Ongoing Suck

[thessalian]

And here I am again, with further griping about my day. See, I now get the idea that today has been specifically designed by some malign deity specifically to turn my entire mood into a smouldering heap of slag.

Okay, when we reject papers, we hold on to them for a year, just in case some poor slob decides to send in a revised version. Fair enough. However, at some point it dawned on me that possibly the best way to store these was not the way my predecessors had, which was basically to hold all the relevant documentation on each paper together with a rubber band and then stuff them in a hanging folder with a bunch of other similarly banded papers. It was a mess trying to dig that shit out all the time. So eventually, I decided, "Hey! Individual folders don't take up as much room as these few overstuffed ones we've got going at the minute; why don't I just start putting the rejected papers into filing, hanging file and all? That way if someone wants to look at the documentation again, all they have to do is look at the relevant file! Yay! I R Clever!"

So that is what I did, and Michael frowned and wasn't sure that was such a good idea. But when, lo and befuckinghold, things actually started being more organised in the realm of rejected papers, he warmed to it and thought it was fab. To the point where a) he forgot it was my own initiative that led to the change and b) he decided to do a clear-out to make some nice tidy room for these papers. Which was nice. Until the questions came up about items he found while hunting. Idiotic questions, for the most part.

1) There's no card for this. Why is there no card for this?
*looks* Because it never even went for referees. We rejected it out of hand.
Well, we should have a card saying something to that effect. In case they come back with a revision.
*thinking* Why the fuck would there be a revision? Have you read the letter? The one on the screen in front of you? The one in which Ham-Fisted Editor explains to the corresponding author that the topic's not relevant to us, their data was a joke and their English was laughable even by Ham-Fisted Editor's standards?

2) I couldn't find a card for this one.
*looks* That's because it's been accepted. Well, the revised version was, anyway - this is the old version. They sent in a revision and that was accepted in June / March / January (delete as applicable).
Are you sure?
*double-checks* Yep.
Right. I'll check with copy anyway because I can't see that it has.
*thinking* ARE YOU EVEN LOOKING AT THE NICE SHINY VIRTUAL CARD ON THE SCREEN IN FRONT OF YOU READING, ACCEPTED [DATE]?!?

3) This is all fine except there's a typo on the date here that was messing with my system.
*looks* ... Okay. I'll fix that. *thinking* Why the almighty fuck didn't you, as you were there and it was merely a matter of adding a fucking zero?

4) I couldn't find a card for this one.
...Says rejected here.
Yes, I saw the rejection letter. But I can't find a card.
*checks box o' rejected cards* Here it is.
Oh, right.
*considers seppuku*

Plus there's a paper that came with thirteen or so high-quality images as figures (FOUR, damnit! The limit is FOUR!) which are printing out on our slow cranky printer like molasses in January, I have to do a post run and there's intermittent rain.

Today. SUCKS.

Comments

[nightskywarlock.livejournal.com]

ah, manglement. if it's not exactly the way they expect it, they say, "your system needs work, no one can find anything in here."

/me has the same problem in the workroom at work. every so often my boss wanders in looking for something, and if it doesn't jump up and bite him on the nose within of five seconds...

meanwhile, i find it darkly amusing to track the degradation of your day via icons...