Kaizen Crazy

Have you missed me? Huh? Yeah, I knew you would!

So where have I been? What have I been up to? What could possibly keep me from visiting my dear bloggy friends?

We call it Kaizen and it was…um…fun. Oh, wait, management doesn’t read this! It was long, stressful and frustrating. A whole week of hashing out our current processes to see where we are wasting time and eliminate that waste. I definitely won’t be boring you with those details.

All in all, I’m satisfied – mostly with being DONE with the whole thing – but also because I was actually HEARD. I said, “Well, what about this?” and people actually said, “Yeah, that’s a great idea! Let’s do it!” Instead of the usual, “Yeah, sure, whatever, we’ll see.” It feels SO great to have your ideas not only recognized, but implemented as well.

And now that it’s all over – I don’t even hate the facilitator anymore. She’s an energetic Canadian girl – probably my age. She didn’t really start getting on my nerves until Day 2. When she not only made us stay 12 hours but was a bitch to boot. I declared Tuesday night I wouldn’t be back. I did go back, of course, and got an apology AND was not made to do any of the ridiculous consequences any of the times I was late. Yay for me. I teetered on kind of liking her and wanting to bitch slap her all week. But now, I just want her to go home to Canadia (where we teased her from being from – “What alphabet do you use in Canadia?”) and have a happy life far, far away from our meeting room.

Random notes taken out of my notebook…

“The cologne is overwhelming.” Besides me, there were 14 other people in this meeting. All men - who apparently have no control over how much cologne they use.

“I AM DEAF!” I spent AT LEAST 3 out of the 6 hours we spent walking the manufacturing floor completely oblivious to what was going on because I have a hard time hearing around machines.

“Someone should tell her.” This was written when the facilitator pulled a mini-Janet and nearly exposed her whole boob. For at least twenty minutes, she walked around the room talking – and flashing the goods waiting to finish busting out. I tried to catch her eye and signal her (I WAS the only other woman) – but once she went over the time she said we could go to break, I just let it go. Yeah, I’m a bitch like that. This statement was circled to remind me of the giant rat’s nest in the back of her head. I thought about telling her about that, too. But let it go because it was Tuesday and I hated her. She noticed it YESTERDAY (thanks for coming, don’t bother showering, though!).

As you may be able to tell, it’s been a long week. My work is backed up. My family misses me (aww!). And I am extremely grateful to be done with the whole she-bang.

Next week we will return with our regularly scheduled blogging.