Tag: work

Happy Friday

Happy Friday, everyone. Hopefully Friday has meaning for most if not all of us. It has extra meaning for me this week. Starting this month my company has changed it’s hybrid work requirements. Where it used to be that we had to be in the office for 20% of each pay period (basically one day each week), as of March 1st we have to be in the office for 40% of each pay period (basically twice per week). Today is my first, second day of a week. None of us our happy with this, but it’s a whole ton better than being back 80%, which is what we had prior to the pandemic shut down. Oh well. I’ll deal with it. I am still coming in every Wednesday. My group has Wednesdays as a mandate and the second day each week is at everyone’s personal discretion. I am sort of planning on making Mondays my regular second day, just to get it over with, but that didn’t work this week due to the contractors working in the kitchen. Friday was the only day that worked for me. Fortunately there was zero traffic today. I made the 40 mile drive to the office in 45 minutes. If only it were like that every morning.

In other news, the kids are on the ground. Bellana’s flight landed in Georgia (the US state, not the European country) before I went to sleep last night. Harry’s first flight landed in London well after I nodded off for the night, and his connecting flight landed in Scotland before I woke up this morning. All is well on both of those fronts. Here’s hoping they both have a great time on their trips.

I am taking advantage of the fact that I am 40 miles from home right now to make my way to IKEA after work. IKEA is about 60 miles from home, but only 20 miles from work. I will head down there as soon as I am free and go to the returns department and bring back a great big pile of stuff that IKEA included in our kitchen redesign blue print that we didn’t end up needing. There is a lot of stuff to return. A lot of stuff. If I get it all done tonight then we don’t have to worry about it, and with the money we get back maybe I’ll be able to afford a hair cut this weekend because damn, do I need a hair cut!

Anyway, here’s today’s photo-a-day picture. I took it before I did my workout this morning at about 5:40am. It’s only 9:14am now but it’s already felt like a long day.

190/365

What a Day

This morning has been the toughest month in years.

Tomorrow is going to be worse. A lot worse. Wednesday will be tough, though mostly after work. Same with Thursday. Friday and Saturday? Nuckin’ Futs!

I need a nap. I need to go to bed early tonight but we all know that won’t happen. I will get up ridiculously early tomorrow too. Same with the next day and the next day and the next day.

As crazy as it has been, and as crazy as it will continue to be in the near future, I am good with it. I am ready for all of it. It’s going to be rough, but it’s also going to be worth it.

Bring it on, babie! Bring it on!

Okay, Robert. Back to work with your bad self. You have stuff to do before the day ends!

Caught Up

It’s a work in the office day today so my morning is all messed up.

I did manage to get caught up on Star Wars: The Bad Batch though. Sigh of relief, kiddos.

I also have a photo-a-day pic, but only because I know I’m not likely to make any progress on the RPM Challenge today.

Working in the office tends to mangle my plans for the full day, not just the morning. Worse? Starting next week I’ll be in the office twice a week instead of once. Insert the sigh of frustration here.

Meet the New Stress, Same as the Old Stress

I wrote a little yesterday evening about getting stressed out at work over something that didn’t deserve to be stressed out over. It happens now and then, you know? It’s work.

I was working on a project yesterday and this morning I reviewed it with the person I submitted it to and it was fine. No problem. Helpful. It did what it needed to do. All is well. Nice, huh?

Unfortunately, 60% of my group is out either on vacation or sick today. We are going to be seriously short handed. Oh good! Hello, work stress. Nice to see you again, my old friend.

Heh, what can you do, right? Just roll with it, babie.

Stressed Out

I got really stressed out over work this afternoon. I am not sure why. The project I was working on did not warrant that level of stress at all, but for some reason it really got to me. Weird.

I was afraid I would be working all night tonight but I think I got it wrapped up enough that I am all set, and there are still four whole minutes left in my shift.

Last night Jen had a great idea. She suggested we watch a Star Wars movie. I am always up for that! First she said she wanted to watch The Force Awakens. Then she changed her mind and suggested The Phantom Menace. That was odd. One really only ever watches Episode One when they then plan to watch all of the movies in order. Was that what she wanted to do? Why yes, yes it was. Wicked! Epic! Awesome! I asked if a rewatch would include Solo and Rogue One and she said yes! Wicked! Epic! Awesome! 

Now that I won’t I will not be working all night tonight (at least I don’t think I will be working all night), we can move on to Episode Two: Attack of the Clones. Another one that is generally only viewed as part of a wicked epic awesome full rewatch. I’m so ready!

Long Day Alert

Wow… Wednesday… am I right or am I right?

It’s a work-in-the-office day. I woke up nice and early, though about half an hour later than I was hoping. I had a lot of meetings on my work calendar today, the first of them being very early in the day. I wanted to make sure I could get through my whole morning routine, including 45 minutes of jogging (pronounced yogging) in place and making lunch and packing emergency protein snacks and all of that stuff while still leaving enough time for me to get to work a little early.

Unfortunately when I got out of bed I saw that we got a dusting of snow overnight. Not a lot, but enough to cover everything and guarantee a terrible morning commute. I was hoping to get out onto the road by 7:15. I made it by 7:20, but I had to cut my exercise in half to pull off that feat. That means I am going to have to yog tonight when I get home and I really do not want to do that. I wasn’t late to work, but it did take me an hour and a half to drive the 40 miles. 

Now that it’s about 2:30 in the afternoon, I have survived two big meetings and I have a third coming up in half an hour. I’m stressing out, big time, but once I get through today I will not have to worry about this sort of thing for a while and I am happy about that idea.

Tomorrow and Friday I will be working from home. I am optimistic that I will be able to get a lot of music done before work both days. Fingers crossed for some guitar playing and car vocals and fun stuff like that. I’m also thinking it would be nice to mix a song or two over the weekend. Doesn’t that sound like fun?

For now though, I am really tired and can’t wait to get through my next meeting so that I can relax a little. Maybe if I can get my exercise finished right after dinner tonight I might be able to go to bed early and enjoy not having to stress over a work project for the first time in a couple of weeks. Fingers crossed, right?

Leadership

Bloganuary writing prompt
What makes a good leader?
View all responses

I have no idea. If I knew, I would be a better leader than I am. Granted at work I am only a leader of four people and they are all excellent at their jobs so it makes my job easy. Still, having said that, if I could be better I would be better. 

If I can’t give you something that makes you a good leader, I can give you something that makes you a friggin’ pain in the ass leader. Simple: Don’t micromanage. Ugh, working for a micromanager is infuriating. Seriously. I mean, I don’t know if this is true at all, but it’s what I heard, Jimmy Carter is a great man but he was a shitty President though. Why? Rumor has it he was a bit of a micromanager. If that’s true, it’s got to be the reason why his presidency went down the one-term crapper. 

If you want to be a good leader, don’t be a micromanager. 

My New Desk

Just what I need, another desk.

The mouse pad, mechanical (clicky) keyboard, the coily cable of truth, the headset/mic, and the laptop stand are all my wife’s. The iPhone charger, the mouse, the USB C adapter, and the USB hub are mine (as well as the water bottle, the glasses case, and the box of tissues). The laptop and the monitor (and the chair and the desk itself) belong to the company.

It took almost five minutes for me to turn the workspace into a cable spaghetti horror show, but it’s going to be better than living out of a backpack (which is mostly out of frame to the right) every time I have to come into the office.

Commute Fun

After a few inches of snow followed by a layer of ice last night, the commute this morning is going to be rough. Hopefully most of Massachusetts will just stay home and I’ll have routes 93 and 128 to myself.

Not likely.

I’m running a bit late this morning but I did manage to sneak in a picture for the photo a day thing. Granted it’s basically the same as the last two days. What’s a red head to do?

To Do List for Tonight

I was hoping my to do list for tonight would include hanging out with my wife and then going to sleep, but it’s turning out to be a little more involved than that.

  • Approximately 90 more minutes of work
  • Top off the cat’s food bowl
  • Cook dinner
  • Eat dinner while hanging out with my wife in front of the tube
  • Shovel the 4-5 inches of snow we got today off of the drive way so that I can drive to the office tomorrow
  • Bring the trash barrel out to the street once there is a path shoveled to get it there
  • Finish today’s exercise and close the last ring in the Apple Watch’s activity app
  • Pack up my work laptop along with a bunch of things to put onto my new desk, which officially becomes my desk tomorrow
  • Keel over from exhaustion and sleep

How do I type the word, “yikes” in such a way that it accurately demonstrates how I am feeling as we approach the tail end of the work day on this gloomy Tuesday?

Yikes!