Happy Admin's Day!

Today is Administrative Professionals Day. Since this day falls on a Wednesday and that is normally my remote day, I am not usually at the office. I swapped my office days this week and got to celebrate with my co-workers. The CPI PA, Jess, ordered pizza for all of the admins and handed out cupcakes!! We were special today! 😊

Remote Day!

When you wake up in the morning to log onto your PC and see a note. My husband is such a ham! Gotta love that man!! I got a keeper! 😍

FB Memories

Gotta love Facebook Memories! Well, sometimes. This one popped up for April 14th.

Aww! 😌 I went from having the best unit to not having a unit. LOL! It was just a year ago that my supervisor received an award and now she has moved on to a different position within the agency. Most of my workers that were here last year, have since left or have promoted upward.

I wonder if we are having a regional meeting this year. 😶

 

 

Goodbyes are not fun ...

Today was the day. We had our last meeting and a Good-Bye lunch with our supervisor. It was bittersweet but I am happy that she has found something that will motivate her and challenge her. We all loaded her up on gifties and cards. 😊. She gave each of us a card with strict instructions that it was not to be opened until later. I opened mine after she had given me the keys to her office and took the last box as she left the building. 

 

She has been one of the best bosses that I have ever had and she is the one that gave me a chance when she hired me. She has been a great support system for me not just on my journey working for DFPS, but also with my family. I sure will miss her!!! The card made me tear up. 😢

 

I wish you are the best Ashley!!! May we cross paths again!

 

 

Hellish Day!!!

Working from home today has been a nightmare! First time EVER that I have never gotten up on time because I didn't set my alarm! 😂 I usually just wake up. Not this morning. My daughter texts me "Mom, aren't you supposed to be working?"

 

I had left work late yesterday because I worked with my Program Administrator all day, so I didn't get home until after 5:30. I forgot to shut my system down, so when I tried to login to IMPACT this morning, I got a message saying my password was not correct. Then it dawned on me that I had gotten an email (second reminder that I obviously ignored) saying my password expires today. Yeah. LOL!

 

Spent the next 45 minutes on the phone with IT resetting everything. Then Outlook decided to give me grief too! I have been slammed with cases today and it's only after 1pm!!! I have finally gotten one cup of coffee down, eaten three muffins, and had a glass of milk. I am ready to call it a day!!!! 😀😜

 

 

So happy I was working from home today!  LOL!

Winds of change...

Thursday we had our unit meeting. A lot of stuff needed to be discussed with the workers, as quite a few things have been changing and being implemented. We lost Maria back in November and we just lost Mandy this past January as she became a Worker V.

Now I am losing my supervisor. 😕 She announced that she has taken a position with CLOE, which is our learning and training area. She will be on a team that puts together the trainings for the workers. I knew last year when she had taken FMLA that she was not happy. When she extended her leave, I expected her to come back to tell us she was leaving at that time. She returned in mid-August and a few months later was hit with a PA switch. This did not sit well. Her last day with us with be the 15th. We are having a good-bye lunch that Friday. While I am bummed to see her leave, I do understand and I wish her well. I will miss having her as my supervisor though. It's just sad. Just a year ago, we had the best unit in Tarrant County and now there is not much left of my unit. Two tenured workers are gone and we have two new workers that we are still not sure will stay.

No clue who is going to be the next supervisor for my unit. It could really be anyone. My supervisor and I got along very well and bounced off one another in a good way. She understands everything going on in my household and always gave the green light to work from home if needed. I don't like uncertainty and I am trying hard to not let anxiety over run my thoughts.

Sleepy Kitty

I am working from home today and my little Tumble decided to take a nap. So, here I am trying to quietly work on getting my PCS reports finished. LOL! 

APS Conference

Our annual APS conference was this week in Austin and I am so proud of my worker! Congratulations Mariela!! Awesome job to all the winners!! 😊 #DFPS

Happy Admins Day!

 

Administrative Professionals Day recognizes and celebrates the work of secretaries, administrative assistants and other office professionals for their contributions to the workplace. Administrative Professionals Day is always observed on the Wednesday of Administrative Professionals Week.

 

 

I was remote both Tuesday and Wednesday and I found this sitting on my desk with a note when I arrived at my office today. I am so thankful to work with so many amazing people. Norberto is one of the PA Clerks that works for the CPS side of my agency. I work with him and a few other admins working the desk at our building. He is such a nice guy and always watching out for everyone at our building.

 

Manic Monday

Wow. Could my Monday have started out worse? LOL! First, it took my work laptop 84 years to load so I could login. I swear, it was a good 20 minutes. I started the day checking the RMTS's and printing out the call sheet. Then I checked my email to see the unit status messages for the day. After that, I logged into IMPACT to start routing the 35 cases on the workload. Ten cases in and my screen freezes. I actually thought the battery in my mouse had died since I use a wireless one. But nope. It was the computer itself. I had to do a hard shutdown. I booted it back up and it blue screened, which is not something you want to see happen. BSOD (blue screen of death) is not a good thing. After two freeze ups, two BSODs, I shut the system off and called my backup admin, Michelle. She took over routing for me and I called IT. I had to call in a ticket and wait on a return call, and then head out to our regional office. 

So yeah. I spent my Monday driving the 40 minute drive to and from our regional office for a visit with IT to swap out my laptop. By the time we made it back to Fort Worth, it was 4:30, so I just headed home to end my day. I literally got nothing done today. 😑

Work Day Fun

Today was my very first APS Regional Meeting. My unit had custom shirts made with our last names and unit number. I had the opportunity to meet some of the supervisors and caseworkers that I work with on a daily basis face to face. Voices were able to be paired with faces and it was great! All of the units put together baskets that were raffled off. We played some icebreaker games, had to get up on stage and do impromptu skits to nursery rhymes filling them in with APS related work, awards were given out, and lots of goodies. My supervisor received an award for outstanding supervisor in the district, my unit - Unit 55 - was recognized as a top unit in Tarrant County for our mentors and my workers keeping their caseloads down, and me, along with all my other admins, were recognized as the backbone of our units. All in all it was an awesome day! No pics to post as we were told to leave all devices out of reach. 😁 I know I have said it a thousand times - but I work with some of the most awesome people!!! I 💓 my job.

 

Happy 1 Year

One year ago today, I started my new adventure - and what an adventure it is! Today was my monthly unit meeting and our Christmas get together. Our District Director attended and so did my PA, and I was gifted a cute little APS tote with some office supplies in it. According to my DD, I am now a Veteran of APS. LOL! My workers put on a skit (made by my awesome supervisor) and it was absolutely hilarious. They did a great job! I really believe that should be included in training, as I think it's a great ice breaker. We had Olive Garden and exchanged Secret Santa gifts. Following was another Admin/Supervisor meeting. I work with some of the most amazing people. Today was a great day!

Meeting/Luncheon

 I spent the day in Grand Prairie for our bi-monthly Admin meeting and we had a luncheon at Olive Garden. We have an amazing APS Admin team and I am proud to work with some awesome team players. Finished up routing for the week at our regional office.

 

 

Calling - ring, ring

When your supervisor calls you on your personal phone because she doesn't know if you will answer your work phone after hours. 😂

 

She is on call and received a call from Statewide. Apparently our program for the on call schedule must have glitched my 4pm to 8am shift for today, which left no worker to receive other priority cases going into the holiday tomorrow. I had to boot up my work computer and fix it. Hopefully with the holiday weekend, my workers won't be swamped with cases. I am routing next week but after the week my workers, I am not holding my breath. Man. 😜

 

I would have answered my work phone. LOL. 

To clean or not to clean...

I really do need to make posting a daily habit. I used to tell myself that I was going to do this just so I could go back through posts and remember what I did that week, month, or year. LOL! Yeah, that hasn't panned out for me. Between working full-time now, getting housework and laundry done, hanging with my family, gaming with my kids and friends online, and trying to stay sane - it's 11 pm before I know it and it's time to go to bed and start the day over.

It seems like I have been working Switchboard non-stop, and that is only because Norberto (he makes the Switchboard calendar) put my days towards the end of May and then my days for June the first week. 😮 There are five Admins and all of us work three full days each month on Switchboard, and three one hour days for lunch coverage. One of the CPS Admins swapped a day with me so that helped a bit. But finally - FINALLY I was able to get in our Silver Star Room and go through the many boxes that were just stacked about. DFPS has quite a few resource rooms around our state that are a big help to our Adult Protective Services caseworkers in providing goods to assist their clients. Silver Star Rooms are resource rooms that are set up like a store where caseworkers can find basic necessities and emergency resources vulnerable adults who have been abused and/or neglected. This includes things like dietary supplements, adult diapers, and toiletries. We have an overabundance of so many toiletry items that I think we can start putting together some items for our clients. My supervisor said they did this in the past. Well, I think it's time we brought it back. 😊 Plus, it would rotate out the donations being brought in. I also found 11 boxes of baby wash and shampoo, which I am sending over to CPS side. It took me two days to get everything swapped around and organized. My supervisors even decided to help me out the last few hours while we were waiting for our commissioner, who ended up not being able to visit. I think we did a pretty good job! Still have a bit of work re-arranging on shelves to do but at least you can walk inside the door now. LOL!