A break from meetings

I enjoy when my boss is away for one reason or another. It's a nice break from way too many meetings.

On Wednesday, he took half the day off. Our team has a daily chat towards the end of my workday. I find it a drag sometimes, because I don't exactly want to talk to them when I was to wrap up my work and call it a day. My manager can't end a chat on time, let alone any meeting.

I start my day earlier than most on the team. I can technically call it a day at 4:30 pm. I did that yesterday and it felt great.

Last Thursday, he wasn't feeling well and took the day off to rest up. It was nice not attending our weekly team meeting. 

I am fortunate that I get along with him. However, having him not remember how many years I have been with the company still rubs me the wrong way. It resurfaced last Friday. I nearly wanted to say, "Yes, it's ten years. You didn't see the e-mail to sign my e-card and only acknowledged my milestone when I had to tell you that you missed it in our daily chat."

Today will be interesting. There's a departmental meeting at the same time as our weekly team meeting. We'll see whether he will acknowledge that the former meeting is far more important than his.

Hockey in the summer and games at odd hours

It's strange watching hockey in the summertime. Games are shown during odd hours of the day.

Games in my timezone happen in the afternoon. I can't exactly tune into them because I am working. On Tuesday, I was on a call for two hours. Before that, my manager was late for our meeting, so it got extended to nearly an hour. Ugh!

I'm watching a game right now. There are two hub cities for hockey: Toronto and Edmonton. The latter is two hours behind my timezone. It's a good thing that I am a night owl and can work from home. Still, it's just a strange schedule.

Ah, priorities!

Meetings and time

Some people are having a difficult time adjusting to working from home every day. For me, it wasn't a huge stretch. I was working from home once or twice a week before the pandemic.

I truly prefer working from home. When I was in the office, many folks approached me to discuss various topics. I felt like I couldn't concentrate on my work with so many interruptions throughout the day. I have fewer distractions at home.

I tend to have meetings with my manager practically daily. I am doing work that requires my talking to him often. It's okay, except that I'd like to have fewer meetings.

Anyway, he came to my meeting on Wednesday morning and said the following:

"I am so glad to be in your meeting. Everyone else calls meetings that are pointless," he said.

That's a pretty good compliment to get. I went through my content and he approved it. It was a one-hour meeting that ended on time.

I wish that more meetings that I am a part of and are not run by me were that efficient.

Working from home for a while, as the office is locked down

I have a virtual meeting every single day this week with my manager. It makes the week longer. Thank goodness each meeting is only an hour.

I haven't been outside since Saturday. I will need to step out tomorrow and get some groceries.

Tonight, my office will be locked down. Our badges are deactivated. Strict measures are in place.

So many changes. Stay safe and healthy, everyone!

Work annoyances, including explaining processes to clueless people

My manager made a statement yesterday that I agree with when it comes to folks at work. Those who have to make a decision do not understand all aspects of the issue, including technicalities. Because they don't, there are so many problems that surface.

I have a project manager who does not know what she is doing. She immediately panics whenever I have a clear explanation for her in an e-mail and needs to talk to me. I work from home on Wednesdays. She called a meeting five minutes before its start, which I did not care for. I like to given more time than that.

I managed to cancel a second meeting that she had called. I just wanted an update and said that I am swamped with five conference calls in the afternoon. I am on the receiving end on deliverables. Why hold the meeting with me? It's the folks that are late with the deliverable who should be in a meeting with you. I spend far too much time in meetings and it's mainly because the other person doesn't get it. She said that she'd write meeting minutes. Nope, it didn't happen. I went ahead and did it for my own sanity.

The most enjoyable new feature in our instant messaging application is that I can hide my status from people who are not added to my list of contacts. This feature has significantly reduced the number of folks who contact me. I dislike instant messaging at work. I'd sooner do e-mail. If I don't reply in a minute, people come directly to my desk. I dislike this panicky mentality that folks have, including my incompetent colleague.

Two more days of work before the long weekend. I can't wait.

Issues and a proposal

It's nice when you make a point and folks side with you. My motto is to give it a try, say what you need to say, and see what happens. It's better to say what you need to say than regret not saying a thing.

At work, a number of us were given a task to drive projects to their completion. My counterpart borders incompetence. She decided to assign a number of folks deadlines, including me. I pointed out that she can't arbitrarily assign deadlines to folks who need to do the work without consulting with them.

In an e-mail, I pointed out the issues that I have encountered trying to get various folks to collaborate on a single document of which they own certain sections. The idea that I need to work with them on deadlines and such was time-consuming.

Instead, I proposed a different way to get this work done. The leader of this group liked it. She held a meeting with us. On Friday morning, we ran through my proposal and it was approved. Go, me!

The catch is to strike a balance. It is one thing to list all issues encountered. It's also helpful to suggest a new approach.

I don't like inefficiency. It makes sense that I would speak up. Otherwise, I'd be miserable wasting not only everyone's time and effort, but mine, too.

Early morning meetings and time

It has been a long workweek. I have had a conference call every day at 8 am, except for Tuesday. On Tuesday, my call started at 7 am and went for four hours. Luckily, this meeting happens once a month.

Needless to say, I am pretty tired of all these early morning meetings. I collaborate with folks in Europe and Asia. Thus, I get the short end of the stick and have to wake up early for these meetings.

Luckily, it's a long weekend coming up. I can relax before I do this early morning routine again next week. So far, I only have early meetings next Tuesday and Wednesday.

My manager is a time-waster. He books our weekly team meeting for two hours and seems to force spending the full two hours discussing anything under the sun. It's not a productive use of time, especially when he reads PowerPoint slides and doesn't comprehend what he is reading. The rest of us have actual work to attend to.

Anyway, I am off to bed early. I'm beat.