Work

At work today I was sat down for a talk with my supervisor and someone above her about concerns. I will say nothing she said wasn't true (well.. bits) but I really feel some is blown out of proportion for someone who has worked there for 8 days.

Her points:
I left the freezer a mess last week (one day).
My side (kind of my fault) I didn't want to keep opening that freezer because the temperature was rising from the door being open. I put things back in place before she got there the next morning.

I left some boxes on the counter open
My side I honestly think some were there already. I probably did leave them. I am not used to this level of precision I guess. I mean the boxes were not sealed before I looked at them. I may have taken them out for inventory and didn't think having boxes on an unused counter was a big deal. I get that now. They owner is obsessed with appearance

She told me to create an account on a site and put things in the shopping cart. I misunderstood what she said and made myself an account.
My side.. I honestly think I could have then logged out and signed in as her with the items. She told me she had an (business) account with the company. She intended for me to set up a non-business guest account but under her name (she only said to create an internet account). She got upset about how I did the account and asked me to do a phone order (ok) and ask for a discount (not my job). I said she should probably do that because I have no sales experience. She got frustrated but agreed. She then tried to the access the cart 2 days later. I did not save the cart (my fault) but I was not the one that logged me off or closed the browser (her fault because she uses chrome and i used firefox).

She got upset when she tried to pull this up while already on the phone with the company. I was on my way out but said I could find the items quickly.. at least most. She told me no that she would order from another company. There are many problems with this issue.. but I really think on my 2nd day (maybe 3rd) it was reasonable to make a mistake with the account (I was supposed to use her name and email to register) and I really thought she was ordering that day when the cart was still open and available on her computer. I did offer ways of fixing this, but yes I guess my fault.


This morning.. I did fuck up. She handed me 2 racks of DNA samples. They have all sorts of numbers. She says she needs 50 microliter aliquots. To me, aliquots are multiple tubes of the same thing (this is how we stored antibodies). She meant (and I did realize this) put this volume in a separate tube to be sent out. I did realize this.
Then she gave me "sterile" (they were opened so how are they really sterile) pipet tips that go up to 20 microliters. So I am doing 4 of 12.5 microliters. She looked at me weird when I said that. She thought we could do 50 in those tips. She was wrong and she said that. She reduced the volume to 25.

At this point, 3 other trainees are brought in. She is helping me. One of them is helping me. I mess up organization and numbering (have to throw out several empty tubes and relabel one). She splits up work between 3 of us. I did NOT mix up sample numbers. Every sample went into a proper tube. No contamination. But I got mixed up the samples being shipped with ones kept.. and it was a mess. I don't work well that crowded and rushed.

Anyway.. we meet again Friday to discuss this again. Of course, I'm crying because this job is a LOT to handle. I went from sleeping 14 hours a day until 7. I have to dress, shower, be around people. So I am a mess. I hear her and all she says. I manage (she asked for what I had to say) that the inventory of things I didn't know was overwhelming. I said that it would help me to know when she was unavailable (a different issue) then I just try to breathe.

I leave to go eat dinner at a friend's house. I cry half the way. I really think I can do this. I really hope I can show that. What I've been doing is not my actual job so far. The inventory is my job, but not what I was hired to and hoped to do (actual patient samples). but the timeline is all screwed up.

I am trying. I got there at 8 for training. I sat in my car for 20 minutes (so did the trainer) to wait for someone to let us in. I waited 10 more for her to get there. I pointed this out to her boss. I mean.. I don't really mind waiting in my car, but this is kind of ridiculous when sales reps have to sit in their car.


I will take each day as it comes.