Major work stuff done!!

For the past year, my office of 5 people have been racing against the clock to implement a new software for the 550 employees in Plant Operations. To give you an idea of the monumental work this was, another department in my building, with less people, has been taking 2 years to implement their software. We were not given that option by the new vice president. He wanted us to not only go through the bid process, but also get it all ready and implemented by the end of June in what really amounted to less than a year. What that did to my boss and my office was a hell I would not want anyone to share. I can say without question that the month of June was the busiest I have EVER been in my entire life. Ever. Today was the culmination of that process for me--my job is to pay people, and previously, it was up to me and a guy in HR to make sure 550 people got paid. To use the analogy of being killed in a plane crash: if that had happened to both me and Matt, the University of Utah would not have been able to pay these employees, and that is not an exaggeration. So today, I had to process the pay period that included the old system up to the 27th of June, and the new system for the last three days of June. It had to work, or more hell was yet to come. All of the overtime we worked, all of the tests we did paid off: the time went through, the programs worked, people will get paid!!!

On Friday the 27th, we had to basically put aside our new system implementation and process University Year End for our department. It requires working a double shift. I didn't get home until 1:00 AM, and basically only got 4 hours of sleep, because I had to go back into work the next morning. Then, that evening, I had a belly dance performance at the Arts Fest! It seems like a dream.... I was running on adrenaline. I wish I could have enjoyed it more!

But the really cool thing is, now that the new system is in place and working, that means I can take days off! I had to make sure I was here every single Monday, Friday, 15, 16, 31, and 1st of every month. Now it's not my responsibility, it's EVERYBODY'S since each employee enters their own time. Another cool thing is, my job is completely different--it's like I started a new job on Monday. And I like this new job! I loved my job before, and I was worried what would happen now. Extra plus: my boss is getting ready to put me and my coworkers through a job reclassification that will end up in another raise for me in a matter of months. I am just really excited that I don't have to shoulder the stress of making sure that 550 people get paid. I am still involved in the process, but it's not ALL ON ME.

Jenn