Huge snow accumulations and frustration working with a software developer

On Monday, my area got a blizzard warning and a lot of snow. 

Snowfall estimates were bumped up to between 40 to 60 centimetres. Toronto got 47 cm. Oshawa got 55 cm. Where I live is midway between the two. I'll take the median and say that we got 51 cm. It was a lot!

I don't think that my street has been plowed yet. It's so quiet. One neighbour tried to drive on the road and was highly unsuccessful.

I got annoyed with a software developer yesterday for a few reasons:

• He sent me a Word document that was on his personal SharePoint site. I couldn't access it because he didn't share it with me. I told him to send the file to me as an attachment.
• The details in his document were vague. I had to ask him about specific parameter names. Some had global as a prefix. Others did not. Highly inconsistent. He said to follow what the old parameter names were as a guideline. Um, no. That's not how it works. If you give me a list of new parameters, I assume that they apply to all hyperlinks that you have mentioned in the same section.
• I asked which software releases these changes were for. He guessed at it. I asked him to confirm.

As patient as I am, I got more annoyed with the number of questions that I needed to pose because he took shortcuts to give me in the information. Horrible! If I have so many questions because the content provided is unclear to me, how is a customer going to understand the information that I am writing about?

I let him know that details need to be more explicit in future. Telling me that he can have a call to explain stuff was ridiculous. Just give me the correct details right off the bat and save us both time and frustration.

Here's hoping that I'm not snowed in on Tuesday.

Stop contacting me!

People are interesting creatures. I wish that they wouldn't contact me sometimes.

I have a contact on one social media platform who decided to message me on the weekend. He noticed that a business listing that he had created had changed to something else. I continued checking into said place. He basically said that it looked like I was checking into a government site.

So, what's the purpose of your contacting me? I told him that I was fully aware that I was checking into said location and treating it like the original. He wrote back and said that he knew that, but the new location was further away from where he was.

Buddy, why are you contacting me? If the listing is wrong, go report it. I had already done that, but I didn't want to break the news to him, which I think is what he wanted me to do or was simply clueless.

Folks are not clear with what they are trying to accomplish. Don't complain about it to me. Do something about it yourself.

The diva contacted me about an apparent issue. She inherited part of my workload over two years ago. She still doesn't get it. I couldn't tell whether she didn't understand how document revisions worked or if she didn't understand how to interpret document numbers.

Woman, you have taken over the job for over two years. It was such a basic question where she included our manager that she now looks like she can't comprehend the work that she is tasked to do for a while.

Don't bug me. I've got work to do.

Bumps in the love journey and my portable humidifier

It has been an interesting few days. On the romantic side, we aren't doing great. I'll talk about that in an upcoming blog post. I am still sorting through some of the ridiculousness that has transpired.

I still have congestion. I will let my doctor know when I see her on Tuesday. The good news is that it's getting better, but it has been around for a week that I'm concerned. My teeth also feel achy, which is odd. I got over-the-counter sinus medicine at the drug store to help with my congestion. So far, it's working out fairly well.

On Thursday night, I got a portable humidifier. It works well. The downside is that the instructions come from China and they aren't complete. I have been figuring it out as I go. I do like it, as it also acts as a nightlight. It also has two mist modes. There's a continuous one and a pulsating version. Fun!

Working from home again and taking a break from the incompetent woman

I am back to my regular schedule this week. I am working from home today and tomorrow.

It has been a grind going to work every day for over three weeks. I don't mind hanging out with colleagues that I like, including my student. It is dealing with the sheer ridiculousness spewing out of my incompetent colleague that puts a damper on things.

She has this tone in her voice when she gets excited. She sounds like she is constipated and I cringe every time I hear her. She did that taking a phone call at her desk, which isn't exactly professional. We all sit in an open area and can hear her while we are working.

It'll be nice to take a break from her. Everything that she does seems odd.

Busy day dealing with incompetent colleagues

It was a crazy day at work. I'm exhausted.

I lost count after 43. This number represents how many e-mails ended up in my inbox from roughly 10:00 till 17:00. My guess is that I hit 60 e-mails easily.

I find e-mail to be a distraction. Today was a heavy inbox day. It was full of self-absorbed folks who think that my small team is there twiddling our thumbs, waiting for work. We have a ton of work to do, on the contrary.

One software developer provided two documents to us late on Monday. He asked me on Wednesday whether they were ready for him to share for his final review meeting on Thursday.

I took exception to this comment. First, my team isn't so free that we jump on his late guides and complete them. Second, we didn't know about his meeting. His expectation that we would edit them in time for his meeting was a tall order. Third, it seems ridiculous to send us what was dubbed final documents when he is having a final review meeting days later. Technically, these documents are not final. My team has another stab at making these not-so-final documents final.

I also take exception to the assigned project manager. She can't do her job. I have been doing most of her work by making sure documents get to me on specified dates and following up. Most deliverables have been late. I chase after folks because this project manager doesn't.

I have informed her that she needs to chase after folks. She should not be asking me two weeks in advance for documents. I flat out told her that I am not her problem. She needs to focus on other folks who are late with theirs. I don't see her chasing after them that way.

Then, there was another document that came two weeks late on Monday. I was not informed that this document would change. So wrong. Again, I spoke up.

I am sure that these folks do not enjoy dealing with me. Frankly, I don't care. They are not making my working life easy and are not respecting established deadlines. They are causing grief for my team.

I decided to call it a day just before 17:00. Luckily, today is my final workday this week. I am looking forward to my well-deserved mini vacation.