I guess that’s what I have.  I’m still struggling to get a workable schedule in place with regards to the job, The Kids, chores, writing, friends and family, and all that jazz.

Gosh, I’ve done this for twenty years.  Why did it become so difficult after taking little more than a year off?

Who knows…

Anyway, work hasn’t exactly been without its unnecessary excitement.  It has nothing to do with the job itself.  I’m quite comfortable with that.  The environment is complex, sure, and it has its share of problems, yet the technology is something I know well, the architecture won’t be hard to learn, and the team is fantastic.

So what’s the deal?

HR.

Let’s just say they’ve screwed up in just about every way you can imagine.

I filled out a bunch of online paperwork weeks before I started.  It never went through despite the site telling me all was well—and even showing me my entered data when I returned to verity if had gone through.  After I started, HR began hassling me by telling me I’ve not filled it out.  Well, I had.  Twice.  So I did it again from work while explaining to them that I’d already done it.  It still didn’t go through.  It took me submitting it five separate times before it finally entered into the system.

My first day I spent in orientation.  A week later, I get confirmation of that, then two days later HR sends me a nastygram telling me I’ve not gone to orientation and absolutely must go in the next two weeks.

The new hire paperwork and company policies state that people hired within a week of their first pay date will be paid a few days afterward.  Okay, I can deal with that.  I was hired within a week of my first payday, so I assumed I’d get a check the following week.  Nope.  When I finally called them, they told me it was going to be two weeks from my first pay date before I see any money.  At that point, I was all like, “Um, WTF ever.”

This morning when I arrive, I have yet another nastygram from HR telling me I’ve not submitted an I-9.  This time I called bullshit.  I filled it out and provided copies of my driver’s license and Social Security card while I was in orientation on my first day, and I handed it to the HR representative who was in the class with us.  As did everyone else there with me.  And now suddenly they can’t find it?

What the hell?

I sent an e-mail to my boss today and explained all of this to her.  I also sent my own professional-yet-not-very-nice nastygram to HR giving them the rundown.  I told them who to check with and when the paperwork and identification had been turned in.  I also mentioned I’d like a receipt from now on for all paperwork submitted to them.  This has been a total hassle, a total cause of stress, and an unnecessary disaster on their part.

But otherwise, I’m surviving.  All of this will be cleaned up eventually and things will smooth out.  Or so I assume.

It’s just that I already have enough woes right now to make Job’s life look positively radiant and trouble free.  I don’t need more drama from this company.

Hell, I don’t even have any beer to wash away my sorrows.  I can’t afford it right now.  How’s that for trauma!

I do find comfort in this: I finally received my first paycheck today, I have a surprise tax refund coming in the next week, and I get my next paycheck on Monday.  Tomorrow night I can sit down and work on bills, and I can start the process of catching up financially.  I can finally schedule Kako‘s annual exam and vaccinations (almost three months past due).  I can beef up my supply of cat food (we’ve lived from bag to bag for several months).  I can eat more than one meal a day—and certainly more than none per day.  The list goes on ad nauseam.

While I’d like to say the monetary hardships are over, they’re not by any stretch of the imagination.  There’s enough debt to pay off to keep me busy for a while.  What I can say is that at least now I can carry my own weight.  Just barely, yes, but I can do it.  I have a long road to travel before I’m solvent again.  Now, at least, there’s hope.