Under the bus

I don't usually like catch phrases, but today I could only think of one way to describe my day at work: thrown under the bus.

I ended up having to take a phone call from a VERY irate student because the cashier who originally took the call either didn't want to or didn't know how to handle her. I was in the middle of working a large cash deposit, so I was delayed in returning her call. She called back later and was beyond irate, whatever the word for that is. I was screamed at for about ten minutes while I tried to tell her that I needed a few minutes to review her account. She kept screaming at me that she didn't have but 15 minutes before she needed to go to work, but she wouldn't let me off the phone to do what I needed to do. Finally she let me go and I took her information into my boss's office and explained what was going on. Her account did not involve anything I was involved with, and I asked him to take over and call her back. He refused. He told me he did not want to escalate things (the next step at escalation would have involved an uzi I believe) but he would sit next to me while I called her and told her what was what.

Big help.

I called her back, there was more screaming, and I finally had to end the conversation. My left ear still hurts! Seriously! And my boss didn't step up and do his job, but left me to handle an impossibly angry and vitriolic person.

I was really most disappointed in my boss's actions or lack thereof. But I did learn that when a cashier comes to me with something she can't handle, that I should immediately direct it to him unless it really is something that I should handle, or else I'll be handling it anyway.

I know he was aware he shouldn't have done that, because he kept apologizing to me about it. If it was truly my job, it would have been different. But rather than deal with a really difficult person, he threw me under the bus.

But hey, at least he sat nearby.

Okay, enough of that. One really bad day does not a sucky job make. I also got yelled at yesterday by a student's mother, but today I was able to call her with good news and received a semi-apology (she said it was very stressful to see that balance on her daughter's account after all they've been through -- that's in the apology realm isn't it?)

Then the bank sent a deposit correction. The deposits for the university are large and are my full responsibility, so a correction freaks me out a little. I put on my bank teller thinking hat and after determining what was missing, I figured out they must have not looked carefully in our deposit bag since they missed a group of about ten checks. Bingo! I checked the bag that was returned just today by our armored transport service, and there it was. This is not the first time the bank has not entirely cleared out our bag. And recently they missed a check in the large stack that I sent them, and I was able to tell them exactly which one in the stack of probably 15 separate $35 checks they missed and where to find it in the stack. They rechecked the stack and it was right where I said it would be. In this line of work, it pays to be anal, organized, and provide yourself with lots of backup for checking. Finally! An outlet for my true nature!

I had bunco tonight. Didn't win a darn thing. I never have very good vibes around the time of the new moon. Come on moon! Wax it up!