I'm about to do something at work that I've rarely if ever done: say "no" to something. I'm currently "in charge" of a group of people who actually care about what they do, have a desire to do their work correctly, and write down answers they receive to the questions they ask. That hasn't happened to me since December of 1996. It's so very refreshing to work with people who give a damn. I'd almost forgotten what it was like. Now, after experiencing this euphoria for nearly two weeks, the powers-that-be want to take me out of this and have me teach a class. Not just any class. They want to bring 15 people out of furlough ("furlough" = three months off of work, collecting unemployment, during the holiday season) to come and do work they don't want to do, during a time they don't want to work. Makes sense, right?

I'm thoroughly disgusted with work. For a wide variety of reasons. If any of you ever knew how your tax dollars were spent, you'd be outraged. To the point of revolution. So, I'm going to say "no". They asked me if I could teach, but never whether I wanted to. It's really not my fault that I'm the only technical manager they have. Everyone else has worked in the department for the same amount of time as I have. Yet some of them are "exceeds" for their annual evaluations, whereas I am only a "met". Well, they can have one of their "exceeds" teach. Not my friggin' problem.

Work is always full of surprises. I was surprised to learn that I was named the supervisor of a new unit comprised of people from two other areas. Surprised because prior to that point, I thought I was going to be logically named the "Technical Advisor", as that position recently came into being on our org chart. I don't know why I thought this, because logic has no place at the IRS. And really, having me in that position would really just be a waste of the 12 years of experience I have working with the blasted program. What's that worth, really? I'd be much better suited to babysitting. Because I'm so damn personable.

So, I'm in charge of a new group of people. I found this out at 1:30 PM on a Thursday. When was I supposed to take charge of these people? 8:00 AM Friday, of course! No list of people, no place for them (or me) to sit, no nothing. Typical forethought and planning at its finest. On the plus side, though, it only took a little over one day to find out *why* the unit was created in the first place. That's some kind of record. I don't think it's a particularly necessary reason, but hey, that's me and the whole logic thing again.

Strangely enough, it's been going well. Much better than my blood pressure would have indicated on Thursday. We'll see how it goes.