Meet the new boss, same as the old boss

Started a new project today. Naturally, we were supposed to wear "business attire" -- a suit -- and I was one of the five or six out of 40 or so who did. It's a stupid hoop, but if I were hiring temps, I would use it as an employment screen -- if you can't follow that simple of a direction, I don't want you working for me. But that's just a sideshow here.

This is essentially the same project that just ended, but a different aspect. One of the firms we were dealing with before is handling this aspect. As you might recall, I mentioned that there are several law firms involved in this project, mostly handling different aspects but forced to work together by the client. What I have been brought back to work on is a different aspect of the same merger -- different federal agency involved, but essentially the same crap. The really funny part is this project was staffed largely with bottom-of-the-barrel temps hired a few weeks into the original project, when every temp worth a damn in town already had a job, because the market was hot, and the rejects from the main review site that the other firm handling the other aspect of the case didn't want. For example, the canary is here. I felt certain he would have been canned long ago, but there he is. Also, the group I was called back with was not the best-of-the-best who got let go at the end of the first part of the case: about one-fourth are known slugs of dubious intellect and undoubted laziness. The unifying factor seems to be they are people who suck up to the firms' staff attorneys. Whatevs, we're working.

The "training" for the new stuff we're doing probably could have been done in 10 minutes but took an hour and gave us no more real information than was contained in the presentation that was the basis of the training and took 5 minutes to read. The worst part, as usual, was the 30 minutes of horrible questions, basically postulating every "what if I see this kind of document" ad nauseum. The answer, always, is "it depends on the document." And it's a good thing we weren't playing a drinking game. Had we taken a shot every time the firm associate answering many of the questions said "to the extent that" when most people would have said "if," no one would have been conscious, let alone sober enough to work.

No one will tell us how long it will last -- not a guess, not even a lie. But like I said. Whatevs. We're working.