Monday 15 June 2009

The Week Ahead...

So it appears I can post from work now?

The excuses will be harder to come by...

I'm going to try and keep a diary of my work week - apparently, from a health manual issued by the company's Occupational Health Dept last week, I show all the signs of being stressed out.

I'm by no means unique in that - I want to make that abundantly clear - however it was a bit of an eye-opener seeing it in print in a document the company went to some trouble to produce.

As an aside, the booklet is called 'Male Minder' a cunning pune or play on words given that we work for the Post Office. My boss said that she had gotten one too. I asked if the company had produced a 'lady version' and wondered what they had called it, but no, it was the same one. Seems everyone is getting it, regardless of gender, which seems egalitarian until you consider that it covers such topics as 'Prostate Health' and 'Erectile Dysfunction' in addition to 'Coping with Stress'.

But you didn't need to know that.

So what am I doing this week?

Let's see:

Monday - getting rid of half a ton of scrap in the form of old hard drives. We have a contractor coming to turn them into tinfoil, but someone still has to help load the truck. Must observe OHD guidelines on lifting things. I'm also scheduled to get a new MS Vista laptop as part of our technology refresh program.

Tuesday - troubleshooting a date/time synchronisation issue with one of our main applications. I have four months to come up with a solution but I don't like to leave things hanging too long. Training in Windows Vista (ahahaha...).

Wednesday - a breakfast briefing in new technology at the Four Seasons Hotel. Coffee and croissants, which I like, but having to wear a tie, which I don't. HP will try to sell me their new server tech, and Microsoft will be pushing Internet Explorer 8. I'm not easily impressed, but I don't have a budget, so I'll take their pastries. I also prefer Firefox.

Thursday - meetings with project managers to persuade them that their business-critical applications need to go SAN-based and even virtual. It's a project we're putting a lot into, so it's important to get them on board. I'm actually sort of looking forward to it, but my enthusiasm may diminish as we go on.

Friday - as little as possible. We make no changes on Fridays, since any cock-ups can eat into the weekend, and that's just not on.

Also, I'm on 24-hour call this week, so anything can happen.

Stay tuned for further updates as the week progresses.

2 comments:

PJ said...

I'm having to do a work diary too, starting tomorrow, as I've complained about having to do overtime, and my boss wants me to show what I'm doing each day... I have an ominous feeling about this, but I think I'll end up proving my point.

I wouldn't mind looking at that Male Minder, sounds like a good read.

Hope your stress isn't chronic.

Captain Incredible said...

I wouldn't be surprised about the diary - I bet you work to the job, not the clock, so you're probably one of the last to leave in the evening?

I work in an understaffed office - we need a team strength of about nine, but we're seven, and of those, one is a contractor on a renewable term, one is on a two-year college graduate contract that may not be renewed and one is an engineer from our service provider who does three days out of five.

Knowledge transfer is something that happens to other people so we specialise, which means if someone's out and something goes pear-shaped, well, you get the idea...

As to whether it's chronic, I couldn't say. I think I get a break for a couple of weeks a year - I'll have to check :)

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