Category Archive: the job

Sick days exist for a reason

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Fri. May 13, 2011

Took a sick day today. When I got up out of bed my gut cramping pretty badly, and I was light headed. I already had my work clothes on, but when I went to put on my shoes I had to spend a few moments leaning on the closet door to regain my sense of the vertical. I figured out pretty quickly that that was a side-effect of being severely dehydrated. Anyway, it was at that point that I had to give up and write to work saying that I wouldn’t come in. I spent a lot of the day sleeping and resting hoping that the symptoms would ease up. Still…nothing.

I remember the day before we my colleagues and I were discussing sick days. I’m of the opinion that taking sick days when necessary is an important thing. Presenteeism isn’t a good thing. When the body is aching, how can you focus? You can’t. And if you’ve got something contagious, there’s a good chance you’ll pass it on to someone else, and that would also hurt overall team productivity. We’re given sick days for a reason, right? And so here I am, recovering over something that’s really just horribly uncomfortable. Make it stop!

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On the edge of my seat

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Fri. April 29, 2011

I had a meeting scheduled earlier with my manager just to touch base and see how I’ve been doing over the past 2 months. Sure, I’ve thought about it here and there. How could I not? My personal opinion over the past while is that I’ve adjusted well and I’ve been doing all right. I think the word that I’ve been throwing about with regards to all that is renewed. It’s all fitting with that keyword of examination that I chose back in November to represent my focus for the next year. All the same, there was a part of me wondering if I’m fitting in well enough or doing enough work. It’s because of these thoughts that I’m glad I had a chance to talk to the manager. It seems that any growing pains have been factored in. Good sign, really. All of this makes me feel less and less like I’m on the edge of my seat, ready to be punted should I not be up to expectations. Actually, that would still be the case, no? I think it’s more the fact that I’m reassured that I do belong to the team. I am a valuable part, and will grow more and more valuable as I settle in. Gosh, what a comforting thought.

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Caring about what I do

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Tue. April 26, 2011

I often claim that I’m not the most tech-minded person. I don’t like reading about new emerging technologies in my spare time. When I used to commute by transit, unlike other colleague I wouldn’t spend it boning up on tech skills. No, I prefer to keep my focus narrow to the skills I need to get my work done. That said, I tend to become really good with the skills that I do use. From how I describe things it almost seems like I don’t really give a rat’s ass about what I do for a living. Of course, if you claim such things then you really don’t know me at all, right? No, I just prefer not to clutter my mind with skills that aren’t applicable to anything I’m expected to do. I mean, why? There’s no way I can gather in depth knowledge about anything and everything. Better to do what I do really well and learn new necessary things as I go along instead of having hazy knowledge on anything that might possibly come up.

Ultimately, if there’s nothing I don’t know how to do all I have to do is ask. That’s one thing I’ve learned: don’t be afraid to ask for help. So much time can be wasted just fiddling around with things that people may have already addressed in the past. I’m not saying that someone should rely on others to get work done all the time. There’s a balance to be had. For example, over the past day or two I’ve been having trouble getting some code to function properly. This past afternoon I had a bit of a eureka moment and fixed one of the issues I was having. I was psyched! See! If I didn’t care about my field would I be able to derive such joy from something like that?

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Behind the 8-ball

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Wed. April 13, 2011

One small perk that I’ve been enjoying at my new workplace is the existence of a pool table in the lounge. At home, I’ve always wanted a pool table. It’s just never been a possibility. Even in our old house, as much as we could have had room for one in the basement, I couldn’t really impose my want, especially since my parents needed the room for other things. So, opportunities to play have been rare. Still, something has always intrigued me about the game. There’s just something beautiful about it. Played well, it’s all about hitting the correct angles. Chances to play have been few and rare for me, and my skill level leaves much to be desired.

Anyway, over the past few weeks, on breaks I’d occasionally play games of 8-ball with my colleagues. Over the first few games I had to adjust and relearn how to play. Now that I’ve adjusted, I’m not doing so badly. I’ve gotten pretty good at analyzing and hitting required angles. With a fair bit of focus, I tend to win. I have a decent track record against my colleagues. Now that I have a good record, there seems to be a little bit of pressure that I’m putting on myself to continue to do well. I have a small rep to maintain, no?

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Equation for trouble

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Tue. March 29, 2011

We’ve eaten out every single day at work since I’ve come here.

Compound that with the fact that we’ve got people visiting from the overseas office.

In the end, that equals weight gain.

Graaaaaaaagh

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Eating the world

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Tue. March 22, 2011

Anyone could probably go on about how you can find any type of nationality of food if you know where to look here in Toronto. Such a person would probably be right. Over the past week or so I’ve been eating out, kind of out of necessity because we have some people visiting in office that don’t have a vehicle, and it’s somewhat tough to get to many places without driving. In order to stave off food-boredom we’ve been trying to hit different places. Across the street we had Chinese once or twice and Japanese on a different day. Last week we tried Italian, and today was Vietnamese. It wasn’t until it was drawn to our attention that we realized: there’s really a proliferation of Asian restaurants in the north end of the city. It makes sense since there’s a heavy concentration of people of Asian descent up there, but wow. I mean, going back to what I said in the first sentence, this is a city that takes pride in its multicultural fabric. You’d think we’d be able to hit more varied places, no? Need to try harder.

{ Was so proud. Thought I submitted this one early. Turns out I didn’t hit submit. Oops. }

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Outgrowing the shell

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Sat. March 19, 2011

Took a stroll around my old work neighbourhood today. I took away two observations. First, spring is definitely coming. People were milling about the city making it feel vibrant again. It’s alive! Secondly, having been absent for one month it feels totally odd walking around those parts again. It’s like I’m no longer part of the fabric. I feel like an outside observer. Even seeing one small change in the storefronts was enough to make me feel like a stranger. Got a haircut at my favourite place. Got a cup of tea from my favourite tea shop. Both were kind of comforting. Well, as much as the familiar made me feel at ease, there’s no need to make it a daily thing. It’s like a hermit crab outgrowing its shell. Time to move on.

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Dormant skills

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Fri. March 18, 2011

I have a lot of dormant skills and interests. Really, I think that’s true of everyone. It’s just a matter of whether we acknowledge them or not. Back in the day I was sort of interested in web design. In the old job though it became a source of aggravation. I guess somewhere along the way I fell out of love. So why is my interest being awoken? I’m sure part of it is the new job and the fact that it uses some of these skills but in a less pressured way (thus far). Also, there are some improv-related ventures that I’m pursuing. As a stakeholder of one of the ventures I’ve taken it upon myself to play around with building a website. I’m making it sound important, but really it’s just an excuse to play around with my skills. I mean, I’m amazed at how much you can build with HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and JQuery. I’m not claiming that I’m one of those web-wizards that can code one of those tight pages that just flows. I’m not there yet, but I’m learning. I need to ride this wave of interest while it lasts.

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