Perspective

I had supper tonight with a friend from my old office. She is a sweetheart, and was the only regret I had about leaving. We visited about how things are there for her now, and I'm sad that she's having to go through it alone. My mission is to find her another job before the one she has kills her. Or at the very least drives her insane.

I believe she just turned 63 or maybe 64. She has limited typing and computer skills, but she tries. However, she is an EXCELLENT receptionist both in person and on the telephone. And she's a positive person and an asset to any office. She's in a tough position, and I hope she can find something else that's better or hang in there until she can collect social security. Preferably something better though.

Here's a funny work story. At the university I prepare deposits made up of money that comes through our own office as well as ones that come through other departments. Most of the deposits from other departments are small, especially admissions, the registrar's office, etc. We get one or two deposits a week from admissions, which are simply flat admission fees of a nominal amount. The deposits have to tie to a cash session that is closed out by the department before they bring it to me, and if it is different I try to figure out why. Yesterday the admissions department was off by $20 (long) and I was able to trace it to a $20 check that had not been put on the (prospective) student's account. I brought the check down to admissions and told the lady there who handles it that it wasn't included in her session so it needed to be run through the next one.

Now I've dealt with this lady before. She is older, but I can't tell how old. People tell me she's been there for-ev-er but I don't know what that means exactly. She is easily flustered and is usually mad at me every time I go down there. I believe I represent "The One Who Points Out Her Mistakes" or something equally reprehensible. So when I told her that her session did not match the deposit she sent up, she told me in a very short, harsh, yet loud tone, "I did everything right! I didn't do anything different! I did what I always do!"

I told her that the application fee was put on the student's account, but the payment of that fee was not yet recorded. All she would need to do was record it and it would be okay. I assured her it wasn't a problem ("I didn't do anything different! I did it right!") and then I left, trying to walk away casually and reassuringly.

Later the same day my office gets a call, and she's asking for me. She wants me to go downstairs and help her with a computer question. I go down there a little worried because in no way am I qualified to help her with computer questions in a university with a fully-staffed IT department. When I walk in she says, "I was so busy and I got interrupted and when I tried to get back to work my student screen was gone! I didn't do anything! I don't know what happened!"

I actually had no idea what she was asking or what screen she was talking about. She kept saying it was there and then it was gone and she had no idea how to find it. It WASN'T where she usually looks. I kind of looked the situation over a bit and then suggested that she click on the X to close the screen that she had open. She clicked, and..... "There it is! That's it!" Somehow I had managed to locate her missing screen just by having her close the open window that was at the forefront. It never occurred to me that it would be that simple, but as a person who handled IT for my old office I should have known better. Never underestimate the frustration and lack of knowledge of certain computer users. She actually told me I get a gold star for the day.

So today, I get another deposit from her. It's off again. The check I gave her to redeposit is in there, although she lists it as cash (yikes!!) which throws off the cash/check totals on her session. But even with that error taken into account her cash is $20 long. I go back down to admissions and I tell her the cash is off again. I was really nice! Honest! But here is officially my new favorite line, yelled at me after I asked her if I could see the receipts so I could check them against the session:

"I never had any problems before YOU started working here and made me mess up!"

There is simply no good response to that. And truthfully it makes me laugh every time I think about it (I did not laugh at her, but had a good chuckle later on). I feel bad that she hates me and I feel bad she's frustrated, and I know that it's really not about me. I know she hates that she has no idea what to do to fix her mistakes or even how to close out a screen that she's accidentally opened. I think I lost my gold star though. Dang it!