What Makes My Job Fun

I am a state employee. I tend to make light-hearted jokes about state employees when people ask me what I do because people have two expectations of "state employees". They expect us to be lazy and they expect us to be fat. I feel like only one of those applies to me, but I prefer the term "pleasantly plump". I don't know what the rules are about me writing about my job online so I'll refrain from telling you my department and division. What I will tell you is that the main part of my job deals with the health paperwork of almost all "livestock" (this covers a lot of species!) moving in and out of our state and some poultry (I know that way more poultry/avian species are being moved that I don't get paperwork for - but really, that applies to a lot of animals). That's slightly telling, isn't it? I do other things too but it's mostly the health paperwork. I can also say that most of the people I work with aren't your typical lazy state employees and some of us actually enjoy helping the general public. Don't get me wrong. We have got some lazy, unhelpful people. And some that are just unenjoyable to work with or they feel like the rules don't apply to them so they get their way with everything. And the [insert name of elected official here] that department works for is a giant douche bag.

However, the people I work directly with are fun. Including me it's a group of five women so you can imagine the gossip flying around the office. There is a large room with three of us in it and then a smaller office with two more. We talk over the cubicles at each other which is apparently bad cubicle etiquette because we were given a handout by a co-worker detailing all the ways that we disrupt the work environment. But he or she no longer works in that room so we don't have to worry about cubicle etiquette and we happily shredded his or her handout.

Our boss is pretty laid back. He knows we cut up a lot but he knows we get our work done so he's ok with it. He and my co-workers put up with a lot from me. I joke around a lot in the office. And I'm constantly reading out loud the stuff on my paperwork that makes me laugh. For instance:


I know, my maturity level has reached a new low.

 

Doesn't that make you want a ground hog named Big Mamma?
That one is on my "Wall of Fame".




This one requires more explanation. This is a health paper on a horse. And EVERY TIME
I see a horse paper and it says the horse is for "pleasure" it makes me giggle. I know
what they mean, but I just can't help it. I find it funny!


 There are a million more examples that make me laugh. I get to see all the names that people give to their horses. Most are quite stupid (but that also sums up my feelings about the owners of the horses) but my favorite is and always will be Banana Pancakes. Or the vet who writes health papers for a traveling petting zoo type thing and every time he writes one for the porcupines he spells it "Porky Pine". But this is the same vet who wrote one for a Donkey and marked his species as "other" and then wrote in Assine. Even with my minimal animal knowledge I knew that wasn't real (Apparently a lot of people I work with know this vet and said he went to vet school out of the country. They said that's what you do when you can't get into vet school in the US.). We also get all kinds of crazy phone calls from people that make our days interesting. The crazier, the better because at least it gives us something to laugh at ("Um...hi. I found a dead bird on the street outside my office. So I brought it in and put it in our freezer. My boss is really mad at me and she wants it out of there. She says I have to clean the freezer. Do you guys have somewhere I can take it to be tested for the bird flu?" Hahahahaha!) So, yes, we're state employees who have some fun at work. But we get do get our work done and, for the most part, I think we try to be helpful to people.