Bureaucractic comforts

It's been a couple of months since I posted, and my intention was to make a post entitled "my summer vacation," full of pictures and fun. I will post that one, but not today. Today I'm posting from work, because although I have work to do, I am unable to do any of it due to administrative holdups.

Yes, that's right folks-- I'm working at the VA again, and for better or worse, I'm loving it. This is the end of my 3rd week in my new postdoc in telehealth and rural outreach at Seattle VA. As should be expected when starting (or re-starting) federal employment, I have encountered seemingly innumerable paperwork issues and bureaucratic messes. But somehow there is a nice sense of familiarity to all of it, and I find it oddly comforting. Even though this VA is about 1200 miles from where I worked before, I sort of feel like I'm coming home. Perhaps to a dysfunctional family holiday, but home nonetheless.

Today I should be seeing patients in my telehealth clinic, but I can't because I have to complete several computerized training modules in order to be certified to use the telehealth technology (which basically amounts to skype, but even easier to use). I can't complete the training modules because after waiting two weeks to get a log-in ID (because all training system log-in IDs have to be issued by the national office), it turns out that I still can't log in because somehow someone in the HR department put my organizational code as "PUG.NVA" and it should obviously be "PUG.(T&L code)." Obviously. And unfortunately, the only person who might know how to change that is out today, so I'll have to wait at least until Monday.

I could at least be calling patients to let them know why there is a delay, except that I have not yet been issued a phone. There is a phone in my office, but it is not *my* phone, and I therefore cannot make long-distance calls on it (since I work in telehealth, many of my patients are at long-distance numbers), and I have no voicemail access (so if I call and don't reach the person, I have to leave a message saying they can't call me back). I have been pushing hard for the last couple of weeks to try to get the work order for my phone to be a priority, but no luck. And, unfortunately, I found out this morning that the person who is in charge of issuing me a phone is *retiring today*. I can only guess how this is going to impact how long it takes to get a phone now, but I'm not holding my breath.

I also found out today that while I am trying (and failing) to work, the VA is trying (and failing) to pay me. So it all sort of evens out. For unknown reasons (possibly the same reasons that led me to spend hours in HR during my first week trying to clear up the mystery of the wrongly checked box), my direct-deposit didn't get set up for my first paycheck, which should have gone through today. I talked to someone in payroll, and when he opened my file, the first thing he said was "oh no." The good news is that my paycheck was mailed yesterday. The bad news is that even though everywhere else in my file my address is correct, there was a typo in one place and my check is being mailed to the wrong address. So now it's a gamble as to whether the mail carrier will notice and deliver the check to me, or whether I can go meet my neighbors up the street and ask them to hold it for me if it's delievered there. Because if neither of those things happens, and it gets returned to sender, it takes a minimum of 30 days to get sorted out.

However, system dysfunction aside, I do really like it here so far. I may change my mind once I actually start doing my job, but I don't think so. So far all the people here are very welcoming, friendly, and as one co-worker put it "there are suprisingly few personality disorders among staff here." So far everyone is great to work with, and even the people I don't work with directly are friendly and want to get to know me. And besides being genuinely friendly, my co-workers all appear to be very smart and competent.

I will gladly deal with all the ridiculous bureaucratic issues if it means that I get to work in a place that is interpersonally and profesionally functional :)