Day 2: Still thumbs up

I prety much know what I need to do. I also pretty much can guess what additional responsibilities I have.

Busier today. It keeps one going, trying to keep up with customers, incoming emails, calling customers regarding submitted orders, and other complaints/issues...but I already feel like there's nothing I can't handle. It's not like the circumstances change, after all. I'm just in a greater position of power, and a greater position to affect things when they go wrong. I like that.

I can also see how it's easy for 2nd shift to lose momentum. As a general tendency counter people pretty much only care to focus on the counter, and will slack off elsewise. They won't run production jobs: this means that if there's no one actually assigned to production, no production gets done. However, if there's finishing work to be done, I *can* assign them to do that. So the trick is, when that happens, I try and get something into production that they can then do finishing services on. That's how work will get done, darn it, and so much work won't be left for 3rd shift to do. I like to think of the rounded picture, and it is my job to do that, after all.

Besides, it's just good business sense to keep the printers running, if there's anything they *can* be running. Keeps the workload from getting too far behind, and gives us a reason not to get bogged down doing the nickle and dime jobs. We have a self-service area: that's where the small jobs are supposed to get done. I can understand that customers might not want to have to do any work, but the big machines are *supposed* to be doing the big jobs. And if we keep getting distracted by the small jobs, the big jobs, the jobs we already *committed* to doing, don't get focused on.

Also an amusing tidbit: someone found this game downloadable online called Disaffected, a parody (or wryly accurate reality) of the FedEx Kinko's experience. You try and control FXK employees that put jobs where they're not supposed to be, who'll get confused, who'll just decide to stop working, and try and get them to deliver jobs to waiting customers before they get fed-up and leave. A few of my fellow wage slaves I showed this to thought it was amusing...but wryly, I have to think that the problem is double sided. It's not just a bad corporate environment, bad managers, bad incentives. It's also bad employees, some through and through. And sadly, the rotten ones can drag the whole thing down sometimes. But, anyway.

I had the first day of my writing class yesterday, and we had interesting discussions on aspects of short short fiction. You have to get to the point, not waste words. Tell a story with much less space to do it, sometimes by using hard hitting language and imagery. It's fascinating. I've already written one short story, and I have another assigned to write by next Tuesday...I hope to be buoyed by this class in my writing.

For now, though, I'll be flopping into bed shortly.