So, feeling like the empowered, super-feminine, sysadmin that I am, I decided to do a little "real" sysadmin work today - I would set up a 'special-source entry' employee who started her temp job here on Monday. Now I know what you're saying - if she started Monday, why wait until Thursday to do this? Well, I'm glad you asked. You see, this is the time of year affectionately known as Fruit Basket Turnover - either they're leaving as fast as they get here, or they get here and the department decides it's time to do a massive reorg of seating assignments. Either way, there's usually not much point of getting in a hurry to set these things up. I used to insist on waiting at least a full week before we created the account and e-mail access, but some of the supervisors whined, so I caved in and started doing it within the week that they showed up. I never create them on the first two days, because they're in training. And yesterday sucked from start to finish, so it got postponed until today.

I open the account administration tool. I painstakingly type in her name, her social, her birthdate, mentally noting that she's all of twenty-one. I spend maybe another minute double-checking everything, then I submit the request. Success! ID in hand, I make the executive decision to hand the e-mail request and setup off to my tech. He takes it, decides it would be best to do it after lunch, and goes about his merry way. I, too, decide to go eat lunch. I eat at the local cat-n-rat, enjoying my egg drop soup, shrimp fried rice, green beans, and vegetable delight. I finish with a desert of diced fruit and my fortune cookie. My fortune says, "Financial hardship in your life is coming to an end. Enjoy!" Note to self - must purchase lottery ticket.

So I come back from lunch, full, happy, looking forward to this financial windfall, and there's Greg, my tech, paperwork in hand, laughing at me. He unfurls the paperwork - I see that it's the info for the temp. Across the bottom, written with a Sharpie, is the word 'terminated.' I'm ready to go home now. I feel strangely useless.

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