Thursday, July 24, 2008

Feeling exhausted and frazzled.

I really hope I'm able to get enough sleep that I make it to this weekend intact, and then I am definitely going to pick up yoga and exercise or I'm going to stress out so much I'll delay ovulation.

I've been assigned to assist a department half-days. I work for the division office. I was hired with no background and they've used this position to train and transition people like me with no financial or HR background to the wonderful world of department business administration. It's ideal because the division office is large enough to qualify for a DBA, but much of it is actually handled by the administrative coordinator, so it gives me a chance to ease in and learn everything. And I learn at the division level, so that means I get the big picture and theoretically make fewer mistakes when I get my own department in a couple of years. And they have someone hand picked and trained in charge of one of their departments, theoretically leaving them time to focus on departments that require additional help and/or training.

Sending me over to help half-days is a win-win situation (in theory - has that come up enough yet?), because there are a lot of things that I don't get to do much at the division level that I will do a lot of in departments. Also because it helps out the departments when they need someone (when someone is out sick or there is an opening).

So one of our bigger departments finally requested some assistance. I was really nervous when I was told I would be going over there, because I'm still relatively new and this would be a bit of trial by fire for me. We knew that it was bad for the DBA to ask for help, but it wasn't unexpected. The DBA has missed 8 weeks in the past 4 months because of health issues and his financial assistant was bordering on incompetant who had finally left the position. My coworker walked over with me to help assess the situation and to introduce me. What we found was horrifying.

DBA gave me a rundown of what he most needs help with - invoices that are seriously past due, deposits of different kinds (cash, checks, gifts, credit cards). Well, I can do some of that, and I'm a quick learner. So he takes me into her office and shows me a tote bag and says that that is probably the place to begin. Most of the 'stuff' was in the tote bag. So if we start sorting, we'll find some of the receipts and invoices we need. There is literally a stack of paper 6 inches thick. I sit down and start sorting into roughly related piles (travel, purchase card, purchase reqs, invoices to be paid, to be checked, filing, etc).

I can't get into specifics of what I've uncovered, but I basically uncovered about 50 policy violations, some of them quite serious. Like, the DBA could be fired for being unaware of this activity. They've lost their purchasing ability for the time being and things are in crisis mode.

On top of that, I'm expected to maintain all of my own work and it was piled on before this stuff came up. I've worked late three days now and I'm really worried about getting everything done that needs to be done by tomorrow. I'm really starting to stress out a bit and feel crunched by everything.

Not helping today was the abysmal weather, a poor night's sleep and a terrible training (I am not 6. I do NOT need you to read your power point presentation - a copy of which you thoughtfully provided for later perusal - out lous to me VERBATIM.) I am so sleepy and my brain is going to stop functioning soon. I feel bone weary. It's satisfying in one way - I've earned my paycheck this week - but thoroughly exhausting and I worry about how this will affect my fertility. No biggie if I'm pregnant this cycle, but throwing things too far off could interfere with my vacation plans and I will be really angry if I'm having my period during our romantic week of sexy time. T0 ensure, as best I can, that that doesn't happen, I will take care to eat well, go to bed earlier and start practicing yoga, if not working out (which is what I need to do). I have to keep the stress levels as low as possible.

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