Too Much Crap!

It’s time for some whining. I just need to vent about some of the annoying habits of my boss and co-worker. It’s only a three-person office so I don’t have too much to complain about. It’s really not a big deal but you know how spending eight hours a day with someone can reveal so much about a person.

I think I’ve already mentioned that I hate it when people clip their fingernails at work. The sound is like nails running down a chalkboard for me. I also hate it when people need to blow their nose but instead of going to the bathroom to do it they just sit there and snort in and out, trying to reposition the blob of mucus in their nostrils. That’s not a pleasant thing to listen to either. I hate it when I’m on the phone and someone is trying to tell me something and I can’t follow both conversations, but God forbid you quietly bring in a note with a name on it and quietly slide it in front of them while on they're on the phone. They act like you’re the rudest person ever.

I actually have a great boss. He’s a very nice man. He’s just very anal and particular. My biggest pet peeve these days is the fact that no one (except me) believes in throwing anything away. The office is nicely decorated with expensive furniture and paintings. We use a label maker to make all of our files so they sit neatly in the filing cabinets. It’s just the fact that we save almost every piece of paper that comes through that office by mail, via fax or any other method of receipt. The filing cabinets are full of unnecessary information, we're running out of room and the clutter is beginning to grate on my nerves.

The office procedures were already in full operation before I came on board so I’m still trying to figure out a way to implement my “just toss it in the trash” way of thinking. We host financial planning seminar’s, therefore, my boss believes that we should save every single invitation that we receive to other seminar’s to be used as references for future invitations we might wish to create. That, is just one of many the things that we save. We have an armoire stacked with old message books. You know, the carbon copy type. When we fill them up we don’t throw them away, we stack them and save them for years in case we need to backtrack and see where someone left a message back in 2003. You now, just in case we need to check our facts! We receive a variety of post cards with investment information from all sorts of big investment firms, and we must save and file each of those post cards, just in case we need them. Most of the information on the post cards is very generic and appears to be of little relevance. To top it off, each company must have their very own green hanging file folder and label, though we might only have three post cards from them with little useful information listed on the mail outs. I think they both have pack-rat syndrome. My boss is notorious for paper clipping the envelope that something was mailed in to the paperwork, too. Yeah, like we might need to reference that one day, too! I could understand if it was sent certified mail or something. I promise, I'm not exaggerating about this clutter situation.

I’m all about having back up to CYA but the procedures we practice are beyond over the top. I have offered to clean out the files but have been told we must all do it together because there are some pieces that we must “archive” in case we need them. The H-L drawer is so full that I have suffered paper cuts from trying to wedge my hand in far enough to file a post card in there. We have a fax file, an email file and plenty of other back up files. Then, just to be sure we aren’t slipping through the cracks, we also back-up our software to a CD every week. Like I said, CYA, but don’t be ridiculous. Our literature closet is stacked full and most of it is outdated but we "might" need to reference something in the future so we have to hang on to it. It’s wearing me out because I just want to trash 90% of the crap lying around.

By law we’re required to record and document much of the information and communication that takes place between us and our client’s. We have a special form that the correspondence is noted on. I then log the information into our system but we also keep a paper copy of the actual notes in a file. My boss will make notes that are so specific that he will literally log every single detail of a call or meeting with a client. For example, “John left a voice mail for Jane Doe @ 8:20am regarding her mutual fund, Jane returned the call @ 3:20pm. We discussed the cruise she just enjoyed to Alaska. (As I’m logging this information I want to pull my hair out strand by strand) Jane coughed three times during our phone call and sneezed twice. She is suffering from bronchitis and will call us back in one to two weeks once she has recovered and gotten back into the swing of things. Jane’s call waiting beeped in twice and I was put on hold while she answered the calls. I heard Jane's dog barking in the background. Jane and I decided she would leave her funds alone until she was feeling better and able to make clearer financial decisions". I log the information then file the hard copy and also back up the software twice a week. I walk around just wanting to start trashing the mounds of useless and outdated paperwork. However, in spite of feeling that way I am grateful for my job and do work with very nice people. They, like most people, just have some annoying qualities. Gawd, I hope they never find my blog because I really do like my job!