Wasting time with Jet

There is nothing more attractive than the unknown. That's why man charted oceans, challenging nature exploring land. We've been to the moon and one day, Mars, it is our nature, to be curious and take step...not knowing where it may lead.

Today, I've taken my timid, soft-spoken, shy, gentle giant-like spirit to a new adventure in the quest for the steady, reliable drama-free job. This time, I have landed it yet another bank (Man, how many banks have I worked for? Chase, before the merger...then Deutsche Bank for awhile, the Bank of New York after that, and now BACK to JPMorganChase...) in Downtown Brooklyn.

It was still dark when I woke up at 5am this morning. Getting up in the morning was going to take some getting used to. After an awaking shower, I checked the weather on the news and picked out a simple dress outfit for my first day, nothing too fancy, but not subtle either. MOM was still asleep when I left at a little before 6am and I made my way to the train station.

I emerged far, far away from home at 6:42...Brooklyn is still like OZ (That fantasy land NOT the prison) for me so I kinda ended up taking the LONG way to the Metrotech Building that I would be working in. I finally made it at 6:55am...The first day of work, due at 7 in the morning!

IN a sign that things may or may not go so well, I was given a hard time at the security desk. They couldn't find me in their system and they had to call HR for verification. Another woman was also having a hard time, she was trying to go to the same department I was and after working for an entire WEEK her ID Badge still wasn't working. So, we waited for awhile and learned each other's name and talked 'bout things (My first friend?), then at 7:30 I was finally led up.

I would be starting in a Lockbox department (again!), affectionately known as "R1" (I forgot what the "R" stands for, It'll come to me...), I got acquainted with some supervisors and team leaders then surveyed the floor. When I interviewed there on St. Patrick's Day, there was a skeleton crew...Now, the regular day shift totaled over 40 people! It's a regular College Classroom in there. After a few more formalities, I was placed in my domain, a nice, enclosed, central aired room with 2 check encoding machines and 3 very big document scanners.

Similar to my previous position, I'm scanning invoices and documentation into a computer for database purposes. I'm not scanning checks this time, just the paperwork related to each transaction. The machines they use are REAL fast and very easy to use. BUT there's something about the work...

The batches I'm dealing with are very small, and usually have to be bunched together to make one big set to shove into the machine and scan at once. But the work being light is not the thing that bothers me, I can deal with the light load...

The thing that might irk me is HOW we get the work.

In every scanning job I've done, the work is always GIVEN to us in one way or another. Coming from file cabinets, boxes, crates, or if prepped by other brought to me by supervisors in trays or whatever.

But in this looney operation...I have to fetch the work on my own!

Outside my little icebox, all around the rest of the floor, extractors and batch assemblers are preparing the work waiting be scanned, so when I'm done scanning, I have to go out and make the rounds (like a damn garbage collector!!!) and pick up anything that's ready. WHA the HELL is THAT?!?!? Like I'm some sorta Ball Boy working the US Open, picking up tennis balls the minute they hit the net and shit!

With two scanners working the machines, there isn't enough workflow to keep me constantly at my machine workstation all the time...I have constantly roam around looking for work EVERY 15-20 FRIKKIN MINUTES! And me being a big guy, I can't be easing behind people that siting tightly together, side by side and back to back! There are around 7 different areas I have to go to pick up whatever I can. The floor is so wide it feels like one side's the WEST side and one side's EAST.

I was led around today by a tall Larry Bird-looking White guy named "John" (Another JOHN! Geez, everywhere I work, there's a JOHN!) Looking around, most the paper-pushers and extractors are naturally women (A very exotic number of chickadees in the ol' Hen House!), a few data entry people and some that probably double check the scanned images doing OCR Cleanup.

At 12, I look my Lunch Hour (WOW a WHOLE hour for once, geez!), I was told the cafeteria was on the 2nd floor, I arrived and found paradise! Now, granted, the place was no United Nations...but it was impressive. Microwave ovens, vending machines, a kitchen full of chefs making almost anything...and Pizza! I was in Heaven!...They have ATMs, pay-phones...a huge eating area, and get this...a GAME ROOM! I couldn't believe my eyes as I saw a couple of guys playing Ping Pong...PING PONG, there were tables decorated with Checker and Backgammon Boards, it was incredible.

While going back and forward I was trying to remember all the ladies I was working with, but it's impossible, they're too many! The office is very multi-ethnic, too...Asians, White, Black, Hispanic, Caribbean Folk...almost everybody I've known working at Chase in the past was Guyanese...They had a tendency to hate on a light-skin brother thinking he ain't from the Motherland. I hope I don't have to deal with self-loathing black on black haters like that again...

Sometimes, running around getting the work makes the time go by...being on my feet prevents any chance of me getting sleepy staring at monitor, typing gibberish on a keyboard. Maybe it's just a weekday thing, maybe the weekend flow is a bit better, we'll see...

I asked around about dress code and paydays...I think I can get away with some comfortable black sneakers and apparently we get paid on the 15th and 30th of every month regardless of what day it falls on (unless it's the weekend, of course.)

5 O'clock finally rolls by and I learn how to do my timecard and daily production report (These people are BIG on numbers!)...then say my good-byes and head on home.

4 days a week doing this?...Not a bad deal...it's permanent, it pays well...we'll see how long it lasts.

Before I end this, on a side, note...I wanna thank the few Questions I've been getting on the Q&A...and say "It's Okay"...to KimmyK for not asking (You know you still the ONLY one who understands me!) Fire5, Summer...I will provide answers when I come back in May...It's still not Too Late, ya'll...ASK SOMETHING WILL YA'S!?!?!?!