I’m still adjusting to the morning crunch. As soon as I get in, I’m pretty much buried in work until after noon. Checking this, confirming that, programming this…it’s like opening a closet that is overloaded with clutter.
Only the clutter keeps falling no matter how much of it you place properly.
I suppose this makes my job sound dreadful; I assure you it is not. It does however keep me very busy and just when I think I have a handle on things…something else falls on my head.
So I busted my butt to get the editorial programming done so I could spend the afternoon researching story ideas and looking through the November issue of the magazine. I had been back from lunch for about an hour when the producer IMed me and asked if I had the newsletter ready.
?!
Dammit to hell!
So I cranked out two newsletters in less than an hour, took a deep breath and went back to browsing the magazine.
As the final hour approached, something told me to check the channels that were going to production tomorrow morning. Imagine my horror when I opened the document and none of the changes I had worked on earlier were anywhere on the spreadsheet!
I put my head on the desk to prevent anyone seeing my eyes well up.
"Uh…Kimberlee?" The new staff writer said tentatively. "What’s wrong?"
"All the programming I did this morning is gone," I said clicking through the pages in disbelief.
"You didn’t save it somewhere else?"
"Nope," I sighed, checking other folders.
I could feel the panic rising but worked hard to fight it off. I did however, walk calmly to the bathroom where I allowed myself to cry for about a minute, until someone else walked in.
Once back at my desk, I focused on redoing what had already been done and undone. I left the office at 10 minutes to six.
This job is proving to be the most exciting, challenging and stressful one I have had thus far. I hope I get a handle on it soon. I’m exhausted.
Sounds like a lot of pressure, but you handle it well!
Thanks Selina. So crying in the bathroom was handling it well? I was a little mad at myself for not being able to hold it in. On the flip side, I don’t think I would have been able to accomplish the task if I hadn’t cried for that minute.
Sounds like my day yesterday. I didn’t cry when all the changes I made were lost in the crash of the stupid head Microsoft program. I squeezed my stress ball till it burst.
Dammit.
Hugs babe, hope you don’t have another day like that.
Now I know why you were so quick with that rule of thumb after I lost a significant amount of work myself on a computer last nite.
I like your blog. I’ve bookmarked it to read regularly.
Sorry about the bad day. I’m having an awful work day myself so I sympathize.
Kelley, that sounds like a nightmare! Server crash? I suppose the result was the same…ugh! I’ve learned that releasing a bit of the stress helps me clear my head.
Scott, yeah…I’m not saving my work stuff like that but for most of my blog articles I do. I bought an external hard drive for backing up my work; I have lost so many things over the years.
Good news is that I haven’t had another day like that (yet *knock on wood*) but for my second week, that was about as awful as I could handle. I think I’m getting the hang of it though. 🙂