personal issues that she brought to work, wouldn't shut up and actually work, we'll call her "M". M couldn't make it to work on time to save her life. She couldn't pull diaries and basically never got the hang of it. But hey, they were giving her a chance. She got let go because of the coming in late, or not at all.
Next we had "L". L was a massive bitch. Nobody really liked her, but she did the job and hey she did it well. When she bothered to come to work that is. I think she was "on staff" 3 weeks and probably worked about 7 days of that. And when she was there, she smelled like a litter box.
Next was "J". J was nice. J came to work and actually showed up on time. J was slow, very slow. I don't mean mentally, I mean physically. She typed slow, she talked slow, she walked slow and her biggest concern on a document was how it looked. This did not work out quite too well. While we like our documents to look nice, we care more about getting them done and out the door. J just could not get over how we format things differently from wherever else she worked before and it became a problem. J quit, I guess because she got sick of being fussed at for doing the documents wrong, i.e. her way and said we insulted her integrity. Whatever.
Lets see, I think "W" was the next in line. She was definitely something else. She talked fucking constantly. I think we knew her entire life story her first week there. She was late every day. She was late coming back from lunch. One day she managed to get 8 letters done and was proud of herself. They were one paragraph letters and that amount can be done in half an hour at the most. Not quite the accomplishment she thought it was. W also spent a lot of time on the telephone and on the internet. Not good when you don't get your work done. W also forgot to pull diaries and to actually put things on the calendar. Her last day was when an attorney missed a hearing because she forgot to put it on the calendar. Way unacceptable. Oh and the best part...W installed a virus that took us 3 weeks and a complete reinstall on her computer to get rid of. That was pretty.
Now we are at "R". R is very talkative too. R is also a very negative person. She's like Eeyore with a little rain cloud over her head all the time. She's been there since Thanksgiving and we already know pretty much her life story too. She has issues getting to work on time also. As a matter of fact, her first day she called in sick, at 9:00 when she was due there at 8:00. She finally came in at 10:00 and she was just too sick and left not even an hour later. She has an excuse for being late every day. She thinks it okay to take 1.5 to 2 hour long lunches. She also spends a lot of time on the telephone dealing with personal issues and a lot of time on the internet doing who knows what. R scheduled to have Monday and Tuesday of this week off when she started due to a previously scheduled thing for her kid. However, today is Thursday and she hasn't come in at all this week and wont' be in tomorrow either. The excuses are starting to run together and fall apart and her boss is about ready to let her go. She keeps whining how much she needs this job, how much she needs the money, how broke she is, etc. Well hell if you care so much, come to work.
We don't ask much. Come to work. Come to work on time (yes everyone is late sometimes), while you are at work, work. We have internet access, unmonitored, fine use it, but don't use it to the exclusion of getting your work done. Leave your personal shit at home, if you need someone to talk to, fine, we'll listen, but shit, we all have work to do so no, we don't want to hear all your problems. If the boss is working with you and giving you a break, you better damn well have your nose to the grindstone and actually get some work done.
You might ask, damn Nymph, why does this bother you so much? To that I answer, for every secretary that doesn't do her job, that crap falls to me to do. The work still has to get done and someone has to do it. We work on time sensitive stuff so if it isn't being done by the new people, it gets dropped on my desk and frankly, I have enough shit on my desk to keep 3 people busy. Ohhh and while I'm busy doing HER work, my own work suffers and then someone is fussing at me about why my stuff isn't getting done.
I don't know what is wrong with people these days. Are jobs so plenty that they feel they don't need to care about keeping one? Hell I keep hearing we're in a recession, I must be out of the loop or something. If a job is just something for you to do from 8-5 and some extra spending money, do the rest of me a favor, stay the fuck out of my office. If you don't want to work, go get a sugar daddy, get on welfare, lay on the sofa in your parent's basement, whatever but please do not hinder the rest of society. Be productive or get out.
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