Shift in supervision, but this change still feels the same

As I had mentioned late last week, my intern is still with our team. His work term has been extended for another four hours. It's wonderful news. The bad news is that I'm no longer directly supervising him.

This year, my duties have shifted. It has taken at least two full-time colleagues to take over roughly 75% of what I used to do. My manager won't admit that I have tackled more than a full workload for years. We both know that's the case.

I saw how worried he was last week. I was in a meeting with these two colleagues and our manager. I used to be in charge of making sure that we got all our deliverables done for each major software release. We have this release in early June. When I did it all, my manager rarely worried. He knew that he could rely on me.

Since he has handed my former tasks to these two colleagues, he is in panic mode. He turned our checklist into a release plan. Ugh!

Well, he decided to have one of these colleagues supervise my intern. So, how many people does it take to replace 75% of what I used to do? Three people so far.

My intern (I'll still call him my intern, even though I don't mean it in the sense of ownership) is capable of pitching in and probably doing a decent job relieving at least one of them.

On Monday, it felt weird. I am now a team of one. Me. However, I ended up assigning my intern work because he had started it last week.

He does miss working with me and the feeling is mutual. We continued to chat through e-mails throughout the day like we usually do. He actually doesn't mind my assigning him work, as his new supervisor hasn't assigned him a thing. I simply have to let his team lead and our manager know.

Right now, he has little to work on. He appreciates that I can assign him work that keeps him occupied and allows him to think critically.

We also talked about storage and organization. We recently found out that we both enjoy chatting about these topics. We have built a good relationship. It's nice.

Thankful for being employed during COVID-19 uncertainty

I am fortunate to be able to work from home during this COVID-19 pandemic. I work in the IT field and have a laptop. Other than spending more time and effort communicating with my colleagues, I can comfortably work from home and get paid.

My employer has asked all employees to work from home till the end of the month. Well, that date got changed to April 10. It will mean that it will be five weeks of working from home for me. Perhaps it will be extended some more.

I look at the restaurant business here in the greater Toronto area. Restaurants have shut down dine-in services. Takeout and delivery services are the only ways that these restaurants can offer their services. Bartenders and servers can't work from home. They are either laid off, or their employer pays them and then suffers the consequences of losing money daily.

I feel for businesses these days, especially local ones. My ordering takeout from them here and there will hopefully help a bit.

Here's hoping that we can resume our regular lives when this pandemic disappears.

Broke up and feeling good

The other day, when I wrote about how my manager banned me from the office without a ton of compassion, I was dealing with another issue.

I decided to end my relationship with the guy that I have been remotely dating for just over two months. The issue last month about not taking no for an answer and not respecting me? It happened again. I feel good.

I went ahead and blocked him from WhatsApp. I told him that it was over.

The downside is that I had lent him money. I don't expect him to pay me back. If he does, it would be a miracle.

He needed more money to get him out of a horrible construction contract. I put my foot down and said no. The following day, he asked me again. I asked him what part of no was unclear. He completely did not listen to what I had said. So, he's out of my life.

I need to find a nicer guy who respects who I am and what I say. I also need a guy who doesn't think that I am a bank.

It's the weekend. Hope that you have a safe one under these odd, unpredictable times.

Rough waters that are calmer now

My love interest and I have had a few rocky days. He is stressed out at work. We had our first major disagreement last Friday.

In a nutshell, he signed an employment contract where if he is contracting equipment and it is faulty, he needs to foot the bill to fix it. I found that odd. Why doesn't his employer help him out?

He basically needed $4500 to repair a crane, including labour. He didn't have that much money and didn't tell me about his problem it until I was his last resort.

I lost it. I like when people are open with me. He shouldn't have left things bottled up inside.

So, I told him off. I went one step further and said that it wouldn't work between us. He doesn't think straight when he is stressed out, which was another red flag. He wasn't the person that I thought I knew.

We both were upset with each other. We also realized that we are a good fit when we take a step back.

I told him that I felt disrespected. He wouldn't take no for an answer about my helping him financially. I like helping people out. I don't like the pressure. He realized that he was wrong.

I overreacted being dismissed in this whole ordeal. I took some time to think things through. He was under so much stress that I added more stress for him than was necessary. He is a decent person. He has just had a ton of bad breaks.

I thought of a better financial solution to help him out. I have been working on reducing my debt for a while now and did not budget to lend money out. I managed to juggle a few things around and can lend him money. Basically, he can't proceed with his construction work until he pays for the crane repairs. It also means that he doesn't get paid until he completes his construction work. It's a vicious circle.

Here's hoping that he negotiates a better employment contract for him and a better customer contract down the road. Lessons learned on so many fronts for both of us.

Being kind at the luggage carousel

Roughly a couple of weeks ago, I flew into Minneapolis airport. I was waiting for my lone piece of luggage at the baggage carousel.

A few feet away from me was an older woman. She saw a red suitcase, and tried to flip it or look at it. It was getting away from her. The luggage was heading in my direction.

"Is that yours?" I asked her.
"I thought it was, but it doesn't have a tag like mine does," she replied.

Moments later, another red suitcase had arrived in front of this woman. She checked and it got away from her.

"How about that one?" I asked her.
"That one is mine," she said. "I'll wait for it."
"I've got it," I said.

I pulled it off the carousel.

"Thank you so much. Bless you," she said.
"You're welcome. It was good timing. Here comes my luggage," I said.

I got my luggage. I wished her a good day. She reciprocated.

It's good to be kind. It's also nice to help others and brighten their day.

My ex-guy wrote to my work e-mail account - respond or ignore

It has been over two weeks since I checked my work e-mail. I returned to work on Monday and had 100 e-mail messages waiting for me in my inbox.

Oh, joy.

One of them was from my ex-guy. He sent me a message using my work account. How charming.

He wished me a happy, prosperous new year. It seems like a slap in the face considering that he ruined 2019 for me.

Question for you:

I have not responded to his e-mails that he sent to my personal account seven months ago. I am guessing that it is the reason why he has chosen to drop me a line through my work account. Should I respond? Continue to ignore him? Respond with a YouTube music video that explains how much of a jerk he is?

I would like to know what your thoughts are. I could use a different, helpful perspective.

Leisurely Saturday afternoon until I locked my keys in my car

I had a mixed afternoon on Saturday. It started off great, as I went into a cafe to get a hot chocolate and a cookie. I decided to place both items in my car and pick up some items at a local empanada store.

While waiting for my order at the store, I realized that I didn't have my keys with me. The dread had set in. I had locked my keys in my car.

I went back to my car with my empanadas. Sure enough, I could see my cars sitting on the passenger side.

I used to have CAA, which is the car assistance folks in Canada. Last year, I decided to terminate my membership as my car has roadside assistance.

The catch was that the roadside assistance card was in my purse, which was locked in my car with my keys. Luckily, I had my phone with me. I also had my insurance with my vehicle's identification number on it. However, trying to find the phone number took a few tries.

The first one went to the United States. I realized that when I got a woman with a Spanish accent. She had to transfer me, but she transferred me to another Spanish woman dealing with Lexus cars. I don't have a Lexus. My guy does.

Anyway, the second woman got me a phone number to try for roadside assistance. In the meantime, I found an online form to fill out for the same assistance. I filled out everything, pressed Enter, and got an error to call the phone number. Oh, yay!

Finally, I called the number. You can also get a text message to start the process of outlining your exact location. I did that and all seemed well. However, considering the weird error message that I got, I decided to call back to confirm that the place got it.

Luckily, I spoke with two women who were great. They made sure that I was safe. They let me know that a tow truck guy would be over. This guy managed to unlock my car and help me out roughly an hour later.

I was thankful for all the help. Every decade, I seem to lock my keys in my car. I am glad that I don't do it all the time, but it's good that folks can help me out when I need it.

Standing up at work for a meeting and being gently pushed

At work on Thursday, our company had an all-employee meeting. It was originally slated to be in our auditorium. I have no idea why the venue changed to a corner of our floor.

We had bigwigs visiting us. There was supposed to be an online feed, but the audio sucked. I walked over there to listen in instead. I was hoping to tune in while eating my lunch, as this meeting started at noon.

There were a ton of people. I ended up standing in a corridor, unable to see anyone.

It helps that I am friendly. It have established a rapport with those whom I work closely with. As of late, I have had to work with a product manager. He looked, saw me, and literally let me know that I could move up in front of him.

"I'm tall. You stand here," he said.
"Thanks," I replied.

He must be 6'4". I'm 5'10" and seem mighty short standing next to him.

It was interesting that he gently pushed me up, touching the back of my shoulder blades with his palms. I have never had anyone do that before.

It worked. I had a good view. I could hear. All was great.

It helps to work with decent people who are polite and care.

Colleague, friend, and more

I have a colleague at work whom I interviewed, trained, and ended up befriending. She has recently been promoted to a team lead. I am also a team lead. There isn't exactly a cash incentive for this title. It's just a title given to us by our manager.

Anyway, she has never been a team lead and asked if I could give her pointers. She told me that she likes my work ethic and thinks that I'm the best one to help her out. She is sweet.

She is currently on vacation in the United States. I asked the other day whether she needed a drive to the airport. She did. She thanked me for offering, both when we spoke and while I drove her to the airport.

Just before we left work on Friday to head to the airport, she asked me whether I could keep her jewellery safe for her. She lives with a roommate and doesn't have a safe. She felt a bit awkward asking me, but I am comfortable keeping everything safe for her. I promised not to pawn anything!

It's nice that we trust each other. Our friendship is fairly new. She is like the sibling that I never had.

Incompetent colleagues

I work with a few bad apples. Otherwise, things are good at work.

First, there is a person who is older than I am. He is also a team lead like I am. He is highly incompetent. He didn't do his job on a straightforward task. It was to the point where I actually knew more about what he was supposed to do than he did. I don't even work in that area these days. I have dabbled in it in the past.

He blamed getting the information "at the last minute." I corrected him by saying that communication wasn't there between he and his teammates. Additionally, if he is going to write something that he is unclear about, he needs to ask.

Then, there's my incompetent colleague whom is supposed to take over some of my job responsibilities and isn't even close. She was asked by someone to provide status in an e-mail initially. This woman then pinged her on our corporate instant messaging app. The newish incompetent colleague ignored responding to both methods, as I had expected.

I asked her to write back. She said that she would do so "with [my] exact wording." I told her that she needs to think for herself. I'll need to have yet another talk with her. She is unfit for this position.

Finally, there is this woman who pinged my incompetent colleague. She assumed that our work needed to be done today. I asked her politely whether the deadline had changed. My team completes our work at least a day before the deadline, which would make it Thursday and not her made-up deadline of Wednesday. Luckily, the manager who is in charge happens to know how my team ticks and he is actually our manager. He said that we could take our time and that the deadline was indeed Thursday.

Ah, the joys of dealing with people who need help doing their jobs at the most basic level.

Deadlines and Christmas market - yay, weekend!

It has been a crazy week. My team got our documentation packaged and uploaded. There are a few issues that need helpdesk support. However, we worked so hard to get our deliverables out the door.

I'm glad that it's the weekend. I am seeing a couple of friends tomorrow at a Christmas market. I am looking forward to seeing them again and what's at the market.

Helpdesk, and hard and soft options

My guy is doing well in Turkey. Sadly, he is having laptop issues.

"I'm with the IT helpdesk," he said.
"Oh, no. What's wrong?" I asked him.
"I can't connect to our network," he replied.
"Are you going through the Sarah certificate way or are you doing the soft token?" I asked him.
"I like Sarah," he said, likely with a grin.
"Of course. You love the female persuasion," I replied.
"You know me too well," he noted.
"If you choose the soft option, you may get hard," I suggested.

It's fun that we can make an annoying problem fun. He left the helpdesk guy to do his thing as my guy said goodnight to me and went off to bed.

Getting smacks for helping him unload items in his car's trunk

My guy and I had a decent late lunch or early dinner, depending how you look at it. We had delicious food (spicier than usual) and great conversation. In less than an hour, we were out the door.

We headed over to our cars and drove to the office. I asked whether my guy would be okay, as he was getting sleepy in the restaurant. He went to sleep at 6 am. On a good note, he is on Turkey time already.

He got to the office parking lot before I did. I had to deal with a confused driver in the parking lot.

I parked next to his car. He had four items to put into my tiny car. Luckily, everything fit. I took his small suitcase and rolling computer bag out of his car's trunk.

My guy always tells me to stand there and not lift a finger. My back is a bit flaky and he always feels that he should do the heavy lifting. I feel awkward standing there, so I end up taking some lighter items out of his car's trunk.

"I told you to look cute. I can take care of lifting everything," he said to me.
"I just wanted to help," I said, loading an item in my car.
"You're such a bad girl," he said, walking past me and giving me a smack across my right buttock.
"You're so mean," I said, smiling at him.
"What am I going to do with you?" he asked rhetorically, loading another item in my car and giving me another smack across my left buttock as he passed by.

It's fun when he enjoys being Mr. Meanie.

Lifting heavy items and being dealt with later

I drove my guy to the airport on Saturday. I typically park briefly at the terminal, we get out of the car with my guy's stuff, we kiss and hug, and he is off to check in.

It was a bit different this time. I parked at an angle because the woman in front would not pull up. Oh, well.

My guy went to get a cart. He had his luggage, computer bag, and a box full of training manuals.

He always insists that I don't injure my back by leaving his stuff alone. However, it was pretty easy to get the first two items from my backseat. I had to leave the box in my car's trunk.

He came back with the cart and looked at me.

"How many times I have told you to look cute and not lift a finger?" he said, playfully disapproving of my efforts.
"I'm goody girl," I replied.
"No, you're baddy girl. I need to deal with you when I return," he said.

I like when he threatens to punish me.

We embraced and kissed. I wished him a safe flight. He said to drive safely home. We then headed our separate ways.

Heavy lifting and a swat

To my friends across the border, I hope that you had a happy Thanksgiving. If you are taking Friday off to recuperate from a turkey coma or hangover, enjoy the longer weekend and recovery soon!

After my guy and I were ready to hit the airport, we had the task of moving his various pieces of luggage from his car to mine.

I decided to help out by taking the smallest item out of his car and rolling it over to mine. It was his computer bag.

He normally tells me to look cute and to not touch a thing. He is sweet in that he doesn't want me to injure my flaky back.

When he saw that I had moved his rolling computer bag, he said the following to me:

"That's one of the heavier items. Just stand there and I'll take it from here."

He walked past me and gave my right buttock a smack.

"Ow!" I said. "That didn't hurt as much as I thought."
"We can change that," he threatened while getting another piece of luggage into my car.
"It'll have to wait till you return," I replied.
"Yes. I'll make sure that your butt is a nice shade of pink when I am done," he remarked.

Naturally, I was horny all day.

Issue with making everything plural, including a person having butts

I have noticed this oddity with my manager for a while. He tends to pluralize words that do not require an s at the end. As an example, he will say documentations instead of documentation.

We had this conversation the other day:

"I had to work my butts off to finish this work," he explained.
"Butts? You have two butts?" I asked curiously.
"A left and a right," he said, bursting out laughing.
"No, you have two butt cheeks. You have one butt," I explained.

Who knew that I would be having a grammatical discussion about butts and butt cheeks in my workplace as a professional. Fun!

Installing an instant messaging app on my guy's phone and wanting to be spanked

My guy is the first to admit that he doesn't like technology. I have always found that to be an interesting remark, as we both work in the technology sector. He does pretty well under the circumstances.

We have an instant messaging app at work that all employees use often. I asked my guy a while back whether he has installed it on his phone. He did install the app, but had some problems configuring it.

The other day, at our usual Chinese restaurant, I helped him with the configuration. Moments later, he was able to sign in and use the app. He was happy.

"You are my geeky girl. Thank you," he said, smiling at me.
"You're welcome. I'm your geeky gadget girl, right?" I asked him.
"Yes, you sure are," he confirmed.
"I'm your good geeky gadget girl," I said, smiling.
"Um, that depends. I like when you are bad, so I can bend you over and smack your butt hard," he admitted.

I like when he tells me that I am bad. It makes me happy and horny.

Birkenstock sandals and blisters

I have a love-hate relationship with Birkenstock sandals. They support your feet nicely and are comfortable once you break them in. The problem? The entire breaking-in process.

Every year, I need to break them in. I had thought that a couple of days of wearing them would be enough. Nope.

I wore them on my first full day in Shanghai. By the time it was late afternoon and I was sitting on the tour bus heading back to the main stop closest to my hotel, I touched my left heel and noticed blood. Not only did I develop a blister, but it had burst. Both blood and fluid was at the bottom of my heel. Luckily, I carry tissue, so I wiped up and tried to stop the mess from oozing out.

I do come prepared. I came back to my hotel room, cleaned up my heel area, and found my stash of bandages. It has been three days and the area has nearly dried up.

If you do experience a blister on your foot that bursts, do not try and get rid of the flap of skin. It's better to have it there to protect the area from any infection. Just wait for the area to dry on its own. I tend to have a bandage on it when I am out. When I am back at home or the hotel, I let the area breathe without wearing any shoes or socks on.

Being on vacation is never dull!

Work-related question, almond beverage, and thoughtfulness

On Saturday, my guy missed me so much that he wanted to talk to me before and after his course. He is sweet that way.

The second chat that we had over the phone, I was having a late lunch at a shawarma place. He recommended that I get the beef shawarma. It was nice that he was keeping me company and making a food suggestion while I was there.

"I have a work-related question," he stated.
"What happened to your usual by-the-way lead-in, which tips me off that it's work-related?" I asked.
"I didn't want to alarm you, but I guess that I should have started it off that way," he admitted.

He described his issue. I told him the scoop and advised that I would provide links to the work that my team produces. His work is now dependent on what my team writes. It's isn't a newsflash, but it puts pressure on his group to deliver faster.

"You're lucky that you have me to help you out here," I pointed out.
"I'm lucky to have you all the time. I owe you a lot," he said.
"You're so mushy. You did buy me almond beverage from our favourite liquidation place," I said.
"Yes. Don't forget to take them from me tomorrow," he advised.
"We'll need to do it before our date. Otherwise, we'll both forget," I stated.
"True. I can't wait to see you."

He's thoughtful and sweet. I'm lucky to have him.

J is for jets and jetlag

My guy and I were fortunate to book the same flights to and from Seattle. We had a brief layover in both directions.

There is a three-hour time difference between Toronto and Seattle. My guy generally has a tougher time adjusting, but he seems perfectly fine adjusting when there is a small time shift. However, when he is halfway across the world, it takes him a week to get back to his normal self.

I managed to book my seat next to my guy for three out of the four flight segments. I couldn't sit next to him from Seattle to Chicago. Instead, I was in row 25 and he was in row 29.

My guy is a true gentleman. Whenever we fly, he manages to help me with my luggage and such. When we had landed in Chicago. I looked over at him, and he waved and smiled at me.

When we had landed in Toronto, we were waiting for our luggage off the carousel. There was an older woman who needed help getting her luggage off the carousel. My guy not only offered to do that, but he also went to fetch a cart and put all her luggage on it.

To my guy, there's nothing unusual about such a gesture. To me, it just shows how kind and sweet he is to everyone. It's nice to see. I am fortunate that he is my guy.