Tired Tuesday

ei34

It's going to be a long week (just a lot going on) and I'll be happy when it's Friday.  How's everyone?

ei34

I have a random headache (I think I'm just tired, I haven't been sleeping great) that's annoying me.  Work is work.  The twins have their holiday concert from 6:30-8 tonight, older DD is the same time slot tomorrow...the concerts are nice, just tiring.  

banana468

It's Chiquita's birthday!  She turns 14 today and started the day with the elves in her stocking (a request she makes every year) and had one gift to open before school - knock-off Ugg slippers she wore to school.  They're slippers but look more like clogs and have a substantial bottom.

In between meetings I need to change the sheets and get the house ready.   She has fencing practice tonight while the men have Cub Scouts and I need to make her dinner and frost her cake. 

short+sassy

It's already been a long day and I just got to work, lol.  I WFH yesterday, but was really busy with personal stuff until late.  I accidentally hit snooze for an hour without realizing it, but at least didn't totally turn my alarm clock off.  I finally got moving after 7am, which is when I am supposed to be at work.  That meant I would be hitting full rush hour traffic.  But a lot of people will be on vacation this week right?  So it won't be as bad as usual?  Hah!  I always forget just how exponentially bad traffic is during normal morning rush hour.

I arrive at my cube and my least favorite coworker, the person I'm training, is at his cube across from mine just business as usual.  Apparently still ignoring the e-mails I sent him Wednesday morning, two full business days ago, smh.  I asked him about it .  "This morning?" No, Wednesday morning.  "Oh, did those go through?  I didn't see them.  I would have been working on them if I had."  This guy does nothing all day yet still can't be bothered to check his e-mail for days.  Astounding.

The funny thing is, he isn't lazy.  He works on things promptly when I ask him to, in person.  But then he is too incompetent to do even the most basic things and remember simple instructions.  I told him Tuesday afternoon last week I'd be sending him work and to make sure he checked his e-mail on Wednesday.  In general, I have reminded him multiple times that he needs to check his e-mail throughout the day.  It's insane I've had to tell him that more than once.  Yet here we are again.  

Okay, vent over.  I am going to focus on it being a good day. I stocked up on my work energy drinks and I'm looking forward to my food today. I bought these food storage containers that are Lunchables-esque shaped and am using one for the first time. I made myself buffalo chicken lunch meat/cheese/crackers for dinner last night and put another of the same meal into one of those containers.

I have a yogurt and pear for snacks.

I also have new egg bites from Costco.  I've been eating these things from the same company for years, but usually the uncured bacon/gouda one.  The last time I was there, it was uncured ham and veggies.  It sounds really good and I'm curious to try this version.  It still has some cheese also (phew).  I won't have to cannibalize my lunch, lol.

For dinner when I get home, I am making a sandwich with low-fat mayo and white meat turkey leftovers.  It's one of my all-time favorite meals that I usually only have for the week or so after Thanksgiving.  Every year I tell myself that my H and I should buy a turkey breast a few times a year so we can enjoy that goodness more often.  And every year we don't and I say this same thing, lol.  I'm also looking forward to this evening being very relaxed compared to last night and hopefully will be able to get to bed early.  Oof, I only got 4 hours of sleep last night and 3 hours the night before.  It's bad and I really need one good night of sleep.

levioosa

Happy birthday Chiquita! 

Back at work today and sad about it. It is so nice being off. Thanksgiving was okay. I basically cooked everything. SIL B brought a free pie she got from work the week before and then $4 brownie bites and then didn't help clean up. I almost snapped at her and did a little when she came in at the end after taking a nap and then said it looked like everything was handled (it was not). Saturday we went to my Grandparents and hung out with them and my parents. I hate to say it, but it was super unenjoyable. I am now at the point where I dread seeing and talking to my parents. Everything is negative. Everything is passive aggressive. I'm just so over it. It was such a stark difference to the last time we went over to my grandparents, and my Aunt and Uncle were there and we had such a fun time. I really hope my parents don't kill the vibe on Christmas. 

Grandpa has a surgery this Thursday and we can't convince him to move it until after Christmas. Hopefully it goes okay. 

Otherwise SSDD. I'm sleepy and drinking my coffee hoping that will solve all of life's problems. lol. I got a hydrafacial yesterday and it's not my first one, but once again I am not that impressed and I'm really glad I won it because there's no way I'd be happy if I paid $150-200 for it. For that amount of money I'd spend another $100 and get a peel or a laser which makes long term improvements. It was nice to have some facial massage though. And we did a nice walk afterwards. 

Casadena

Morning! Catching up on everything from last week and hope everyone had a nice thanksgiving. 

We were in IA for 4+ days - mom and I cooked SO MUCH food. 2 days straight. It's exhausting and I will never do that much again but it was the first thanksgiving without my Grandma and I my mom was so dead set on doing everything she ever did, all the options, etc. Not the time to push back everything was delicious and had a nice time with extended family. We went to our alma mater football game friday evening in the 15 degree( 5 with wind chill temps) but had a nice time with friends we don't see often. Sunday stopped to see H's family on the way home for his Gma's birthday. It was 30 ppl packed in a tiny hot room with only 8 chairs and the kids were donezo. Glad we got to see everyone, but could have been planned a bit better. 

Bedtime has been a little smoother so fingers crossed we're trending in the right direction. 

December is insanely busy. Work, work travel, G's birthday & birthday party, 3 Christmases, 2 holiday parties, and 2 book clubs. All fun stuff but just NON STOP. Already looking forward to relaxing in January!

Happy Birthday, chiquita!

VarunaTT

@short+sassy That's just basic office knowledge at this point.  Who doesn't check their emails?  Usually the problem is checking emails outside of work.  I had a new employee I was training and b/c of her career path, she didn't know how to use Outlook.  I finally had to go to my boss and tell her, Look, I don't want to sound mean, but I can't train people on the basic tools we use for this office.  There are courses at the library she can take for free or we need to get her a class, but this is intensive training with a base level of knowledge that she should've been vetted about.  All to say, I feel for you, you shouldn't have to remind an employee to check their emails.

Went to a friend's for game night last night.  It was mostly fun.  We had a newbie to tabletop gaming and she was just too hard on herself for "not getting it" when she was perfectly fine.

I ordered a special DVD of the movie Hundreds of Beavers.  If you haven't seen it, I can't recommend it enough.  Its a black and white, silent, slapstick comedy like old Charlie Chapman movies, but it's interspersed with woodcut animation like Nightmare Before Christmas, with video game rules applied in the movie.  It's absolutely hysterical.  I saw it randomly at the movie theatre and was laughing so hard I was crying.  There wasn't any good point to go to the restroom and I almost peed my pants trying to find a time to run out with all the laughing.  Every friend I've shown it to has laughed, and loved it, as well.  It is on Amazon Prime now.  The first 15 minutes, it'll feel like, WTF am I watching, and then it really starts up and is hilarious.  The special DVD I bought has the makers doing 3 director's commentaries: Sober, Drunk, and (moderated) Trashed.  I can't wait for it to get her.

Otherwise, SSDD.  I wish it was Friday already.

ETA:  Supposed to be an alien invasion today, BTW.  I for one will bow to the new overlords, they can't be worse then TFG:  https://www.dexerto.com/youtube/did-joe-rogans-trump-interview-trigger-an-alien-invasion-viral-theory-explained-2996502/

banana468

Definitely agree @VarunaTT and @short+sassy.  The need to check your emails (and Teams messages) is office 101.   If this is software you are not familiar with and cannot familiarize yourself with quickly (I *get* that there can be a learning curve if you move from Lotus Notes to Outlook but this should be a short time) then this means hiring managers aren't vetting.  And if you get to the job and require nudging to do basic things that should be part of your daily operations then that's absolutely cause to address with a direct report.    

If I had a direct report that wasn't checking emails and had to be reminded this way I'd escalate to my manager so we can have a call, document it and then should it come up again we need to talk about probationary periods and/or a personal improvement plan. 

CharmedPam

This is all I could think of when you said that @short+sassy

charlotte989875

Adding tot the office frustration- I have salary, exempt employees (so no overtime pay, flex hours) and had someone skip a meeting that was scheduled at 8am because “it’s outside of the 9 to 5 work hours so I didn’t know I needed to go”. Didn’t ask if it was important he be there, didn’t ask why it was so early, just didn’t go. 

banana468

charlotte989875 said:

Adding tot the office frustration- I have salary, exempt employees (so no overtime pay, flex hours) and had someone skip a meeting that was scheduled at 8am because “it’s outside of the 9 to 5 work hours so I didn’t know I needed to go”. Didn’t ask if it was important he be there, didn’t ask why it was so early, just didn’t go. 

Ohhhhh that would annoy me. 

I will say that 8 AM meetings are the suck.  But if you're pulled into one then you go and at least raise the flag if it becomes an issue.

Also, 9-5 is only 8 hours.  So if you're insisting on that time frame as your working hours then 1, you miss the salary exempt point as the other expectation may be that you can duck at out 4 without repercussion when work is caught up but also, if you are repeatedly working that time then you aren't working an 8 hour day if you ever take a lunch. 

I'm assuming you're reclarifying work expectations and meetings? 

charlotte989875

banana468 said:

charlotte989875 said:

Adding tot the office frustration- I have salary, exempt employees (so no overtime pay, flex hours) and had someone skip a meeting that was scheduled at 8am because “it’s outside of the 9 to 5 work hours so I didn’t know I needed to go”. Didn’t ask if it was important he be there, didn’t ask why it was so early, just didn’t go. 

Ohhhhh that would annoy me. 

I will say that 8 AM meetings are the suck.  But if you're pulled into one then you go and at least raise the flag if it becomes an issue.

Also, 9-5 is only 8 hours.  So if you're insisting on that time frame as your working hours then 1, you miss the salary exempt point as the other expectation may be that you can duck at out 4 without repercussion when work is caught up but also, if you are repeatedly working that time then you aren't working an 8 hour day if you ever take a lunch. 

I'm assuming you're reclarifying work expectations and meetings? 

Yah it definitely sucks. And it’s not a regular thing, but my team is taking over a process that has to finish running by 9am Tuesday in order for other processes to work. This was the training for how to do it. 

Oh yes to the blondes. Repeatedly. 

short+sassy

banana468 said:

Definitely agree @VarunaTT and @short+sassy.  The need to check your emails (and Teams messages) is office 101.   If this is software you are not familiar with and cannot familiarize yourself with quickly (I *get* that there can be a learning curve if you move from Lotus Notes to Outlook but this should be a short time) then this means hiring managers aren't vetting.  And if you get to the job and require nudging to do basic things that should be part of your daily operations then that's absolutely cause to address with a direct report.    

If I had a direct report that wasn't checking emails and had to be reminded this way I'd escalate to my manager so we can have a call, document it and then should it come up again we need to talk about probationary periods and/or a personal improvement plan. 

@VarunaTT, a little similar to the coworker you mentioned.  This has not been his career path.  His career has been and still is, drafting.  That career uses very intense software programs, like AutoCad.  But apparently that doesn't translate well to using Excel and Adobe Writer, lol.

He's a guy who was already an employee here, but didn't have much work to do when I needed medium-term help.  That's it.  That's his qualification.  He knows how to use Outlook fine, so it isn't that.  He's just an "off" person who doesn't seem to have common sense or a good memory.

I put in my preferences for skills/experience, but I know I'm always going to be stuck with whomever has extra time.  It's just one of those situations where I occasionally have 3-6 months at a time where I need help.  But the rest of the time I don't.  My boss and the main client person I support have periodically kicked around the idea of hiring a f/t person for me.  But it ultimately doesn't make sense in the long run.

@banana468, He would never have been someone we hired new for this particular position.  I definitely hear what you are saying.  I told my boss about a month ago that I am limiting the training to just what will help me with the bulk of my work because he does that okay.  But he doesn't have the skills and experience to do the rest of it, without it being a lot of time for little reward.  And that was after I HAD already spent a ton of time showing him and having him do the other things.  The e-mail problems had only happened 1-2x at that point, so I didn't mention it.

NGL, I should say something but I am not going to.  As soon as we are done with the packages for this large project...and we are almost there...I won't need his help anymore.  I cannot wait for that day.  Most of the time, I can handle the urgent stuff that comes in and just have him do the medium/low priority packages.

He (D) doesn't know this because he wasn't part of the e-mail exchange.  But he showed himself in a bad light though, unfortunately that also threw me in a bad light.  I don't usually mention him because people don't need to know the details of "who is doing what".  But the Project Coordinator sucker-punched me last week Tues. afternoon with all these overdue/urgent packages she wanted completed.  The "overdue" part isn't usually on my end.  I replied back to her and my client managers that I'd checked with D and he was going to be in tomorrow (last Wed).  I would do ABC and he would do XYZ.  I gave timelines for everything.  Which ended up getting blown because D was MIA.

Two things were supposed to go out Wed. and did.  One was supposed to come from him, but they obviously both came from me.  But then the second part that goes out after approval, went out today instead of Mon.

She followed up about the other ones this morning and the client manager also replied asking if D is still supporting me.  I made a vague excuse that he had not been available until today and then gave her the status.  At least there had been some progress by the time I emailed her.  They did both go out today with D's help (phew).  But that didn't happen until the late afternoon.