Need to return to the Office?

 

Property of Stormberry

In an opinion article in the Washington Post, I read today how a CEO was explaining why returning to the office - when possible, I guess - was better than remaining working from home. The author explained how younger people prefer working from the office instead of doing it from home, since they usually live with parents and so it's not ideal (or something on that line), while, older workers perfer to work from home because they hae their own homes and are more cozy there. Those were not the exact words, but kind of the idea of it.

There are also, other positives added to working at the office that you can't replicate when you work from home, such as talking in person, forming a relationship with you coworkers by daily working around them, mentoring, new workers learning from the old ones, celebrating birthdays and so on.

I've been working from home for a year now - actually more than a year - and in my opinion, those are not things I necessarily miss. For me, office birthdays have always been a struggle because  it's uncomfortable to stand around, with a hand full of greasy cake on a thin napkin, sing and pretend to get along with everybody like we are all such a great team, when that's not so with all of them. I have been lucky to have great coworkers, but still, in the greater groups - those that meet for birthdays, there are always cliques.

At the office, for a while now, we had been celebrating birthdays separated from the rest, because my team likes to do things "our own way". That means, more expensive. So yes, a year with no $50 to $100 birthday bills every two months is something I can live without.

We still do mentoring, so I don't think that's something that needs you to be there, and with the different platforms that allow you to share your screen, I think mentoring has become much easier than before, when the mentoree had to peer over your shoulder.

Interruptions are also far less frequent, and it's easier to find people at their desks, unlike in the office-days, when someone could have gone for coffee and stayed talking with others while you really needed to talk to them for an urgent matter and nobody knows where they are. This also means - in my experience - that people shirk from work less.

A major plus for me about the work-from-home is the drop in office gossip, or at least in the effect it has on your mental health. People is no longer dropping by, or listening behind the boss' door, and there are no more mean comments about how you look or how you are repeating your wardrobe every two weeks.

Then, the biggest plus, from my perspective, is the significant drop in certain types of harrassment. Though mobbing manages to survive, and it can get really pervasive (though the electronical media allows you to record it better, and it's not just something said in the air that nobody can prove), the sexual harrassment has dropped (at least where I work), because people can't sit too close to you, touch you, push their way into your cubicle and not leave, wait for you around the elevators or the bathrooms, and so on. Other types of harrassment - for which I don't have the words - like those people pushing to be friends with you, or those who push and push for you to listen to their whatever sad stories because they want you to give them money or so... those have dropped as well.

Now, I say "dropped" not as in based in statistical studies, but from what I have experienced and what some of my colleagues tell me.

Yes, I understand there are things that can only happen when you work in an office, just as there are things that can be achieved or obtained only if you work from home. It's an exchange.

In the opinion article, the author brings as example the case of a young worker they know personally, who choose a work were they went to the office instead of a work-from-home option. Then, this is a personal choice matter, assuming there were no other matters that weighted into this decision. However, I believe that this global pandemic has also brought a wave of change about how we live. Will we go back to our office towers or not, or whether we will find a new ways to work is yet to be determined. Lamenting for the missed office birthdays is weird, when you think about the social distancing, face masks might not be a reason to work back to the office.

Change is comming, and it's better to start preparing so we can do the best of it.

Things That Tilt My Head

Originally I was thinking about sharing my two cents on the topic of vaccines and the so-called anti-vaxxers, but then I decided to go personal again and share instead a tidbit about my life and the things that happen in it. Ain't like I'm an expert on vaccines anyway, nor do you read me for it, right? Well, if you read me, which aparently you do. And why there are so many people from Russia reading me? "Drugi", you have the wrong person. I'm not based in the USA, I do not represent their thinking, and I don't think I can give you any information for anything you may need. But that's beyond the point.

So, the thing is that at my job you can - technically - request a differenciated workschedule called "flexible schedule". This basically means that you request starting your workday at a different time, and so end it at a different time. You still put in the same 9:36 hours, but instead of doing it in the regular schedule (from 7:00h to 16:36h), you can start at 6:00h, 6:30h, or 7:30h. In our group only two people held that schedule, because our boss basically doesn't like it when people don't stay at the office all the way until 16:36h. Many years ago I had the 6:00-to-15:36 schedule, but they I had some moves in the company and was moved back to the 7:00-to-16:36.

The two people who have the flexible schedules - lets call them Ally and Ben - Ally has a schedule from 6:30-to-16:00, while Ben had the 6:00-to-15:36 schedule. Since I was on the 7:00-to-16:36, I noticed that each time the boss wasn't around, both Ally and Ben were leaving the office at 15:00, and sometimes even earlier. This has been going on for years. Now, this story is about Ben, so let's concentrate on him, shall we?

There are no particular reasons why Ben "should have a claim" to get the flexible schedule above other coworkers, so it was taken like, you know, he asked for it first or something. He does have elderly parents and one of them has dementia, so they have to take care of them and all that. But as far as I know, Ben has four older kids that don't work, a housewife wife and around seven siblings. Anyway, aparently, he gets the schedule and the "special treatment" because of his ailing relative. In this my general attitude is: "Not my circus, not my monkeys".

Ben and I had a fallout sometime by the end of last year, which has been so good to me. You see, Ben is the kind of person that's always on the lookout to get things out of others. Free rides, free meals, free snacks... it doesn't matter what it is, if he can get it for free, he will get it. He even goes as far as ask you for free stuff if you have once shared something with him. Let me give you an example: say one day you make too much coffee for yourself (I brew my own coffee in a French Press. Our group has a "coffee comitee", but there had been so much drama in it (involving Ben), that I rather not get myself into that and make my own coffee), so you offer it TO THE GROUP, if anyone wants the extra cup you made. Ben offers to take it. Then, the next day, Ben will tell you that your coffee was really, good, so would you please make an extra cup again for him? So yes, that's Ben.

The fallout was inconsecuential, really, basically about some tought times we were having at the office. I was dealing with it by keeping to myself, but he was dealing by wallowing in everybody's mysery. He wanted me to share and tell him how awful I felt, and would not take my no for an answer.  When I finally raised my voice and told him to fuck the fuck off, he took offense and stopped talking to me ever since. It was divine. He never again came begging for food or any other thing.

Source: Google.com
Goethe Zentrum

So, the thing is that, as you know, I'm taking German lessons after work. Not everyday, but still. I was going to one of the languages centers Goethe Institute has here, for about two years, with a rather convenient schedule. Then, for this period I had to switch centers (still with the Goethe!) and that meant not only a different schedule, but a longer conmute time. In the light of that, I talked to my boss and explained him that I needed the flexible schedule, specifically the 6:00-to-15:36 one. While the schedule change was approved (it's approved by semester), I asked him permission to leave early the days I had classes.

I didn't mean to, but I overheard when my boss told Ben that he would have to take the 6:30-to-16:00 schedule (the same Ally has), because he was giving me the 6:00-to-15:36 one. No, so far I know, there's no rule forbidding more than one person from having the same schedule, as it is proven now by Ally and Ben having the same schedule. He simply accepted. To be honest, this got me thinking that my boss wasn't buying that story of him having to tend to his ailing relative.

Anyway, comes the new semester, and I still have to wait for my schedule switch to be approved (it was being handled like a new request), and Ben is already in his 6:30-to-16:00, when out of the blue he comes to talk to me, like we are intimate or something, and asks me if I could GIVE HIM three of my five days with the 6:00-to-15:36 schedule, because it ain't like I need them anyway, only one or two days for classes. He claimed he talked about it with the boss, and it was the boss that told him to ask me for the switch. Allegedly, he needed to be home early to put his ailing relative in bed, and this relative needed to be in bed by 16:00, so all the cleaning and tending had to happen earlier. (Conmute to where we live takes around 35 minutes in the afternoon...)

I was inclined - out of the hardly ever seen goodness of my heart, to give him one, max two days of my schedule, out of consideration for his family, which he seemed to resent because he wanted three days... but would take anything. I did had a nagging feeling, so I consulted with friends, and it turns out we could not swap schedules, or we risked having them taken away. I told him so the next day, and that he should be careful (aiming at his routinely escapades). He played the victim and then proceeded to lie in my face about how he was so hard working, and he always stayed longer, and maybe even leaving the office 5 minutes early. Like I have never seen him leave an hour before he should. Like I have not been a witness to him never making it to his actual end-of-workday hour.

It seems that he whined to the boss, so the next semester I'll get the 6:30-to-16:00 and he gets the 6:00-to-15:36, which is no biggie for me, because then again I'll ask weekly permits to attend classes, if I have to. However, after this I have found myself paying attention to Ben, to what he does, and I've realized that - for someone so devoted to his family that he needs a special schedule to attend them - he spends way too much time on the phone tending other personal businesses, pertaining to some lawsuits, car sales, property sales and other business making, that have nothing to do with taking care of a person with dementia, nor what he has been hired here to do. And he isn't even being subtle about it. As compensation for having his "rightful schedule" taken away, he has been taken to resource to more permits, and what appears to be bogus meetings outside the building, in order to cover up for leaving home early - tricks he has learned with Ally.

I mind my own business - circus, monkeys and all that - but really, Ben's behavior is as subtle as a tarantula on a while wall. This makes me wonder why did he even bother bitching about the schedule when he's not going to change his behavior and will keep escaping from the office earlier. When it has become clear that the boss isn't buying his story about the doting son.

This is when I wonder if shamelessness really knows no limits.

Office Rules

The other day I came around an interesting article by Steve Blakeman, through LinkedIn about stupid office rules. The piece was titled "6 Stupid Office Rules That Should Be Banned", so of course I started reading it, only to discover, to my dismay, why some of them wouldn't be banned. Mr. Blakeman did his article on the footsteps of another article listing more stupid rules, so this little post could almost become the post-post-post of the topic, though let's be honest, ever since the begining of times, many office rules have been considered stupid and people have been complaining about them since complains have been invented. Anyway, the six stupid rules are the following:

1. Banning the Use of Social Media

2. Inflexible Working Hours

3. Excruciating e-mail Policies

4. Stopping the Use of Smartphones

5. Draconian Dress Code

6. "One Size Fits All" Performance Evaluations

Now, you look at the rules... and I wonder which of these are applied at your workplaces. A my job we have the #2, some offices have the #1 and there's a measure of #5... and I think that's it. I'm yet to see a place that applies #4, other than Intel, where I know that phones that can take photos are banned from the production area. The #3 used to be enforced, but not the way described by the article, and, well, #6 only applies to bosses. So, let me tackle these the best I can.

Fighting Social Networks

The problem with social networks is that they consume a lot of time from people. Mostly the younger employees who get completely engrossed with their phones and they also happen to be paying more attention to their screens that to the meeting they are attending. Now, on one side, that's a modern phenomenon, something these kids have grown into as their parents, from early age, found it easier to sit them down before the TV to keep them quiet and out of the way rather than find them something to do or spend time with them. Well, this is what you get. However, there's something else here in play. First, you can't close out your employees from the social networks during office hours because these platforms are in their phones, so they'll have access to them 24/7, whether you like it or not. Second, has anyone thought about the quality of the job asked from the employee or what the employee actually has to do? Sadly, a lot of place hardly ever take advantage of the employees full potential, and more than once either keep them idle at the office or load them with some sort of unimaginative, mechanic work, that forces their brains to escape to more amusing occupations.

Same happens with meetings. A lot of people loath going to meetings because often it becomes a plaform for some people to extend on talking about nothing, or the topics are not involving or open for discussion. Indeed, there are people that like big gatherings and invite a lot of people for meetings where they have nothing to add to the discussion. Those people will get bothered, and if they have a phone or a computer close, they'll try and get some sort of amusement to pass the time. You could ban social networks or smartphones, but people will still go on distracting themselves with something else. Banning all distractions isn't the solution, for you should attack the root, the lack of involvement of your employees, not what they do to avoid falling asleep.

Rigid Workhours

Should these really be banned? The thing goes as follows: you have a schedule when you start working, and in some places you need to stick to that schedule more than at others. If you work in shifts, you need to keep your workhours. At offices, maybe you could argue that you don't need workhours, but think of the following: often at the office, you have some tasks assigned, but then, out of the blue, you could be called to attend a meeting where you need to explain something you did, or assist at something you know about. A set schedule isn't only about the time during which youdo the job or tasks you are required to do, but also signals the period through which you are available for your company for other jo related tasks.

I've seen people often complain about stiff workhours, and though I agree it's a pety thing to go on counting minutes, I wonder if those bitching would actually be able to perform on a task-based working system. I mean, think of your working year: it usually has ups and downs, right? Some months are heavier, others are slower. If you assume that your working schedule would be based on it, on heavy months you would have to spend 13 hours or more at the office, while on slow months you'd spend 4 hours per day. For the same payment? Well, it sounds unfair to be paid the same for 4 hours or 13, right? So that may have to change. Paid less for 4 hours, more for 13.

If this goes on, your could end up being hired only for projects, not always by the same company. Now, this sounds good for some, but do think about the forces of the market playing here. As you grow old, do you think you'd be able to work and find work just like the younger generations? Some people would think they could and that their experience will be their advantage... well, more power to them. Specially in a world where "experience" is being quickly replaced by "actualized knowledge". But far be it from me to burst your bubble.

Set workhours are not an evil, and if you pay attention, they could also work in your favor. If you don't have a set schedule, then you could get to the office at 8 am, and work until 5 pm, expecting to leave for your classes, pick up the kids or something, but thenm if your boss showed for work at 11 am, they might expect you to attend to a meeting at 6.30 pm, with no extra hours paid for it.

The real problem at offices with set schedules is when they are set only for a some people, and let loose for others. This, again, isn't a problem with the rules, but a problem that the management can solve.

E-Mail Policies

Back in the day people were fond of sending forwards. Back in the day, the capacity of servers was also much more limited, so in that sense it may have made sense. I guess people can have some leeway with their work e-mails though not much is needed as people's personal e-mail accounts are already at their fingertips on their phones. Keeping work e-mails for work makes sense, actually, and also makes sense from the personal side of it. All e-mails sent and received to a work address belong to the company, so do you really want your company to have hold of your love letters, your gossip and your check balances?

Ban The Smartphone

Really? There are places like that?

Dress Code

Now, this depends entirely on the given dress code and how it is applied. A dress code isn't only about the corporative image you'll project, but also a way to help people fit it. Now, some might be stupid, like stipulating the allowed lenght of skirts, but others that might seem stupid may actually be smart. I used to work at a bank where you couldn't wear boots nor white pants or white skirts. The reason was that you could hide money in your boots, so that avoided the humiliating search, and since you were around lots of printed paper and money, white pants and skirts would get dirty soon. A white shirt could be covered with a blazer and still look elegant, but what do you do with a stain on a pant?

Then, there's the case of the people who don't have the same framework we do about what's proper work clothing and what's not. Though jeans might be a fringe case (and I love jeans, though I can only wear them on Fridays when I'm working), there are others that are not. It's not uncommon the case of the assistant or secretary who actually believes she can come to work in skimpy, tight and whorish clothing. I've seen in some places that some lady coworkers come dressed like they just came back from partying all night, or like they are planning on compensating their paycheck by "walking the street" right after work. There's one secretary I saw once that was so vulgar I actually thought "damned, so companies do hire whores to entertain important clients/providers". This sort of dressing issue isn't exclusive of females with whorish-dressing tendencies, but also of males who either want to be surfers or hobos or think that the office is the place to express how much they love hard metal music, or even to show off their allegedly super-sexy physiques.

The thing about the dress code is to put people in a similar environment ruled by a similar attitude towards work: work isn't a place where you come to hang out with friends to chat about your likes, nor is it a place to hook up. Work is a place where you... well... work.

As long as a dress code isn't about a particular style, but about a guideline, it's ok. You can be asked to wear a suit everyday, but you shouldn't be asked to wear an Armani suit everyday.

Performance Evaluations

This is more of a Human Resources thing, and in a way, I agree that all employees should be evaluated on certain similar basis, such as if you've completed all of your assigned tasks, and if they were completed to satisfaction and so on. In here the matter is also about the previous work the office should do to regulate your workload and the qualification of it, and that's the part that doesn't happen. It's not the same if you are assigned to a huge task and can't finish it in a year because it depends on other people and not everybody completed their part while someone else got 10 easy tasks, like sending follow up messages.

A performance evaluation should come within a set of clear rules and standards, as well as the proper commitment from your superiors about assigning you tasks in a constant, planned manner, valuating them and so on. Making yearly work plans might help if they don't stay only on paper, which sadly often happen as well.

Well, from my previous little "dissecting" of the rules, it might come through that the evil isn't in the rules themselves but how often are they enforced. When rules are set because "rules need to be set" but they are not properly enforced, or are sadly applied in places where the management expect the employees to do all the legwork and them only to enjoy the success, well, they won't work and only generate discomfort. Office rules are much like the laws of a country: they worth nothing and are only a nuissance if you don't set as well the proper framework for them to funtion.

Stand Up For Yourself

At one point I must have fallen over to the other side of Alice's mirror, because things around me can't possibly be this crazy. Here I stand, trying to make sense of the insanity around me but nothing seems to fit. To put it simple, I'm working at this department where we have quite a simple job, nothing really mindblowing. Get the requests from A, pass them to B or pass them to our different sources, get the replies, fit them into one coherent reply and then send it back to A. Over and over again. We don't work with anyone's requests other than A's. We are the portal through which A talks to us. In my opinion, it's a little much to make a whole department to talk to A, but hey, this is how this rolls.

Within this department there have been several issues from far before I've got here. Nothing all that exceptionally, no massive coworker suicides due to stress or anything of the sort, it's just simply some turmoil (quite contained, if you ask me) result of adding a small sphere of tasks and poor managing. Some would say that's also a result of creating an area with the rejects of other departments, but I won't stand for that because I can't vouch for that information. Anyhow, a year ago this exploded into a "situation" with Human Resources intervention and everything, which was quite poorly managed. There was a whole mixing and twsiting of the results, and in the end, The Powers That Be decided to "make something about it", and took a peculiar road for it: instead of actually solving what was the problem, decided to walk around it and make the problem "everybody's problem" (but that who's problem really is), and came up with a series of projects aimed to divert the attention, but also to serve as escape goats once it's proven that they don't work. What am I saying? Yes, well, it's like A is bullying B and C, and so B and C complain and they make a research and the result says that F bullies B and C. So A decided that, in order to solve B and C, they should do "team spirit building" activities and force them to take part of some activities A decided work for that. All the while A keeps bullying them, and says that if they have anything to complain about is because they are not doing their activities, thus is their fault.

Naturally, this will lead to things to explode and become uglier in the medium run. Actually even in the short run as a lot of people have been forced into these activities, me included, and that will never, EVER end up right. As usual, it seems I'm always the brave of the pack, so I didn't conform. I wasn't going to raise the fight around this, but I made sure to make my stance clear: I'm not volunteering into the activities, I'm being forced. It was a situation where you "had to volunteer" to something, and if you "have to", it's no longer volunteer. If it's no longer wolunteer, then that should be clear, so no one can later be told "but you choose that, you could have not chosen that". Yes, I've experience in this type of crap. So I stood my ground on this, and in the end I achieved the unthinkable: I've got out of the activities. Not without being unfairly labeled, but at least the result was what I wanted: my will was respected.

Today that was made clear for my boss, and she didn't like it. The bullying started all over again. What impressed me most is that she insisted that the single act of unsuscribing from this activities was enough to brand me as an impossible person and diminish the quality of my job. Why? Have I not done my job so far? Has not been my job that of the top most quality? Have I not uphold deadlines? Am I not thorough? Am I not on top of everything? Am I not available at any moment to talk about it? Have I failed in my job in any way? Has there ever been a complain about my job in any way? I'm on the highest level of quality, highest level of accomplishment, I top the expectations regarding analysis, how could that be trampled by some stupid, self-serving "volunteer" little charade? If so, and I told her, this is not a place for me. I meant the area, but she spoke as if I meant the company. I was blunt, made it clear: I have open doors in other departments.

To my horror she asked me if I ever felt "passionate" about the job I do here. As if expecting me to say that yes, what I do here is a chore and I have pleasure from it. I told her that yes, I need my figures, I need my formulas because I'm used to work with things that passionate me, things that drive me, things that I believe in, that make sense. I'm not here simply to spend my time on whatever stupid thing they dish at me and collect my paycheck at the end of the month.

Now she knows: I'm ready to leave, and I will.

The lesson I learned today is that your principles, your values may not be understood by others. The sense of satisfaction from knowing you are wholesome, that your integrity is without stain, that you are honest, that you stay true to your believes is something a lot of people can't comprehend. Whatever your principles, whatever your values, you know what? Only you need to understand them, and when someone questions you about them because they want to undermine them and make you bow to their lesser standards, all you need to do is let them talk, smile and say "and yet I stay true to myself".

I may be branded with a Scarlet Letter, a P for proud or an N for negative, and I'll wear that letter with pride as a symbol of my fight, my honor and my Integrity: I won't sell out, I will stand to my believes, I won't be a part of a charade because that's what's expected of me. I will fight.

Printer

Offices are little micro environments where the megalomaniac personalities of some create a macro chaos. Irrational bosses are often a source of trouble, or a problematic coworker, but it also happens that the secretary (who insists on being called "Assistant") who has a boss complex creates problems of sizes otherwise unbelievable. In here we've had an assistant such - let's call her Norma - who for a while had the support of a director, and thus applied her very personal reign of terror. She made it her work to check on everybody's entry and leaving time, buying on the office budget quite expensive equipment to keep tags on people. Money has flown quite freely regarding supplies for the secretaries, new laptops, laptop bags, snacks for the director and so on. Then, suddenly costs had to be cut (there was never a report indicating what was the budget and what was the amount spent on "trouble areas"), and said cuts got to the printers. This was bad because there was only one big printer - the one she used - and everybody else had small printers on their desks - even her. It was decided that nobody would get any more supplies for the printers - but the printers weren't even removed from our desks and our care, and sent to someone who could use them. Nobody was told in advance, so that we could use the printers as much as we could, but simply one day we weren't given any more ink or paper.

We all had to print at the big printers, except her who kept her desk printer. Oh well, we did, and a lot of problems came out of that. Paper went out way too fast, people took away other people's printed documents, some threw them away, others just gathered there forgotten... and soon there was much more printing than before, add to it, with a much more expensive printer.

Then the director recently got retired, but it's like Norma never got the memo. As if still empowered by the director, she continued her dictatorial rantings, going then to the point where she banned everybody from the printers and decided that only the secretaries will print. She, of course, didn't say a thing, she just had it done, so over night important documents couldn't be printed out because there was no printing! The reason? There's a lot of people printing personal stuff on the office printers, and the costs are high.

This time the office reacted furiously sending out e-mails about the measure, and who does she think she is to make such decisions, not talking it over with nobody and not informing anyone of her decisions. She bicthed back saying that costs need to be cut and a lot of people abuse of the printer. Now really? She's the first to print out every silly, personal thing she has, she uses the company vehicles and the driver to run her personal errands... and now you can't print out a note because it might be personal?

From the quarrel it came out that she plans to buy a software that allows her to identify who prints what and so have an idea of what is the printer being used for, and who are the ones printing the most. Dude, with the desk printers EVERYBODY HAS you have that without buying a software. You simply count how much paper and ink people is requesting. That simple.

It's just amazin how there's people who love to bitch about the others and control them, but can't control themselves.

Sometimes We Are Really Busy...

... and I am REALLY, REALLY busy, and I shouldn't be blogging, but I can't stop myself. I need just a minute or two, a couple of sentences to micro-vent. I'm quite busy working, which is good. Which isn't good is that this job I'm doing is because the people who were SUPPOSED to do it didn't do it.  Add to it, it's the the same sorry ass team I had so many issues with last year, as I TRIED to teach them how to ACTUALLY write a SENTENCE, not only in Spanish, but in ANY HUMAN LANGUAGE! You know, like "Um, this sentence should have a subject, you know? And like... point towards what's that subject doing?". Now they present yet another bullshit... crap that's titled "report", which has statistics without clearly stating the units (is it money? is it minutes? is it a ratio? is it an event?), but the tables make no sense, and their statements go on the line "we really need to do this, because if we want to be super-duper invincible we have to, and because we are told that that's what everybody else is doing". Yeah, ok, do you have evidence to support that? "It's because I say so. I work with this, I know, you don't. Don't question me! Our super-duperness depends on it!". And out of the blue, the tables of meaningless statistics morph into a list of "and we need also...". Okay, excuse me? How do we go from "each summer we sell ten pumpkins" to "and you know? we need an iron and an ironing board, and a scubba dive equipment". But the it isn't a "report", it's a "request". Geez dude, don't you know the words of your own language. Oh fuck, my mistake. Of course they don't! They don't even understand logic! That may explain why the request has absolutely nothing to do with the statistics or the missing stuff.

So now my job is to do the legwork they didn't to show them that EEEEEEEEEEEEEEH! Wrong Answer!

What's so fucking hard about actually making the job right? Is it so difficult to do something by researching, and properly doing the legwork, making sure you have all the data and then presenting the proposal? Is it better to dump a lot of bullshit only to be stopped midway AGAIN and going back to do the job as it should have the first time around?

The day the world ends I won't be too sad, because I'll find solace in knowing that these motherfuckers will burn and die.

Petty Issues

January is usually a month of frugality for many. After receiving (in Costa Rica) an extra month's salary, and spending a lot on presents, office parties, family parties and what nots, many people actually end up either on a quite tight budget, or carrying more debt on their shoulders. Be it as it may, the end result is seen at the office during lunch, when the dinner is filled to capacity and the lines at the microwave ovens are endless. Indeed the number of lunchboxes have grown exponentially, compared with other months, as people now carry their food from home rather than buying anything.

Today I went to have lunch at 13:00 h, which is a bit early compared with my favored 14:00 h when normally the place is deserted. After having spent a great deal of my morning chatting with one of my coworkers about Scrouge and his issues (Scrouge was talking laudly on the phone all day about moving to a smaller house, because he doesn't mind living in a hut as long as he has the basics, then about lending people money at a 4% rate, and assuring that someone to whom he lended money was now talking to him through his assistent - assistent of the other person, Scrouge has no assistent - but that "he's going to pay, I don't worry" and then all that about his wife and yadda-yadda), and how he's so petty and lame he actually gets offended when you don't stop your life to serve his, here I was, with my Japanese lunch box filled with delicious Hungarian food, waiting for the microwave, when the woman before - who crammed three containers for five minutes in the microwave, was actually going to give space to a friend of her who was waiting on another line. Rude, considering there's a freaking lot of people waiting in line, and she was already at the microwave. However, passed the 5 minutes, she touches the containers and deem them to be "cold". Fucking shit, how cold can it be after 5 minutes?? 2 more seconds and the plastic of the containers would melt into the food!

I was about to tell her to just let me put my lunch one minute on the microwave, then she can go back again at her containers, when - leaving the door of the microwave open and the containers in - she took off without saying a word. I waited a little and was about to pull her containers out of the microwave when she appeared tailing a guy... who was the owner of the containers. He deemed them hot enough, packed them and left. She then moved with her friend to the other line, where her friend was already packing the microwave to capacity, and crammed her own containers in too.

Upset? Look me in the eye and tell me you wouldn't be in my place. It's a matter of consideration, which people seldom exercise and we all hate. What's on your mind when you leave your food in the microwave - AT THE OFFICE - and just wander off, and walk back when you remember you actually were heating your lunch? What the fuck is on your mind when you set the microwave to 5 minutes only to stop it a minute after because that's all you need to heat it? What the fuck is on your mind when you heat fish in spite of the clear sign saying "DO NOT HEAT FISH IN HERE BECAUSE IT STINKS"? What are you thinking when your food spills out of the container and leaves the microwave a mess? I wonder, do you have problems separating HOME from OFFICE or is just that at home you are taught to be a rude pig?

Sadly, like Scrouge, there's one too many people in this planet who walk around with no consideration towards others. They do not think of the uncomfortable situation they put others by imposing, by going to someone they are not really friends with, and ask them to give them some of their food. They don't consider that others also want to use the bathroom/microwave/teller machine/vending machine but rather hog on them like they were at their own house and the rest of the planet were invisible. Thing is that whether we like it or not, we live in a society, and as part of it, we must adapt. This doesn't mean to sell our souls and abjectly abide to every single demand, but it means that there's other people out there and we should behave in a manner that's polite and consider them too, just as we want to be considered. It means that you are not entitled to abuse of the kindness or politeness of others because "if it really bothers them they'll say so" or because "I have the right to do it".

Yes, these are petty issues, but no matter how small, and how no war can actually spun out of it, it's most unpleasant. One thing is that, ok, they don't have any respect for themselves - as someone who disrespects others often don't respect themselves either - but why do the rest of the planet has to suffer their personal issues?

When faced with people like this, suddenly the signs of attention to manners or polite behavior make sense. Yes, give your seat to the elderly, the pregnant or the people with special habilities. Now, can we get one for the office that says: "consider your coworkers and use the microwave to heat your own food. Maximum use: 4 minutes" or "if you are heating your food stay here and remove it once it's heated, otherwise you'll find it in the trash".

Pride as a Virtue

It seemed up until a few days ago, that I would manage to write one post per day. It would have been nice to do so, to add up 31 posts for October, and round up, pair up a month with a number signaling my favorite celebration: Halloween. Before you ask, no I haven't started my planning and rounding up for Halloween/Samhain yet. According to plans, Alix shall "lead circle" for Samhain, if we actually decide to keep up this strange decision to celebrate in a Pagan-ish way the cycle of the year, so it's not like I must be working on it, planning and coordination - no matter how poorly the end result comes up - though most likely I would end up doing something small and private - Solitary Witch like - just like I did in Mabon (though I didn't took pictures of that).

In the past days, the days I didn't post a thing, I took part of two activities that made me think about pride in a very positive way, a way that should be kept and nurtured inside everybody's heart.

On Friday seven of my coworkers and I went to a work tour to know an Eolic Power Plant and a Hidroelectric Power Plant. Our company - which is a State Owned Company - started originally working on the energy sector, aiming for many years to bring power to every corner of the country at affordable prices. The ideal back then was to work hard and do the best to ensure the country could grow and develop. The company gave jobs and made sure to have the best professionals in every area, sending them to study, giving them chances to be better and serve better the country. Years after the company also took care of the telecommunications sector, also seeking actively to interconnect the whole country, ensuring low prices and access to phones to everybody. The level of penetration in both sectors was quite high, earning the country the first place in electrification, and I believe telecommunication reach in Latin America. (Or so we have been told.)

With the years, many upper tiers got corrupted and soon we found our labor force filled with people more interested in pulling personal benefit, sucking the blood of the company for the sake of their own pocket, than that of the country. Service degraded, poor choices were made, elitism sneaked into our ranks, with many middle and high management elements too quick to outcast the poorer segments of the country in favor of big companies, ready to give away important chunks of service and price, not thinking twice before fucking up the little people. The phrase "they don't make us so much money, they can go to anyone else" has been said more time than I'd like to recall.

On Friday, however, we were packed into a small mini bus and drove to the far West province of the country, Guanacaste, where in Tilarán and Sandillal we've got the chance to see an Eolic Power Plant (Tejona) and a Hidroelectric Power Plant (Sandillal). Aside from the tremendously poor planning and evident adjust-as-we-go system, it struck me how so far from the putrid higher management spheres, there were people still living the ideal, plausible proud of wearing the uniform, eyes filled with stars of love and pride when looking at the logo of the company. It got to me how these simple engineers, working in far away locations, among machines, staring intently at control panels, still had that unadulterated pride of being part of a force that's there to serve the country. They may not make as much as any of those working where I do, and yet they relate to their jobs, they would give their lives and souls to serve the country. In they lived the kind of pride many have forgotten, with their minds clouded by greed, juicy paychecks, big titles, work paid trips to anywhere in the planet, and the handshake from corrupted politicians who wish to break the company to pieces and give it away to their larger campaing contributors.

It made me think that Pride isn't a capital sin, but the sin is to forget pride, to outcast it and thus be open to sell out one's soul for money, for greed, forgetting the noble ideas that can make you grow by serving your country.

A second type of pride I learned of was the pride of being able to help. It happened on Saturday, when a former coworker of mine, Andy, and her sister, Cucha, took part of a walk for Breast Cancer Awareness. It was particularly meaningfull, because Andy and I have very different political backgrounds and positions: me more "State oriented", she definitivelly more "liberal", and yet it came the day she and I walked for a common cause, and donated for a common cause. Without any discussing, fight picking or anything (we never got into arguments anyway), we took part of a huge Pink Force, among men and women proudly sporting pink ribbons and pink t-shirts, surrounded by people who was there for a family member, a friend, and acquintance or simply for the world, in an effort to do something to help, to bring awareness about this illness and others like it.

Here differences went up in the thin air, made smoke and it didn't matter if you were against or in favor of this or that, didn't matter if you were of this or that religion, of this or that sexual orientation, poor or rich, healthy or sick, strong or weak, fit or a potato couch, what it mattered was that you were there, helping to bring a message to the world, to your fellow citizens, donating time, effort or money - as little or as much - to help those in need, to contribute with the recovery of those stricken with the illness and wishing them for the depths of your heart, without knowing them, to be better. You walked there in support, showing respect and sharing the pride of those who survived and made it, infusing your life strenght from close and from far, to those who are still in the battle. They are not alone and we, a big pink sea, came together to send them our thoughts and positive energy to encourage them to defeat the illness and soon walk with us.

This is Pride, and this isn't a sin. It's the pride of being helpful, of sharing, of doing something for others, it's the pride that doesn't seek to raise above others, but to pull others along, infect them with the feel and the happiness and move them to be part of a greater good.

Be Proud. It's a Virtue.

Logging

After a rather interesting project reaching its blessed end, I decided to put up a log - which should I thought about it before, I would have done since the begining of the project. In this log I carefully noted each memo, each relevant e-mail and each meeting where notes were taken. In the systematizing of the information several things became quite evident, things you don't often notice - or not as clearly - when you are in the middle of the action. The lags in replies, or even the lack of replies but rather the ranting and havoc wrecking some decide to implement when reason is no longer on their side (or the illusion of it). Once I finished (it took me a while going through notes and e-mails to sort out the historic log of all the activities involved with the end result of the project), realisation hit me that this would actually be a great thing to do with all your projects and all those things in your personal and professional life where you'd like to keep a record of what has been done and maybe what's still to be done. Be it a party you are planning, or all the preparations before a vacation, a personal project you are working on, track on the medication you are taking, or someone should be taking or also work related stuff. Keeping an activity log can be a very useful way to keep a clear track of what's being done.

I made my activity log on Excel - I found it easier to handle, but you can pick any other way, be it Word, Project, a notebook, a blackboard, Internet tools, you name it. Also you can change, add and take from the columns or adjust the spaces for the information the way it suits your needs better. In this example I picked an activity: Preparing Halloween Celebration (maybe I should have picked something else, but nothing else came to mind). For purposes of making it clear, I prepared four columns: one with the date when the activity starts, a description of the activity, what was the activity (meeting, e-mail, letter, document, note, memo, phone call, etc), and when it ended. Other columns can be added, such as "Next Step" or "Responsible", "Task Manager", "Percentage of Completition"... it all depends on what's important to you and what you work better with.

If you keep a log like this for each activity that you feel needs to have a follow up, or you'd like to keep a track on, first you need discipline, and then you also need to be clear as what you want to keep your eye on. Do you want to keep an eye on the time it takes you or your team to get something done. Do you want to keep an eye on the people doing it, and check how's everybody working in the team. Do you want to keep a track on the "paper track" or what's the most used mean in getting a project done. Do you want to keep a track on the nature of the activities and how many of them actually add to the project and how many are just a waste of time.

A log like this could also be of use in your daily life if you make an effort to write down quickly what do you do in your day, how much time you spend doing it, what it takes you to do it, and whether you finish the task or not. In this case this log can help you see clearly how do you use your time, and eventually help you plan better your day to make sure you only concentrate on the things that are really important and thus make the best of your day.

So think about it, and maybe you'd like to give this "logging" a try out.

Birds of Misery

If you work in an office, like I do, you've probably have caught yourself talking about the office even when you are not at the office. Stories are endless, and there's a sort of sick pleasure in trading stories with other office-workers. Haunted offices (there's always at least one ghost per employer!), terrible bosses (the most profuse archives on the topic), shitty employers and kill-'em! coworkers. The types of fauna (and sometimes flora, as some people seem to go to the office only to do some photosynthesis) are broad, but easily identifiable. Not all types are present at once in each office, but you can rest assure each medium-to-big-to-huge company has a sample of each and probably creating newer and newer species for our communal delight.

This is not a post to talk about each of them, but of a certain type, the Birds of Mysery. These birds plague every single workplace, and often gather up in huge flocks at certain departments, particularly those related to Human Resources, but also places where the level of influence of the employers is low. They can be easily identifiable for the one trait that annoys the planet around them: they are constantly spreading bad news. They claim to have the contacts, know the right people that allow them to access the news before they are officially communicated. These contacts must be of the same sort apocaliptic churches use to predict to the day and the hour the End of the World... every two years. Their sentences start with "I've heard..." and their favorite words are "fired" and "layoff".

It doesn't deter them if the prospect of what they say is highly improbable (as they also work in the Public Sector, where the prospect of getting fired or laid off is nearly impossible), that their earlier forecasts have never come to materialize, they still spread their message of desperation, particularly among the newer employees. It seems to delight them to spread stories like "the worse possible boss is taking over your area", "the reestructuring is making your area disappear, and all of you will get fired except a handful this person picks". Several friends of mine in the company had to suffer through the claws of birds of misery, who told them that they were getting laid off, their department would disappear, they were getting demoted to a lower position because there was no more use for them where they were, that all wages would be cut back (which is ilegal by law) among other things.

Birds of Misery are usually coworkers or bitter assistants or secretaries, but it's not strange to find bosses who are birds of misery. These even try to officialize the ill rumour by refering to their bosses, and making people work as if the threats were real.

After over 10 years dealing with office flora and fauna, there are a few things I can tell you about birds of misery: they lie. 10 out of 10 time, what comes out of their poisonous beaks is a big, fat lie, so you do well taking their words with a grain of salt. They may have heard something, but they'll always make it a bigger deal. Like what? Well, for instances a superior is being removed of their position and placed in another for whatever reason. The bird of misery will say that this superior is being removed from the position they held so far, AND the area that had lead will be disbanded, and whomever is caught without a place to go in the company, is getting fired. If you get the right data, and confront them, birds of misery will always say "well, I'm just telling you what I was told". The best way to deal with them is ignoring them. So this person said pink slips will be delievered to everybody on Friday? Sure, bet $1 it's bullshit. Says the sky is going to fall? Yes, I bet it will. A Fraud Team from the FBI is seizing the place and will throw everybody in jail? Awesome! Is Peter Burke and Neal Caffree coming too?

However, if you feel the need to retort to somehow cut the crap (some birds of misery are not affected by being ignored and continue their annoying jabbing either you want to hear them or not), there are two awesome ways to do so:

1. If the bird of misery is a coworker or a boss' assistant or secretary, you'll ask for evidence. "Really? We are getting laid off? Do you have the memo? Would you send it to me? No? Oh well, let me know when you do. You see, I've heard so much crap of this kind all over the place, and every single time it turns out to be a lie. You know, there are people who would say anything to make others feel bad and make themselves the center of attention. I prefer proves over hearsay."

2.If the bird of misery is a boss, you simply have to ask them to issue you the news or the "decision" on written form. They won't, but if they do, you take that written statement and check it with the proper area, on the highest, most descentralized position. When it turns out to be a lie, you have in your hands evidence to process the boss for mobbing. Class action to it, if they said so to the whole group.

And this, my dears, is how we deal with this type of fauna.

Flexible Schedule

One of the promised perks of this Glass Tower in which we have been locked, is the Flexible Schedule. Yeah, sounds great, right? Advanced, proactive, result-oriented, groundbreaking and simply "Google". Well, don't let the shiny veneer fool you, because it's not. The whole concept is pretty much like this stiff, stupid machinery taking the same old, outdated presentation and offering it in five new flavours. So, you still have to work 9,6 hours a day, still have only 45 minutes to lunch, now FIXED to a given time of the day, whether you are hungry or not, depending of the flexible schedule you've been assigned to.

The "five flavours" include starting the working day from at 6:00 6:30, 7:00, 7:30, 8:00 and 9:00, if I'm not mistaken. Naturally the times of getting off the clock go from 15:36 to 18:36. So, flexible? Not really. You are held AGAIN to a new schedule. So it's not flexible as in "you enter any time from 6 to 9 and work your 9,6 and leave sometime between 15:36 to 19:00." Oh no! That would open the door to no control, and with no control what would all those lazy, incompetent people do, who like to think they boss over others, and excersize such an idea with pety measures?

A friend of mine called the 9,6 "butt-hours" because it was entirely inconsequent what you did as long as you sat them down at your cubicle or office or assigned work post.

Then again. count your blessings and take what you can. I, for my part, will, and thus from Monday on I'll be going to work at 6 am. Why? Because I'm already early and I want to go home early too, not to mention that by getting to the office at 6 am, I'll have an hour more to prepare for any meeting, as no meeting is really held before 8 am, or 7:30 in the most extreme cases.

Sure, I won't be traveling with Smurf and Smurfette anymore, but, hey, I'd be going home one hour earlier!

This Last Week When I Was Out

It's been a week since I last wrote, and not few things happened in this week. First of all, there was the "building matter" and this time it wasn't another evacuation - though I would have really enjoyed that - but an article that appeared in the newspapers about the building and how Supercalifragilistic it is.  This, well, rose a lot of reactions, like some utterly stupid - there's no other word for it -  reader who wrote a comment at the electronic site of the paper saying that we "shouldn't be so lazy" and instead of waiting 45 minutes for the elevator, perhaps we "should climb the stairs". Yeah, why don't that s.o.b. come here and climb 16 flights in those stairs and see how he or she likes it? I mean, I would personally climb the stairs, and I was prepared to it, but I really, really need air, not to mention how unpleasant it is to work steated up. Dude, really, think before opening your trap.

To my surprise, I also found people IN the building upset about the article for an array of reasons. So said that such a note shouldn't have been published, that the problems we experience in the building are "absolutely normal" and proper of "a new building to which one has to get used to". Dude, the building was inspected before we moved in, tests were ran - so it was said - it took an extra month to receive it because it had to be corrected (the Fire Department requested for an external emergency exit, which hasn't been built yet, nor it looks like it would), and we get here and there's not a single day, since June 16th that something doesn't work? The freaking building is supposed to be smart! Or perhaps it is smart, but also spoiled and it's throwing a temper tantrum? (That, or the building is Smart. Yeah, Maxwell Smart.)

Also heard comments berating the publishing, saying that by venting this in the eye of the public, the image of the company would deteriorate. Hn. Let me see: the Government don't allow the company to do any investment, as th money is needed to pay the Governments trips and stunts. Add to it, a former employee of quite a high position is in a trial, where also a former President is charged with accounts of corruption in the Alcatel case. Some years ago the Director of Mobile Telecommunications of that time summoned a press conference to announce the opening of prepaid mobile services, when the service wasn't ready and the technical tests weren't positive, and said Director happily anounced the sale in three days. Three days later he was burried in his office or out of the country on the money of the company and let the technicians to explain why the service couldn't be offered. Then the most recent former CEO of the company, discharged this May, is being held on trial for fraud, as he used public funds for his personal use, as well as allowing his wife, who was not an employee of the company, to run it to her like and destroy the work of experienced employees, not to mention to use public funds for her own means. So no, I don't really think that this note on the building is the stain that would mar the company.

I do understand that things must be kept in the company and seek to solve them without pulling a Lohan or a Spears on the deal, but when the management is oblivious about the matters and the problems are issued with e-mails belittling the sitaution, things must be escalated.

This week also, I've got a new phone. ^_^ But please, don't think it's (yet another) compulsive purchase of mine. It was a real need. Really. My old phone, an adorable purple Sony Ericsson w380 broke. I bought it around two years ago (perhaps a week or two before I met Kari) and I loved it! Phone in Hungarian, preloaded with PannonGSM (now Telnor) stuff and all that, and lets be honest: I'm a sucker for technology in Hungarian. However my phone was reaching the 2 years, which makes it old - for me - so I was thinking in replacing it anyway. I definitively needed something with Internet, since I'm a Twitter and I'd love to tweet my way around like all my other Twitter friends, not to mention going bonkers tweeting during out #twittertours. Then, of course, there's also the matter of my PDA. After years of using my PDA it broke. Yes, I had a Palm Pilot m130 that worked adorably, but before I could replace it Palm Pilot closed the business and sould out to HP, and you know when will I buy HP: on neverday. (Have enough HP experience at the office with the HP laptops and printers and stuff, I really know what they are like and I'm not paying for them). Ever since the begining of this year I went back to basics, with a small agenda. Yep, paper agenda. You know, those that don't beep, that have only one way to be looked at, that require you to write up every single event of a given repetitive task, that don't expand when you need to accomodate more activities. Yeah, those. Well, a few ups, however: don't need batteries, don't disappear on you if you haven't charged them, let you stick stickers, draw, write in code, use colors... One thing for the other, right? 

So, the point is that I needed a new phone, and I was planning on getting it by the end of this year in Hungary. Well, after an improptu decision, I was going, so I might as well use the time to update my phone, right? Not to mention that it doesn't look swell to work on the telecommunications business and have some old phone on you.

Since I'm basically a Sony Ericsson-gal, I was checking their offer and was really thinking about an Xperia. When, how much and all those questions were faraway from me. Someday, some, somehow. The idea of an iPhone also fluttered around my brain. Then it happened. The Happening.

It was early Friday morning and, as usual, my phone rang to wake me up. Yes, only I left it charging and as I reached for it it fell on the floor and the joint between both sides of the clamshell broke. Oh hell. Clamshell phones are quite delicate, particularly this joint as it controls stuff like the answering of an incoming call and so on. The phone itself was still working, but when you opened it or closed it, it didn't have that claa that push it open or close, as it should. It was getting stuck. Well, I wasn't going to walk around with a broken phone, nor I was going to wait for it to finally die on me. Once at the office, I went down to the Lobby, to the Kölbi store and checked out the phones. I didn't really had any phone in mind, so I just saw a big banner of the Sony Ericsson Vivaz, which was a Sony Ericsson and had all I needed, and pointed at it.

"I want that, but I want it in a plan, with Internet."

The salesguy got me the phone, programmed it, printed out the contract, talked over the monthly fee ($80), told me I'd be paying it from next month on, and just like that, I had a new phone. It gave me a lot of trouble, truth to be told, as the new thing wasn't behaving like any other Sony Ericsson I have had so far, and I had have so far three of them!, but little by little we have been getting acquainted, and even though it hasn't behaved like any of my other SE, this one and I are getting along swell. Haven't named it yet, and I haven't named any phone lately, but I think this one deserves a Scandinav/Scandinavish name. Vesa? Eric?Sven? Sven-Eric, like the cop in Sunstorm? Solstorm? Still to be decided.

Then this same week I had this rich, wrapping messaging with a new penpal of mine, with whom I've took off and flew across the pink and purple skies of the soul. The long, almost daily messages written in such a fashion I felt as Henry Miller penpaling with Anais Nin (me reading Tropic of Cancer may have something to do with the feeling, but may not also), were topped with a delicious letter from her in my P.O.Box on Saturday. Oh the delight! Her letters telling ne as much as her words, the scent of the paper wrapping warm arms around be, from a new friend greeting me as an old one.

This past week felt as heaven!

Well, not to mention that I've worked on fixing the last chapter of the thesis and I've got an SMS from the tutor sayin that "we should unify the document for lecture and defense". We are one step ahead of you, Sir!

To finish it up, I've come up with an idea for a book. After reading a half-assed article in Harper's Bazaar, I've decided I'll compose a book on how to pack for a travel, based on my experience in the matter. Kinda like a "how to do" book with some frappy title like "How to pack and don't kill yourself or the suitcase in the process". How about that?

Happy new Week!

And On These Fridays of Ours

And so a work week has gone by, this one for my colleagues at the Babel Tower and mine, cut shorter thanks to a blown up breaker, which killed the power in the whole builiding, taking away also the air conditioning - oh, sorry, the Climatization System - and the water, which means not only no water to drink, but no use of the facilities. Things came out quite interestingly, as the power was gone for a while, we went to have lunch outside the builing, as evidently the diner wasn't working, when we were called through our friends and coworkers to return to the building to get our stuff because it had to be evacuated. Holy Cow! How come? No questions asked, just run because the emergency lights at the emergency stairs holds up two more hours. No it didn't.

It was Primal Chaos in there. Lights out, doors at every floor open to let in air and light, and people using the same staircases to go up and down, hardly any order to use them, as people met in both ways and had to dance to get through. Brigadist here and there, but not everywhere to keep the flow of people moving and controlled, no one there to aid anyone getting sick.

It was also suddenly made clear how needed a decent air circulating system is needed, as with the doors open at every floor it wasn't so hard to climb the stairs up to the 8th floor without stopping (usually I have to stop already at the 2nd, 3rd floor and then every other floor).

Get to your cubicle, put things away, grab your stuff and hit it home. Down again in the darkness.

There was no prior tests, no simulations, no suficient information, and it showed. Sad thing was that the emergency system was put out far quicker than expected, and there was no order in the evacuation. What would have happened if there were fire or an earthquake? Oh, because the jams at the exit of the parking lot - the only exit - were like those experienced at the end of the day.

Good thing was, though, that I've got to have lunch with one of the Andys, which I like, because our Andys are awesome, and we went to our beloved Italian restaurant, and had a great chat. Good thing was that the work day was far shorter. Good thing was that I've got to make all my errands Today, so tomorrow I can relax and have fun, perhaps only go to the Post Office to drop my letters, if I finish them Today.

Tomorrow I plan as well to go to visit Lau, who came back from the States, where she spent almost two weeks with our dear Roo. Hopefully i'll drop by Alix' place too, have some chat, and then ... who knows? It's weekend. The weekend came early this week!

Oh, on Sunday I hope to meet with my beloved Shimmy Gin, and have a great conversation on sooooo many things! I also want to start again my search for a perfect silver ring, my Nibelung Ring. Oh yes, of course, and I'm planning to go to Hungary to visit at the end of the year... as usual.

Blogging From Gmail

So, our bright and have-nothing-better-to-do T.I. morons decided to selectively block the "sites we were abusing of too much". Smurf got his Twitter cut off, and I've got my blogger access cut off. Yeah, totally moronic, I know. And it ain't as if I had been blogging all that, much, or as if by blocking the blogger I will stop blogging. Dude, that ain't gonna happen, as you can see from this post. However, with this utterly shortsighted move, all blogs on blogger have been cut out, which basically means that all work related blogs are also out of reach. Smooth, jackass, real smooth. I guess the perception of "work" is greatly distorted by the antiquated, maquila-minded people who have access to technology and actually believe that everything other than a typing machine is, implicitly, fun. Must admit, people like this do bring to mind Frederick Winslow Taylor, who said (according to some textbooks of mine) "the man who works with brut iron must be as brute as the iron". How does it relate? Well, brut iron is hammered. This control-employees thing basically works pretty much as hammering: it's a really stupid job, focused only on "taking away" and "push into shape", instead of constructively look at the matter, focus on results and step in there where goals are not reached. Thus....

Good thing that those of us used to work our brains, can come around with enough creative solutions to save these setbacks. Yeah, it kinda takes corporative-time out of our schedules, but hey! Happy workers produce better results!

On other matters, I've been mentally developping this "Theory of the Definition of the Self", which I started explaing in an early post, finding more and more cases where this general theory applies. Quite an exciting excersize, I must add.

I was talking with this friend of mine about an acquintance of us and we were discussing this person's "profile", so to say. Sadly, it's the case of this childish person, with a limited view of self and surroundings. Naturally we are talking about a grown person with a typical background for someone of that particular age range. Job, home, car, pet, family. The basics a person must fulfill at a given age to be considered pretty much "normal", if not "functional". Job is good, home is fine, car is fine, pet is ok, family is ok. However, as we step aside from the social formalities and peer into the self, the troubles bubble up like foam from a freshly shaken root beer can.

The person in question has little contact with the surroundings, often ignoring and thus mistreating unintentionally others. The reaction towards the harm caused is basically either a mocking laugher or a shrug. Inappropiate comments fly up and down and the working relationship with colleagues wilts and breaks down quite quickly. Remarks such as "sloppy work", "inflexible standing points, even when faced with mistakes", "much bitching, little producing", "no foreseeing", "disregard of the work of others, prior or subsequent". Remarks flow also around private spheres such as disregard of group decisions, quarrels about being left out, uncalled rude remarks, disregard of the circumstances, meddling with other people's lives, and so on.

Upon review it becomes clear that this is a typical case of a person that hasn't reached emotional maturity, which is quite accentuated by the overly emphasizing of past times and former "good times", which by this age should have been long lived out. I mean, there's no harm in remembering the good old days when we were all kids and played on the street with our fellows, biking up and down, adventuring into the forest or the nearby coffee plantations, but when someone mentions this at least every other day deeping into long, detailed recounting of what it was like, regardless of telling the same story over and over, even though people is long ago ignoring it, tells stuff about the psyche. People reviving constantly good memories, particular periods of their lives are usually locked in them, unable to move on and face their present. Biology may have made the body age with the times, but the mind is stuck for some reason in a given point, refusing to move from it, refusing to learn and evolve past that point.

"Trauma" is a way to give an explanation to the phenomenon. I choose to refuse this explanation, as it usually comes with the included assuption that the harm has been dealt by an external party. Now a days this six letter word is the fencing sword wiggled around by parents and kids to justify quarreling with teachers and why the let kids do whatever they want, and in the case of the kids, to get away with murder and be let do whatever stupid thing they have picked up from their buddies or the TV. "Trauma" strips people from the tools and ways to do something, but give them an awesome escape route away from responsability. So, instead of pinning the emotional evolutionary stagnation on the XXIst Century's Escape Goat, I rather turn to the relationship with the self, the perception and definition of the self to find the obstacles to the natural development of the psyche and the behavioral patterns.

What can make a person to stop his or her own emotional evolution? This is a question I'm so far not prepared to answer properly, as it must be noticed, I have never studied psychology, though I have been sent to quite a fair share of shrinks and psychiatrist in my life. My initial guess is that some kind of dislike of the self, or a fear rooted around facing the unknown, a sort of Peter Pan or Dorian Gray "complex", keeps people from moving on, from allowing themselves take the responsability of the knowledge coming along with the evolution of the self, the new responsabilities sorted upon could be cause for the halt in the natural growing.

Oh well, I would continue, but I'm out of time...

This remains open for sequel.