Grrrrrr

Ya'all remember that project I was working with that was closing? Around 200 people were looking for jobs. Around 50 found jobs inside our company, around 50 were fired as part of the "ramp-down," around 40 are still on the project, and around 60 have left to other pursuits or were fired for other reasons (can we say "fraud?").

The last day of the project was supposed to be tomorrow.

Supposed to be.

But of course on Monday afternoon miraculously AOL decided that maybe, afterall, we could keep around 50-70 people for the next two months.

Did you catch that part in the first paragraph where I said that there are only around 40 people left on the project? By the way, around 20 of them have already made plans for post-project closing.

So we're supposed to make 50-70 out of 20.

How, you might ask, do we do that?

By calling approximately 100 people... people who were fired and told "you're not welcome to apply for other jobs at IDT..." people who left the company because of other jobs, illness, vacations, whatever... and saying to them:

"I'm calling because we just found out yesterday (because of course in all of this no one bothered to inform recruitment until yesterday) that there might be an opportunity to extend AOL for a couple of months. Would you be interested in coming back?" (and, by the way, the pay's gone down, you can only work 4 hours/day if you want evening hours, you have to work on Purim and during Pesach, and you must commit to working for two months.)

So amazingly enough, we got almost a 15% positive response.

But during this phone marathon the Powers That Be from our version of AOL management have been infuriating me by making demands they have no right to make. Demands like "you should stay late because even though your day is supposed to end at 6, I'm going to send you an e-mail at 5:10 demanding that you call 40 people before you leave today and report on the results." Demands like "Even though your IM message clearly states that you are 'away,' I demand that you tell me exactly how soon I'm going to get the list of 100 people you called and what the results were. And even though I fired these people two months ago, I demand that you tell me why they don't want to come back to AOL."

This comes the day after my boss told me and my officemate of over a year that he's separating us... and on the same day, we find out that two projects we've recruited for are not happening, so we have an additional 30 people to find jobs for.

So yeah, all day pretty much my only thought that didn't include foul language was "Grrrrrrr!"

Thank G-d, we have a small gym, and there were women's hours this afternoon. So around 5:25 I told my boss I was going to the gym, and I would be back "later."

An hour and a quarter later, after some serious weightlifting and cardio, I went back upstairs, and things were at least a little bit better.

But I still don't know know where we're gonna get another 15 or whatever people.

Grrrrrrrr

Crappy weather, good television and PTSD and the like...

I keep trying to remind myself that rain is a blessing in Israel. We never have enough of it, which I suppose is normal since we're, oh, about 70% desert.

But I've never liked rain, and I don't like it when I get soaking wet walking home. Even if I took the bus, I'd get wet, so I figured I might as well get the exercise.

One thing I'll say about it, though... when it's raining, I don't feel even a little bit guilty about not running errands. I'm fine walking in, changing into my pajamas, and staying in until it's time to go to work the next day.

And tonight's been awesome, 'cause my rockin' sister sent me seasons three, four and five of The West Wing.

I'd never seen the show they aired before airing the season premier. It's the show's response to September 11th. It had nothing to do with the story line. It was a show about why terrorism exists, and why Islamic fundamentalists hate America.

There's one bit of dialog that my mom had told me about, and I hadn't remembered until I saw this episode. There were a bunch of high school kids visiting the White House when a security lock-down takes place. The kids start discussing terrorism, Islamic fundamentalism, etc.

A girl asks Sam "What do you call a society that has to just live every day with the idea that the pizza place you're eating in could just blow up without any warning? "Israel," Sam answers.

Thank G-d, and the IDF, Mossad, Shin Bet and everyone else involved, that there haven't been so many suicide bombings lately. One in Eilat a couple of weeks ago was the first one in months.

But that doesn't stop us from feeling them anyway.

Whenever there's a loud noise, from construction or whatever, we stop what we're doing for a moment to get a handle on what happened.

Whenever we hear more than one ambulance siren, we stop to listen for more.

Whenever we're sitting in a cafe, consciously or subconsciously we watch the door to see who's coming.

That applies to people who've been around terrorist attacks and those who, blessedly, haven't been anywhere near them.

People have PTSD symptoms from events they never even experienced.

No matter how "quiet" things seem around here, we're always waiting for the other shoe to drop.

The other day, security forces caught a would-be suicide bomber who apparently was going to try to make his way into Tel Aviv. This was only different from the tens of attempts that happen regularly because the guy was on our side of the fence. Our army and special forces catch wannabe terrorists all the time on their side of the fence.

So thank G-d we're not complacent.

I just hope the world doesn't get too complacent about Iran... because if it does, the other shoe that will drop around here will have a nuclear warhead attached to it.

Blame it on Canada

That phrase came up again recently in one of my list-serv's. And I think it's as good of a place to put the blame as any. (Because really, wouldn't you all think it was just a bit too typical if I blamed it on the Palestinians?)

And what am I trying to blame on someone else, you might be ask?

The fact that I haven't blogged in quite some time.

See, I could blame it on work... because, well, now that I think about it, work is partly to blame. I'm exhausted every day, and when I get home, I don't have the will to deal with thinking.

Or I could blame it on my boss, because he makes me tired.

Or I could blame it on my sister, because she sent me the first two seasons of The West Wing (but then she wouldn't send me seasons 3-7, so there's NO WAY I'm blaming it on her).

Or I could blame it on my three-month plan toward self-improvement, which is actually taking quite a chunk of time out of my days (making my own lunches, walking to and from work, taking time out to learn something about halacha every day, stuff like that). But if I blame it on that, I might backslide, and I wouldn't want that.

So I'm going with Canada.

I'll try to post more regularly.