Whine, whine, cheese and whine.

I had a day off today and I so don't want to go back to work tomorrow.

It's been madness for weeks, for months and while relief is in sight (toward the end of this month or mid-november), the extra effort we've been having to put in goes unrewarded.
Many people have also been finding creative ways of skiving which are noticed, but go unpunished, meaning that those of us who play fair? We get even more work.
I took 92 calls on Monday, for fuck's sake. That's all day on the phone without break. Pick up, handle client, hang up, repeat. No room for two breaths between calls. You have your lunch break and twenty minutes to take as you want. That's it. Technically, that includes even going to pee. That's not a pace you can keep. I've lost track of how many times I've thought "I could really just cry right now".
And yes, yes, it'll get better. They keep telling us that. But in the mean time, we lost four good people at the end of last month (three transfers, one fired) and four more are leaving end of this month. They hired two new part timers, but they need to be trained, their average call number and call duration will be very low and high respectively for months to come...

They're now also giving out permanent contracts like they're candy.
You're there? Then you get one. It makes a farce out of the effort I had to put in to get that contract. You don't even have to be good at your job anymore. They're that afraid we'll leave. And the bonus I get for taking calls in French and English (on top of Dutch) does not make it worth it. €90 after taxes is not compensation for sometimes having up to double the amount of work. They've been saying for months that they're analysing that and they'll change that bonus system, but nothing is happening and nothing will happen for a very long time.

I did get the good news that in the coming restructuring, I'm getting the position I wanted (complex helpdesk rather than the new general banking dep. half of us are getting thrown into), but again, that's not happening for months and while it means they believe in me and my technical abilities, it doesn't help what's happening right now. It also doesn't mean a pay rise or anything. Shit, we even learned that while all the other departments are class C, the helpdesk is only B. We take more calls than any of them, our work is 'appreciated' and we're really fucking special, but we're a class below. It doesn't make much difference at this point since our (sub)company doesn't pay based on your class, but it makes a world of difference when you transfer to headquarters and you get bumped up a few classes, but not as many as someone from a different department. And headquarters does pay based on your classification.


But there are nice things.

I finished my zombie costume, which people on twitter have already seen, and I'm relatively pleased with it.
( Cut for picture )

And I'm getting my tax return end of next month, so I'll finally be able to afford new desktop without having to dip into my savings. I thought for a long while about building my own like a proper geek, but I have neither the time nor the energy.


I'm just tired. And cranky. And trying really hard to keep my end of year bonus in mind.