_zemlet.com_news_
Wednesday, March 10, 2004
Galadriel: "And some things that should not have been forgotten were lost."
I found my cell-phone charger in "the most unlikely of places": Jonathan's office. My apologies to everyone who tried to call me to no avail. Another thing preventing my connection to the outside world is that I work in a large office pyramid that, like a reinforced parking garage, only allows me a weak signal. During the day, it is best to reach me using my direct office line. I'm actually paid to answer that, unlike my home phone.
Speaking of getting paid, my new job is going good- very busy! In the long haul, it will be a better opportunity for me than my last job and it is certainly much more challenging. In a way, that is good- it stimulates me more, that's for sure- but it is also bad. About once a week, I find myself missing my old easy job. I had my old job down to a science, but it was boring at times and I worked far far too many hours and often felt on my own and out on a limb writing proposals nobody in the company had time to read or give input to. They trusted me to write scopes of work, which would shock the fellahs here. (None of this applies to the 5000 department, by the way, you were always perfect :-)
My good days here are when the challenge has to do with marketing- dragging bits of information to the surface to be crafted into a strategic message. My bad days are when the challenge has to do with management, which feels like walking through quicksand in a large company like this. I am often reminded of my old big-company days at Osmonics (which was infinitely more organized) filled with Kathy's and Miriam's. There is even a Dale here- nicest lady, very smart and happy, works in accounting, married her high school sweetheart, never moved out of her home town, etc! We were driving to lunch the other day and saw her walking and she came along, which worked out very well. We went to Zheng Long, my favorite restuarant in Walnut Creek.
I'm also learning a formalized approach to the business development process. This is stuff I was pretty much doing already, but structured. It is funny, at Osmonics they had a documented process for everything, except BD, while here there are no proceedures for admin or anything else. At least not that I can discern. Oh how I long for the document logs of CMA!!! Welp, I'll just have to have my own document logs for my department .
The similarities to Osmonics? Well, filters, for one. I should have paid more attention when they talked about US Filter and Desal and all that. Another similarity was women who have a chip on their shoulder becuase they have "no middle initial". At CMA I really liked almost everyone, and I certainly liked all the women who worked there- each smart and dedicated to their jobs. They weren't at the office to gossip and leave at 4:45 when the boss wasn't looking- they thought of the company instead of their own agendas and made contributions accordingly. Great contrast to the women here.
Here, I come back from lunch to discover the Admin Lead whispering with an EE about how I don't deserve the office I'm in. At first I decided to rise above this and dimiss it as the gossip of idle minds. Why should I care if they think I deserve the office I'm in? After all, my boss, her boss and the Area Manager seem to think I do, so that should be enough for me. But it still bothered me, like I have to prove myself to them, so they understand -why- I deserve a large room on "Executive Alley" with new furniture and paint. (That's right, I haven't had an office this nice since Able- I'll post photos once I get the paintings up on the walls.)
I realized later the story behind this episode, and no longer think it reflects on how good a job I'm doing, etc, so I feel better. LC was the office manager- she has worked here for over 15 years and had a nice office in a prime location. LC decides to go on a trip for a year, taking off from work, but vowing to return, with the caveat that if anything moved an inch in her office, there would be hell to pay. MT is charged with managing the admin staff in her absence. Logic would dictate that MT would sit in LCs office while she was gone, but LC made it clear that it should await her return and MT should sit in an open area, not even a cube, in full sight of the office she doesn't get. Two weeks after all this is deicded and LC leaves for vacation, her office is cleaned out for me. OK, you're MT. Wouldn't you complain from time to time that some young, new person got the office that should have gone to you, in your mind? So that explains that.
There is so much going on in addition to the new job and new house... I'm leaving tomorrow for a trip to Washington State where I'll be staying at the hotel they filmed Twin Peaks at-- oooh ahhh. After that we have a bridge tournament Saturday night and Halo all day Sunday. Then, we finally bring the baby home. (That's right, our X-box has languished too long in Seattle and needs to come back to California where it BELONGS.)
I finished David Brin's "Glory Season" and finally got around to reading "Da Vinci Code," so now I'm in that club. I loved both those books and read them almost nonstop until they were complete. What else... Tonight I have my last Owl class- that's right I took a series of classes called "Owls: Birds of Mystery... Birds of Doom". It included several classroom seesions, yes, I dissected a pellet, and at one point we had to turn out the lights and do our owl impressions, "Who cooks for YOU?" "Who's Awake? ME TOO" AND I went on several field excursions, where I saw many raptors, including hawks and owls. I thought I would be really bad an birdwatching with my less than perfect eyesight, but I was actually pretty good. Whenever someone said Ohh did you see that Red Tailed Hawk? I always had seen it. It is all about being totally into watching for things and stretching out your perceptions, just like how Luke destoryed the Death Star. I've seen four Barn Owls (!) and a Great Horned Owl AND two Burrow Owls. (Jumping Jesus on a Pogo stick! Everybody knows a Burrow Owl lives in a hole in the ground! Why do you think they call it a Burrow Owl, anyway?!"
AND last night I went over to Tivo (very cool offices, all their conference rooms are named after TV shows: Dragnet, Star Trek, Flipper, etc) and played my first games of Texas Holdem poker. MAN, I never thought I would like that in a Million Years! I had so much fun and didn't think about work for 6 hours straight. The next day my boss came in and we compared how we felt. After the bad day yesterday, she'd worried and lost a lot of sleep, I didn't worry, but I lost a lot of money. (I did, however, beat Jonathan and a few others in both tournaments- ha!!)
.: posted by Zemlet 3:49 PM
|
