Thursday, May 22, 2008

Après Trey


As anticipated, the week after “it’s finally over” is proving to be a killer. In addition to the ladies who composed two thirds of the trio who ran the show last Saturday (the third is me) being away on vacation, another coworker is out sick all week. That’s three out of a staff of ten – and four of the remainder are part time employees, and one of the remaining is completely incompetent… that pretty much leaves my boss and me. My boss has been at meetings, lunches, media events… the usual boss lady stuff… so while it has been a quiet week, it has been a very BUSY week.

We lowly finance people do not have glory jobs. The event people, fundraisers, program coordinators, and anyone associated with children’s programs are usually in the spotlight. I get to clean up the mess afterwards, pay the bills, and make sure that everyone gets paid on time. Some of my highlights of the week included the joy of explaining to someone why their tickets to our event are not tax deductible, how someone who paid nearly $30,000 for a winning auction bid (a motorcycle) had to get the bike out of the venue this week and pay for the towing himself, and fend off a steady stream of “How much did we make?” from people who think the credit cards process themselves, everything automatically enters itself into Quickbooks, and the bills all come on time. I also got to meet with a rep from Pitney Bowes because our lease is nearly up… talk about your good times!

The real highlight of the week was the board of director’s meeting Tuesday evening. Aside from being a 12 hour day, I am the official board bitch, so I have to prepare all of the reports, agenda, minutes, and play “hostess with the mostess” when they all arrive. Actually there was a real highlight – the resignation of a board member who is the foulest sort of creature to slither the swamp that is South Florida. He is the pompous ass who unceremoniously escorted David out the door when his job was eliminated. A rare moment of vindication – this ass made a fool of himself one too many times and after 13 years on the board, he removed himself. The chairman quickly squashed any protest and made it clear that we should honor his wishes. Just when I thought said chair didn’t have a set… There was much celebration in my office…

But it has taken its toll. I am putting in a ridiculous number of hours and I am still not keeping pace with what needs to be done. I woke at 2 am and spent the rest of the night running back and forth to the bathroom… yuck. I went to work, but I was barely there mentally. I made it until about 2 pm and just hit that wall. I faced the reality that I was completely useless today. So I came home and slept until about 5 pm, decided to get this all out (aren’t you lucky?) and I will meet with my boss at 8 AM tomorrow to review the new fiscal year’s budget – that I have to complete in three weeks.

BUT… the work day ends at noon tomorrow and I have an honest to goodness three day Holiday weekend!!! It sucks that David has to work on Saturday, but we both have Monday off. Time off… I have almost forgotten what it is like.

Yay for Holiday weekends and Imodium!

So… how has your week been?

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love time off,but I rarely get true "time off" because my days not at work are often filled with errands and icky chores.

I rather use that time for snuggles and inappropriate grabbing!

My week has been psycho so far..am trying to hold on and enjoy the ride :-)

Thom said...

I hear ya... after the chores comes the guilt of "what I really should be doing..." Screw it, I'm having a weekend!

Craig said...

My gosh but you've had one hell of a week! Hope you feel better soon.

Thom said...

Craig, it's great to see you here! Are you planning on posting on blogger? If so, I will be happy to add a link to your page. Thanks for stopping by!

Galen said...

I must say you have opened my eyes to the realities of a non-profit community service organization...not exactly the warm, fuzzy stereotype I had in my head! I hope you enjoy your holiday weekend...you definitely deserve some R&R.

Thom said...

Galen, like any organization, there is good and bad. I still believe that the organization is good and supports a very worthy cause. Unfortunately, there are staff and board of director problems... they talk about warm and fuzzy but don't live it. The saddest part is that most of them don't even realize anything is wrong...

Claire Uncorked said...

Cheers for the devil that canned David getting his due! I'm sure he deserves much, much more, but hey, it's a start.

I'm also looking forward to a day off, but of course, we're slammed all weekends. 3 weddings (no funerals, but everyone always thinks they're clever when they ask), a wine tasting or 2, dinner reservations, a party, & possibly going to see one of our favorite bands downtown on Monday. Or not. So it'll be busy, but at least I won't be shackled to this misery that I call my job.

Oh, & Immodium & I are good friends. Ick.