Fun with #2 pencils
Apr. 4th, 2003 08:38 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
slipjig3Today was my first round of testing for the customer service position I applied for, down at Verizon's headquarters in Albany. Yes sirree, a great day for an hour-long drive. In blinding snow. When it wasn't freezing rain, that is. With all the enthusiasm I can muster: whee. [cue streamers] Actually, the drive wasn't too bad, even though traffic was a typical Albanian nightmare. I got a good reminder why Yahoo Maps is a bad choice for driving instructions; I did fine until I reached Albany proper, at which time I was directed to turn at a nonexistent street, and nearly landed in Connecticut, via Back Road Purgatory. The parking gods chose to smile on me, though, and I found a parking spot about 100 yards from the front door that did not require Pythagorean parallel parking contortions, although I deeply regretted emptying all the change out of my pockets before leaving. ("Ohhh, yeah. Parking meters. I remember them.") Luckily, a very nice, very cute, very British fellow was kind enough to fish five quarters out of his late-model Audi convertible and give them to me. Let it be known that I am too damned heterosexual for my own continued happiness.
Not much to say about the test itself. I got to chat with one of the other applicants, and got some of the scuttlebutt from the Troy office, which is always good to hear, especially when you're getting promising bits about the upcoming maybe-layoffs. I did pass the test (it was your basic fill-in-the-little-bubble-with-your-number-two-pencil-not-three-not-two-and-a-half-dammit-neatness-counts-and-by-the-way-Big-Brother-loves-you soul-scourger of the sort that I graduated to escape; very generic, and very boring, but at least we got our scores right away). But I'm not happy: I didn't finish the math section. I. Didn't. Finish. The. FUCKING. Math. Section. I was scribbling away, and for some reason I blanked out on every single mental shortcut I've been using since grade school, and time was called with two questions left to go. *whimper* I think I'm going to go somewhere soft and dark and cry for a bit. I'll be right back...
Then I got to go back to work, because the test let out early enough that there were still two hours left of my shift. Oh, well. Incidentally, my van still can't get up the hill at Flat Rock Road if there's anything resembling snow on the ground. I had to take the long cut twice yesterday; I did manage it today, albeit so slowly that I could've pushed the bastard and been done sooner. But hey, I got up the hill. And, um, proceeded to get it stuck in the middle of the driveway. Sigh. I need some more time in my soft and dark place, methinks.
Not much to say about the test itself. I got to chat with one of the other applicants, and got some of the scuttlebutt from the Troy office, which is always good to hear, especially when you're getting promising bits about the upcoming maybe-layoffs. I did pass the test (it was your basic fill-in-the-little-bubble-with-your-number-two-pencil-not-three-not-two-and-a-half-dammit-neatness-counts-and-by-the-way-Big-Brother-loves-you soul-scourger of the sort that I graduated to escape; very generic, and very boring, but at least we got our scores right away). But I'm not happy: I didn't finish the math section. I. Didn't. Finish. The. FUCKING. Math. Section. I was scribbling away, and for some reason I blanked out on every single mental shortcut I've been using since grade school, and time was called with two questions left to go. *whimper* I think I'm going to go somewhere soft and dark and cry for a bit. I'll be right back...
Then I got to go back to work, because the test let out early enough that there were still two hours left of my shift. Oh, well. Incidentally, my van still can't get up the hill at Flat Rock Road if there's anything resembling snow on the ground. I had to take the long cut twice yesterday; I did manage it today, albeit so slowly that I could've pushed the bastard and been done sooner. But hey, I got up the hill. And, um, proceeded to get it stuck in the middle of the driveway. Sigh. I need some more time in my soft and dark place, methinks.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2003-04-05 06:04 am (UTC)Congrats on passing the test. And what was the scuttlebutt?
Let me repeat that question: what was the scuttlebutt? I love that word. Scuttlebutt, scuttlebutt, scuttlebutt.
(no subject)
Date: 2003-04-05 06:42 am (UTC)1) There are some people in the other department next door to the Troy office that would like to take the retirement package offered to us operators. If they do, there are people in the Troy operators' office who would like to move into those vacated positions. Upshot: fewer people would need to be let go.
2) This same other office had an announced surplus of 36 last year. By the time layoffs came around, that number had been reduced to 3. I like those numbers.
Add to this the union hubbub that I got in Schenectady on Wednesday, and all of a sudden I'm only sort of terrified.
Scuttlebutt and hubbub, oh my!!
Date: 2003-04-05 07:43 am (UTC)Re: Scuttlebutt and hubbub, oh my!!
Date: 2003-04-05 08:02 am (UTC)