Continuing The FUN!
So this morning I’m standing outside our company president’s office talking to his assistant, who I love dearly. And we start talking about our new summer schedule and how it means really long days four days a week. Wait. Let me back up or this won’t make sense.
During several weeks of my silence on this site, I was busting ass on some studies our company was hired by the Air Force to write. Engineers, as a group, are not great writers, and they love to create their own wacky formatting styles. The shortest of these reports was 60 pages, the longest 140. I had four days for each report to read, edit, format, and ship. This might not have been a big deal, except that I don’t particularly understand Air Force facilities and the equipment used in them, nor do I understand mechanical or electrical engineering in any way. You can understand why it may take me a while to plod through one of these reports. There were three over three weeks. The last one, 119 pages long, I got Wednesday at 4:00 and it shipped Friday at 7. I clocked 162 hours in three weeks, which if you’re keeping track is 42 extra hours. I worked from home until late (midnight was considered an EARLY night) almost every night. I functioned on adderall, iced tea, and Applebee’s lunches (ours by work is never that crowded and I could spread out my stuff on a big table and be left alone for editing). After it was all over, I sent thank yous to the two head guys I did the editing for to thank them for letting me work on the project and telling them how much I enjoyed it (I really did - it was nice to use my brain in ways my college education intended for once). My manager and VP also got thank yous for lending me out to the engineering department. Nobody responded to me at all.
So. Back to the point. Summer hours, long days, blah blah blah. I start bitching that nobody said anything to me at all - no “Good Job!” or “Thanks for your help!” Then we moved on. At 11, I got a summons to the president’s office. My stomach dropped. When I got to the cracked door, I could see my manager sitting inside. My stomach took up residence somewhere around my knees. When I pushed open the door, I was met by the president, my manager, my VP, the marketing VP and the contracts manager (those last two are the guys that got thank yous). I stepped on my stomach as I walked through that door.
Turns out, I got an award. I got a nice memo from the president saying how I’d gone above and beyond and how lucky our company is to have an employee such as myself. I got a copy of an email full of praise from the contracts manager, who I worked most closely with, that was sent to HR and the president upon completion of the project. And I got a nice bonus check, which couldn’t have come at a better time, since I’m going traveling and need some extra spending cash! WOOOOOOO! BONUS CHECK!
As I get back to my desk and IM my girls and call my folks, I read my award. Proving what I said about engineers, it reads:
In Recognition and Appreciation of
the significant contribution made by
MissDirected
is awarded the 911 Award.
the significant contribution made by
MissDirected
is awarded the 911 Award.
Gotta love engineers.
Posted by amy t.
Comments...
Congratulations! That must have been a great feeling! Yeah for the bonus check!
Posted by on 05/16 at 04:54 PM
Congrats! So happy for you!