Just a few more random stories from my work place, cause why not (First post)
Just to remind people: J and M are my coworkers and SP is my supervisor
So the local radio station does this thing called the grand IQ test where they ask questions of increasing difficultly for increasing amounts of money. J and I would listen to this station while working in the prep lab and eventually we started keeping a list of all the worst fails
Honourable mentions go to:
The guy who didn’t know which directions highway 400 (major freeway) ran in
The guy who didn’t know the game tag
and the guy who forgot the third R in the three R’s (he got reuse and recycle)
And finally, the winner is
The guy who got asked what the three seasons other than spring were, answered fall and winter quickly and then ran out of time before he could remember summer
~~~
For my last day the four of us went out for lunch at Mandarin and of course at the end of the meal they give you fortune cookies.
J’s was that he was going to receive a nice compliment soon (I had to resist the urge to come up with an insult for him), SP’s was that he would have a prosperous (or something along those lines) retirement (ironic cause he’s not hugely far off retirement), and I can’t remember M’s at all.
What does mine say?
“Romance is just around the corner”
Of course I would be the only single person there
Also insert M saying ‘ooo’, she’s so going to ask me about that next time I see them (I plan on visiting in the summer at some point), if she remembers that is
~~~
So I finally got out in the field in my second last week, a nighttime electrofishing trip targeting rainbow smelt since the season had just started.
We got to the location, got the boat in the water, and got off into the river with no problems, did our fishing and made it back to shore about quarter after 10 in the evening.
That’s where things got complicated.
The place was crazy. It seemed like half the town was there smelting. Now, the launch area was small and there had to be like 30 cars at least there and many were parked illegally.
In other words, the launch ramp was blocked and we couldn’t get the boat out of the water.
So first SP and J went up and down the shoreline trying to get people to move their cars. That did not work. SP then called the regional police to get them to get people to move, they got there and tried the same thing. That also did not work. Then parks police showed up and were like ‘eh, we’ve towed people here before’ and called tow trucks. So two tow trucks show up and that got people to react; the guy who realized his car was about to be towed booked it over and started arguing with the tow truck people.
Finally, at 12:15 - two hours later - in the morning, people moved their cars and we got the truck down and the boat out of the water and left
And that is the story of my first time out in the field
~~~
A couple days after that field work night we had this section meeting in a location about 3 hours north since our section is divided between a few locations.
As part of our day one of the supervisors put together a word game, and oh my god that can be amusing with a bunch of people who work with things like fish and algae and water samples.
To give an example:
Said supervisor came up with one word last second so that each team had an even number of turns. The word he came up with was ‘bean’ and our hint was ‘jelly’
Guy guessing’s immediate response: ‘Calcium’
Literally everyone died of laughter. There were a few other good ones, but that one was by far the best.
Also mini kit kats were used for point and eating them meant that the point didn’t count so we all had to remember to not eat our points while playing the game.
~~~
So the unit I worked with is really bad at planning meetings. Exhibit A being the story about the unit meeting in my first tfc post.
Exhibit B comes from the same meeting. Another date was decided for it and then cancelled less than 10 minutes later because people in my team were going to be off site for another convention that day.
Exhibit C also comes from this meeting. A doodle poll was then created to figure out what day would work for everyone for the meeting and there actually was a day that everyone was available (miracle, trust me). So did we have the meeting that day? Nope. Cause it was too close to the section meeting and there was no point.
Exhibit D is our April program meeting. It was scheduled for Tuesday of the second week and then rescheduled a couple of days later for the Thursday because the manager wasn’t going to be there on the Tuesday. So what do we find out on the Wednesday? She wasn’t going to be there on the Thursday either. This meeting was not rescheduled again, we just had it anyway.
~~~
Also J and I got through like 3900 samples in the four months I was there and you would think that would make a major dent in the freezers where we keep the samples and it did.
Except those dents got filled right back up again. Good luck to them finding enough space for all the new samples they collect this field season
~~~
And that, ladies and gentlemen, is it for my time with the government
Unless I choose to do another work term with them of course
Or work with them after graduation, but I don’t think that’s going to happen (though it is a good place to work, I thoroughly enjoyed my time there)
Basically this is just a compilation of all the random happenings at work up until this point (about 2/3 way through)
So let’s get to know the people first. J and M are my coworkers. SP is my boss, JW and R are higher ups. K is with a different unit but works in my office. SB is the scientist with my unit. C works in a different lab that I help out in sometimes.
~~~
We’ve been working a show/convention of sorts as of recent, just telling people about our product and distributing it. Anyway, I only had one shift and as a result only needed a rep badge, not a personalized one.
Well, they ran out of them.
So I got a stamp to get in, and M gave me her badge upon finding out just in case (she didn’t need it anymore), which I wore backwards cause you know, that’s not my name.
Also because I realized ‘oh look, these say non-transferable, lol whoops’.
~~~
Because of this show and the fact that it took place during March break, the office has been pretty much empty except for me, K and M. So it’s obviously been really quiet, with most of the noise coming from the fish tank we have.
So of course the last thing I expected to hear was M saying ‘the crayfish is eating a dead fish’
For a brief second I thought she had lost her mind, then I remembered the existence of the fish tank. So I went to look and sure enough, there’s the crayfish eating a dead fish, which you know, is what crayfish do.
~~~
A few weeks back, SB was giving a tour of the lab to some uni students, and of course the lab is where I spend the majority of my day. So I’m in there and he goes to introduce me to the group and states that I’m in my final year of school.
My response, ‘umm, I’m in second year’
He seemed pretty surprised to find that out, apparently they usually have students in their final year, or at least that what he said (he doesn’t do the hiring).
~~~
Around the beginning of March it was R’s birthday so we had a little mini celebration with cake, and well the cake had strawberries in it (which I’m allergic to). C also couldn’t eat it due to dietary restrictions, same with M.
Now, the people organizing this knew that M can’t have gluten, so they had bought a 4 pack of gluten free chocolate cupcakes, what they weren’t expecting was the gluten free option becoming the hypoallergenic option for all 3 of us.
Me being the baseline for it being safe, because I have the most extensive list of food allergies (I had to check the ingredient list as I’m also allergic to nuts). Apparently if I didn’t swell up it would be safe (I’m not actually THAT allergic to anything).
~~~
Fun fact, C and I have the same name. So when we were working up in the garage a few weeks ago and someone from another unit came in, he made a joke about that, after which I learned that C and her step-sister also have the same name.
I can’t imagine how that must have been growing up.
(Also that room is super dusty and stuffy and we didn’t even get to what we were supposed to do cause we had to get other stuff that hadn’t been done yet done first. So guess we’re going to have to go back up there soon).
~~~
Speaking of C, we were pulling data cards in the office about a week ago, and oh man we must have been entertaining to the others. We literally talked about the most random shit, I have no idea. And part of what we were doing included the photocopier.
Which is a pain in the ass to deal with btw, especially when scanning data cards.
Anyway, it started making this chirpy noise, which I said made it sound like a bird and C was just like ‘oookay’ and looked at me like I was insane.
10 minutes later she agreed with me. Ha.
~~~
We got this email in February about there being a section meeting at a different location (our section is a couple of units, between two locations). Okay, no big deal, it just means a long day for those of us at my location.
Well they cancelled it about a week later, due to a large number of people being away on both ends. And in it’s place a unit meeting was scheduled.
A unit meeting which was then cancelled the day before it was scheduled for the exact same reason the section meeting was cancelled.
Ladies and gentlemen, work logic.
~~~
We keep the fish samples that we test in freezers until they can be prepped so they don’t degrade (and then they go back into a different set of freezers until they can be tested). And let me tell you, we have like 7 freezers that are FULL of fish.
So when J and I had half emptied a freezer, it was quite exciting, we felt quite accomplished.
Then we got 800 new samples.
Guess where they went.
Goodbye feeling of accomplishment.
(though one freezer will soon be completely emptied, so accomplished feeling is coming back).
~~~
One of the things we (well currently, I) have to do is verify information on all samples that we receive, as things like size and weight have an impact on the results.
Well let me tell you, this can be really difficult when the bags don’t all have the required information on them. And occasionally, when the bags and the submission sheets have different units on them.
Insert me and M spending at least 3 hours working on these samples, trying to figure out what’s what. The exasperation was real.
And they still aren’t all figured out.
~~~
On my third day there was a program meeting that I had to attend, though I had no idea what was going on at that point. And in this particular meeting they just went around in a circle, everyone saying their bit. So of course, they get to me and everyone turns to look at me.
I must have looked like a deer in caught in headlights, I certainly felt like one.
Thankfully SP took over my bit after I stumbled though an introduction, oh god was that horrible. Meetings have gotten better since then though, for one thing I have gotten notice about them (SP walked into the lab and told me to wash my hands and join the meeting, that’s how I found out about the meeting), and I also know what’s going on now, which helps.
~~~
My workplace is actually like super casual. Literally I just wear jeans a tshirt to work everyday cause that’s the dress code: casual. But one thing I was not expecting came in the form of a water glass.
We have elevated levels of lead in our pipes, so we have a water cooler out in the hallway where we fill water bottles/glasses/kettles/etc. So what does one person use as a water glass?
A Heineken pint glass.
I kid you not. I mean I knew it was a casual workplace, but that takes the cake.
~~~
I think it was around early February, we all receive a forwarded email from JW where the subject line said something along the lines of “very important, please forward to all your employees”. Obviously it sounds important, so I opened it. There’s a single attachment and no text, so I clicked on the attachment.
For the love of God if any of you ever order a sandwich or any food from a place where you can see the person make your food, your stuff will be made faster and much less stressfully if you could not watch it being made like you are a hawk judging whether or not I am worthy of living life. Must be so nice to like not have anxiety all the time and make people feel super small.
One of my housemates got the word "RAD" tattooed on his butt yesterday for his birthday, and now most comments made throughout the house are "have you seen his butt yet?"
I got invited to a very cryptic coop "men's group" which frightens me a little bit.
The list of things they do is interesting, "provides clarity, challenge, the strength of a group, trust, accountability, support, and a sacred space to develop in. It is a place for personal, spiritual, and epigenetic evolution through poetry, discussion, ritual, and experimentation".
...experimentation. That's where I got stuck.
it is signed "Have a magical Thursday, and may your telomeres never shorten"
Which is adorable. And almost makes up for the discomfort caused by the rest of the email. I don't think I'll go.
