Time On and Time Off

Wednesday was the last time I worked, on Thursday my job share cohort called late in the afternoon and asked if she could work Monday, Tuesday this week so she could be off on Thursday and Friday, no problem as far as I'm concerned but I wonder if there was anything else behind it. I will probably never know the answer to that one. Anyway I haven't worked in almost a week and I am feeling disconnected and hope that I won't feel too out of it when I get back. It will also be hard to get back into going there for several days straight as I will have to when I go back. There is plenty to keep me busy both places, I just need to get a balance going again. On another note there's going to be a new way to enter time starting April 1 and this should be "fun" getting used to along with the other two ways we already have to use. This one is an outsourcing company that is going to manage the contractors for the company. The little orientation presentation was very interesting for the different types of contractors that were there. One of them complained unceasingly about her rep., another about how he was going to enter the time. The utility is web based and most of us have no access to the web. So his main concern was focused on that but what it sounded like was just resistance to the whole idea. Forget it buddy the presenter said (although not in those words) this is happening. She managed to respond to some of his concerns but finally, when he kept going on about he might forget when he got home or what if he can't get on the site or web at home, she had to redirect him and the program ended shortly there after.

Still Skating

Ok, because there isn't enough work and another contractor that was sent to help another team has now come back my hours are being cut in half (I have to job share with someone) or I will have to leave. This was told to me last Friday and I was told that I had to decide by Monday what I was going to do. Anyway as I said on Monday, I don't have much choice at this time other than to take the 50% reduction in hours or have no job for who knows how long. My mood has been really bad and Monday when this was discussed, I was also told nothing had been approved (so the job share was not definite) and we would just have to wait to hear. Well my mood was still bad and it was impacting everything I did and my interactions with the group. This morning I had a little spat with one of them. I felt really bad afterwards and tried to approach her but was rebuffed. So I feel like I screwed up again and shortly afterward I talked with the other contractor involved and she and I tried to work on a schedule that we could both live with. I felt better after that and then within the next hour or so we found out that the job share was approved and we would both get to stay. Well I don't know how long I can stay at that number of hours but at least I have something while I look and maybe I can still go ahead with some of the plans I have already made for days off. I am usually so good at my interactions I have a difficult time when things are not right and I wonder what I need to change about my approach or how I can do better. Maybe my book club friends can suggest a good read on the topic of managing interpersonal interactions. I know a couple of titles on negotiation and team work maybe I can revisit them and focus on the chapters that apply if there are any. Still learning to skate I guess and trying to get to swimming season.