Construction paper and glitter

Well, I'm back posting again. I suffered a humiliating setback at work on Friday, and had to retreat from the world and lick my wounds for a bit. But now I'm balanced again and can write about it. I told my manager that I was "very interested" in the new 'teller coordinator' position that was opening; she told me that I hadn't shown enough "growth" for her to consider me. But that I could be a senior teller which would be the "next logical step". Yay. (sarcastically)

I was just so pissed off because I thought I was doing a great job. I mean if I wasn't, shouldn't she have told me? I haven't had any guidance whatsoever since July, so I thought that meant that I was doing really well. And I am, at being a teller. But whatever it is she's looking for, it's not someone who soldiers along in their teller window; helping customers, doing transactions, getting shit done. Case in point being that she promoted Kristin. I like Kristin; she's fun. She's been with the bank a long time. But she spends all of her time on the Internet; on Myspace IM-ing her friends. She keeps her cell phone in her workstation and text-messages (and talks!) on it all day long. She will take a transaction and hand it off to another teller--one of us not lucky enough to be online. Is this what our manager really values? This girl is now my direct supervisor?

Well, I finally decided not to dwell on it too much. After all, it's not like I had my heart set on being a TC; it's like a baby-step better than being a teller, that's all. It is just a blow to my pride to not be good enough when I thought I was a shoo-in. I have decided to have more fun at work, to be more visible. I mean, why not? Being an invisible worker hasn't gotten me anywhere. On Monday, I took over the bulletin boards. These are decorated seasonally--very cutesy and fun. Used to be Kristin's job and she actually got "talked to" because she abandoned one of them half-way through the job. (It said Happy Hol, next to a snowman. Sad.)

Well, on Monday I got sick of looking at the old holiday stuff, mittens and holly and crap. It's the last week of January for peet's sake. I raided the art drawer and spent like 6 hours decorating them for Valentine's day. My station was 6 inches deep in construction paper and glitter. Before anyone starts thinking that I'm nuts I should mention that I'd only gotten 4 hours of sleep the night before, which gives me tunnel vision and a single-mindedness that's unbelievable. And that I love crafty stuff. And that my boss is a lady in her (mid-sixties? Younger? I can't ever tell) who loves that kind of thing. She posts little signs, inspirational sayings and stuff all over the back of the bank. Now, those boards have never looked so good. It's Valentine's Day mixed with a little Spring; hearts, flowers, more hearts, lots of team spirit ... Is this the kind of crap that my boss wants me to do to show "growth"? I don't know, but I had fun. And now that she's making me a senior teller, I can apply at other branches for TC if I want to. I don't have an obligation to stay at this branch, not if they aren't promoting me or whatever.

Oh yeah, our big audit happened today. We did alright, scored a "6" out of nine, but it's a top-two scoring, so that's not as bad as it sounds. I think the way it works is that on those 6, we scored a 9/10 or 10/10. On everything else, we didn't, so it goes to 0. So, we could have hypothetically scored an 8/10 on everything else, which would mean an average of 85 percent or something. It's always a bit heart-stopping to walk in and see the audit team there though.