Out of Office

I took some time off from work this week. I’m going to spend a couple of days at home catching up and taking care of some things for my parents, then spend some time at the lake with my family. I know I need the break because even a few days of chores before going off to play sounds appealing to me. Today was my last day in the office until next Monday. Woot! Woot!

The company I work for was recently purchased by another company and we are now a subsidiary. My coworkers and I have all had to learn to adapt to change, which has come in waves over the last few months. Last week, our computers were moved from our old network to the new company’s network. There are many positive changes, but everything looks, feels and behaves differently than I’m used to. It seems to take me three times as long to do the same work. I know I’ll find my groove soon enough, but sometimes it’s hard to be patient. Thankfully, we are all given as much leeway as we need to figure out the new stuff.

This afternoon, as I was winding down for the day and getting ready to head home, I remembered that I wanted to turn on my out-of-office message so that any clients trying to contact me over the next few days would know that I was unavailable for the remainder of the week. But when I clicked the option to compose a message, I received an error stating that the action couldn’t be completed because the server was down. Of course, I didn’t believe the error message, so I checked with a coworker to see if she would have the same problem. She didn’t. Her out-of-office message assistant worked just fine.

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One of the really nice perks of working for this new company is that they have a phenomenal help desk. All I have to do is dial a four-digit extension and someone is there to help me with whatever problem I might have. I don’t even have to identify myself. The help desk knows who is calling! So I called to ask for help with my out-of-office problem and I was assisted by a very nice guy named Tom.

Tom asked permission to remote into my computer and I handed over control. He looked around at my settings, tried various things, shut down Outlook and opened it up again, all to no avail. He created a new email profile to see if the out-of-office assistant would function, but that didn’t work either. He explained what he was doing and proposed various theories as he searched for an answer. He really seemed to know what he was doing, even though he couldn’t find an immediate answer to my problem. He then asked what time I was done for the day. “About ten minutes ago,” I said.

“Oh, well then,” he replied. “I’m here late tonight, so I can probably get it figured out before I go home. Once I know what the problem is, I’ll get in touch with you so you can test it to make sure it’s fixed. What time will you be in tomorrow?”

“I won’t be. Actually,” I said, “I’ll be … out of the office … tomorrow…?”

I swear I heard him slap himself on the forehead. Of course,” he said! “Hence the reason for your call!”

“Uh-huh,” I laughed. I assured Tom that I could probably survive without the out-of-office auto reply this time and that I would connect with him again on Monday, when I’m back in the office.

At least all this change and frustration comes with some laughs.

Goofing Off at the Office

This is what I love about the company I work for. They recognize the importance of employee morale.

In October, my company became a subsidiary of another company with whom there has been a longstanding, mutually beneficial relationship. Our parent company’s offices were in the same building as ours at the time of the buyout. My company’s lease was expiring at the end of 2012. Our parent company’s lease will expire in 2013. Not long after the buyout, it was announced that both companies would move to a new location.

Since the new office space is brand new, the move is happening in phases. The subsidiary employees and a handful of parent company employees moved to the new offices at the end of December. Over the next few months, the unfinished portion of the new space will be prepared for the remainder of the parent company employees. In the meantime, there are a lot of open areas.

One of the members of senior management decided to make good use of the open space. He decided he would bring in his “Bags” game. (You may know this game as Bean Bag Toss, Cornhole, Corn Toss, or Baggo.)

Employees interested in playing in a management-sanctioned tournament were invited to submit their names. Names were drawn to form teams. I got Greg as my partner. Greg is an employee of the parent company and I’ve only begun to get to know him over the last couple of months. He and a few coworkers eat lunch in the break room each day at the same time I eat lunch with some of my coworkers. The two groups of employees tend to share good-natured jokes and jabs. I have an appreciation for Greg’s sarcastic sense of humor.

Early today, before the “Bags” matches began, I thought I’d test my ability. In short? I sucked.

I went by Greg’s desk and said, “I’m just going to apologize right now.”

“What for,” he asked?

“Because you got me for a partner in the tournament. I just practiced. It wasn’t pretty.”

“I suck too,” Greg admitted. “Let’s just lay it on thick with the trash talk.”

“Works for me,” I said and headed back to my desk to get some work done before game time.

Before I could sit down, I came across my coworker Joe who would be one of  my opponents. Joe cocked one eyebrow at me and put on a scowl. Raising his elbow high in the air, he jabbed his index finger toward the floor several times while threatening, “You’re going down!“

“I don’t doubt it,” I assured him and we both broke out in laughter.

12:25 rolled around and it was game time. Joe and his partner, Ron, Greg and I strolled over to the open space and took our places on either side of each game board. Ron started off the game, landing a bean bag on the board with one of his very first throws. Joe proved to be eerily accurate in his throws as well.

Greg and I? We sucked. Royally.

Midway through the game, I thought to take my boots off. I thought maybe the heels were messing with my balance. My throws began to improve but it was too late. We got thoroughly spanked.

But…we had fun! We had loads of fun. We joked and laughed and forgot about work for a little while. In the end, Greg and I shook hands with our opponents and we all strolled back to work with not a bit of animosity between us. Greg apologized to me for sucking so badly.

“No need to apologize to me,” I assured him. “We lost that game together!” I told Ron and Joe that we would be their cheerleaders now that they were moving up in the brackets.

As we headed back to our desks, I stopped by the break room to partake in the pot luck buffet of treats and the chocolate fountain that was provided in honor of Valentine’s Day.

Like any job, mine has its share of ups and downs. But it’s things like bean bag tournaments and chocolate fountains that help ease the stress and frustrations and make me appreciate how well we, as employees are taken care of. That’s what I love about the company I work for.

 

Back to Work

Well, I felt decidedly more human this morning so I showered, got dressed and went back to work.

And my coworker who became ill half a day ahead of me called in sick again. So I win!

Not really. It’s not a contest. Recovering from illness is not a competition.

But really, I kind of felt like I won a contest.

I was welcomed back and it was nice to know people were concerned about my well-being. One person expressed surprise that I had returned so quickly. I know I could have easily claimed illness one more day, but honestly, I was sick of lying around. I had many conversations with coworkers about how “everyone” is getting sick right now. And as if to prove us correct, a chorus of coughs and sneezes periodically rang out around the office. I was grateful I’d just had a quick stomach virus and not that nasty cold and flu stuff that’s making the news.

While I was home sick I missed a lot and also did things I don’t normally do. Kacey went to a reunion with the softball girls and I was completely unaware. When I wasn’t completely unaware of things, I watched a lot of television. I could easily become a regular viewer of Ellen.

This looks like good daily fun, right?

When you’re sick and if you have cable, you discover all the television shows you used to enjoy and realize they’re still on during the day, usually marathon style. I watched a whole bunch of episodes of Judging Amy. I’d forgotten about that one. I used to really like it and thoroughly enjoyed it again yesterday. Until I fell asleep again.

And I saw a lot of news reports about the flu and how it’s become almost an epidemic in some places. I would like to avoid the flu if I can, so I paid attention. It was said that to prevent the spread of germs, you should try not to touch your eyes, nose or mouth. I made a conscious effort not to touch my face at all today, which made me more aware of how often I touch my face as I work.  Which is approximately a hundred times an hour! I used my hand sanitizer each time I caught myself touching my face.

My boss is kind of a germ-o-phobe. He approached me and said, “Hey, welcome back! How you feeling?”

As I was saying, “Much better, thanks,” he took a precautionary step away from me. I wasn’t offended, but I decided not to tell him about my sanitizing efforts.

And later, when he was in a meeting, I sneezed on his keyboard.

(Not really. You know me better than that!)

(But it’s fun to think about.)

 

 

 

Positively

Ever notice how negative people can be?

My company has just undergone some big changes. We were recently acquired by a large, successful and reputable corporation. And as a result, we’ve moved to a new location not far from where our old offices were located. Our first day in the new place was the day after Christmas and since then, I’ve noticed a lot of discontent. I’m hearing a lot of complaints. The cubicles are too close together. There’s no longer an office manager which means  that when there are visitors or deliveries, everyone is expected to lend a hand with receiving them. The water filter/ice machines haven’t been installed. It’s too loud. It’s too cold. There aren’t a hundred restaurants within walking distance like there were when we were downtown. We’re not all sure where to find all of our office “stuff” just yet. So much of what was familiar for so many years has changed.

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People are frustrated. And I get it. I do. There have been some hitches as we try to get settled in the new office and figure out new policies, systems and websites. Change isn’t easy for everyone. Some who had nice, big offices in the old place have had to downsize to smaller offices. Some who had offices before have been downgraded to cubicles. Even for those of us who are accustomed to the cubicle environment, there are adjustments to make. There’s no longer a white-noise system to help minimize distractions. We can hear everything going on around us. Everything is new and different.

But I am a bit taken aback because what this change means for all of us is job security, which has been in short supply for the past few years. It means resources to grow our business and the chance to make something big of our products and services. So we have to make a few concessions. I just don’t think that all this negativity is helping anyone to acclimate, so I’d rather we all just make the best of it. A negative attitude just makes the workday drag on. It seems to me that finding the positives in all this change will make a better working environment and brighter days for everyone.

I much prefer positive people who can look for the silver lining in any situation, not just at work but in life in general. A positive attitude goes such a long way in making others happy and helping them to want to pay it forward. And this is probably what attracted me to the blog of Steve Harper, aka Mr. Ripple. Steve has made a career out of his ability to connect with others and make a positive impact.

And also, he’s promoting a post that I wrote about a piece of my work life, so that alone moves him right to the top of my favorites list! I have to say, it’s quite an ego boost to have someone come along and say, “I like what you wrote. Do you mind if I use it?” NO, I don’t mind! What are you, crazy?

Steve has written a book called The Ripple Effect, about “how one simple action can dramatically affect the lives of friends, family, colleagues, customers… even people you’ve never met.” And if you like, you can hire him to come speak about his beliefs in “the power of positive connection.”

Seems like I should figure out a way to convince the powers that be to have Mr. Ripple come pay us a visit! And, you know… if you have similar needs, or just want to read something that will help you improve your relationships, go check out Steve’s website yourself!

@

I have a coworker whom I really enjoy working with because he challenges my brain. MC is genius smart. I mean really. Genius.

I’ve had a lot of opportunity to work on projects with MC and I always come away feeling as if I’ve pushed myself beyond my limits. It’s a great feeling to know you can still learn things you honestly thought you could never grasp. I don’t even want to admit how giddy it made me to learn how to create and use pivot tables in Excel.

MC has a unique personality. He’s uber polite, professional, extremely proper, almost old-fashioned in some ways. So it surprised me when I realized he has a fun side too. A while ago, I received an instant message from MC. There was a project I was expecting and I knew he would be providing some details in this message.

“Agent Terri,” began the message. “Your mission, should you choose to accept it…”

It made me laugh. I told MC he was now responsible for the fact that the Mission Impossible theme song would be stuck in my head for the remainder of the day. I told him I accepted the mission.

Since that time, MC has often addressed me as Agent Terri, in person, in emails or in instant messages. Which is kind of funny, now that I think about it. MC does not allow anyone to refer to him by the nickname commonly associated with his given name. He prefers to be called only by his formal name. Yet I remain Agent Terri.

Lately, some of MC’s email messages to me have begun with the “at” symbol. Since we are jointly working on several items, there is a lot of email communication between us. The first time one of MC’s emails began with the “at” symbol, I assumed that he had simply composed his message in a rush. He’s a very busy guy. You might even say that his workload is overwhelming. It’s one of the drawbacks of being the person who knows so much and possesses such a variety of talents.

Several emails from MC lately have begun with or contained the “at” symbol. I wondered if it was symbolic of something, kind of like the way a colon, dash and parentheses are combined to make a sideways smiley face.

This morning, I met with MC to discuss another project with which I was helping him. As we concluded our meeting, he stated that he would email some instructions to me along with a spreadsheet to document our findings. True to his word, later that morning I received the details he had promised. And upon opening the spreadsheet, I saw the two columns he said he would add so that we could each document our findings. One was labeled “MC’s” and one was labeled, “@’s.”

That’s when it dawned on me. “@” wasn’t symbolic of some sort of smiley face. “@” was symbolic of me! I am @. Agent Terri. AT. @.

I’m trying to figure out if it’s funny that it took me this long to realize that I am @, or if it’s funny that MC assumed I would automatically know that @ is code for Agent Terri.

Either way, I kind of like having my own symbol! Move over, Prince!

Flying Time

I wasn’t looking forward to returning to work this morning. With the 4th of July holiday falling mid-week, going back to work today just felt like Monday all over again. Two Mondays in the same week is just not fair!

I got wrapped up in a project first thing this morning. I mean, I was really absorbed. At one point I looked at the time display in the lower corner of my computer monitor and was confused to see that it said 12:30.

“Something’s wrong with my computer’s clock,” I thought. So I looked at my phone display. Again, I saw 12:30! Then it registered with my brain. It was really 12:30 and time to go to lunch. I had no idea so much time had passed since I’d arrived at work this morning! I must have been having fun! You know what they say! Time flies…

Later on, after sharing the finished project with the rest of my team, one of them emailed me to say, “I don’t know what we would do without you!” He didn’t have to say that. The project was something I was responsible for completing. Just part of my job. But his show of appreciation pretty much made my day. I need to remember to do that for others too. Positive feedback is highly motivating and we all tend to forget that when we feel overwhelmed, which is often!

So pseudo-Monday turned out not to be so bad after all. And besides, tomorrow’s Friday already! How many other Mondays do you know that roll right into Friday? Hmmm. I could maybe get used to these two-day work weeks!

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Totally unrelated, since I doubt I could write an entire post about these,  here’s a picture for Abby who wanted to see my new dishes.

Yes, guys, we women do actually get excited about things like dishes. Actually, I didn’t find these all that exciting until they were marked 70% off. And then I checked around online to see if they were on clearance everywhere and it seems that everywhere else, they are still full price. Then they made me pretty happy.

Things I should probably find inappropriate except I just think they’re funny…

We are hectic at work. Everyone is busy. In fact, everyone is so busy they are nearly overwhelmed. Sometimes you want to pull your hair out, or cry because of it all. But laughing off the stress is way more fun.

We have some employees in our company who often provide us much amusement. One of them is a guy who’s definitely different. He’s an odd character, but he’s smart and gets the job done. Sometimes not on the schedule we’d like, but he gets it done. For the sake of anonymity, we’ll call him George.

George makes up his own words for things. He walks around the office in socks sometimes. He forgets to try to be professional sometimes and uses the word frickin’ in meetings. We’re a very small company. He can get away with it internally. His mannerisms and habits very much remind me of a little boy. If I need something from George, it’s a good bet I’ll have to remind him at least once. But we all accept that about George because he sort of has the world on his shoulders. He’s always trying to juggle more than one person can possibly handle at any given time.

As I was leaving work today, I was having one of those end-of-day conversations with a coworker. (Let’s call her Babs.) Babs was explaining how she had been to George’s office trying to get answers for a project she’s been working on.

“And before I left George’s office,” Babs was saying, “I reminded him that you were waiting for something from him too.” (I was!)

I thanked Babs for following up on my behalf and told her I figured I wouldn’t get my answer today. I was explaining that I’d planned to follow up with George tomorrow.

“I have George on my to-do list for tomorrow,” I said.

“You have George on your to-do list?”

“Yeh….” I stopped short, realizing what she was implying… “Doh! That’s gross, Babs!”

She was still laughing as I made my exit from the office. ”Can’t believe you want to DO George,” she was saying…

Do I.T. Guys Like Chocolate?

I had a phone meeting with a coworker today. He’s in IT.

Generally speaking, the people of our IT department march to the beat of a slightly different drum. I’m no longer surprised at their odd habits. One of them sits cross-legged in his chair during business meetings. He also walks around in his socks at times. Another wears cargo shorts during the warmer months. He either wears the same pair of cargo shorts every day, or he’s got five pairs in the same color. One of them seems to collect his empty pop cans on his desk for days and weeks on end before finally cleaning house. The IT people speak a language that the rest of us don’t always understand.

And IT people enjoy privileges that many of the rest of us do not. They get to work from home a lot. Hence the reason I was having a phone meeting with my IT coworker today as opposed to an in-person meeting.

I set up this meeting yesterday. I have some reports that need to be built. I documented the specifications and created some mock-ups and I provided these to my IT coworker yesterday.  I asked him to look over my documents and be prepared to discuss with me whether what I was asking for was possible and if he could build the logic for these reports within a specific and rather short time frame.

My IT coworker called me this morning, as agreed, but I missed his call. We played a bit of phone tag before finally connecting. As I began to talk with him about my reports, he seemed confused and a bit distracted.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I’m just so tired today. What are you asking me about?”

I was slightly taken aback. What was I asking him about? Didn’t he remember the only reason I had asked him to call me? Odd.

I explained that I was referring to one of the two report examples I had sent him yesterday. He said that I mentioned the examples in my email but had not actually attached them. I was pretty sure that I had, and I quickly looked through the Sent Items in my email account, finding the original email and attachments just as he said, “Oh here they are. You did send them. I’m sorry.”

Again he apologized for being so tired and “spacey.”

I’m not easily annoyed by my coworkers and I particularly like this particular coworker. He’s smart. He does his job well. And for an IT guy, he communicates pretty well with those of us non-IT kind of people. It’s unusual for him to seem so distracted, tired and “spacey.” But I found myself wondering about his exhaustion. Was he up late with a sick kid? Was he up late with his wife? (OOPS! None of my business. Shouldn’t be wondering such things.) Was he up late hanging out with friends?  A part of me wondered how long the work-from-home gig can last if those who enjoy such privileges can’t wake up enough to function during normal business hours.

My IT coworker did seem to come to life a bit as we talked though, and was able to give me his perspective and some promising feedback on what I was asking. He told me he was going to look into some stuff and discuss a few things with someone else and would follow up with me tomorrow or early next week. I figured that was best. I figured he shouldn’t be making any promises when he was having such a hard time focusing and staying awake anyway.

We hung up with me envisioning him lounging in his home office in his pajama pants, hanging up the phone and leaning his head back on his chair. I pictured his eyelids drooping sleepily, a pile of beer bottles in his recycling bin from the poker game with his buddies last night.

Later in the day, I heard another coworker mention feeling sorry for the IT guy I had met with. Something about him starting his work day really early. I suddenly remembered that along with the perks enjoyed by the IT people, such as shoelessness, there are a lot of drawbacks, such as working long past normal business hours, working weekends, and having to make deployments at midnight.

It turns out that my coworker hadn’t been up late with his kid or his wife or his poker buddies. He had started his work day at 3:00 a.m. in order to make sure a very important report was run so that many others could do their jobs when they arrived at 7:00, 8:00 and 9:00 a.m. today.

I was too quick to judge. I hadn’t said anything to my IT coworker about the impression he’d made on me. I didn’t talk about it with anyone else. Still… I thought it. And I should have known better. Now I’m the one feeling sorry … and really grateful to be surrounded by people who are so dedicated to doing a good job, especially when expectations are always high and expressions of gratitude are often forgotten.

I’m thinking maybe I should make amends for assuming the worst about my IT coworker. A little token of appreciation, without explanation, of course because that would just be uncomfortable. But something. Any ideas?

Kindness Unexpected

Not too many people surprise me anymore. But today I was surprised.

I came down with a cold early this week. At first it was all in my head, or more accurately, in my sinuses. I spent a couple of days feeling as if my head was going to explode. Then last night, my head began clearing and the cold moved downwards. So now I’ve got a lovely cough.

Michael is the newest member of our department. He’s always the first one to arrive each day. I’m always the second one in. It’s quiet before the rest of the crew arrives.

This morning, I came to work. I got settled at my desk. I coughed. I logged into my computer. I coughed some more. Michael appeared in the doorway of my cubicle, looking hesitant.

“Miss Terri,” he asked? (He calls me Miss Terri. I’m not sure why. I think he’s just uber-polite.)

“Hi Michael,” I said.

“I’m sorry, but I couldn’t help noticing you’re coughing.”

“Yep, I’ve got a little cold going on. My turn I guess,” I said. Michael had endured a nasty cold for a couple of weeks recently, and so had Belinda.

Michael had a worried look on his face. “Well,” he said, “I just wanted to say that I’m sincerely sorry if you caught my cold germs. I really tried to keep my distance from everyone, and I went to the doctor and he said it was nothing more than the average cold. I know I sounded really bad, but there were a couple of days when I just couldn’t stay home and I had to come to work.”

“Michael,” I said, waving my hands as if brushing off his concerns. “It’s not your fault. It’s just that time of year. I get one of these every winter and my daughter just had it last week. Don’t worry!”

“Well, okay then,” he said. “But if there’s anything I can do to help you feel more comfortable, please let me know. If you want some juice or anything, I can run downstairs and get some for you. Just let me know.”

I was damn near speechless. Who does things like that? I mean, most people I know are nice enough, but not many would go so far a s to offer to go buy some orange juice for a sick coworker.

All I could do was mutter a very shocked “Thank you!”

And then I went and told all of my office buddies about Michael’s kindness. Most of them did that thing where they put a hand over their heart and cooed, “Oh my gosh! He is SO sweet!” (Michael is engaged. The consensus is that he is going to be a great husband!)

His kindness made me feel so good today that I decided to pay it forward. We have a couple of external auditors working in our office this week. One of them was looking for a Mountain Dew yesterday at lunch time and was disappointed to find there was only the diet variety in the pop machine on our floor. While I was down on our other floor today, I noticed the pop machine there had Mountain Dew. I bought one for the auditor and brought it back upstairs, leaving it on his desk with a note saying, “I grabbed a Mountain Dew for you while I was downstairs today. Enjoy.”

I hope maybe it made him feel as good as Michael’s kindness made me feel. He did come and thank me. He seemed a little surprised. Maybe he thought I was weird. But maybe he thought, “Hey, not many people surprise me anymore…”

We are all just pawns in the cesspool of corporate America!

The first thing I did when I arrived in the office yesterday was to schedule two vacation days for myself at the end of this week. Following standard departmental protocol, I entered my time off on the out-of-office calendar in Outlook and sent a notice to each of the six other people in my department.

Today, my boss sent me an e-mail asking about the time off, What was this for again?

I resisted the urge to respond that I felt entitled to some time off because I had just rolled over the maximum allowable of  80 hours from last year and had also just cashed out 37 1/4 hours that could not be rolled over. Clearly I did not take enough time off last year. I explained instead that I had intended to take a couple of days off from work to spend some time with my daughter while she was home on winter break. She is returning to school next weekend and I am running out of time. I asked if he needed me in the office. He said that he did not need me to cancel my vacation days but that staffing levels would be low both days and he’d appreciate if I just kept my cell phone on me, just in case.

I told him, Thanks. You are the BEST boss ever.

He replied, Don’t tell anyone. I am actually pretty mean.

He’s not really. He would just like us to believe that about him, but he’s just too darn likable. (And yes, I know that word looks like lickable but that is in fact the appropriate spelling. Get your minds out of the gutter.)

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During lunch break with my favorite group of coworkers, I was humorously complaining about the need to explain to my boss why I needed time off. I mean really! What if I had a gynecologist appointment? Does he really want to know about that? I don’t think so! I mentioned a concept I had been hearing about on the radio one morning this week; the concept of the 21-hour work week. According to The Case for a 21-hour Work Week, a 21-hour work week will “ redistribute paid work, offering the hope of a more equal society (right now too many are overworked, or underemployed). At the same time, it would give us all time for the things we value but rarely have time to do well such as care for our family, travel, read or continue learning (as opposed to feeding consumerism).”

My coworkers were all in favor. No need to convince us!

And while we were on the subject of dedicating more time to living quality lives instead of working to live and living to work, I pondered why we couldn’t just all take the month of July off, like the Europeans do. I mean all of us Americans, not just my favorite coworkers and me. It could just be that I’m currently reading Under the Tuscan Sun and now feel the need to buy myself an abandoned villa in Italy and spend my summer months restoring it while discovering the history and enchantment of a foreign country … not that this is a likely possibility no matter how much or how little I work … but I suddenly feel strongly that we work too much in this country!

Lori strongly agreed with me. Every time I’ve met a European while on a vacation, she said, adding a very la-dee-da tone to her voice, they tell me they’re on holiday for two months! 

Yeah, the rest of us nodded. Holiday! 

Why can’t we have a summer holiday, someone asked?

Because, Lori said, indignant now. We’re all just pawns in the cesspool of corporate America!

That is a great quote, isn’t it? I wondered who said it? Turns out it was a Lori original. Sadly, we all had to concur with her. With little hope of cutting our work weeks in half, we returned to the salt mines to finish out the day.

But I’ll tell you this much. At the end of this year, I am not rolling over two weeks worth of unused vacation time.

Okay, actually, I might. But I’m not cashing out an additional week’s worth of time off. Life is too short. I need to enjoy more of it outside of the office.