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This morning Sneppers joined us for our morning walk. He was humming our song ("Such Great Heights" by the Postal Service) on the way out the door, and it made me happy. :)
Things at the day job are busy but in a very good way. I've gotten acclimated to being Lucy at the chocolate factory; the conveyor belt never stops, and there's always going to be more work. It's something you have to come to terms with in any position along a pipeline, I suppose, and it really helped me with my work-based anxiety to realize that the "inbox" will never stay empty. The pace of work coming in isn't something I can control, so I can only pay attention to what *I* control -- my reaction to the work.
So I've been focusing on developing a workflow that helps me jump in and out of the "stream" of tickets easily. Before I go home I make sure my notes are in a good-enough place I can come back the next morning and keep going. Color-coding orders and tickets I'm working on so I can tell at a glance if something is settled, I'm waiting for something, or if I need to do something specific in order to move this forward. Learning how to gauge whether or not something is actually a big deal or if it can be overlooked is something I'll definitely need to do, because I'm still sounding unnecessary alarms for some problems and letting others go that will come back to bite me. Granted, that was a calculated risk in the absence of good information, so I guess the system is working as intended?
To summarize: I'm a quality control analyst for a biomedical services firm. Cleanrooms, pharmacies, and controlled environments all over the country need to maintain certain standards for decontamination -- those can be anything from independent, client-based, state, federal, and international standards. Our company sends techs to certify these environments according to those standards and make sure the client has everything they need to pass an audit if it comes to that. Since these regulations can be kind of strict, we need to make sure everything's in order before we submit the official report. That's where I come in. Quality Control Analysts review the field data coming from the client visit, make sure the appropriate standards have been applied, and ensure the supporting documentation is where it needs to be. It's a very detail-oriented job, and that...has not traditionally been my strong suit.
But I've lasted over a year here, and I finally feel like I'm getting the hang of things. I'm still a little slower than I'd like to be at the work, but I've also had to build my review process wholecloth. Training was minimal, documentation is outdated and inconsistent, and even adherence to process varies from client to client. It's taken a lot of time to figure out which deviations aren't a big deal, which I should sound an alarm on, and how exactly I should be alerting people. I'm still not clear on a lot of things, and I'll only learn after I've made the mistake and someone else has caught it.
It...hasn't been easy for me, learning how to get better at something by doing my best with the full knowledge it's not enough, then taking my lumps when the mistake is discovered. But this kind of exposure therapy has been helpful! People are kind about these mistakes in general, which loosens that tightly-gripped fist of fear squeezing my heart whenever I'm found out. The generous spirit of my coworkers helps me to pay it forward to them, so I'm a lot less grumpy about the field techs who are also likely in my position of being poorly-trained and overworked. We're all just trying to get through it, right?
So even though our process is alarmingly incomplete and it feels like most people around me don't really know what they're doing, I'm a lot more chill about that. It helps that it feels like management is aware of the "growth opportunities", and there's movement on getting our shit together with process and documentation.
Things at the day job are busy but in a very good way. I've gotten acclimated to being Lucy at the chocolate factory; the conveyor belt never stops, and there's always going to be more work. It's something you have to come to terms with in any position along a pipeline, I suppose, and it really helped me with my work-based anxiety to realize that the "inbox" will never stay empty. The pace of work coming in isn't something I can control, so I can only pay attention to what *I* control -- my reaction to the work.
So I've been focusing on developing a workflow that helps me jump in and out of the "stream" of tickets easily. Before I go home I make sure my notes are in a good-enough place I can come back the next morning and keep going. Color-coding orders and tickets I'm working on so I can tell at a glance if something is settled, I'm waiting for something, or if I need to do something specific in order to move this forward. Learning how to gauge whether or not something is actually a big deal or if it can be overlooked is something I'll definitely need to do, because I'm still sounding unnecessary alarms for some problems and letting others go that will come back to bite me. Granted, that was a calculated risk in the absence of good information, so I guess the system is working as intended?
To summarize: I'm a quality control analyst for a biomedical services firm. Cleanrooms, pharmacies, and controlled environments all over the country need to maintain certain standards for decontamination -- those can be anything from independent, client-based, state, federal, and international standards. Our company sends techs to certify these environments according to those standards and make sure the client has everything they need to pass an audit if it comes to that. Since these regulations can be kind of strict, we need to make sure everything's in order before we submit the official report. That's where I come in. Quality Control Analysts review the field data coming from the client visit, make sure the appropriate standards have been applied, and ensure the supporting documentation is where it needs to be. It's a very detail-oriented job, and that...has not traditionally been my strong suit.
But I've lasted over a year here, and I finally feel like I'm getting the hang of things. I'm still a little slower than I'd like to be at the work, but I've also had to build my review process wholecloth. Training was minimal, documentation is outdated and inconsistent, and even adherence to process varies from client to client. It's taken a lot of time to figure out which deviations aren't a big deal, which I should sound an alarm on, and how exactly I should be alerting people. I'm still not clear on a lot of things, and I'll only learn after I've made the mistake and someone else has caught it.
It...hasn't been easy for me, learning how to get better at something by doing my best with the full knowledge it's not enough, then taking my lumps when the mistake is discovered. But this kind of exposure therapy has been helpful! People are kind about these mistakes in general, which loosens that tightly-gripped fist of fear squeezing my heart whenever I'm found out. The generous spirit of my coworkers helps me to pay it forward to them, so I'm a lot less grumpy about the field techs who are also likely in my position of being poorly-trained and overworked. We're all just trying to get through it, right?
So even though our process is alarmingly incomplete and it feels like most people around me don't really know what they're doing, I'm a lot more chill about that. It helps that it feels like management is aware of the "growth opportunities", and there's movement on getting our shit together with process and documentation.
Sneppers is heading to Feral! next week. :O The trip admittedly snuck up on me; for some reason, I thought Ratty's annual family trip came first. That means this weekend will be the last free time we spend together for about a week; I'd better make good on this time so he knows what he's missing up in the Canadian wilderness. :)
While he's away, I'd like to take the opportunity to get a few burrow projects done. Namely, finalizing the layout of my computer desk and shared office desk; fixing the screen window for our bedroom; maybe even reorganizing the kitchen a bit so things are a bit more functional there. I suppose that all depends on how crazy work is next week, and how quickly my social calendar fills up. :) I never actually have as many free evenings as I think I do.
