Hard week at the plant

Two weeks ago, my company changed the program that we do all of our work on from a FileMaker to JDE-based system. The new system was designed by programmers in India without much regard for how we actually do our jobs or what type of functionality we need (which is corporate's fault, of course; not the Indians'). As a result, our work is harder, counter-intuitive, and far more time-consuming than it was before the switch. This is not just a temporary symptom of learning how the new program works. We learned it, and it sucks.

All this is just to say that it's been a little crazy around there lately. I personally didn't do my own job for the entire week because I was helping other departments, like Customer Service, whose jobs got even more screwed up than mine did. A few days ago, one of the Customer Service employees walked out. Just up and left her desk and quit. It was in this kind of atmosphere that HQ decided to send in a perky woman to build morale. There was a mean, ugly mood in that conference room that day.

It's tiring; actually physically difficult to work in conditions like that. I can feel the hostility pumping through the air vents and steaming in the coffee pots. Lucky for me, I'm moving upstairs soon into my new financial job, which may not be quite as dependent on the new system. Unfortunately, the extra time and stress demands have impacted my blogging and my daily life, and the new job might take even more of my time. I'm writing this on a Saturday morning--usually I write during breaks at work. In fact, I don't want to write any more now. I'm going to watch cartoons and not think about work until Monday at 7:00 AM.