Jquery process status box

Running into trouble making my page show a processing status on longer winded processes.  The processes dominate and the status cell never has a chance to display.

How can I make the status fade in  work before the show begins?


      $('#WfEmpId').blur(function()
      {
            $('#status').fadeIn();            
            //Populates Name, Pay Assgn List and Period List  GOTO:  TOWBFORM/js/fetch-handlers.js:10     fetch and display Name, Active Pay Assgs, and Active Pay Periods  
            $().fetch_hr_pemaster({      
            'empid' : $("#WfEmpId").val()
            
            });
            
            loadPreviousPer();   //GOTO: loadpreviousperiod.js
            loadCurrentPer();    //GOTO: loadcurrentperiod.js
            $('#status').fadeOut();
      });