Knowledge and getting shelled with questions

I am one of those breathing fountains of knowledge. A while back, the diva on our team nicknamed me the data bank. I don't mind it.

The downside to being fairly knowledgeable is that people often fire questions at me and forget that I'm a person who doesn't enjoy constant interrogation. How about saying hi first, for instance, before you start firing your questions at me?

I have one friend who has been doing that online in direct messages. It's always a question that he poses.

The weekend, I had proudly mentioned that I got my vaccine shot in a public post. He congratulated me on said post and then privately asked me what vaccine I got.

I decide not to respond. It was the first time that I felt good about not replying. It's always a question. It's never how I am doing or a simple hello. I had had enough.

I am still training a new member of our team from India. Although he is good at asking me how I am doing, I find that he asks questions that are too advanced for his current understanding. It's not horrible, but it means that I have to explain the same concept twice. The first time is a basic version until we get to the actual topic in training where I need to explain it in more detail.

On Monday, I learned that his questions that he had about late last week's training sessions were off, meaning that he had either forgotten or he is the type who isn't the research-on-my-own type.

I have him working on an exercise on his own. We'll see how he does when we meet later on today.

Scheduling meetings and having my performance review

My first day back at work went well. I impressed myself getting up at 6:45 am for a 7 am conference call.

I had a performance review meeting with my manager just after lunch. Before I went on vacation, he made it for 3 pm for an hour. I had 3:30 pm onwards blocked off as being out of the office on my calendar due to my early start. I also had a meeting at 3 pm.

I got to love when folks don't look at other people's calendars to schedule meetings. My favourite is my diva colleague who asked me to specify what time would work for best for me for her meeting when she clearly knew that I was training our new intern for two weeks.

Dumb. Just dumb.

Anyway, my performance review went well. My boss called me a "rock star." Not to sound weird or pompous, but I have earned it.

A human resources person recently spoke to my manager and did a review of each team member's salary. This HR guy asked my boss why my salary was "significantly higher" than the rest of my team colleagues.

Here's my short list:

• Experience - I have been doing my job for years. I have the most experience on the team.
• Competence - I do my job well and take pride in it. I also complete many tasks with quality and at a faster pace than the rest of my peers.
• Education - I'm the only one with a master's degree in this field.
• Knowledge - I have a lot of it. It explains why I train new employees joining our team.

My manager said everything he had to say about my skills and performance. I am working at a different level than the rest of the team. It's true, which satisfied the HR guy.

I have earned my salary through hard work. It's nice that I have a manager who agrees. I am looking forward to a bonus!

Making progress

On Friday, I was in a knowledge session meeting for work. Towards the end of it, I looked at the list of participants and noticed that my ex was there.

I didn't feel anything. I wasn't annoyed or hurt. I wasn't happy to see him online. I was indifferent. I have made progress.

In the past, he has told me that he always goes through the participant list in his meetings. I wouldn't be surprised that he did so in this one.

I told him to stop contacting me. He has respected my wish so far since we texted in early July. Perhaps he has made a bit of progress, too.

I do pity him. He ruined a good thing and only has himself to blame.

The United States has a President-elect and a Vice-President-elect now. I feel hopeful that this change will be a positive one.

Dating and chatting online

I have been chatting online with a man who took the first step to communicate with me. It has been good on the whole. He is one of a handful of folks who saw my profile picture change. Social media is interesting.

The downside? It would be a long-distance relationship with this man. He lives in the States. I'm here in Canada. I'm not sure if I am ready to go through that again. My ex-hubby and I had spent three years living apart before we got married. It does work, but it requires effort, hard work, and communication.

This man seems nice and grounded. We are in chatting mode these days. Our schedules don't sync that well, but we do manage to exchange messages throughout the day.

It's different. It's weird being back into the dating scene. I kind of miss verbally talking to people, though!

Wrapping up my leadership program and being thankful

On Monday, I wrapped up my final installment of my leadership program. It has been a great learning experience.

I love to learn. It was fun participating, which I wouldn't have said when I was an undergraduate student, as I didn't enjoy speaking in front of folks. It helps to contribute, as I ended up getting off the hook when it came down to doing some of the exercises. Yay!

I spent some time writing an e-mail to my instructor, saying thanks for being supportive, encouraging, and insightful. Most people don't think of taking a moment to thank someone, but I feel obligated to. I am sad that these sessions have ended, but feel empowered with knowledge and tools to make me a better leader.

My manager will be attending this course early next month. It will be interesting to see whether any of these techniques resonate with him.

I can't wait till incompetent writer leaves... the countdown continues!

Thursday made me realize that it is truly good news that the incompetent writer is leaving the company. Yesterday was her farewell lunch.

I am a nice person. Perhaps I am too nice. Even though she initiated uninviting me to lunch get-togethers, I'm not the type to reciprocate out of spite. I organized her farewell lunch.

You would think that to add insult to injury that she decided to ride in my car along with my manager. I had a doctor's appointment after this lunch, so my giving folks a ride to and from the restaurant was fine.

She didn't realize that I had bought a new car. She just assumed that I still had a neatly kept Prius.

It wasn't a surprise to my boss. He has been a passenger in my car a number of times. She was surprised.

Well, that's what you get when you don't want to hang out with me at lunchtime or even talk to me. You don't have any insight on my life, let alone anything because you live in your own twisted bubble. You just assume that things remain the same with me.

In reality, things are the same with her. That cliche about not being able to teach a dog new tricks? She can get the old tricks down pat, let alone new ones.

To start, our team had a day-long work session yesterday. She literally had to look up the location of our room before going there. I had remembered it from reading the e-mail the day before, meaning that I didn't have to waste ten minutes finding the information.

Our team had the task of updating document numbers for specific user guides. I delegated all tasks, including giving myself work.

The co-ops always ask questions when they are unsure about anything. They know that I am happy to answer. We have a male writer who also was fine asking questions.

Incompetent writer? It took her forever to ask me a question. It wasn't until I asked if everyone was done so that we could run a documentation build that she approached me. Clearly, she had no idea what to do. She renamed the file. Renaming it does not update the document number. Considering that she used to do this task fairly regularly in the past, she couldn't do it now.

The co-op students, who have been with the company for over a month now, can do this task effortlessly. Incompetent writer cannot.

The same goes with expensing her meal. I had to expense it. She nearly paid for it herself after our manager told her to let me pay for it. What part of guest of honour does she not understand?

I am simply relieved that I do not have to work with her for much longer. Every time she has to complete a task, there is something wrong that happens. I am weary of it, but know that relief is in sight.

Venting is needed over an incompetent co-worker

There is never a dull moment at work. Never.

Last Wednesday, I was working from home, as I tend to do on Wednesdays. My manager sent me an instant message just after 09:30. He rarely comes in that early, let alone pings me on that application so early in the day.

He told me that a writer has resigned. I had a ton of thoughts flood my mind.

This writer has been with the company for over three years. As much as I am thrilled that she has found employment elsewhere and can only wish her well in her new position, I can't say that I will miss her as a writer on the team.

It sounds harsh. However, for the time that she has spent with the company, she has never successfully installed our product software. Frankly, she doesn't understand how our software applications work. It is a problem, as she needs to clearly write about them.

She has a difficult time expressing herself. Again, it has always been problematic and it shows in her work. She makes mistakes. She gets the information from software developers and basically places it in her documentation without fully understanding what it means.

She isn't a writer. She is more a data entry person who just wants to call it a day when 17:00 hits. The last intern who was here knew more about the product software than this writer did!

It has been clear for over a year that she does not like what she does. Frankly, she should have left the company a lot sooner.

I asked her on Friday whether she has a job lined up. She told me that she does. She also told me that "we'll see" how she does in the new job.

I found her reaction to be odd. If I were about to embark on a new job, I would be excited. I didn't see, hear, or feel any of that enthusiasm from her.

She wasn't a good fit on our team. My manager hired her. I knew within the first week of training her that she is dependent on others to tell her what to do. She isn't an independent thinker. Moreover, she is not a technical person, which is difficult when you are expected to write about technical topics.

This next statement may seem uncharacteristic for me to say. I do not want to pick up her workload. I have been doing that already with the writer who left last November. I clearly cannot do that again with another writer. I am overloaded.

A few weeks ago, I got annoyed at my manager for stating that I do more because I "earn more than the other writers." I do not think that I need to do even more than I do, which is the equivalent of two writers, simply because I make more money that the other writers. I make more money than they do because I have a graduate degree (they don't) and I have more writing experience than they do. In short, I am at my current salary because I have earned it through hard work and experience. 

Anyway, my guy and I have talked about this issue. We have both decided to focus on what I enjoy doing, which is training and working with co-op students, and writing. Someone else on the team needs to pick up the slack, as I have been doing it all the time. I back up writers who go on vacation. When I go on vacation, I do not have a backup.

Life is unfair, which isn't a newsflash. However, I should not be the one who always suffers because we are short-staffed and there is a hiring freeze taking place.

I actually feel a bit of relief that this writer is leaving. She is the one who decided to shun me from having lunch with the rest of the team in the past. I haven't enjoyed talking to her about anything since she treated me that way.

She tried to patch things up when I came back from my last vacation to Seattle. I was actually talking to another writer. She decided to hang out with us and join our conversation. Why now? I didn't even want to share what I did on my vacation with her. She didn't even want me to have lunch with her. I am thankful that I don't. I can't be around that negativity that she possesses.

Anyway, I am done with venting. Thanks for reading along. I will have a more cheerful post soon!

Kobo Mini e-reader and books on spanking

It took me a while to get on the e-reader bandwagon. I resisted for a long time, mainly because I like reading physical books. I like the feel of the pages between my fingers. I even like the smell of books.

As a little girl, I enjoyed hanging out at libraries and reading. Whether I was happy or sad, being in a library and having access to stories, facts, and knowledge made me feel safe and content.

A few years ago, I decided to get my first e-reader. I have a white Kobo Mini. It's a little larger than my Blackberry Passport. I love it.

Of course, I can also read books using the Kobo app on my various devices, but I like my e-reader. When I read from it, I am not distracted by e-mails or games. I want to read. Period. I don't need to do that with a smartphone.

It has been a while since I used my e-reader. I am charging it as I type. I bought a book tonight and am enjoying the read so far. 

The best part about e-books is that you can preview a chapter before you buy. Naturally, I have been checking out the spanking stories that are out there. I am reading through the preview chapter from Across My Knee. I'd like to be across my guy's knee right now. He is asleep, so this book will do for now.

J is for Jill of all trades

I have been pondering what topic I could possibly write about that starts with the letter j. I actually had to find j words in the dictionary for inspiration!

I like Jello. It's one of those desserts that can have no calories. Putting coloured gelatin in fun moulds is a lot of fun. Jello jiggles, which makes me giggle.

Then, there Jif, the peanut butter that you can only get in the United States. I grew up watching commercials for the product on TV, but it wasn't and isn't available in Canada. Instead, Kraft peanut butter is the most popular brand here.

As a kid, I was fascinated by Jiffy Pop, the popcorn that you pop over a stove burner. I begged my mom to get me one. We did. It was a lot of fun. I haven't seen too many of them for years.

Instead, I am going to write about the phrase, Jack of all trades. My guy fits this definition. He has many skills. The difference is that he does practically everything well.

I first noticed how quickly he picks up new skills when we first started dating. When he spanked me for the first time, it felt like he had done it before. He told me afterwards that he had watched a spanking movie, just to make sure that he got the basics down pat. He sure did and he has honed this fine skill!

A few months later, I taught my guy how to use chopsticks. He is a pro at it. I also got him to say my name in Cantonese. He still remembers it.

People have told me that this saying applies to me, except I am more of a Jill of all trades. My colleagues marvel at the fact that I am pretty versed with our software product, which is highly technical. Our product makes sense if you have a background in programming, which I am fortunate to have, but don't claim to be an expert. I am different because most technical writers are not that technical. They tend to have an Arts degree in English, for instance.

I am far from knocking an Arts degree. Studies have shown that folks with an Arts degree are well-rounded individuals. I believe it. I am an artsy person. I listen to music all the time. I grew up playing various musical instruments and singing in the choir. I love attending concerts, ballets, plays, and musicals. I could go on and on.

I tend to be a quick learner. I have to, as there are more software features that require documentation than I can keep up with.

It's helpful to constantly want to learn. I can't drive a standard car, but I want to. My guy can, but wants to teach me with a rental car. His own car is an automatic, as is mine.

My guy wants to learn how to upholster various pieces of furniture. He tells me all the time that he learns a lot from me. The feeling is mutual. Wanting to learn also makes you curious and interested in people, places, and things.

We are Jack and Jill. Maybe that's one reason why we get along so well.