The downside is I lose my day off every other week. That’s no big deal and a small sacrifice to make this more palatable. It also takes away a significant chunk of overtime and that could hurt.

I’m still going to work the angles on a transfer though. Thanks to everyone aside from the usual cadre (those two know who they are and I’m sure everyone else does to) of stalkers and trolls for the pep talk.

My director called me in first thing and basically said that everyone who has a transfer request ‘could be’ doing so out of a hardship and who is to say my hardship is harder than theirs, etc etc etc. We sort of discussed the politics of the office and how my supervisor and manager are both reporting significant, positive changes in me. That kind of irked me since the changes they’re seeing are a direct byproduct of the changes I went to battle over, took to his boss, and got done because him and his underlings wouldn’t. I didn’t say that, but that’s just how my brain works.

He did confess that perceptions are just perceptions and that the bottom line is that the current perception of me is considerably different from the old perception. He then spelled out the path toward what he and other managers look for when people are trying to promote. It was an odd conversation because I’m dubious in letting my guard down since it seems like he’s genuinely trying to be helpful.

What’s funny is they just gave me a customer service award this morning. It’s ultimately a meaningless piece of paper but it’s nice to get some sort of recognition I suppose. Of course, me being me, I’m focused on the reason I even got the damn thing to begin with: the fact that the supervisors screwed up and gave 80% of the day after New Year’s day off, leaving a small handful of us to deal with an incredibly packed lobby of hungry/angry customers. I’m working on shutting that part down and just being happy for an award next time.

The schedule change is helpful and keeps us close to our current fuel expense and