Pretty soon I'll be returning to work at Canadian Blood Services. Tuesday September fourth to be exact. Mindilicious's birthday! I'll think of you all day long while they recertify me in WHMIS (for the toner LOL), Company Good Manufacturing Practices (CGMP - basically means instead of scribbling over something when you make a mistake, you have to draw a line, initial and date. But they like taking a few hours a year to explain so in buggerish great detail.) and other lovely programs and policies. I'll see all the changes that have occured while I was gone, and I'll say phrases like this, I'm going to wager... at least 20 times: "Yep! I'm back." or "No actually I don't miss the kids too much yet." and the obligatory "Yes of course I missed YOUR smiling face THE MOST while I was gone." I'm keeping my Pennington's job when I go back, because I can work a shift or two a week in exchange for the 50% discount, oh and the paycheque.
So I'm taking a French course. Wanna know why? It's complicated, and I'm not sure how confidential, but I wasn't told it was, so anyway.. well,whatever. I'm probably making too much of this as an issue --
- insert footage of Monty Python's Holy Grail when the army stands on the crest of a hill and they all shout in unison "GET ON WITH IT!!" -
ANYWAY I am taking advantage of the career bridging program that CBS offered me since the new automated voice messaging (AVM) they're going to implement either at the end of November or January is going to mean I'm possibly laid off. So they gave me this information package which outlines how much CBS will pay either to move or to take courses. I decided to take French as a second language at College Boreal. I had a very fun assessment call from the teacher who said I could start at beginner level two. She almost said I could go into three, but my verb congigation wasn't so hot. SO If I take a few french courses, I'll be able to apply to more jobs. If I'm laid off. Sigh. I don't even know when I'll know if I'm laid off. Management said they would know the size of the new team in mid-September. A lot of CSRs are getting bumped off dayshift. Not laid off tho, they were promised AVM wouldn't cost them their jobs. (Too bad we ALL didn't get that promise.) ANYWAY I'm getting slightly bitter, so I'll just change the subject.
We're refilling the pool for the .. uh.. fourth time this summer. Good thing water is free! It isn't even costing our landlords any money because we're on a bypassed hose connected to the house (along with all the other houses and businesses in this immediate area) due to the construction happening on the highway right beside our house. We've had the bypass for almost two months now. Because the hoses lie on top of the ground, the water from the 'cold' tap is often warm and sometimes hot! I had to empty the pool again because it got really cloudy, and everything I kept adding to it just made it cloudier and cloudier. It ended up looking like milk. I bought a pool clarifier which said specifically not to use it with the type of pump I had, but I couldn't forsee why it would've said that, and thought that turning the pump off for the duration of its use would be sufficient. Nope. The REASON you can't use it with the type of pump we have is: The chemical causes the cloudy chemicals to clump together and they no longer are able to float suspended in the water. They sink to the bottom. Yay! So that happened. But then you have to vacuum out the layer of white gunk. Unfortunately the "clumps" are still small enough to pass right through the filter we have in the vacuum and the pump. Sigh. So there was nothing I could do except stir it all up again and empty it out. Luckily the water we're filling it up with isn't cold :o)Kitty is getting a tummy on her. She is due to have her kittens on September 10th. That's the 63rd day after she had her romantic liaison with that little black tom who came a-callin. Did you know girl cats are called Queens? I think that's so much nicer than dog lingo - we all know what female dogs are called. I hope I'm home when she goes into labour. Maybe I should get a kitty midwife to baby sit her.
Ta ta for now!
3 comments:
Aww! I didn't know they were called Queens! That IS so much better!! Though, I still love my bitches! :D HAHAH!
PS Pool chemistry can be so tricky. My chlorine is always low. But thankfully it's not over used so it's not too big of a deal. Sometimes it's a right pain in my ass though.
Hello,
You don't know me. I googled
Canadian Blood Services and AVM and your blog came up.
Turns out we probably have a bit in common. I am the mother of 2 children 3 and 6 both boys. I live in Calgary and run a business that provides AVM solutions. (sorry about the layoffs this causes, hopefully people move on to more rewarding work and get some free education in the
Canadian Blood Services is a perfect contract for my company.
Here is what I am wondering would you mind helping me.
I would love to know how the new process working? If they (CBS) are happy with the service provider they have chosen? Would they consider a new vendor?
Who is the person in charge of this decision?
Basically any information you are comfortable providing.
Thanks much and all the best on your return to work. (always a little tricky)
T. Kelly
Well tkelly, you didn't leave me your email address, so I guess I'll leave my reply here and hope this is where you'll check back for your answer.
I didn't get laid off, in fact, no one did. I'm a supervisor at our contact centre, and as such, was not promised we wouldn't be laid off, however they created a new position so the second supervisor vying for the one spot was able to keep her job too.
We are very happy with AVM and I don't think CBS is about to change vendors any time soon. We just started with AVM in November 07. I have nothing to do with the purchase or decision making process when it comes to this subject, so I'm sorry that I can't help you out. If you seriously want to sell yourself, I would suggest you contact CBS head office.
Take care.
Jennifer
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