My former intern returns as a contractor

Yesterday, my former intern joined our team as a contractor. It's great having him back.

The downside was getting his laptop up and running. We had several obstacles, including not having a password for him to log into said laptop. Crazy!

We did manage to get what we wanted to work. There's more to come later on today.

Ankle pain and refresher training

I woke up before 7 am on Sunday with ankle pain. I walked a lot of Saturday, so it was not surprising.

I have an odd workweek this week. My former intern has returned to the workplace as a contractor. Training will be different. I am doing a refresher part, which really depends on him.

I also start my workday at 8 am. I am looking forward to not doing daily chats with my team at 4:45 pm.

My intern and training a new colleague

My intern's work term ends in 1.5 weeks. She has been great helping me with recording training videos as I update my training slides. I let her know that I appreciated her help. I'm glad that I did.

In a few hours, I am training a new member of our team. I am ready. It will be different, but everything I seem to do is different!

Trying to use up my vacation from last year - a problem I never thought that I'd have

Today is my last workday before I go on vacation for just over a week. It's not that I want to. I have six vacation days that I didn't use up in 2020. I need to use them up by the end of this month.

I would normally be thrilled to take time off. I'd be travelling somewhere. Ontario, the province in which I live, is under lockdown. I can get groceries, fetch takeout, do curbside pickup, exercise outdoors, and that's about it.

It's funny. I originally thought I had five days of vacation. I realized through doing a calculation that I had an extra day. It's amusing to me that I am not thrilled about taking time off during a pandemic.

Then again, I have been working hard for two weeks. I trained a new intern and got my regular work done. I also dealt with my dear friend's passing, so I'm okay with taking time off for me.

I will likely continue reorganizing things around the house. I did some of that tonight. It felt therapeutic.

Vacation is nearly over

My two-week vacation is nearly over. Originally, I had three weeks of vacation planned. I wish that I had kept it on the one hand. I do feel that it is best to keep it at two weeks. I may not want to work again if I do three weeks!

I train a new intern on Monday. My manager originally thought that he'd get involved in training. Frankly, I see that being a disaster, as he doesn't have the skills to answer specific questions related to our authoring tool. So, I decided to cut my vacation short and take this remaining week of vacation after my two weeks of training delivery are over.

I earned an extra week of vacation last year thanks to hitting my ten-year work anniversary. It's unfortunate that I can't travel due to the pandemic. However, it has been nice taking time off from work and doing whatever I feel like doing, even if it's just lounging at home.

I spent my first few days doing nothing but relaxing. I then moved to cooking, baking, organizing, and driving around. It has been great. I have enjoyed unwinding.

A surprise connection dealing with my retirement savings accounts

On Thursday, I decided to call my bank to make an update to my retirement savings account. I got a nice man on the phone who took the time to explain everything to me.

I am doing a couple of moves. I'm updating my savings portfolio within my retirement savings account. I am also transferring two other RRSPs (Registered Retirement Savings Plans) from a bank that I despise over to my current bank.

At the end of our call, which was the first phase, he noticed my place of employment and said that his son had finished a year of his internship at the same company. I asked what the his son's first name was. When he said it, I was delighted. I worked with him closely over the past year. We were on the same software development team.

He let me know that his son has a job lined up after he graduates from university next April. I was thrilled, as he was concerned about getting a job and asked me for help. His dad was appreciate.

Small world, huh?

My intern's farewell lunch

My intern's original work term was for eight months. Luckily, it got extended and we had him for an additional four months.

My role changed just after his extension had been set. He ended up with another team lead. However, our work still crossed paths and we still managed to communicate with each other regularly.

Back in April, when we thought that it was the end of his work term, I said that we'd have a proper farewell lunch for him when it was safe to do it. We were 1.5 months into the pandemic.

Well, his final day was Friday. I wanted a farewell lunch for him. So did our manager. I talked with our boss. He was good having just the three of us have lunch together. It would be safer with a small number of people there.

I had suggested a restaurant and my intern was game. He was delighted to get a free lunch, paid by our manager, to honour his efforts and accomplishments during his stay with us.

On Friday, I picked up my intern at his home and drove us over to the restaurant. It felt like old times, except that he was in the backseat of my car as I drove. Our manager met us there, as he had to pick up the gift that the company had for my intern.

At his home, I gave my intern a box of gourmet cookies. We love them. The store happens to be in my neighbourhood. He was thrilled.

We sat out in the patio for nearly 2.5 hours. The food was yummy and amazing. We had a lot of laughs while we chatted about a ton of topics.

Afterwards, we walked over to Baskin Robbins to get some ice cream. I was too full from my lunch to have some, but the other two got some.

When we were all done, my intern and I decided to get bubble tea. I treated him to whatever drink he wanted. We sat for a bit to chat before I took him home.

It was a lovely day. I know that I'll see him again, as we have plenty of eateries to discover. I let him know that whenever he was free, to let me know. He confirmed that he would take me up on my offer. He has one last year of undergraduate studies, which start in just over a week.

Sharing my thoughts about my intern

Today was my intern's last workday. I'll write about today tomorrow.

Yesterday, our team was asked to say a few words about him in our virtual meeting. I liked what I said to him. It was heartfelt and he appreciated it.

I said that it was a pleasure training and working with him. I told him that from his first two weeks to the growth that I have seen in him to become the writer that he currently is has made me so proud of him. 

I thanked him for being my wingman when going out to grab a bite to eat. I also liked that we bonded over the university that we chose to do our undergraduate degree. I looked forward to his joining me as an alum soon.

Over the course of his twelve-month term, I have been good in letting him know how he was doing. I'm glad that I did. I will miss working with him.

Interns and coincidence

For the past year, I have trained and worked with my intern. He has three days left before his work term is over.

During this same period, we have also worked with another intern. This one is a software developer.

Yesterday, I had a call over our lovely chat tool to talk about what could be his final contribution in his work term. Like my intern, this one is equally as bright and hard-working.

I took the time to say that I have enjoyed working with him. He appreciated it. He said that my intern has always spoken highly of me. It was nice of him to say.

I liked his story about how he was driving his girlfriend home one evening. He found out that his girlfriend and my intern live on the same street. Small world!

Time and my intern

I blink and the weekend is over.

I got everything that I had wanted to accomplish this weekend. I met up with friends. I did some cleaning up around the house. I even did some sewing.

This year is blowing by fast, even though the pandemic has put a damper on the year. My intern has two more weeks left before his work term is over.

My manager has asked whether I'd be interested in doing a farewell lunch or dinner with my intern -- just the three of us. I'm game. It's a small group and we can hit a patio at an eatery. My manager has to meet with the intern to collect his laptop and other items. I'd likely drop by a bit later.

It'll be good to see my intern again and send him off as best as we can.

Back at work and being with oddballs

My first day back at work was busy, but it went well. I got the work that I needed to catch up on completed. I helped troubleshoot an issue that resulted in having three happy people being able to access a site.

It's not a revelation, but the day made me realize how my colleagues in my department are not exactly leaders:

• The oldest guy on our team talks a lot. He spent twenty minutes talking about an office chair. He also can't figure out how to add a software application on his laptop if his life depended on it.
• The diva injures herself often. She fell on the weekend and has tore a thigh muscle. She has been away on sick leave for the last two days.
• My friend can't read for beans. She sent me a screenshot saying that she has the application installed. The message had the exact application name mentioned three times, which wasn't what she had.

More than half the team does not have this application installed. Had I not stepped in, everyone wouldn't have properly ordered this application. I sometimes wonder why I care so much when my colleague seem indifferent. It's because that's who I am. They need a ton of guidance.

Because my intern has moved over to being under the direct supervision of diva, he is now doing all her work while she recovers. I feel for him. However, I have trained him well that I know that he can doing this work with flying colours.

It's such an odd setup on our team. On the plus side, some people are now realizing how much value and skills I bring to this team when I am either away or don't handle these tasks that I once did.

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.

My intern's work term has been extended at the eleventh hour!

It's amazing what a difference a day makes. Well, it's kind of more than a day.

On Tuesday, I had a talk with my manager. He let me know that he was trying his best to extend our intern to stay an additional four months. He told me, "Don't hold your breath." It has been difficult due to hiring freezes.

Yesterday, I had a good chat with my intern. I thanked him for everything. He said nice things about working with me. It was great.

Well, in our team meeting, our manager asked me if it was okay to assign work to our intern. I had to remind him that his time with us was limited. It was only then that my manager said that our intern is with us for another four month.

Both my intern and I are ecstatic that he's staying. He genuinely likes working with us. It was just odd how secretive our manager was about sharing this news, which drives me nuts.

The best part of the chat that I had with my intern was that we both like Marie Kondo's method of organizing. He has her book. Impressive!

My intern's final week at our workplace and during a pandemic

This week is my intern's final week at my workplace. It's odd that I cannot wish him a proper farewell during a pandemic.

I normally get a small gift as a token of my appreciation for all the hard work that each intern brings. This intern, in particular, has been outstanding. We share a love for food and get along well.

As a team, we send each intern off with a farewell lunch. I have told him that we'll have a deferred one for him once we are able to socialize again.

Last night, I sent him an e-gift card. It seems informal, but I wrote a personalized message. It's better than doing absolutely nothing.

Luckily, we get to talk tomorrow. We have exchanged cell phone numbers, so we'll keep in touch.

I'm not sure how my team will manage without him. He has played such an important part of our team that the void will be difficult to fill, especially when we can't backfill his role.

Dinner with a friend and tons of laughter

On Friday night, I had dinner with a friend who used to be my intern. I hadn't seen her since April.

It was fun reminiscing, catching up, and just having a good time with great company. We laughed a lot, to the point where our tummies were aching by the end of the evening.

I haven't laughed that much in ages. It was much needed. I still have my sad moments about being heartbroken. However, I am simply fortunate to have friends who care about me.

Two past students meeting up

I like working with students. It's one aspect of my work that I enjoy and don't want to give up.

Last night, I had a text conversation with a former student. She let me know that she met another student from my program who was there a couple of years before she was. I joked and asked whether they were in therapy together after spending time at the workplace.

She let me know that she was on a student panel, sharing experiences of being in a co-op program at their university. She recognized the other student's name and they met. Cool!

She was kind to say that they both talked about how much they loved me. It's always nice to hear.

Weed and open chats

The other night, I had a conversation with my former intern over dinner. It's nice that we are friends.

We got around to talking about weed being legalized later on this month across Canada. She was worried about using her credit card to buy weed online and then not being able to travel across the border. I said that she can either wait for the weed stores to open and pay with cash, or just go to the States. where weed is legalized She liked my suggestion.

It's neat that we are so comfortable talking about such issues. We don't judge. We have always been open. It's nice.