Tuesday, September 19, 2023

My colleague needs a lot of help

Earlier this year, I trained a woman who was supposed to replace a writer. It turned out that this woman was equally as bad. Our manager decided to terminate the first writer's contract.

This second woman's birthday is three days after mine. Yet, we are so different on so many levels. I call her the fake Cancerian, as she does not express a whole lot of empathy towards anyone and doesn't exhibit any traditional Cancerian traits. Everything is also centred around here, which is not Cancerian in nature, either.

I noticed during training that she was not good with details. She followed steps 1 through 4 in a procedure, skip a few, then do steps 7, 9, and 12. I found her lack of following sequential steps to be odd.

My manager recently gave her a task to create a document from scratch. I would be supervising. 

She isn't the best communicator. When we had our first demo session on the application, I asked questions. She didn't.

When I looked at her first draft, it was incomplete. She was given a playground to create and delete items -- literally play around with the application in a safe environment. She never did that. She simply used the data that others had provided. 

I noted a typo in a screenshot and asked her to replace it. She couldn't create a new item to fix the typo. It was almost as if she was intimidated to explore.

She called a meeting with the software developer who provided the demo. He called a few other folks. She didn't ask any questions. It's her downfall.

I have provided constructive feedback on her first draft. I have yet to see her incorporate my changes. I don't get her. I don't know why she is reluctant to make the changes.

She just sent her second draft out. She claimed that she included all topics. I didn't see that. Neither did the developer.

Our manager revealed to team leads yesterday that there will be a staff reduction. She is the one who will be let go. It's mainly because she does a mediocre job with tasks and she has poor communication skills. She is also under contract.

I don't know when he will break the news to her that she will be out of a job. Perhaps she knows that her time with our department is coming to an end. She applied for a job with the company in Ottawa.

I know the hiring person. I hope that she seeks an account about this candidate from me or my manager. She will face the same issues with this writer as we are.

It's interesting that this post was not the one that I had intended to post. It is nice that I have this outlet to share some weirdness going on. It also motivates me to write here more frequently.

Monday, September 11, 2023

Skin tag in the corner of my right eye - gone after a couple of years

During the pandemic, I developed a skin tag in the corner of my right eye. It didn't hurt. It didn't obstruct my vision. 

I can't pinpoint how long I've had it. I looked at photo and it has been there for a couple of years, at least.

The other day, I looked at it in the mirror. I felt it was time to get it removed. I had only had one other skin tag in my life. It was in my armpit area. It was so minor that I squeezed the base of it. A few days later, it fell off on its own.

I knew that the one in the corner of my eye wouldn't be that simple to remove. Its base was thicker. I decided to freeze it off with Compound-W's over-the-counter skin tag remover.

It was easy. I bought it from the drugstore and immediately used it in my car. It has this blue adhesive circle. You basically have your skin tag jut through the tiny hole, to target it for the freezing solution. It also protected the area around the skin tag, so you can't mess up the application.

You apply the applicator with the freezing material on your skin tag for twenty seconds. It did feel like my skin tag was burning, so I applied it in five-second intervals four times. It was more comfortable that way.

An hour ago, I brushed the corner of my eye because it was a bit itchy. My skin tag fell off.

Wow! The package said that it takes up to two weeks for the skin tag to fall off after the application. Mine didn't even take a full two days!

This area did sting a bit when I went to wash my face. It'll need some time to heal, but it's quite an effective skin tag removal kit. I highly recommend it.

It does run a bit on the pricy side. However, it worked like a charm. Here's hoping that I don't get another skin tag. However, I do have a kit to remove it, so I'd be fine.

Sunday, September 03, 2023

Back from a rare trip to the Twin Cities in August

I do miss regularly updating my blog. I'm still not into writing daily like I used to. Yet, I have a lot to share and write about.

In early August, I returned to the Twin Cities for a concert. It was awesome. I had a great time.

It made sense that the band that I had discovered for the first time was in the Twin Cities. Guster was the opening act for John Mayer. This band blew me away and I have been a fan ever since. I returned to see this band, as they rarely cross the border.

It was also nice to return to the Twin Cities in the summertime. I am normally there for a hockey game, when it's colder. I enjoyed wearing shorts and a t-shirt every day.

Let's see if I can write more regularly. I'll start with perhaps once a week and see how all that goes.