Busy Little...Zzzzzzzzzzzzz

I cannot believe they're actually PAYING me to be here.

It is Saturday, approximately 1 PM.

My workplace has two buildings. (Actually, that's a pure lie. My workplace has approximately a zillion buildings, but they are largely concentrated in two locations. Which is ALSO inaccurate, since we also have an international presence, but--Okay. Let's try this again: In the United States, my workplace has two major Chicago locations. There. That works.) On Saturdays, I work in the "other" workplace--the one I don't normally work at during the week.

This is my second Saturday here.
On my first Saturday, last weekend, I had exactly ONE request for support.
Today, so far, I have had ZERO.
Subtracting the parking costs for both days, I've been paid probably somewhere in the area of $300, gross, for doing absolutely BEANS.

Now, granted, I make up for it during the week--holy cow, do I ever!--and ALSO granted, I've been told that the "busy season" is impending (possibly as soon as next weekend) and that once it arrives, it certainly won't be anywhere NEAR as peaceful...but still, I almost feel guilty taking money for what I'm doing: sitting in my closed office, doodling, blogging, playing on SketchFu, etc. I even brought my crochet work, in case the computer got boring. (The one thing I forgot: my MP3 player. I downloaded a crapload of music recently, and pillaged Tim's library for a bunch of obscure stuff he only plays when he's emotional; but what with Tim and Squeaky never leaving the house, I haven't had a chance to enjoy any of my new musical loot.)

I love my job. Not so much this part of it--the sitting-in-an-office-on-Saturday part--but during the week, when I have a million things to do--THAT part of it, I love. I'm not sure if it's the WORK I love so much--really, it's no different than any other tech-support job--but the way the operation is run is EXACTLY up my alley. We don't answer the phone calls; the phone calls get answered at a front desk, and then the things that can't immediately be resolved, get assigned to me or one of the other techs. We have a mandated time-frame in which we are supposed to resolve the situations; we can ask each other for all the help we need (which is REALLY nice, considering there are a lot of policy issues I don't yet know about--you know "for this department, we install this software, except if they're management or their last name has a B in it"--all the little details that make bosses crazy if you don't learn them.)

My boss is a great guy, too. He gets mad, but not loudly and not often; mostly he's extremely laid-back, a reformed hippie/party guy who spends, as he admits, WAY too much money on guitars. He's very helpful, and yet he's extremely rigorous as well--every day, he goes over my tickets with me and if I can't tell him what I'm doing or why it's not done yet, he lets me know: that's not how he expects us to work. He wants his ship to run smoothly, and he treats everyone well enough that WE want it to run smoothly too. He ALSO has a boss--and she's enough of a beast that we don't want to bring her wrath down on his head! Fortunately, he acts as a buffer zone between his techs and the Beast. All in all, it's an ideal situation for me--it fits in perfectly with all my little workplace issues. I don't like authority figures who are condescending or vindictive or power-happy; he's not. I like to have very clear expectations of what I'm supposed to do, how I'm supposed to do it, and when it's supposed to get done, all without being micromanaged into insanity. Give me a task and a deadline, and some basic information about procedures and policies I need to know to do it right, then leave me alone and let me DO it--and I'm the happiest little worker in the world!!

And so far, in this job, I'm pretty much the happiest little worker in the world. (But seriously--they REALLY hafta find something for me to do on Saturdays. Because this? Is really, REALLY boring!)