*sigh* I know I haven’t posted since the end of NaNo (which means you didn’t hear about the birth of my first nephew, Dec. 19th!), but right now, I need to rant, and I can’t chat to anyone about it. So if you want to read my rantings about today at work and the cleaners and people who can’t listen to directions, click on the link. Otherwise, hope you’re having a good winter!

Okay, generally I enjoy work. Even if I got dumped on the 3pm to 11pm shift, rather than my much preferred overnighters, I can deal. It’s not fun for the first two hours, with the kids running around after being dismissed and being noisy – I don’t deal well with sensory overload at the best of times – but generally after that it tends to quiet down. *sighs again* I depend on those hours after 6pm to calm down. (And hopefully today it will cooperate as well….)

So, today turned out to be worse than usual. I came into work in plenty of time to get my fortifying mug of tea, before the snow started really coming down, and the first half hour (before the girls were dismissed) was pretty good, even if it was spent listening to the boss explain a few things, and talk about the cleaners, who have been aggravating me thoroughly over the last several weeks by having people not authorized by Facilities turn up to temp (including two who weren’t even hired by the company when they were working here!). I’m the one who has to figure out what to do with these people, and even decide whether or not to give them keys – and unfortunately, I’m not the most assertive of people. Yesterday was not a good day about this – we got a new permanent cleaner and a new temp, neither of which had been told to Facilities, so of course we poor people in Security, who are responsible for the security of this school, the girls within it, and the facilities didn’t know whether these guys were officially authorised or not.

However, I’m not complaining about yesterday (that got done already!), but today. That was just to let you know a basic history, so you can tell where I’m coming from.

Anyway, the girls got dismissed, noise started building in the rotunda (the main entrance, where the security desk happens to be, increases sound levels, especially if they’re loud to begin with – like dance or band practice in the hall next to it, or girls calling back and forth raising their voices so they can be heard over everyone else doing the same thing), and the phone started ringing. I had the phone going, girls coming up to the desk about getting new ID cards (because theirs are lost or broken) – the boss ordered some blank ones two weeks ago and they haven’t turned up yet – parents calling me, or the Day School Office, or one of the admins, about said cards, a badminton team coming in that had to be re-directed to the gym (and our list of sports said nothing about badminton happening today!), a volleyball team coming in that had to be re-directed….

And then the cleaner supervisor came in, and I informed him that the next time someone new came in for cleaning and we hadn’t been informed, they might be told to leave the site. (At that point, I was thinking it was just a warning, to make them aware of the fact that security was not happy with them, and I was very unhappy to be continuously put on the spot.)

Then a woman showed up, saying she had an interview with the cleaner supervisor.

Now, first of all, the cleaners are a contract company. They are not employed directly by the school. Which means that any business that is just the company’s should be conducted OFF-SITE (yes, this is part of why I’m so pissed off). Then the supervisor comes up, and informs me that this woman was here to work.

Okay, colour me past pissed off, and heading very quickly on the way to incandescent anger. (I almost put an ultimatum in the email I sent to the Facilities Manager about this – which is not me.)

I then informed the supervisor that the next time something like this happened, the person would definitely not be allowed on-site. And when his supervisor came in, I told her the same thing. Yes, tag decided to be all assertive and put her foot down! (Let’s just hope I can live up to it, now that I’ve said that.)

So, that got dealt with, but I was still furious, and really needing to rant.

Then, I got a swimmer asking for directions to the pool.

Now, because of the quality of our athletic facilities, we rent the use of them out to various clubs around the city on weeknights and weekends. They have a very specific door they have to go in through (because they aren’t allowed to come through the classroom area of the school – we have boarders), and it’s expected that the clubs tell their members about it.

No such luck.

Anyway, I gave this swimmer the directions – including where to find the path that led to the door and where they had to go – and tried to relax (this was after the cleaner debacle, and after I managed to go eat dinner and hopefully relax). So, all good, right?

They buzz me at the next door down (which is not the door in question, and I give them more specific directions.

The next time I’m scanning over the CCTV screens, I see them over at the other school building on the property – which is not where the swimming pool is located!

Now, I tend to sit on my anger, making sure it doesn’t explode all over the place – nasty consequences via a sister who was quick with a verbal jab when I was younger ensured that – in fact, I repress a great deal of it. But every so often, a straw breaks the camel’s back, and then look out, because my temper is explosive, unless I manage to defuse it. (Which this rant is helping with.) So, the mess with the cleaners was bad enough, especially since it’s been building for a few weeks now, and I was close to the edge. Having to constantly give these directions to people going to volleyball or swimming is another niggling irritation most of the time, but when I’m upset with something, well….

Okay, so that’s been the story of my night so far. A bit disjointed, and it may not get across the sense of pressure I felt accompanying the anger, but at least I got it partially out of my system. If anyone’s read this far, thanks!

Anyway, that took a while – about half an hour to write. *sighs again* Thanks again for reading, all those who cared to. Here’s hoping things get quieter the rest of the night!

Later, all!
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