Money, It's a Gas

Every day for the last month, I have been checking my bank balance online to see if my income tax refund has been processed yet. I filed about 7 weeks ago so really didn't expect too much yet. I checked today fully expecting to see my normal balance of .12 but no, that balance had changed - to $2265.94!!! I was so excited that I started jumping up and down in the office and basically just going all giggly and silly. I can be such a spazz some days. Met Sara on my lunch break and she went to the bank with me. I took out $500 and gave my daughter $100. Don't really know what I am going to do with the rest right away either. I still have 5 more cheques to be deposited - that is what happens when you don't file your income tax for four years!

Rattlers in my Stomach

Do you ever get that feeling of dread where you can't identify why but you just know that something bad is going to happen? I have that feeling right now in a huge way and I can not seem to shake it no matter what. First, let me fill you in with the back story.

I do tech support. The company that I work for has various projects that they offer support. The project that I had previously been on was for a dial-up Internet provider in the U.S. The company that outsourced to us added their own call center and were going to take their tech support in house so at the end of March, my company lost this contract. I was moved to another project. I now do tech support for DVD ripping/burning software. Their customer service has set hours of operation - the last project was 24/7 - and there are only two of us that work on this project. It is one of the "dream" contracts of the company as it pays substantially more and you are guaranteed 37.5 hours per week and will only ever work Monday to Friday 1pm to 9pm.

About two and a half weeks ago, my boss called me at home to touch base with me concerning the end of my prior contract. I never saw him because for the last nine months I had been working Monday to Friday 7pm to 2am and by the time that I got into work, pretty much everyone else had long since left the office. He asked me if I wanted this project and explained what the changes would be etc. I said sure. With this project, I also will see an increase in my pay cheque of approximately $150 every pay day so that is pretty cool.

I didn't really give much thought to the possible ramifications of my being offered this project. There were others that have been with the company longer than I have and most of them are now in the position where their hours have been cut dramatically, or they were laid off entirely. Any of the other techs that were on the last project with me have lost on average 10 hours of work per week which basically translates into over $200 less per pay. Ouch! That is a pretty significant reduction and quite a shock to the pocket book. One of the guys just had a baby less than three weeks ago so this came at the worst possible time. Plus, I work in an industry that is still very much a "boy's club". Females could not possibly know anywhere near what males know...

Well apparently someone is kind of bitter that I got this position. I have been with this company for about a year and a half and in that whole time I have never had any issues that would require me to get called into my boss's office for a meeting with Human Resources. Now suddenly I have been called in to address a few things and I have gotten some absolutely ridiculous emails. It is insane. A job that I used to love to come into is now making me nervous, anxious and stressed. I am not a very pleasant person away from work right now either. And the schedule is not made up for us yet for next week so now I am feeling paranoid. Can't shake this feeling now no matter what I try to do. My stomach has rattlers in it the size of Texas.

OK, on this note I probably should get back to work. The last thing that I need right now is for someone to see me doing something that is not work related as this would probably be the proverbial straw...