Ah fuck me gently - what a day from hell. I had to take Andrea downtown to St. Paul's for specialist visits. The appointment was for noon so we left at about 10:45 am. Should be no problem and it wasn't at first. We get close to the hospital and the cops have all the surrounding streets blocked (at least the ones at the supreme court building and the provincial court building). No biggie, I think, so I find another way in, only to find out the parking lot is full. There is absolutely no parking within at least 10 city blocks. So I drop off Andrea in front of the building and start looking. Well I was on Burrard and it seemed to be no left turns (I could not read the fine print) and I ended up on the other side of the freaking bridge. Thank god I know my way around that area, because it was where I used to keep my boat. So I turn around and try it again, still nothing, now I am looking for street parking, so I deke down a little street just past the hospital and am coming out of the alley when I almost smoked this expensive looking car. Thank the Lord he was paying attention, because obviously I wasn't. I finally get out onto that street, and at the next light I am making a left turn when I almost smoked a fucking pedestrian! I have been driving for 30 years and I have never had an accident, and here I am, almost having major catastrophes withing minutes of each other! WTF?
So after circling endlessly I finally score a primo spot outside the hospital and plunk two hours worth of change in. Now it is 12:30 pm. I set out to find Andrea, who is on the 8th floor. The elevators are obviously being run by psychotic over weight gnomes because they take forever. Eventually I arrive at the area she should be and I ask the receptionist where she is. Well she doesn't get what I am asking, and she thinks I am making an appointment. After a painfully prolonged discussion, we work it out and I find her in an examining room. One doctor has been in, but had to leave and would be back and she was waiting for a second doctor. I waited an hour with her, and I left at 1:30 pm to go check on the car.
Car was good, so I had a smoke, had some lunch and then realized there was no freaking way I would make it to work on time, so I called Dean and asked him to cover. I hadn't seen her come out of the hospital, and it was fast approaching 2:30 pm. I popped more change in the meter (which apparently you are not allowed to do) and went looking for her.
The hospital is a hodge podge of buildings which are really difficult to navigate unless you have a GPS embedded in your forehead, which I most assuredly do not. You have to take an elevator from the main floor to the 2 nd floor and then walk 400 miles to the next set of elevators, which are still as slow as shit. Eventually I find her, at around 3:30 pm. She has managed to loop her airline through the wheels of her cart and we cannot move the cart until I untangle this mess. That takes a while.
We make it out, pack up all the O2 and put the cart in the car and we are off. Over the bridge and by a convoluted method onto Kingsway and back home. It is a relief to go to work. I will have to unload all the O2 and the cart tonight, put out the garbage and bring the compost bin around front, but that is minor.
At work, it is same old, but here's an interesting one. On Saturday, a guy ran into a vehicle with a forklift. Not just ran into it, he freaking opened the side of it with the forks of the lift truck like it was a can of tuna. Get this, he does not report it. What are you thinking asshole? No one is going to remember you were the only one that drove the forklift on Saturday? But wait, this guy is smart. Later that night he phones his supervisor and confesses. Seriously. Are you kidding me? Who leaves the scene of an accident and fails to report it? Someone who is high that is who. So smart guy, they will never prove he was stoned or drunk, he'll just say he was scared and they slap him on the wienie and Bob's your uncle.
Love this place, I am pretty sure you have to rape a 6 year old to get fired here. And it better be on video. What a place, can you imagine if they ran these companies like real businesses? They make money as it is, but think about the pot load of money they could make if they did it right.
There are days when your karma and your dogma get along, and then there are the days when all hell breaks loose, today was a broken open hell day, but I wasn't the one that trashed the car with the lift truck so it wasn't all bad. Some days just being me takes courage my love...
COURAGE MY LOVE... May you have the courage you need to be the person you want to be.
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Monday, March 28, 2011
Friday, March 18, 2011
Courage My Love - March 18, 2011
The Myth of Management
Ok, we had management by walking around, management by concensus, the regular old school "I am the boss" managment, and seriously, none of them are worth a pinch of coon shit. Managment is a myth. Industry is propelled along by the work of the average Joe. You can intimidate, coerce, coax, motivate or coach Joe, but in the end, it is Joe's work that moves the company forward. What you can do for Joe, is respect that he or she actually does the work and you don't. Don't keep secrets from them, don't discipline in an arbitrary fashion. Set the rules of engagement and let Joe take you forward.
Yes, you manage in the sense that Joe must comply with certain coda, such as a number of units per hour, or xx amount of hours of work or some other, hopefully measurable target. Joe must also behave, within the legal requirements of Society, and perhaps a few local work related requirements such as being at work on time, doing the work you are asked to do, and in general working for the money the company is willing to exchange for his or her time. Other than that, you manage squat. Sure have a group hug every once in a while, but don't overdo it, because it will become a right instead of a freely given. You probably can't make Joe's work too much more interesting, or challenging, in most industrial settings it is what it is. Widget A gets assembled to Widget B, or Widget C is machined to a dimension of X.
What you are really there to do, is to tote up the numbers, make sure that Joe really does the work the company pays him or her for and most of all - take away the barriers that prevent Joe or could prevent Joe from doing his or her job. Give them the tools to do the job and then basically, get out of their way. Drop in on a regular but unscheduled basis and ensure that Safety rules are adhered to, feel free to praise loudly and often anyone who works safely.
I have an insanely good education, and 35 years of industrial related experience both as a worker and as "managment" and I have realized for the last 25 years or so, that we do not acknowledge the people who actually do the work very much. We all pat ourselves on the back, and yes, accept the bonus, but how many of us ever say thank you and mean it??
Ok, I actually wrote that a few weeks ago, pre earthquake. It is now the 18th of March, and we are still doing rounds of doctors for the pre-transplant thing. WTF, you could die waiting to get on the freaking list for a transplant. We have been at that for months now, her health is not improving, and still there are a million tests and doctors to see. It sucks, just freaking get on with it. Of course, doctoring is a business like any other and they don't really want candidates who will fail. I mean think about it, you do 100 transplants a year and if 99 of them failed, you would not get a lot of support for the transplant team. The candidates for transplant have to be sick enough to need one, but healthy enough to survive one. How sad is that.
Not nearly as sad, it seems as being Japanese. Like many, I have been watching it unfold again and again on tv. It is horrific, and hypnotic. Like 9-11, if it ain't happening to me, I can get a vicarious thrill from watching it. And we do, a tiny part of our brain is going "Thank god it's not happening here". And seriously it is a good thing it is not happening here right now, we are wickedly unprepared and supremely arrogant. As we can see, life and everything you love can disappear in a heart beat.
Again this will affect where I work, but life will go on. We rise again. I also feel a little helpless here as I watch tragedy unfold elsewhere. What can I do? How can I help? I make a donation to the Red Cross and that is the best we can do.
You know, being human takes courage, my love.
Ok, we had management by walking around, management by concensus, the regular old school "I am the boss" managment, and seriously, none of them are worth a pinch of coon shit. Managment is a myth. Industry is propelled along by the work of the average Joe. You can intimidate, coerce, coax, motivate or coach Joe, but in the end, it is Joe's work that moves the company forward. What you can do for Joe, is respect that he or she actually does the work and you don't. Don't keep secrets from them, don't discipline in an arbitrary fashion. Set the rules of engagement and let Joe take you forward.
Yes, you manage in the sense that Joe must comply with certain coda, such as a number of units per hour, or xx amount of hours of work or some other, hopefully measurable target. Joe must also behave, within the legal requirements of Society, and perhaps a few local work related requirements such as being at work on time, doing the work you are asked to do, and in general working for the money the company is willing to exchange for his or her time. Other than that, you manage squat. Sure have a group hug every once in a while, but don't overdo it, because it will become a right instead of a freely given. You probably can't make Joe's work too much more interesting, or challenging, in most industrial settings it is what it is. Widget A gets assembled to Widget B, or Widget C is machined to a dimension of X.
What you are really there to do, is to tote up the numbers, make sure that Joe really does the work the company pays him or her for and most of all - take away the barriers that prevent Joe or could prevent Joe from doing his or her job. Give them the tools to do the job and then basically, get out of their way. Drop in on a regular but unscheduled basis and ensure that Safety rules are adhered to, feel free to praise loudly and often anyone who works safely.
I have an insanely good education, and 35 years of industrial related experience both as a worker and as "managment" and I have realized for the last 25 years or so, that we do not acknowledge the people who actually do the work very much. We all pat ourselves on the back, and yes, accept the bonus, but how many of us ever say thank you and mean it??
Ok, I actually wrote that a few weeks ago, pre earthquake. It is now the 18th of March, and we are still doing rounds of doctors for the pre-transplant thing. WTF, you could die waiting to get on the freaking list for a transplant. We have been at that for months now, her health is not improving, and still there are a million tests and doctors to see. It sucks, just freaking get on with it. Of course, doctoring is a business like any other and they don't really want candidates who will fail. I mean think about it, you do 100 transplants a year and if 99 of them failed, you would not get a lot of support for the transplant team. The candidates for transplant have to be sick enough to need one, but healthy enough to survive one. How sad is that.
Not nearly as sad, it seems as being Japanese. Like many, I have been watching it unfold again and again on tv. It is horrific, and hypnotic. Like 9-11, if it ain't happening to me, I can get a vicarious thrill from watching it. And we do, a tiny part of our brain is going "Thank god it's not happening here". And seriously it is a good thing it is not happening here right now, we are wickedly unprepared and supremely arrogant. As we can see, life and everything you love can disappear in a heart beat.
Again this will affect where I work, but life will go on. We rise again. I also feel a little helpless here as I watch tragedy unfold elsewhere. What can I do? How can I help? I make a donation to the Red Cross and that is the best we can do.
You know, being human takes courage, my love.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Courage My Love - March 1/11
This may be the week we find out about Andrea's transplant, as to whether or not they will go ahead, because right now, her kidneys are starting to fail. Worst case scenario, she dies. Next worse, after the lung transplant, the kidneys fail and she needs dyalisis (sp??). What's the choice. Without any transplant, she will die, from either lung failure or kidney failure. With the transplant, chances of surviving the transplant are good, but chances are high there will be kidney failure. It is a continuous round of tests and more tests, doctors and more doctors right now. Wonder why the health care bill is so high? We must be into it for over a million so far. That's what it is there for, so none may be missed. No, it's not perfect, but at least we have a fighting chance without losing everything, that she will come out of this okay.
At work, Mikey (of the men in tight underpants) tendered his resignation. He will be missed. I slapped Dunc's resume in immediately. We'll see where that goes. Hope he gets in, it would be nice to work with someone sane again.
Do you know, that the less you do, the less you want to do? Case in point - me. Here at work I am using 1/10 of 1/10 of 1/10 of available brain resources (which even I can figure out is 1/1000th) and yet I find myself strangely lacking movtivation to do anything. The bloom is off the rose with this job, as it has been with every job I have ever had, difference being, I will stick with this one to the bitter end. It's mindless but it pays well. I just got my yearly bonus, 10G which is not so bad, plus a raise, plus a cost of living raise. Yeah, so it's boring but so what? It lets me live indoors and eat warm food.
I'm trying to fight off the bad character traits that have saddled me, even crippled me, my entire life. I am sarcastic (only now I try and keep it to the voice in my head), petty (almost trucluent at times) and I get sucked into the emotional maelstrom of what is going on around me, plus I have this stupid stupid need for attention. So at work, everyone is bitter or so it seems. The company sucks, management is stupid, that guy is an asshole and while for the most part, it is true, I am making a concerted effort not to feed that dragon. Then there is the pettiness issue, what an awful character trait that is, someone pisses me off and I can spend a great deal of time making their life miserable by being a petty bitch. What a waste of my energy, so mostly now, I just let it go. Or I imagine extracting some suitable revenge, and then let it go. Imagining it is probably more satisfying than actually doing it. The letting go part is the most important however.
I guess because I was neither the oldest or the youngest child I always felt I never got my fair share of attention for being - well you name it - smart, pretty, funny - whatever. So I have noticed that I tend to try and get that attention from others in my life. No one is smarter than I am, no one is funnier than I am and as for pretty, well heck that one never had a chance. None of that is true however, but I have spent considerable time and energy trying to fill that hole inside me that craves attention. The need is dwindling, now I find myself craving a lack of attention. Fading into the background is much more pleasurable that being out front and yelling "Hey what about me, look at me!!"
I guess what I am saying here, is that stuff that once was important to me, is no longer so important. What is important is that I take care of myself, pay my bills, enjoy my hobbies and just enjoy life by not wasting so much energy on shit that never mattered. I am living like a millionaire, well in theory anyway. I do what I want when I want (with the exception of the work thing) and I go where I want, when I want and I don't answer to anyone. My own company is pleasurable, in fact I am one of the greatest people I know and while I don't have many friends, I have a fair amount of acquaintences and what friends I have are good ones. Good friends are the ones that let you sleep on their couch without asking any questions. Even if it is for a week. If I do something for someone, it is because I want to, not have to.
So maybe a leopard can change their spots. I think it is just self awareness that I am feeling. I am pretty confident in who I am, what I am good at and what floats my boat. My life is simple, not cluttered, full of good food, good books and good people. I am where I want to be. It is a good place. It has not always been so simple or so easy, there were days and times and relationships and jobs that were hell on earth and I kept at it, or let it go, because I thought I had to, or someone thought I had to. Not any more, being me is much easier than it ever was, not that it is without it's pitfalls. Even on a good day, being me takes courage, my love.
At work, Mikey (of the men in tight underpants) tendered his resignation. He will be missed. I slapped Dunc's resume in immediately. We'll see where that goes. Hope he gets in, it would be nice to work with someone sane again.
Do you know, that the less you do, the less you want to do? Case in point - me. Here at work I am using 1/10 of 1/10 of 1/10 of available brain resources (which even I can figure out is 1/1000th) and yet I find myself strangely lacking movtivation to do anything. The bloom is off the rose with this job, as it has been with every job I have ever had, difference being, I will stick with this one to the bitter end. It's mindless but it pays well. I just got my yearly bonus, 10G which is not so bad, plus a raise, plus a cost of living raise. Yeah, so it's boring but so what? It lets me live indoors and eat warm food.
I'm trying to fight off the bad character traits that have saddled me, even crippled me, my entire life. I am sarcastic (only now I try and keep it to the voice in my head), petty (almost trucluent at times) and I get sucked into the emotional maelstrom of what is going on around me, plus I have this stupid stupid need for attention. So at work, everyone is bitter or so it seems. The company sucks, management is stupid, that guy is an asshole and while for the most part, it is true, I am making a concerted effort not to feed that dragon. Then there is the pettiness issue, what an awful character trait that is, someone pisses me off and I can spend a great deal of time making their life miserable by being a petty bitch. What a waste of my energy, so mostly now, I just let it go. Or I imagine extracting some suitable revenge, and then let it go. Imagining it is probably more satisfying than actually doing it. The letting go part is the most important however.
I guess because I was neither the oldest or the youngest child I always felt I never got my fair share of attention for being - well you name it - smart, pretty, funny - whatever. So I have noticed that I tend to try and get that attention from others in my life. No one is smarter than I am, no one is funnier than I am and as for pretty, well heck that one never had a chance. None of that is true however, but I have spent considerable time and energy trying to fill that hole inside me that craves attention. The need is dwindling, now I find myself craving a lack of attention. Fading into the background is much more pleasurable that being out front and yelling "Hey what about me, look at me!!"
I guess what I am saying here, is that stuff that once was important to me, is no longer so important. What is important is that I take care of myself, pay my bills, enjoy my hobbies and just enjoy life by not wasting so much energy on shit that never mattered. I am living like a millionaire, well in theory anyway. I do what I want when I want (with the exception of the work thing) and I go where I want, when I want and I don't answer to anyone. My own company is pleasurable, in fact I am one of the greatest people I know and while I don't have many friends, I have a fair amount of acquaintences and what friends I have are good ones. Good friends are the ones that let you sleep on their couch without asking any questions. Even if it is for a week. If I do something for someone, it is because I want to, not have to.
So maybe a leopard can change their spots. I think it is just self awareness that I am feeling. I am pretty confident in who I am, what I am good at and what floats my boat. My life is simple, not cluttered, full of good food, good books and good people. I am where I want to be. It is a good place. It has not always been so simple or so easy, there were days and times and relationships and jobs that were hell on earth and I kept at it, or let it go, because I thought I had to, or someone thought I had to. Not any more, being me is much easier than it ever was, not that it is without it's pitfalls. Even on a good day, being me takes courage, my love.
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