Paid off a credit card

On Friday, I paid off a credit card that I've had for over a decade. It felt good.

I actually had to call customer service to get the final payoff balance. I had to wait another seven minutes on hold to have the woman calculate it.

I was on hold for nearly half an hour. At least I got the payoff total that I needed.

That's one problem about Canadian banks. They aren't upfront with your final balance. You are expected to pay what you owe on your statement. You then wait for another statement that calculates the interest.

I like how my bank in the US does it. There's the payoff balance and your statement balance for credit cards and lines of credit. You know exactly how much to pay off. You don't need to call customer service to have someone calculate the payoff balance for you.

Weird, Canada.

I'm happy that I have got rid of a loan and a credit card so far this year. My financial situation is looking better.

Figure it out!

I worked from home on Wednesday. I realize that a number of my colleagues can't figure out things on their own. They simply ask questions and hope that someone like me will hand them these answers on a silver platter.

I am tired of this mentality. I figure out answers on my own. Why can't they do the same thing?

My manager is a part of this group. He can't do work himself. It is that part of management that I don't want to aspire to. I don't want to look or be incompetent.

Anyway, that's my little rant. I'm off to bed, hoping that Thursday will be happier and far more promising.

Attractive manager, and handjobs and blowjobs

I have a love-hate relationship with my current job position. I love training folks and working with students. I like research. I dislike incompetence and my huge workload. That's nothing new.

I was talking about it with my guy. We both don't exactly like the company's direction. We just grin and bear it.

My guy still urges me to continue finding employment elsewhere. I pointed out that I have not had a standard-of-living raise within the last two years. I have not received a bonus within the last three years.

I am currently dealing with a new project manager who thinks that she knows everything. Yet, she chimes into e-mails, which is irrelevant and adds more grief than necessary. She then flips it around to indicate that I seem unclear. Whatever. The proof is within the e-mail transcript that she is delusional.

She has set up a meeting for me to step through two documents for a final review with folks. I find it a waste of time, as we went through a first round of reviews. She can step people through it. After all, it's her meeting. I don't need to be there to walk folks through documents. People can read. She can handle this walk-through exercise, since she knows everything. Yes, read that last sentence with sarcasm.

She is a horrible communicator. I don't know where we get such incompetent project managers. Naturally, my manager just sits there and does nothing. It's probably because I have been handling everything well on my own.

Anyway, my guy and I had this chat about the situation.

"I think that it's great that you are looking for employment, as not getting any salary raise is not ideal," he sympathized.
"Yes, I haven't stopped. I just haven't found the right job," I noted.
"Fair enough. Once you find an attractive job, you can make your move," he agreed.
"If you were my attractive manager, I would definitely work for you. You'd have a job for me. A hand job, at least," I said.
"If I were your manager, we'd be doing a ton of jobs, like handjobs and blowjobs," he said.

It's nice when we incorporate some teasing and role-playing into our serious conversations.

Incompetent manager and craziness at work

This week is already shaping up to be super crazy!

At work, we have a major software release. It isn't going as well as we had hoped. At least our part of the exercise isn't too bad.

It's my mini me's last week with the company. I will miss her. My manager finally got around to booking her farewell lunch. Unfortunately, he can't get his act together collecting money from the team and buying a gift. He asked me to do it. I am a good organizer, but this week is not good for me I declined and asked my intern to help me out.

As a manager, if you can't organize something as simple as getting a farewell gift, you have issues. I am also trying to wrap up my work, ensure that my intern is okay while I am way with work, get tasks that my mini me has left, and prepare for my business trip next week.

I've started to pack. I have a ways to go. My guy is also doing training this week and flies off a day before I do.

On top of all this madness, my intern and I have to train a new employee this week. So, no, I do not have time to do a task that my manager should be able to handle.

I'm glad that I put my foot down. He made the argument that I would need to get a gift for my intern, so I might as well get both gifts. First, we have never got parting gifts for interns -- only a farewell lunch. Second, I said that I couldn't do the gift-buying this week, but could when I am back. He finally accepted.

Sometimes, I feel like I am the manager and my boss is the incompetent one.