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Chained Back to my Oar
Jan. 3rd, 2006 01:12 pmBack to the salt mines, and I really don't want to be here. I'm having to do a great many of my least favourite job-related things all in one lump. I'll list them so I don't have to do them for awhile.
1) Scanning documents
We have a few printers in the office. Michael has one of his own, and I have one of my own. However, for the rest of the department (all four of them) and for big documents that my diddy little LaserWriter 4/600 PS can't handle, there's the huge combination printer / photocopier / scanner at the far end of the room, by the kitchenette. I call it the Mangler. So scanning things means I have to take up residence over there, scan things (generally while picking up any big print jobs I had; I try to bulk my trips out to the Mangler together so I spend the minimum of time near the thing) and generally be in people's way. It's aggravating, but it must be done, and at least it means that a whole bunch of papers got decisions made on them so that their authors can stop bitching at me that they don't have a decision yet.
2) Stationery orders
I realised before the holidays that we were out of T-cards, which is where we keep hard copies of the details of new papers upon which we can make notes. It's a bit of a complex system, but it works. However, we've had a lot of submissions and very few T-cards, and it took me ages to actually find the things in our stationery ordering catalogue, so that had to wait until after the holidays. When I finally found the cards, and I'd been through the department asking if anyone else needed anything stationery-wise, I had to do the unthinkable and ring the office products supplier we use. I always get this guy named Brian and he always sounds nearly scarily cheerful. It's intimidating. But at least that's out of the way and I can spend tomorrow doing something else I don't like -- setting up T-cards.
3) Talking to the chief editor
Peter is nice and all, but he's scatty as anything and it's hard to get coherent orders out of him. Generally, the notes he leaves me are bad enough; he asks me to send out papers to referees, but half the time he doesn't include e-mail addresses and misspells names so I can't look up the referee anywhere, or he supplies an invalid e-mail address, leaving me to scour the internet for a contact for the referee in question, or something that makes my job harder. He also replies to the notes I send him and leaves my notes in the text, leaving me to ferret out whose comments are whose. However, it's in person or on the phone that life gets difficult; he tends to make everything sound like it's my fault. He gets that 'disappointed' tone when the people I've been trying to track down for the best part of a week don't respond to my attempts to communicate. He gets the same tone when people I've sent reminder letters to simply will not come back to me with reviews on the papers we sent them six months previous. I may be like unto a tiny god, but there's only so much I can do. At least Hilary acknowledges how much better things are going now that I'm here, instead of focusing on what I can't accomplish due to other people's failures.
I'm tired, I'm cranky, I'm bored and I want to go home. At least I've got through the huge pile of comments and people asking what's happening with their paper and such. Now I can action those decisions (if I can make out decisions out of the gabble that is a Peter e-mail) and then scan things into the Mangler. But I'm sure lunch will happen before the Mangler thing, at least.
1) Scanning documents
We have a few printers in the office. Michael has one of his own, and I have one of my own. However, for the rest of the department (all four of them) and for big documents that my diddy little LaserWriter 4/600 PS can't handle, there's the huge combination printer / photocopier / scanner at the far end of the room, by the kitchenette. I call it the Mangler. So scanning things means I have to take up residence over there, scan things (generally while picking up any big print jobs I had; I try to bulk my trips out to the Mangler together so I spend the minimum of time near the thing) and generally be in people's way. It's aggravating, but it must be done, and at least it means that a whole bunch of papers got decisions made on them so that their authors can stop bitching at me that they don't have a decision yet.
2) Stationery orders
I realised before the holidays that we were out of T-cards, which is where we keep hard copies of the details of new papers upon which we can make notes. It's a bit of a complex system, but it works. However, we've had a lot of submissions and very few T-cards, and it took me ages to actually find the things in our stationery ordering catalogue, so that had to wait until after the holidays. When I finally found the cards, and I'd been through the department asking if anyone else needed anything stationery-wise, I had to do the unthinkable and ring the office products supplier we use. I always get this guy named Brian and he always sounds nearly scarily cheerful. It's intimidating. But at least that's out of the way and I can spend tomorrow doing something else I don't like -- setting up T-cards.
3) Talking to the chief editor
Peter is nice and all, but he's scatty as anything and it's hard to get coherent orders out of him. Generally, the notes he leaves me are bad enough; he asks me to send out papers to referees, but half the time he doesn't include e-mail addresses and misspells names so I can't look up the referee anywhere, or he supplies an invalid e-mail address, leaving me to scour the internet for a contact for the referee in question, or something that makes my job harder. He also replies to the notes I send him and leaves my notes in the text, leaving me to ferret out whose comments are whose. However, it's in person or on the phone that life gets difficult; he tends to make everything sound like it's my fault. He gets that 'disappointed' tone when the people I've been trying to track down for the best part of a week don't respond to my attempts to communicate. He gets the same tone when people I've sent reminder letters to simply will not come back to me with reviews on the papers we sent them six months previous. I may be like unto a tiny god, but there's only so much I can do. At least Hilary acknowledges how much better things are going now that I'm here, instead of focusing on what I can't accomplish due to other people's failures.
I'm tired, I'm cranky, I'm bored and I want to go home. At least I've got through the huge pile of comments and people asking what's happening with their paper and such. Now I can action those decisions (if I can make out decisions out of the gabble that is a Peter e-mail) and then scan things into the Mangler. But I'm sure lunch will happen before the Mangler thing, at least.