I'm Getting A Little Tired of This

I begin to detect a pattern.

An assignment is given. An iteration of the same assignment was given to others earlier in the year - twice in this case - but it's on my iteration the reckoning comes.

Many changes that could and should have been made prior. Why they're hitting now? Don't know.

But it happens a lot. Or at least with a frequency that makes me wonder why the reckoning always comes when it's my turn.

Scenarios, of course.

Maybe I'm the most compliant. Or the easiest to push around. Again, I don't know.

But I note it all.

I'm going to get the work done as directed, because that's what I do. And maybe that's why it hits me all the time. It's a little wearying.

Let's Hope Gentry Lee Isn't Involved Here

Good news -- unlike Arthur C. Clarke novels about Rama -- is supposed to come in threes.

So with three bits of good news today:

1) I turned in paperwork to get my ID badge at work renewed this morning.

2) The Department of Energy officially extended CWI's contract at the Idaho National Laboratory through Sept. 30, 2015.

3) Layoffs ended today with me still not laid off.

you'd think I'd be in the pink. Well, there are four bits of news that are in play, so still waiting on that last steel-toed shoe to drop: How much funding will there be?

Today's press release from CWI/DOE does offer a hint: They say the value of the three-year contract extension is $730 million spread, I assume, over those three years. So not big mojo, year-to-year. Not tiny mojo either, but we'll have to see how the bean-counters interpret the numbers once everything's settled and once the monkeys in Congress calm down enough to come back off their interminable banana breaks and actually pass a budget. For this year at least.

I choose to remain optimistic because, hey, optimism has served me well so far. But you never do know when that one icicle is going to fall off the garage . . .



More Good News

Yesterday I wrote about the good news of our jobs not necessarily being on the chopping block for layoffs in September. Today I can provide more good news: The Department of Energy has opted to extend CWI’s INL cleanup contract by another three years.

These two letters, addressed to John Boehner and Joe Biden, respectively Speaker of the House and President of the Senate, from DOE Secretary Steven Chu, began circulating around work at about 10 this morning. Chu writes:

At a time when the Nation is experiencing significant economic distress and job loss, and in light of the President’s economic recovery program to preserve and create jobs, the agency can add work to the existing contract for the period September 2012 through September 2015 and accelerate the decontamination and decommissioning of the Idaho site. Expediting this work also provides significant cost savings in future years.

The Department, therefore, intends to extend the work effort under the CWI contract for work at the INL, without using competitive procedures.

This is good news for us, as our contracted wok is scheduled to dry up this September, at least at RWMC. We’ve still got two waste facilities to build and one to dig in, with some D&D work on top of that. There’s plenty of work to do for the short term.

After 2015, it’s anybody’s guess. There may still be work here for some of us, though not all of us to be sure. This announcement, at least, makes the immediate future a bit more secure.

EAR of Doom!

A year ago -- on Oct. 21, to be precise, and precise Iwill be -- I started a review at work on a new emergency alarm response (EAR) document, meant to replace four other such documents that had similar, if not the same, required responses. This afternoon, it looks like that document may actually be approved for use on humans. This is good news, as we're opening soon (soon, I tells ya, soon) a new waste processing facility, and it would be jim dandy to have this new document in place.

It's been a long, strange odyssey. Not all bad. In fact, given what we've done with this EAR and other documents that it impacts, we'll have a much better package of changes to deal with than we would have had even three months ago. Credit goes to Emily, one of my co-workers who really has her head wrapped around the intricacies of the facility and how the different documents ought to interact.

On a trivial side-note, I should tell you that people who have attached earlobes (as in this picture, and as with me) carry recessive genes for earlobe attachment. Dominant ear genes do not include the attachment feature.

Anti-D'oh-te

Usually, I feel like Homer Simpson at work, and it's not just because I work at a nuclear facility. I imagine that, behind my back, people are calling me a baboon. A baboon! The ugliest, smelliest ape of them all! And because I didn't go to Alpha Tau with good ol' Smithers, I know I won't get one of the two jobs that are open, even if only three are applying. And I don't even get doughnuts.

Then came today, and this note, from my administrator at Nuclear Placement Services:

Brian: Not only did they give you a raise, but they gave you like 0.60 cents more than I requested! You're base wage is now $26.00 an hour! Way cool! Congratulations, they obviously like you! Your new wage starts effective October 1, so I'll be giving you some retro pay on top of your new wage this paycheck. I'm sure you can find something useful to do with it. :)

Can I find something useful to do with it? Yes. Pay bills without dipping into savings. Something good finally happened to me.

It's also evidence of the following things:

1) Prayer works. We've prayed a lot about this.

2) You don't get what you don't ask for. I asked for a raise, rather than just settling for the 3 percent COLA. Might not pay off every time, but it paid off this week.

No longer need I lament like my brother Homer: Why do all the things that happen to stupid people happen to me? I'd still like it to say "Brian Davidson, Local Boob" underneath my picture if I ever get interviewed on local TV, though.

I should mention, for clarity, that this is no mere 3 percent raise. This entails a wage increase of $4.05 an hour, which is why this is such a mind-blowing event for me.

On the One Hand . . .

On the one hand, I can look at it as getting practice on job interviews. On the other hand, I'm getting a little tired of interviewers who thank me politely then say, "We'll get back to you." What does that mean, exactly, aside from the obvious: "You are pond scum," is what I'd like to know.

Yes, I interviewed with Utah State University yesterday, interrupting the interview briefly as I had to flee a sprinkler that suddenly started shooting water at me as I was taking the call behind the bus depot at Central. I think it went well, though the job -- offering a minimum of $35,000 -- probably won't pan out. My luck, it's the one I'll get offered, at a lowball salary that I can't take because we're not making ends meet on the $43,000 I'm making a year now. At least I'm not working for a stupid newspaper any more. Alan e-mailed yesterday with the announcement that the city editor position was open at the paper he works at. Just the thought of it turned my stomach.

I e-mailed my contact at BEA today, hoping to hear back on the other two jobs I've interviewed for. Nothing back. That's both good and bad, good in that I didn't get a flat-out rejection, bad in that in all likelihood she just wansn't in her office to get the e-mail so she could give me the bad news. That's what I'm preparing for. Good thing is that my spirits here have jumped a bit, what with the EAR revisions going much better than expected, so there's still lights on and a party going as far as this job is concerned. And given that even though all doesn't mean all, at least it means more than expected, so it's likely the work here will continue, depending on if they decide to continue with layoffs to the point they only have one guy left to turn the lights off once everybody else has flown the coop. But of course by then the coop will have either been demolished or turned over to AMWTP -- I have no idea how long their mission will be going. So who knows what'll happen?

My gosh. I think the guy in the corner cubicle here just coughed up his giblets.

Anybody got a Rolaid?

There are only a few people who are supposed to know this. Since nobody from work ever, ever comes here, I feel safe revealing it here.

My job is safe.

Whew.

Did a little fishing today. Actually, fishing in conjunction with a job application -- USU IT is looking for a technical writer. I applied for the job, and used my new boss as a reference. I asked him first, of course, by saying that Im just sending out feelers, just in case. He wrote back:

"That's fine, but between you and me, your job is safe."

Ahhh. Relief. Not that I wouldn't take a better job if one were to come along. . .

There are other signs: He asked today that the company do an ergonomic assessment of my work station. They wouldn't do that if they were going to give me the heave-ho in a week or so. Carpal tunnel? Who cares? He's out on his ear.

Also, I'm getting a pager (finally) in connection with my volunteer job on the company emergency response team. They won't issue pagers to weenies like me who are going to get their butts canned like a German cheeseburger.

So relief floods the little cubicle here in the modular office building on the Lost River Desert. I may order that Spike Jones CD AND get us signed up for wireless internet, all in the same week. I can breathe again.