My new job...so far....

i meant to update this yesterday with info about my new job that i started, but i was too tired.i just so happened to get an email today from a dear friend, writing from Spain of all places, asking me how it was goin. and so, in honor of hearing from him since i hadnt heard from him in ages, i post this message to my blog. geeze Rich, don't you now feel special! ;)

so on friday i get a call from the human resources people in preparation for starting monday. they tell me that for the first day, because of trainig,instead of working 10-7 it will be 8-5. ok, so i get up at o'dark 30 yesterday morning to get ready. i have to allow an hours drive to commute to this job, traffic is horrible esp on the way home. when i get there there are several people in the lobby. a guy says "are you here for training?" and of course i say "yes" and he tells me to sign a sheet and have a seat. so i'm waiting and then finally another lady comes in and says "everyone sign here" so i go to sign her sheet, and my name isnt listed. turns out that this was a completely different trainig group, and the person i'm supposed to meet with has to be paged to come get me because i dont have a security badge.

eventually Zach comes down and signs me in. i go up to the area i'll be working in and let me tell you this building is HUGE. tons of people and subdivisions. i'm still learning my way around. turns out there are 60 people in just the department i'll be working for! (quite a change from just the 3 other people i worked with for so long!) anyway, for the first hour i basically sit at a desk and do nothing because they didnt have the paperwork, etc ready. then for 2 hours i do an orientation video confrence. after that i am told to go to lunch. when i come back i finally meet with my supervisor, Annie. she tells me to sit with a gal named Michelle because thats who is going to train me. and she happens to work the 8-5 shift. just lovely (not)...next week i'll be trained on another thing and i'll be working what i was oringally told 10-7. so that will be good.

so for yesterday afternoon and all day today i've been learning from Michelle. she is a very nice person, and a good teacher. (ironically she got a job offer somewhere else today and turned in her 2 week notice! see, i was hired by UnitedHealth. UH just bought out a company called Pacificare. turns out that UH is paying new hires more than Pacificare pays its current employees. not fair, and i dont really blame the current people for being upset!) so i'll be sad to see her go. not only is she teaching me alot, but she's made a big effort to introduce me to people. she even asked if i wanted to sit with her and her friend at lunch today. i was sitting by myself reading my book. (CAN WE SAY I FELT LIKE I WAS IN HIGHSCHOOL?!?!)

oh ya, and the best part...seems that human resources wasnt told of the change in dress code. its not business casual...its just casual!!! jeans or capri's and t-shirt, baby!! tennis shoes, sandles, whatever... no dress clothes or dress shoes. whoohoo!!!! :) also, they allow you, even encourage you, to bring a radio/ipod/cd's...whatever with headphones and listen to music as you enter the data. cool!

anyway. the job. its actually kinda interesting. it makes you look at going to the hospital in a whole new way! basically what i'm gonna be doing is imputing information that hospitals send the patients insurance company indicating that a person has been admitted as an inpatient. in order to do so, they must first be approved to be an inpatient. this is what i'll be doing-approving and updating their records showing they are inpatient or updating to show they have been discharged. this is the very basic description. of course its never as simple as it sounds.

at the end of the week i'll post back with details on exactly how thats done. i'm only knowledgeable of a few methods at the moment, i'll know more by ends week.

so thats that for now. just sit tight for a few more days...in the words of Arnold
"I'll be back..."