Free Hour and $5

"They said they weren't going to do early layoff tonight, but then they called back two hours later and they are."

(… said manager, who was chewed out earlier and irrationally that night by a person, male, who used to go off on breaks to read the bible with a person, female, who was escorted out the night before while cheerily covering the firing with loud "bye, everyone's" … oh, something about cheating, something about she should have taken the option to resign a couple of weeks ago instead of calling in the union and starting some investigation … the same manager whom the trainer-elevated clerk doesn't like for "dictating things she doesn't know anything about" while not helping her know anything, of course … and there i am in the middle of these things all …)

That's what it's like at the IRS.

Thursday was employee appreciation night, which means that some of y/our tax money went to cheering up federal workers such as I — who were against the idea of "wasting" an hour they were giving us off of production time (use code for "engagement," not "administrative") to play games like musical squares and giant Monopoly and Sorry — but then I laughed a little, ate the ice cream and played some balloon game in which you see how far yours goes when launched from behind some line in the non-smoking courtyard … and I won a five-dollar QuikTrip gift card.

I'm extra happy about not getting one of the Wal-Mart ones, you know?  Very much better than my last day at Taco Bell, for example, when the A/C went out in August along with the register computers, and we were sweating to death doing manual orders, addition and change, and my drawer ended up $20 over …

Eight weeks and lots of social input later, my $12.91/hour night-gig has come to an end.

I am leaving on proper terms that allow me to be considered for seasonal recall (sounds like some Christmas-toy malfunction thing) in January or February 2010, and the rest of the numbering crew only expects another week or to be shifted to days very soon.

The director came 'round and thanked us mechanically like she must, for the campus' having met our deadline for refund returns.  "You just numbered and got them out."  Yes, indeed.  We're so proud that you all should have received your money by now (unless you're in the late buckets or only filed your 4868 so far, like me …).