Tales from the workplace...

You know, I wasn't sure what to expect when I went back to work. Especially working in a factory environment. I had never done it before, and I work with a large, part-time, mostly older female group. That's just the way it is...

Yesterday I was paired up with the Crazy Lady. Not our first time to work together, mind you. But it had been a while. We and a couple of other gals were tasked with re-doing an order that had not met up with Quality Assurance standards. Okay. Whatever. What that meant that I was in for a long tedious day while constantly being called the wrong name.

You see, Crazy Lady (lets go to C.L. for short) just looooooves to work with me, but not long after I started she decided that calling me "Rich" or "Richmond" just wasn't going to work for her. It didn't sound "right in my head" she explained. Uh, Okay...

Anyway, after a few weeks of trying various forms, my name has morphed into "Ricky." (Rickee? Rickie? Riquee? Ricki? Whatever. Great. "Ricky" it is.)

"Oh yes, that's much better..." --C.L.

Now keep in mind that CL sounds exactly like "Ricky's" Mom in Better Off Dead. Oh freekin joy. And naturally, she is one of those folks that have to be yammering away, constantly explaining everything that they are doing or that you should be doing in minute detail all the time, over and over and over again... forever. So all day yesterday I was subjected to participated in a series of endless conversations that went like this...

C.L. "Now Ricky, I'm going to hand you these parts in smaller amounts. I think that will work better for me..."

Me: "Okay."

C.L. "Yes Ricky, I think that handling smaller groups will work better and then, even though it will take more time, we will be better off using smaller groups that fit my hand better... I have noticed Ricky, that you have fairly large hands, and you can handle and control more parts than I can, but I think this will work better for me... Okay, Ricky?"

Me: "Okay."

C.L. "Oh great! Now I know that I will be ale to do this in a way that really works for me, Ricky. And you know, I always prefer to work a little slower and get things done right the first time so that we do not have to go through all of these parts again. That would be really silly, wouldn't it Ricky? And such a waste of our time. Now here you go... I am going to keep handing you these parts in smaller amounts that fit my hand better so that we can...."

You get the picture. I felt like I was trapped in a Gary Larson cartoon. This one...

Yup. Me and Ginger. We could hang, Yo.

The really funny part whas when my boss came over to check our progress and I was estimating the amount of time we would be on the job when C.L. pipes up:

"Now Ricky, you make sure that you include the carton that we are working on because we wouldn't want to estimate our time incorrectly." [Directed to the Boss lady] "Ricky is so great to work with, she really accommodates the way I like to do things like holding smaller numbers of parts, and she has been keeping things so organized for us!" [Back to me.] "Ricky, make sure you tell her about the other problems we have been finding... We don't want to have to do this job over again! That would really be silly... Wouldn't it, Ricky??"

All the while my boss is looking at me with this WTF?? expression. So I shrug, and get on with the task at hand. Later, she asks me...

Boss lady: "Hey, did I hear that right? Does C.L. call you Ricky??"

Me: "Yeah."

B.L. "Why??"

Me: "I have no idea. She said that "Rich" didn't sound right in her head so she subsequently re-named me. I think it's just easier to go with it."

B.L. "Oh. Probably..."

And let's face it. It's a tad better than "Richie" would be.... (Or as Bou would probably agree, Skippy... ) Just so long as it "sounds okay in her head" I figure I can live with it. Maybe.