Things-other-than-Placebo Entry

Because I am not quite ready to sleep yet and it feels like I’ve not really been online much recently (well it doesn’t just feel like it – I wasn’t.)

Oh ja, first off, my cheating-whore-of-a-mother called me from Paris to let me listen in to Paris street noise. 😡 :)) (she did say she would lol) It was kinda useless cuz it was just general traffic, but still cute. I forgot to mention in my earlier whingeing entry that she’d also booked our room (No. 51 at the Notre Dame Hotel with full view of my perfect church) – and she’s sharing it with someone else!!!! 😮 :(( It was actually kinda funny when she called cuz she said “well if you can go to Paris with just anyone then so can I!” and Anne (the person she’s with) went “hey, I’m not ‘just anyone’!!” :)) We do sound like jealous lovers don’t we. :wh

Oh! I had a phonecall from T-Mobile today! In fact I had about 5 (2 missed on mobile, at least one missed on landline, then finally I answered the mobile) and they have changed my address, and I have also given a new password, so I have now got control over my mobile number again!!! After all these years. Yay! So now I don’t know what to do… stay with T-Mobile cuz they were kinda cute in the end? Or just move my number elsewhere? I do know that I still want a Blackberry. :wh Guess I’ll have to look into the different contracts. But also cuz my mbl is quite new maybe I should… I dunno what I should. :)) But it seems a waste to already get a new handset.

Ok. Now let me talk about work. I could say loads about work. Shall I? Awright then.

Training with Rick ended last week. This was sad but I’m doing ok without him. *lol* So now we’re still sorta in training (learning things as we go along), but also working proper. Doing outgoing calls was scary at first but once I’d done a few it was fine. Which is good. Tho outgoing calls isn’t really a big part of my job at all. Because that’s “additional data” with Sarah. I am less apprehensive about Sarah now and I do think we will get on ok. But I did sth for her for the first time today and God is it boring! I might just die. Luckily it seems fairly accepted to be listening to music while doing stuff in our team. Tho I think I’ll need to get different earphones cuz my current “sound-blocking” ones are particularly antisocial.

The whole work ethics & policies etc is sth I will have to work out. Amex can be quite strict about internet usage / personal emailing / lateness etc (they do sack people over this, esp temps), but I think it kinda depends on the team you’re with. Tho as far as I can see people in our team don’t tend to use the Net much. On the other hand some have Firefox installed, which from what I remember from my time at IBM is definitely very non-compliant (and I’m pretty sure you can’t do that without some cheating, cuz Amex users don’t have admin rights on Windows by default, so it’s quite possibly a sackable offense).

Not to mention the ID-sharing that is going on… also a sackable offense. No exceptions ever, for either side (the one whose ID it is, and the one who uses it). Yet it happens systematically. Which turns the whole pseudo-security system they have in place into a shambles. Ok but this is really very boring to you I realise. I’m just getting worked up about it cuz I used to work “on the other side” and we as IBM had to stick to Amex’s pseudo-rules (even tho we knew their own employees ignored them on a regular basis), and we weren’t allowed to tell them “who do you think you are fooling, none of your people give a damn?” And who could blame the employees, because requesting an ID takes weeks, and requests are often rejected because of some tiny detail that was wrong, and then you have to start over, and of course you will give a new starter someone else’s ID, because you don’t want to pay someone for weeks when they can’t do any work! Aaah the fun of big corporations.

Don’t get me wrong tho, I do love Amex. In my own weird way. I spoke to Anikó for the first time in ages the other day and she said sth like “but you never wanted to do a 9-5 rat race job”… and I didn’t, and of course I’d still rather not – I’d rather win the lottery and do sweet fuck all. Or have some genius idea and do my own thing – but I know that ain’t ever gonna happen of course. And I do like to identify with my employers if they treat me right. I like feeling useful, and I like feeling safe and cared for. Being back in Amex House after about a year’s absence… it’s like coming home.

And so much is better about working for Amex than IBM. 35hr weeks instead of 40 (!!!)… casual dress code (jeans & trainers acceptable), not being treated like little kids with managers looking over your shoulder and listening in to your calls, getting the Amex travel deals, being part of a biiig family rather than a small incestuous IBM team (lol), joining in with the whole community spirit thing etc. Less money of course. But oh well. 😛

I did buy a new pair of jeans for work yesterday, and a pair of “casual but not trainers” shoes. Men’s shoes. But they’re really quite nice. And the jeans are Asda. And that was good. Ok I’ll stop talking about work now, let me just add that the vast majority of people I work with are really quite lovely. Damn, I’ve just realised I forgot to hand in my timesheet. *sigh* Oh well. Will do that on Monday.

Oh yeah did I tell you about the Luxembourg connection? When we had our Adecco induction there was another Luxembourger, so for a while everyone at the induction talked about Luxies at Amex ( :-S ) and turns out there are quite a few (at least 3 plus me). So Mauro (other Luxy) and I said we’d try to keep in touch and then today some random guy I didn’t recognize said hi and I mentioned it to Antje (the girl who started with me) and she was like “yeah the tall short-haired guy? He’s the Luxembourger!!” Oops. I really do suck at faces. 😐 Why can’t he be gay? I’m sure I’d remember him then! *cough*

Did I say I was gonna shut up about work? I think I’ll just shut up in general now. Kate’s coming to Brighton tomorrow so I should sleep so I can clean tomorrow morning or sth. Or just lie in until she gets here. I think I do have some sleep to catch up on. Goodnight! 🙂