Monday...why do you hate me?

I woke up this morning feeling a little jolly. So jolly in fact, that I decided to wear my Santa hat once I couldn't locate my OU baseball cap. I tucked the dog in tight & kissed her on her little nose & tucked T in & kissed her on her little nose as well & off to work I went.



This was my first mistake. As I drove to work I passed my boss' house & noticed her car was still there. Hmmm. I zipped into the parking lot, found a nice little spot and went in, unaware of the bomb of crazy awaiting me. There was an eerie silence to the building. A calm before the storm.



I unlocked the office, turned everything on, & went to get the coffee started. Friday's coffee was still sitting in the pot. EW. I cleaned the pot, filled it with water & headed back. As the coffee was brewing, it began.

A Professor came in to notify me that there was water pouring from underneath the Janitor's closet door on the 3rd floor. Now, why the Professor came to get me rather than the Janitor is a bit puzzling, but I guess I'm probably easier to find. I lept up out of my seat & immediately went to find her. She had her coat in her arms & appeared to be on her way out. When I told her of the "Great Flood", she dropped everything & headed up. I immediately had 3 more people come into my office to notify me of the "Great Flood". I told them she was aware of it & taking care of it. One of them was so irate, that she didn't hear a word I said & started going off on me.






Oh.Hell.No.

I explained to her the situation again & told her that if she needed to, she could go talk to Hazel herself. Hazel is the custodian. She wanted me to call her supervisor & let them know that she was letting water get everywhere & that what has happened is just the end of the world, and maybe she could get written up or reprimanded. Sigh. Seriously? It was just a little water. Okay, a moderate amount of water. Still, it was an honest accident. Hazel has only been with us for about a month. She's still getting the hang of things. I'm sure bitching her out will really make her want to do her best in the future. Our old custodian did this at least once a year & no one said anything.

I looked at this woman & just gave her a look that said, "Really? Seriously? You want to over-react to this THAT much?" What I did say to her though, was, "Look, it was an accident. She is on it & cleaning it up as fast as she can. If you think your room is a priority over the part she is working on now, then go upstairs & tell her. I don't think her supervisor needs to be bothered with something that is being taken care of. If she had just left it sitting there, I would most certainly call, but as it is, I think she's got it."

She looked at me & made some more noise that sounded like a chicken clucking & made it very clear to me that she felt that she was above having to go & tell the janitor such things & that it was my job to do so without directly saying that. I pretended not to get the hint & stared at her with a look of, "And?" until she felt uncomfortable & left.




With that being taken care of I finally checked my phone message that had been blinking since I walked in. It was my Boss. She wasn't coming in. Ah, okay, no back-up. It's alright. I handled it. I deleted the message & hung up. The phone rang. I answered & it was my Boss' Boss. He was running late. Okay. That's cool. I got it.

A nice fellow then pops into the office & informs me that the water in the walls messed up one of the network cables & so some of the internet in the building will be down. Craptastic. When internet goes down, Professor's are like small hungry babies that have been torn away from a teet. The whining & crying is unending & all comprehension of the way things work as well as logic disappear from their heads. Panic sets in & suddenly I realize what it must be like to run a pre-school. Kudos to you pre-school workers that do a great job. Sure enough, I get a call from the oldest living fossil in the building. Now, the guy is nice & usually very polite, but he is technologically retarded. He tells me the University page is down. I try to explain to him that he is on the network that is down & that they are working on it. He doesn't understand. He tells me his e-mail works & I explain to him that it doesn't. He had it opened & it is cached so it looks like it is, but it isn't. I suddenly realize I am doing my old IT job in my new Admin. Assist position. Dangitsomuch! This guy just refuses to talk to the IT guy. He likes me, but it AIN'T my job anymore. Anyhoo, once he understands, he tries to get me to go onto the internet for him & go into his account & download the final test for his students. Wha!? Um, no. I am not a teacher. I do NOT teach. I have never taught. I do NOT have access to teacher things. I am a receptionist. I get paid a little more than min. wage. I have not & will never be familiar with ozone or that file sharing program that teachers use. I have my own programs & things to access that are staff related. I'm sure none of the teachers know how to file anything related to travel or which forms go where. If they would like to learn that, then I will learn their things. Then perhaps when my boss calls in, they can cover me so I can go home as well.

As I am on the phone, a large number of students begin filling up the space in my office. I ask if I can help & they tell me that their Prof. has asked them to put their finals in their 6" x 6" mailbox. Seriously? Of course with 5 papers it is completely full. Now, none of them can fit their papers in & they are standing there like lost sheep. Nice. Yet another Professor who decides that rules don't apply to them. All Professor's & GA's have been told time & again NOT to do this for THIS very reason. They WILL NOT fit! I cannot be held responsible for taking these papers. If I take them & one gets lost in all my paperwork or filed somewhere on accident or the student says they handed it to me but didn't, we are all going to have to deal with that mess, and frankly, I'm not having it. I'm not going to remember at the end of the day who handed me what. That makes it real easy for a student to say they handed me their paper & that I must have lost it. See how that makes me responsible for something that I really shouldn't be? See how that is what you, as a Professor are paid to do & me & my meager wage are not? See how you as a Professor should have set up a specific time & place for them to hand you their papers & not just try to slack it off on some poor receptionist that is already dealing with floods, down internet, flying solo on a Monday frakkin' morning. See how this makes you an ASS?

Now, once that was all dealt with I grabbed the copy requests & start those. The copier jams up, makes a bunch of weird noises & gives me an error screen I've never seen before. Ahahaha. Crap.In.A.Hat.

Once I fixed that, I have a Professor come in & politely ask me if I could copy something for her. That's my job & what I get paid for, so sure. She smiles sheepishly & asks if I can copy an entire 300 page book. Yes. Yes I can. That IS something I'm paid for. Not looking forward to it, but yes. She is very thankful.

So yeah, I came to work at 8am. This all happened before 10:30am. Let's hope the day gets better. My friend did send me an EPIC picture to cheer me up. I added it below.



Oh, one more thing. No lunch. Hungry. Send help!