My boss recovering from COVID-19 and my sleepiness due to humidity

My manager caught COVID-19, as did his entire family. He returned to work yesterday, working remotely.

We had a virtual interview to conduct. I had asked the person who had set up this interview to reschedule it to accommodate my manager.

My manager started losing his voice today. He talked for maybe two minutes during the interview. I did all the talking in the interview with the candidate.

The kicker is that this candidate wasn't a perfect fit right off the bat. I wanted to shut down the interview immediately because she has no writing experience.

Such a waste of time!

Anyway, I didn't sleep well last night. It was way too humid overnight. Having the air conditioning on has made things better. I've been napping throughout the day to make up for my sleepiness.

Fixing a novice document design issue

When it comes to document design, it's an interest of mine and I'm passionate about it. I think of how useful the document is to the end user when I'm either creating or updating a document.

A few months ago, when I looked at a document that a fellow colleague was working on, she had repeated the service that she was documenting in the title of every page. I asked her why she did that. She told me that her team lead, the diva, told her to.

Ugh. That's poor document design. It's pretty clear that you're in a document talking about the service. Why have it as a prefix for the title of each page that you have? You're taking the user read the same prefix over and over. Is that practical or helpful? No.

Her argument was that it was a best practice from a previous solution that she worked on. Um, no. Your page titles needs to be meaningful, but not monotonous and redundant.

My manager sent her a request to fix this issue in multiple documents. 

I'm such an advocate for the end user. This person wants answers immediately when looking at a document. It's not happening with unnecessary fluff.

My colleague had brought up this issue, but the diva was adamant that she was right. The issue is that the diva doesn't come from a writing background and it shows here. Our colleague does. I do, too.

The other sad thing is that she has been a writer on our team for seven or eight years now. She hasn't caught on.

A jerk of a manager

My manager has tendencies of being a jerk. I got to experience it yet again.

On Friday, he was explaining the vision he had about what I was doing. I agreed. He felt that I didn't get what he wanted. Nope, I reassured him three times that we were on the same page.

I don't know what got into him. He said that he wasn't feeling it. I then told him that I was getting frustrated that I had to explain the same thing now more than three times to him and that he was misinterpreting everything. I was so worked up that I truly did not want to be in this meeting.

He does have tendencies of having a one-track mind and not being an attentive listener. A jerk.

Super glue and poor design

For a while, one of the rubber feet on my work laptop constantly falls off. As a temporary solution, I glued it back with nail polish. It works for a few months before I need to reapply it. I knew that I needed to get some super glue soon.

I went to the dollar store on the weekend and picked up a tube. The rubber foot is drying nicely as I type.

The weird thing about the super glue is that it came in a cylindrical container. The glue and the tip were separate when I got them. After screwing on the tip with the lid and using it, the glue does not fit in the container anymore.

Poor design. I'm not about to unscrew the tip and have super glue all over me. Instead, I had an empty mason jar that is now the super glue's new home.

Training and challenges

I'm not crazy about snap training sessions. I got the word on Monday that I'm to train a new employee. My manager thinks that I can do it the following day. Um, no.

I spent Monday ordering access for this person. I dislike training someone on an application that he does not have access to. That person doesn't learn well without it. Getting access to various applications at my workplace takes longer than it should.

On top of poor planning that's completely out of my control, I start training at 8 am. The new hire is in India. Luckily, I only train for four hours instead of the full eight hours each day.

I'm starting training on Wednesday. My manager did not complain. Monday was to get this person access and wrap up my development work. Tuesday is for wrapping up my work and updating my training materials. As long as I can back up my reasoning, it's all good.

My manager also wanted a high-level training plan. Nope, it goes to the new employee first. My manager has my training slides. He can figure it out there. That's micromanaging to ask me to do more work that is unnecesary. I have been training for years that I don't need to provide proof of my training plans and curriculum.

Ugh.

When I used to conduct onsite training, my manager would drop by. He is a control freak. I'd just ignore him and continue to train. Working from home, he has no control there. Training is zen to me. I don't supply the online session link to him, which is a bonus. He is not the target audience.

I also train in do-not-disturb mode. He has interrupted my training in the past by pinging the new employee. It will be more difficult for him to do that with a contractor who doesn't report directly to him and who will likely be a guest on Microsoft Teams.

Work is fascinating!

Loans and my debt

Here's an update on my financial situation. It'll be a medium post in length.

A couple of years ago, to repair my credit rating, I decided to take out a secured loan. Looking back, I shouldn't have done it. This loan company alleges that when you make regular payments to a secured loan, it helps your credit rating. Although somewhat true, repairing your credit rating takes time and dedication. It's not a quick fix like this company had implied. I didn't need to take this loan out.

Luckily, its term is only three years. I was closing in on two years of my loan. On Monday, I received a text message from the loan place saying that I could take out a cash loan thanks to my positive payments on my secured loan.

Now, I didn't want a cash loan. However, it allows the equity for the secured loan to get deposited back into my account and close that loan account. He said that I could pay off the new loan immediately. I decided to do it, as I just want out of both this secured loan and this cash loan that I never wanted.

The guy that I was dealing with was a pain as the process unravelled. I wanted the smallest loan amount possible, which is $2500. His confirmation text said $7500. Huh?

I also didn't want insurance protection, as I was going to pay the loan off immediately. At least he got that detail correct.

I have to call a special department to have my loan completely paid off. Fun! I wanted a specific day to have automatic payments come out of my chequing account to coincide with my payday. Nope, that didn't happen. It's the same special department that I need to get that changed. Even though I am not making regular payments, I'd rather be safe than have money taken out of my account that I have not budgeted for.

He asked for my bank statement overs the last three months. Since we were texting, I sent them that way. He then asked for them sent to his e-mail account. Why not say that to begin with? I actually had to download the statements from my laptop and transfer them over to my phone. I could have avoided the extra work.

During this process, I felt like this guy wasn't clear and upfront. He wanted a pre-authorized form filled out with my banking information. I put the company name in. When he got it, he wanted it blank. Well, why not tell me that upfront? I'm sending you a document with my banking information through the Internet. How safe is that it have any person take that information and authorize taking money out of it when the company name is blank?

Yeah, I had it. I told him off that I didn't appreciate these missing details, including the loan term. He frankly wasn't understanding my point of view. I told him so and said that we need to move on. I was tired of texting him who had the listening skills of a brick wall. I'm sure that I hit 100 text messages just to this guy by the end of this loan setup.

In the end, the loan money has been deposited to my bank account. My secured loan has been closed. I am waiting for the equity to get deposited. I'll call this special department to pay off this loan and close this account later on today.

What I am not thrilled with is the fact that having this loan company do a credit check on me will temporarily make my credit rating go down. It's sad that I simply couldn't pay off the secured loan without opening another loan. Then again, the secured loan was at a higher rate of interest and it's really not worth going through the loan for another thirteen months.

Other than this weird loan situation, I am thrilled that I can make more payments towards paying off my debt and improving my financial situation.

Working with colleagues who annoy me

At work, I seem to work with people who have interesting personalities, issues and, quirks. I wish that I didn't have to collaborate with them. Luckily, I don't that often with most of them.

Well, there's Diva. She enjoys texting me on our messaging app. I, on the other hand, cringe when she contacts me. We spent forty minutes texting. Why? First, she types slowly. I end up moving onto other work and getting back to her messages. She should consider writing an e-mail instead, as her issues are never urgent. Second, she isn't clear about what she is conveying in her texts. They are confusing for me because she doesn't consider whether her audience will get what she is saying. Third, the reason why I didn't understand her was because she messed up performing a procedure, which caused my work to appear somewhere it shouldn't have been. It was nice pointing that mistake out to her again.

As mentioned a while back, she and another colleague have taken on roughly half my old workload. I always felt that they took what I did for granted. I did and still continue to do a lot. She, in particular, is paying the price for being sloppy.

There is a software tester that I worked with several years ago. He moved on to another position within the company, which was great. I didn't like working with him. Sadly, he's back. He hasn't changed a bit. He has bugged me unnecessarily three times. I finally had it, even after giving him an example of asking a software developer technical questions instead of me. I had to explicitly tell him to copy that developer and me together. Ugh! He, too, enjoys texting. It's not my preferred method. Nothing is that urgent.

Finally, I have been working with a female software developer in a focus group. She was nominated to lead it. Sadly, she talks a ton. She does not let people speak. She seems to thoroughly enjoy hearing herself speak in circles. She talks up such a storm that I just tune out. A meeting that she had set up for thirty minutes yesterday with a group of twenty people got extended to an hour because she took up 37 minutes of it with her gibberish.

Thank goodness it's Friday. Here's hoping that it's a quiet day without dealing with these characters.

Having video on a work call should not be mandatory

I have a love-hate relationship with my manager. Ever since we have all been working from home, he has been on my case to have my laptop's video camera on when we have meetings.

First, my Internet connection was horribly slow for the last two months. It wasn't until I called my Internet Service Provider and got a new modem that I have seen a huge improvement with my connection.

Second, I don't care much for having video on. A colleague thought that I was shy. I'm not. I choose not to. I am comfortable that way. Always have been. Always will be.

This conversation has surfaced from my manager at least four times. Every time, I have made it clear that I prefer not to have video on. I hate that I have to go through it every time and that he has poor listening skills.

His manager insists that his team have video on. If she were my manager, I would say the same thing. It is not mandatory to have video on all calls. It is a choice. My manager said in a sentence that we "have to." I shot that down immediately.

I have a feeling that he misses seeing me, but can't express it. Well, the more you pressure me to turn my video camera on, the more I will resist. It should not be a forced option.

I feel like he has no respect for me. Is he that slow or thick that he doesn't get it?

It has been a long week. I want the weekend to start now.

A break from incompetence is nearly here

My incompetent colleague is going on vacation. Today is her last day at work before I get relief from her for over a week.

She proved to me this week that she does not know how to do her job efficiently. She spent more time than necessary getting a software release out the door, making rookie mistakes, and not planning her tasks properly. She has been doing this work for over half a year.

My manager stays at work late. She was with him the whole time. He shot me an e-mail, indicating that she was taking more time than she should. I agreed and pointed out that she can't prioritize her work on top of not being efficient.

She's good at blaming other things or people. She does not take responsibility for her own actions. It's painful dealing with her.

Although her attendance has improved slightly within the last few days, she sent an e-mail yesterday that she will be at work at 7:30 am today and leaving at 3:30 pm. She cannot get to work by 10:00 am on a good day. She lives a lot closer to the office than I do. I dream of getting to work in twenty minutes.

We'll see what happens later on today. I am looking forward to a break from her.

Rush hour traffic is horrible, especially when the weather is poor

I left work on Thursday at 17:00. It's considered early for me.

I had an event to attend in my neck of the woods. I allowed two hours to get there. I got there with 13 minutes to spare.

Traffic is horrible in the greater Toronto area. I was actually on a toll highway, which should have taken me half that time, at most, on a good day. This highway was slow, thanks to all the rain coming down, some sort of accident along the way, and just plain slowness during rush hour.

The event that I attended was both indoors and outdoors. Luckily, it wasn't a windy day. It was pretty mild. I was happy with my umbrella. It ended up being a great night.

Everyone's needs are so important... NOT!

I do not understand why folks at my workplace think that their needs are so important that they need to hunt me down in a room as I am training.

It happened last week with a software tester. The question could have waited. I told him that I was training and that I would have preferred an e-mail. Clearly, I had my student with me in the room that he barged into. Still, he came over and we talked about it, interrupting my class.

Yesterday, it was the peer who recently joined my team. I was training and she came knocking with her questions. She expected me to drop everything. I had to say that she was training, which meant nothing to her. On top of all of it, I told her that she needs to work on her communication skills. Her e-mail was highly confusing and talking to her confuses me even more every single time.

I hope that tomorrow is a better day. I feel like I need to hide away.

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.

Dealing with an inept colleague while on vacation

The new writer manages to still get on my nerves even when I am on vacation. She has no clue about respect for those who are on vacation.

On Christmas eve, she said that she'd wish everyone a nice Christmas. It seemed like a thoughtful gesture on her part.

We have an instant messaging tool that we use at work. I have it installed on my phone, as I take teleconferences while I am driving into work. I frankly don't like instant messaging apps. I find getting text messages to be a distraction.

Guess what she does? While I am preparing fixings in the kitchen on Christmas day, I get a text message on this instant messaging app from her. She's wishing me a merry Christmas. I have mentioned to her in the past that I don't like being contacted through this app. Obviously, this tidbit didn't register in her head, as with most information that my interns and I have relayed to her.

Two days later, I get a status report from her on this instant messaging app, saying that she's "holding down the fort." You would think that this app saying that I have been away for three days would mean something to her. Nope.

I wrote her an e-mail, copying our manager, on instant messaging etiquette. I pointed out that instant messaging is used to contact someone quickly to get a response and when it's urgent. Providing a status report or wishing me a nice Christmas over Skype while I am on vacation is not proper etiquette. I had to spell it out that I do not want to be reached on this work instant messaging app when I am on vacation. I want a work-free vacation. However, writing this e-mail to tell her to stop it and to explain how instant messaging etiquette works wasn't in my vacation plans.

I then indicated to look at our manager's e-mail that wished everyone a merry Christmas. He sent it as an e-mail, not through an instant messaging app. She does not comprehend that instant messages that she sends goes to my personal phone while I am on vacation and she is not. The last person I truly want to hear from on my vacation is this woman.

I got a reply back from her to my e-mail saying that she understood what I had said. I doubt that she truly does. It is so frustrating dealing with someone who seems to be shielded from the world and does not understand what is common courtesy.

Why can't medical folks communicate well?

My biggest beef this year seeing various medical folks is that they don't communicate with one another. As someone who needs to communicate with people often, it drives me crazy.

The other day, when I went in to see my doctor for my regular quarterly checkup, as well as for my bronchitis. She asked a ton of questions about my eye stroke. I couldn't answer any of them. I asked if she got the report from my ophthalmologist. She didn't. I know that I gave him my family doctor's name and address.

She asked for the phone number of my ophthalmologist's office. Luckily, I had that on my phone. So, I showed her the number on my cell phone. She called her receptionist and asked to get my report from that office.

"Do you mind waiting for the report?" she asked me.
"Frankly, I want to go home and sleep," I admitted. "I don't know how long it will take."
"You have a good point."

I had already waited for 40 minutes in the waiting room to see my doctor. Why do I need to do it for an unspecified period when I am obviously not feeling well with all that coughing and sniffling?

My doctor is understanding. She said that she would follow up with me once the report comes to her. I just wish that medical folks made my life easier, rather than causing more havoc that I do not need to be subjected to.

Spanking - an Android game

I am a geeky girl. My guy calls me geeky gadget girl, among other fine nicknames. Personally, I like this one just as much as bad girl.

The other day, I came across an Android game called Spanking. Yep, it's exactly what you think. You can spank a naughty boy or girl right on your Android phone or tablet.

Courtesy: Androidgame365.com

Unfortunately, the graphics aren't stellar and the grammar is atrocious, at times. As an example, one screen states, "I tolerate you for a long time! I will spanking you!"

If my guy ever said that to me, I would burst out laughing, likely right to his face. Then again, if I did that, I would get quite a sound spanking session from him, which would be much better than the virtual version.

Sleeping poorly and being apart

This week, my guy is on a business trip in Montreal. The last time he was there, he had just bought his new car and drove there. This time around, he took a flight out.

We both haven't slept very well. Last night, I was tossing and turning. I eventually stopped looking at the clock at 03:45 and woke up three hours later, just raring to go to work.

My guy wrote to me tonight, saying that he was too tired to talk. He hasn't slept well for the past two nights.

I am not sure whether it is the cooler weather here or the fact that we are apart that is keeping up awake.