Let Me Read Your Mind

Speaking of strange things ending up on my desk, this morning I found a notebook computer in the middle of my desk. No note as to who it came from or what I'm supposed to do with it. I think someone around here thinks I'm a mind reader!

So for the meantime, I'm letting it sit by its lonesome on one corner of my desk. Whoever put it here and come back and tell me what I'm supposed to do with it or I will take it home after a week. Wait, you think I can do that? :D

Mystery Solved

At my job, strange things usually end up on my desk and if I don't know what they are, I usually just set them aside until I figure out what to do with them. Now the longest one of these, and I still have it in my back drawer, is a Cat5e patch cable. I keep meaning to ask our IT guy about it and see if he can use it, but I always end up forgetting about it.

Anyway, I was surfing the net one day (what would we do without the internet!), I found out this Cat5 cable is used for networking computers and peripherals. Example, you can use if for network adapters, hubs, switches, routers, DSL/cable modems, patch panels and other applications. What do you know! Now I can finally give this thing to the IT guy. I don't need it.

Times they are a changin'

Things are changing at my job. I'll still be in the same position doing the same thing, but where my paycheck is coming from will be changing. They say there are certain advantages to the way we work and the amount of time we can take off from work (paid time off), but there are also other disadvantages concerning other benefits we are getting now.

For instance, we have an awesome educational benefit now that won't be transferring under the new administration. Another is supplemental life insurance. They are now getting a term life insurance quote that will match the one we will be leaving behind. But, it's kind of hard to match the cost we had because there were more employees in the group we are leaving behind. So we're all on a holding pattern at work while we wait for the company to get their benefits package arranged.

A different way to raise funds

We had our annual hotdog cookout at work to raise funds for local non-profit organizations and for our interns yesterday. Was that tiring! It was two days worth of work that started out last Wednesday when we held a similar cookout at the back parking lot of the clinic. That was actually kind of fun because Jaclyn and I ended up going around the clinic entrance and neighboring parking lot getting people to go buy a hotdog for our fund raising. There was a bunch of construction guys nearby and we went to give them flyers to come get their lunch from us. They were nice enough, no vulgar but it was a pain getting to them navigating through trucks, truck tool boxes, and various equipments we didn't know anything about. Well, it was all for a good cause, so we just put on our fund raising faces and what the heck attitudes and got out there.

The Orly Hat

No it really wasn't that cold at our Children's Christmas party at work. The Clone just loves her Orly Hat and has been wearing it since she got it last Friday! She even wore it to bed one night, but I think she got too hot :)

A workout at work

So today I finally had to do what I had been putting off all week: re-organize our records room at work. I wore my jeans and brought an extra t-shirt, and got to work. We had to move filing cabinets, boxes, and other odds and ends we've accumulated over the years. Purged old records, filed away recent ones, it was an all day, dirty job. I swear we should have gotten extra pay for the work we did today. By the end of the day, we were sweating so hard you'd think we've been working out on strength equipment. Every muscle ached!

How to get a Promotion

I've ranted/whined about work before. Then I saw an article online on why Bad Employees Don't Get Fired. Some of the reasons given in the article seem ludicrous to me, but I have seen this happen over and over again. It seems, to me anyway, that many bosses are afraid to fire a bad employee. So what do they do? They move them around instead. And when lateral movement does not work, they actually promote them! WTH? Are we really now that afraid of getting sued that we won't fire an incompetent or disruptive employee?

Just Say NO

TGIF! Thank god it's Friday! I'm going home in an hour so I'm happy. It has been a long day. It's been a long week! Heck, it's going to be this way for the next few months so I really should just get used to it. It seems like one initiative after another keep landing on my desk and I'm running out of hands to juggle them with.

But you know what? I don't get stressed out. We have a small company and there is plenty of work to go around so we are all busy. We are all on the same boat. But some of us seems to take the stress in better stride than others. Sometimes I get tired of hearing people grumble about how much they have to do and who is riding on their back and so on and on. Whine, whine, whine. That's why I don't even stick my head out of my office most days.

Truth is, when I'm listening to them whine, I'm thinking to myself, now why didn't this fool just say no and save himself a whole lot of trouble? I too am still learning to say NO, but I'm working on it and am getting better with it everyday. I make no promises I know I can't keep. I just say NO.

Go get a job

You've probably heard of Craig's List, the online version of the want ads; now England has it's own version called Gumtree! Gumtree is the place to go if you are looking for jobs in london. Looking through the job listings, they have a lengthy list of available jobs ranging from entry level positions to highly skilled and specialized positions.

If you are interested in things other than london jobs, they also have listings for other items that people have for sale. Items such as cars, furniture, electronic items, books, baby items, and the likes. Pretty much stuff that you would find in a yard sale. It looks like they also have a good number of listings for houses and apartments (flats) that are either for sale or rent. Their personal ads also look pretty extensive. So if you're in the UK, and I think I have several readers from there, this might be a bookmark worthy site to refer to in the future.

Rant. Don't read.

Allow me to rant for two minutes, and I'll bury this rant under a paid advertisement.

Now I have a co-worker who is of equal if not higher rank than I am. She is not my direct supervisor, however. She is a computer programmer, I am not. She works in the next office to mine. I try very hard to be nice to everyone, and help out whenever I can...

But why does this woman stick her head in my office everyday to tell me about a computer related problem she is dealing with when she knows full well I know nothing about it?!! Now, I understand if she was just venting because her job is frustrating her...but she would always ask me, can you look at this? Or, look at me like I can solve it for her. What can I do?

Sometimes, she would send me an email to help explain to a customer a technical problem (She has a bit of a problem expressing herself in English). So I do this for her even though it really isn't a part of my job description. But the irritating part is, about a week later she will come back to me and say, remember that guy I told you to email? Yeah? What was his name again? I don't know, why don't you look in your 'sent' folder? I can't remember his name!

These exchanges really make my eyelids twitch, and I have to try really hard not to sound mean or sarcastic, but GEEESHHH!!!!! (replace word in capitals with expletive of your choice)

Right, now, I just feel like screaming.

A method to my madness

I have never professed to be neat. In fact I have confessed to being an awful housekeeper. Neatness is just not my strong suit. However, I am quite organized. I know, some people will dispute that (my husband for one), but it's true as indicated in this article which claims that messy people are more productive. Sister O was just talking about this in her last post (apparently messiness runs in the family. lol!) where she shared news that a messy desk is a sign of genious.

The photo above is of my office. A far cry from when it used to be neat. It is close to being a fire hazzard with the boxes getting piled up behind my chair. I can't see my desk calendar sitting on top of my desk, I have several projects going at the same time, and they are all sitting on top of my desk it seems.

The way I justify it, and the article agrees with me on this, is that I am just too busy to be neat. Being messy though, doesn't mean being disorganized. I really am quite organized. I know exactly where everything is. On the few occasions when I had been away from the office and had to direct someone to do something in my office for me, they are always amazed when I talk them through a task, like a 911 operator giving life saving instructions.

My boss has an even messier desk than mine and he's a genious! I always tell him, worry when I start dusting and organizing my office because that means I have nothing better to do.

Sick and Tired of Being Sick and Tired

BLEECH!!! I just spent the last four days, including two beautiful weekend days, in bed.....with a terrible cold. I don't think it's the flu, I didn't ever have a temperature. What I had was a hacking cough, a relentless one at that, and intense fatigue. No, I didn't go to the doctor, because I am just hard headed like that. I usually wait until I can't stand it anymore or until I develop some unusual symptom that I can't attribute to the usual suspects. I have had been too many times at the doctor's office just to be told I have a bad cold or the flu. Heck, I could have told them that! So how about you, do you run to the doctor everytime you get sick?

When you get sick, do you go in to work anyway or do you use up all your sick time taking days off at the slightest sign of a cold?


Me, I usually try to save my sick time for the girls. We use our sick time (separate from vacation time and Personal Time Off) to take care of a sick child, for doctor's appointments, or when you are actually too sick to come in to work. Normally, with just a regular cough and sniffling type of cold I probably would have gone to work anyway and tried to work through it while trying to stay out of co-workers' way so I don't spread germs. Staying out of people's way is not difficult in my job anyway; my work requires me to be pretty independent and I coordinate team projects usually by phone or email. Face to face meetings are usually intentioned and planned so very much avoidable when necessary. I have a box of kleenex nearby, and a large container of disinfecting wipe to clean everything off at the end of the day just so I don't save any germs for the next day.

This time around though, when the mere act of brushing my teeth fatigued me, I had to use a couple of days of sick time and just stayed in bed for the last four days. I'm sick and tired of being sick!

TGIF!

Have you ever heard of 5S? I was talking to blogger friends not too long ago, and someone used this term to describe their workplace. That was the first time I had ever heard of the term; obviously, as you can see from my workplace. Apparently, this concept is very common is Asia. This is how wikipedia describes it:

Seiri: tidiness, organization. Refers to the practice of sorting through all the tools, materials, etc., in the work area and keeping only essential items. Everything else is stored or discarded. This leads to fewer hazards and less clutter to interfere with productive work.

Seiton: orderliness. Focuses on the need for an orderly workplace. Tools, equipment, and materials must be systematically arranged for the easiest and most efficient access. There must be a place for everything, and everything must be in its place.

Seiso: cleanliness. Indicates the need to keep the workplace clean as well as neat. Cleaning in Japanese companies is a daily activity. At the end of each shift, the work area is cleaned up and everything is restored to its place.

Seiketsu: standards. Allows for control and consistency. Basic housekeeping standards apply everywhere in the facility. Everyone knows exactly what his or her responsibilities are. House keeping duties are part of regular work routines.

Shitsuke: sustaining discipline. Refers to maintaining standards and keeping the facility in safe and efficient order day after day, year after year.

In other words: Sort, Straighten, Shine, Systemise and Sustain which leads to the 6th S, Safety.

Obviously, I missed this seminar. My workplace is a mess. But I call it an organized chaos. I do know where most things are. Just give me a couple of minutes to find it. ;-)

Have a great weekend, everyone!




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