Have you seen these?
A Year in Books - 2009-12-27
Skip Tracer, Loan Detective - 2009-11-22
New Job - 2009-11-03
The coleslaw got served. - 2009-10-21
Probably a new job. But maybe not. - 2009-10-08

Schedulinator II: Revenge of the Schedulinator.
2006-01-30 11:25 a.m.

Damn you, blank text box! You just sit there, all expectant, and I just don't have a clue what to say to you.

I feel like all of my entries lately have been about boring things. I got an oil change. I work a lot. My life is basically kind of boring. I am not a superhero. My cats have no magical powers. I don't even own a yacht.

So, you get a lot of boring entries. I like to think that I take these boring subjects, and make them interesting. Did you know that I make a concentrated effort for at least one joke or amusing turn of phrase in every single entry?

You didn't know? You didn't even notice? You maybe weren't rolling on the floor just now, when I said my cats have no magical powers?

Well I guess you are just SOL, my friend, because that was the high point of hilarity for today.

No, wait! Where are you going? Don't leave. I might say something else funny. Maybe.
***
So, I'm the Schedulinator. I'm working on Feb 9 right now, and so far I am pleased with the results. I didn't accidentally forget three entire people this time. (Damn second page. If your last name starts with anything beyond "T" I might kind of have overlooked you on the Feb 2 week. These things happen. When I realized my mistake, I fixed it as best as I could, but I know you basically got screwed because I am a moron and I really am sorry.)

Right now, no one will be 100% happy with their hours, but it's February and there's nothing I can do. Everyone got at least two shifts, which is more than I accomplished last week.

Today comes the step when I stop feeling so good about the schedule. Yesterday, I checked the numbers, and fed them into the computer. The computer told me how many people I was allowed to schedule for each shift. (I think it may have even allowed me more total hours than it did last week, for which I am grateful.) Based on what the computer told me, I assigned shifts.

Today, I will show my results to the computer, and it will laugh at me. See, I basically made up the starting and ending times for each shift. I gave someone 4-8:30, for no better reason than because that was what he worked last Saturday. So, I'll enter all of these random guesses, and then the computer will tell me I'm 30 hours over for the day.

But but but! Damn you, computer! YOU SAID I could have this many people! How can I possibly be 30 over? So, I shave off an hour from this person, maybe a half hour here. I don't want to actually cut anyone entirely, but 30 hours?? Someone's simply got to go.

Usually, the computer is within 5 hours of itself, which I suppose is nice. All the non-closers will leave an hour earlier, and then it's all good. There was only one day really off last week, but fixing it sucked.
***
I found out last night that I'm not really the Schedulinator. It's still all about Riker. I am merely the first of three people she had to train how to do it. I get to do one, maybe two more weeks, then she'll do it again to get herself ahead enough to allow time to train someone else.

Next up is the new salaried guy. Even if Riker gets abducted by aliens, I won't be the Schedulinator, because NSG outranks me.

Dammit. I keep telling myself that this is the Stepping Stone Job. I am learning many things which will help me somewhere else. It's just depressing to realize, AGAIN, that the lesson is that Fazuul will screw me at every possible opportunity.

OK, that's not even fair. It was only in my head that I was suddenly doing schedules forever. No one ever said anything even remotely like that. Even learning how to do schedules is an opportunity I never would have had at any previous job.

I think I'm still going to be a little bitter about it though.

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