where the eff art thou, credentialing?
Oct. 5th, 2003 03:51 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fearlesstempSo, Friday morning I overslept, which is pretty much par for the course when it comes to Fridays. Because the This Week It Will Be Different that got me to get out of bed with my alarm clock on Monday and (maybe) Tuesday morning has worn off, replaced with the Five More Minutes, Please, For The Love Of God obsessive snooze-slamming of Thursday and (definitely) Friday mornings. I raced into work at 8:08 to see my voicemail light blinking.
I. Hate. My voicemail light. Only bad things come from voicemails. Voicemails yield annoying assignments and reminders of undone work. On Friday, it was the latter.
When I got the ID of the message (my supervisor, J) and the timestamp (8:05, five minutes AFTER I'm supposed to arrive), I already wanted to die, a fact which was only amplified when the content of the message turned out to be a check-in on the status of going to Credentialing to pick up a provider directory for a new-hire, something I was supposed to do TWO DAYS BEFORE and completely forgot about in the mess of other random tasks. I jumped out of my chair like a shot and raced out to get the job done! Only to discover that I had no idea where Credentialing was. At all.
I turned around and came back into the department, and went up to our Ambassador to get the low down on Credentialing's location. What the eff is an Ambassador? I'm sure you're asking yourself this right now. Basically, it's a person in any section of a department who's designated the go-to person for wandering employees looking to find people/drop stuff off. Since Acronym Company consists of 800 employees on three floors that are divided into little more than four different sectors of cubicles, hey're very useful, except for the fact that 60% of the time said Ambassadors are not at their desk.
“Morning, C," I say, trying to sound casual. “Do you know where Credentialing is?"
I had to sound casual because C is one of those Perpetually Panicked, Slightly Stupid office dwellers who completely lose touch with reality and spazz out when asked the slightest question or given the tiniest task. You know these people? They're the ones always talking about how much work they have to do while appearing to do none at all. And you may say to me, “Wow, Jess, aren't you just describing yourself? And to that I say: Shut up! And also, pretty much.
Anyway, after a few minutes of her searching through her desk, staring into space, and rambling on about this or that, I was about to cut her loose and just wander the halls on my own, she finally said, “I think it's in Networking and Contracting."
And I knew where that was! So I took off for Networking and Contracting, found an Ambassador there, asked about Credentialing.
“Credentialing?" she said, looking puzzled. “Hm... try down there."
I walked down to the ‘there' the woman had pointed to and found a section marked Configuration.
"Hi!" I said brightly to the random Configuration people. "I'm looking for Credentialing?"
"Oh," Random Credentialing Dude said. "I think they're on the next floor, over by stairwell A?"
And thus began my adventure, which was complicated by the fact that I had no idea what Credentialing was or did, exactly, so I couldn't just stake out the general area where I expected it to be. It took FOREVER to find this place, and it was a journey filled with confusion, annoyed Ambassadors, and lots and lots of directions that sounded like this: "Okay, so what you want to do is go through this hallway here, and then turn right at the plant next to that row of cubicles, and then go straight through that doorway there, and it'll look like you're in a file room but you just have to make a really sharp right and go all the way to the right corner by the window and you'll find Pat there. She'll help you."
But finally I found Credentialing!
"Hi," I said, trying to sound chipper and not let my extreme frustration and tiredness show in my voice. "I need a new Provider directory."
"Hm," Credentialing woman said. "You're really going to need to talk to Human Resources about that."
"I am Human Resources!" I said.
That got me a strange look.
"I mean, I'm a Temp, but I'm working in Human Resources and they're the ones who sent me up here!"
"Oh," she said. "Well, they're not here. You'll have to go to Communications for that and talk to D."
"Where is Communications?" I asked.
"Oh, the first floor," she said. "Right by HR."
And it WAS. I got the directory and it took all of three minutes, instead of the twenty-five it took to track down Credentialing and have an annoying conversation with the people up there. Annoying!
But all this annoyance in the early morning was made up for by my Amazing Lunch Karma, which consisted of going to the bank at the height of lunchtime and having NO LINE, and then going to a bagel place for lunch which had a parking lot swamped with cars and finding NO LINE there either. I know! It was very exciting.
Anyway, other stuff happened yesterday, but my favorite moment happened over dinner, which I had with Anna, Jo, and Amber at Anna's house pre-Office Space viewing (a movie that only gets better with time). Joanna was telling a story about work and used some long word, which prompted Amber to say something about how she felt stupid sometimes, "You know, like Joey with Ross," she said, and then explained some wacky Joey-and-Ross hijinks from Friends.
We all laughed, and then Anna came out with, "Oh, I know, Blossom was THE BEST show."
The whole table stopped talking to appreciate the randomness of the comment, with Anna sitting there with the biggest ‘What? Why are you looking at me funny?' expression on her face. "Wasn't Joey the dumb older brother?" she asked finally.
"Anna!" we collectively exclaimed. "We meant Friends!"
Ah, the joy of being friends with someone who doesn't own a TV. All of her pop culture references come from the early nineties, which was probably the last time she regularly watched TV, save a brief stint watching Party of Five when we were in college and Gilmore Girls last year. We love you for it, Anna! I know I haven't laughed that hard in quite a while.
As Joey would say, "Whoa!"
I. Hate. My voicemail light. Only bad things come from voicemails. Voicemails yield annoying assignments and reminders of undone work. On Friday, it was the latter.
When I got the ID of the message (my supervisor, J) and the timestamp (8:05, five minutes AFTER I'm supposed to arrive), I already wanted to die, a fact which was only amplified when the content of the message turned out to be a check-in on the status of going to Credentialing to pick up a provider directory for a new-hire, something I was supposed to do TWO DAYS BEFORE and completely forgot about in the mess of other random tasks. I jumped out of my chair like a shot and raced out to get the job done! Only to discover that I had no idea where Credentialing was. At all.
I turned around and came back into the department, and went up to our Ambassador to get the low down on Credentialing's location. What the eff is an Ambassador? I'm sure you're asking yourself this right now. Basically, it's a person in any section of a department who's designated the go-to person for wandering employees looking to find people/drop stuff off. Since Acronym Company consists of 800 employees on three floors that are divided into little more than four different sectors of cubicles, hey're very useful, except for the fact that 60% of the time said Ambassadors are not at their desk.
“Morning, C," I say, trying to sound casual. “Do you know where Credentialing is?"
I had to sound casual because C is one of those Perpetually Panicked, Slightly Stupid office dwellers who completely lose touch with reality and spazz out when asked the slightest question or given the tiniest task. You know these people? They're the ones always talking about how much work they have to do while appearing to do none at all. And you may say to me, “Wow, Jess, aren't you just describing yourself? And to that I say: Shut up! And also, pretty much.
Anyway, after a few minutes of her searching through her desk, staring into space, and rambling on about this or that, I was about to cut her loose and just wander the halls on my own, she finally said, “I think it's in Networking and Contracting."
And I knew where that was! So I took off for Networking and Contracting, found an Ambassador there, asked about Credentialing.
“Credentialing?" she said, looking puzzled. “Hm... try down there."
I walked down to the ‘there' the woman had pointed to and found a section marked Configuration.
"Hi!" I said brightly to the random Configuration people. "I'm looking for Credentialing?"
"Oh," Random Credentialing Dude said. "I think they're on the next floor, over by stairwell A?"
And thus began my adventure, which was complicated by the fact that I had no idea what Credentialing was or did, exactly, so I couldn't just stake out the general area where I expected it to be. It took FOREVER to find this place, and it was a journey filled with confusion, annoyed Ambassadors, and lots and lots of directions that sounded like this: "Okay, so what you want to do is go through this hallway here, and then turn right at the plant next to that row of cubicles, and then go straight through that doorway there, and it'll look like you're in a file room but you just have to make a really sharp right and go all the way to the right corner by the window and you'll find Pat there. She'll help you."
But finally I found Credentialing!
"Hi," I said, trying to sound chipper and not let my extreme frustration and tiredness show in my voice. "I need a new Provider directory."
"Hm," Credentialing woman said. "You're really going to need to talk to Human Resources about that."
"I am Human Resources!" I said.
That got me a strange look.
"I mean, I'm a Temp, but I'm working in Human Resources and they're the ones who sent me up here!"
"Oh," she said. "Well, they're not here. You'll have to go to Communications for that and talk to D."
"Where is Communications?" I asked.
"Oh, the first floor," she said. "Right by HR."
And it WAS. I got the directory and it took all of three minutes, instead of the twenty-five it took to track down Credentialing and have an annoying conversation with the people up there. Annoying!
But all this annoyance in the early morning was made up for by my Amazing Lunch Karma, which consisted of going to the bank at the height of lunchtime and having NO LINE, and then going to a bagel place for lunch which had a parking lot swamped with cars and finding NO LINE there either. I know! It was very exciting.
Anyway, other stuff happened yesterday, but my favorite moment happened over dinner, which I had with Anna, Jo, and Amber at Anna's house pre-Office Space viewing (a movie that only gets better with time). Joanna was telling a story about work and used some long word, which prompted Amber to say something about how she felt stupid sometimes, "You know, like Joey with Ross," she said, and then explained some wacky Joey-and-Ross hijinks from Friends.
We all laughed, and then Anna came out with, "Oh, I know, Blossom was THE BEST show."
The whole table stopped talking to appreciate the randomness of the comment, with Anna sitting there with the biggest ‘What? Why are you looking at me funny?' expression on her face. "Wasn't Joey the dumb older brother?" she asked finally.
"Anna!" we collectively exclaimed. "We meant Friends!"
Ah, the joy of being friends with someone who doesn't own a TV. All of her pop culture references come from the early nineties, which was probably the last time she regularly watched TV, save a brief stint watching Party of Five when we were in college and Gilmore Girls last year. We love you for it, Anna! I know I haven't laughed that hard in quite a while.
As Joey would say, "Whoa!"
