My life at work.

This is my slow week at work, my month-end close is done, all my reports are finished, files have been uploaded to both GM and Chrysler, accruals sent off to accounting, and numbers reconciled. Just waiting for my April audit list and I will be officially closing April. I get a list of 30 random jobs plus any job over $25,000 every month. Then I have to prove everything was done according to the contract by making copies of contracts and any Po's, invoices, postal receipts, and digital media records along with screen shots of any inventory posted to the jobs. I'm not getting much overtime anymore. I’ve had very little OT, as a matter of fact. I used to be able to count on my last two weeks of the month having at least 10-20 hours of overtime, not anymore. Apparently I'm getting better at my job. I guess it's a good sign but I really liked that OT.

My promotion is pushed till probably Jan, 2014 because of the software not being ready yet. While I was in Dallas, I found too many discrepancies in the software that just won't work for us. It will be about that long before they can work the bugs out.

Our branch is currently spread out over two buildings in an office complex about 3 city blocks wide. They have been building an addition on the main building to get us all together. It should be ready for us to move into by the end of June. They have bought another marketing agency since the planning of the new building so it will be interesting to see how they fit us all in.

Before you read the next part of my post, keep in mind that I am truely greatful for my job; but like all jobs, there's always something that just drives you nuts.

I will be very happy when the move comes because the girls I room with; one in particular, are very load and inconsiderate of my need to concentrate. They are busy the first two weeks and slower at end of month. My busy time is the opposite. When I am not busy, they can be very amusing, but when I'm buried in work, they can be very distracting. I am so tired of hearing, "OHH MY GOD!" and all about how tired they are; one because of a two year old and one because she is a party animal and is usually hung over. The constant loud yawning followed by a really load, "OHH BOY, OHH BOY, OHH BOY!" I have said stuff like, "Really...it can't be that bad, I should be the one doing all the yawning since I'm OLD and stay up too late for my own good." I have said, "SARAH, can you possibly be any more distracting?" She usually answers with, "Well I can certainly try!" She is totally oblivious that I am serious. I find myself using ear buds with my iPhone music to drown her out. She is constantly making tapping noises with her fingers, hands and feet. She plays music on her computer constantly singing along and a very high pitched, out of tune voice. Then there is the constant whining about how bruised they are from their kettle bell workouts. Not to mention the detailed stories of skinned tail bones from the workouts because of bad floor mats. TMI! Not that I couldn't use some exercise myself, but I think I would go for a different form of exercise if it were that damaging to my body. Then the constant conversations about one of them is a maid of honor for her cousin and all the family drama to go with it and the drama of the other one's step kids. I will be so glad when this wedding is finally over. I just hope I was not as dramatic in my 30's as they are. It's like being back in high school.

I was in the cafeteria the other day and had a conversation with someone from a different department and she asked how I liked individual auto. I just said, "I like my job and the company is definitely a good company to work for." She grinned and mentioned that they hear quite a bit of noise coming from our area. It turns out that others have complained, but our department brings in so much revenue that it is pretty much overlooked. I just said, "Sometimes it can be entertaining, but the people are all nice people." It's true...if it weren't for the fact that they make it hard to concentrate by being so distracting and dramatic, I think I could really like them. I just keep telling myself that we will be moving soon and we will all be in cubes alongside accounting and they will have to tame it down. I will have to be situated between accounting and them because I am technically a part of accounting but we all need access to the contracts and job jackets at the same time.

In my new position, "Production Administrator for Finance" I will be busier in the beginning of the month which will coincide with their busy time. That should help cut down the distractions. Once the sales staff has a contract, I will be creating new customer numbers and creating projects for the financial aspect of the job by pricing out everything, then it will go back to the sales staff for approval and then onto the support team, "the drama department" to be put together and sent off to the print shop and to the digital media department. It will then be entered as an invoice by the billing department and sent back to me for approval. I will have to verify that all the job steps have been fulfilled and that all the audit points are verified before being sent out. Unfortunately the Enron scandal has hurt allot of people, but because of it we have allot of "SOX regulations" that have to be followed and I have a job because of it. With all the checks and balances involved with being a publicly traded company, new jobs needed to be created to become SOX compliant. We have to have everything documented and records showing self-audit practices. No one person is allowed to do anything financial without approval from someone else, lowering the risk of fraud in financial statements.

Probably uninteresting to most of you, but this is a description of SOX.
The Sarbanes–Oxley Act of 2002, also known as the 'Public Company Accounting Reform and Investor Protection Act' and 'Corporate and Auditing Accountability and Responsibility Act' and more commonly called Sarbanes–Oxley, Sarbox or SOX, is a US federal law that set new standards for all U.S. public company boards, management and public accounting firms. As a result of SOX, top management must now individually certify the accuracy of financial information. The bill was enacted as a reaction to a number of major corporate and accounting scandals including those affecting Enron, Tyco Int'l, WorldCom and a few more. These scandals cost investors billions of dollars when the share prices of affected companies collapsed.