A day long bad dream

Dreamed last night that I had a staph infection on my left hand. I squeezed the puss out of the small infection, but knew it could be potentially fatal. It was the result of my having to use the hand scanner at work. Meanwhile, my right hand had a growing rash, which it does in real life (perhaps as a result of the hand scanner at work).

Woke up with a sense of dread.

Boarded an express train this morning with time to spare, but the train hardly moved along the track. The train conductor announced delays were due to a "ill passenger on the platform at 42nd street." We spent 40 minutes in the tunnel, creeping along without much progress. We passed a blond women squatting against a pillar on another platform, surrounded by a few burly men. Passing the problem didn't make the train move any faster.

I had to pay for the blond woman's sudden collapse, as I was now almost fifteen minutes late for work.

It was 9:44 when I attempted 3 times to scan myself into work. The machine refused my ID.

This meant that I had to send an email to four "administrators" about it. Someone from HR shot me an email, "I'm coming down to find out what is the problem."

She came to my office and walked me to the scanner. She was the same person who forced me to demonstrate the scanner ability to read my hand three times last week. I felt like a prison inmate.

It was 10:02 and the machine worked this time. Now my electronic time sheet had the wrong time.

I sent an email to all the big shots to get one of them to fix it.

Then I discovered I was never paid last week.

And then I discovered that I was never given comp time for all my extra hours back in November.

Emails flew back and forth. Finally they cut me a check. The day ended with an elevator ride with some HR big shot. I pulled out my liquid soap-free disinfectant and methodically washed my hands after scanning out.

I turned to her and said, using the hand scanner is disgusting experience. It's so antiseptic.

She said, "I know but we all have to use it."

This was a bold face lie and she knew it. The salary cap protects management. And so their two tiered system continues to control the movement of some while privileging others to move freely without recourse.