Tuesday 30 August, 2005
Autumn is early
The scorching hotness of summer most definitetly is over. Today was the first day in months when the clouds again decended on Vancouver and filled it with soft rain. I've taken my jacket with me in the mornings for couple of weeks now, but this was the first day when I needed it when leaving work.
There are autumn people who enjoy it and feel alive when it comes - personally I'm a spring person. Autumn used to be a season for starting over when schools started, but for years now it has meant nothing for me. So it has just become the end of everything nice, end of holidays, end of warm weather, end of light. So there's an autumn in my heart, to.
To top that, we moved at work, and my new desk is not where I wanted it to be - I wanted it to be in the middle of automation team, where the people I know best are. Instead I got a desk kind of next to them, but alone in my own cubicle - and before you think it's nice and quiet and peaceful, I have to add that it's the cubilcle everyone goes through to get to my team.
My boss tried to console me that it was the managerial position and the managers usually sit there, but I was inconsolable. Pris wanted to sit there too because "the boys" were there - and she wasn't happy to sit the with the girls. I would have. Oh well, it's what you make it, and maybe it just hightens the feeling that I'm there just to work.
While going home I decided that I would skip yoga - yes, a bad sign - and for once do all those things that I should have done some time ago and have been putting off. Mainly, filled the insurance claim for my dentist visits (which means money) and even more importantly, I finally filled in the application for renewing my work permit here. Originally I only got a work permit until December this year as that's when my passport was expiring - but now that I have a new passport I should be able to just apply for an extension. It seems straightforward enough - I can even pay the fees over the internet, and I only had to include about 10 pages of photocopies of different documents, and I put in some extra ones just to be on the safe side.
Now I feel better.
Posted by kolibri at 30 August 19:38, 2005If it truly is a managerial position (or a difficult location), this is an excellent opportunity for you to try "Managing by Walking", as my former boss, the crafty Englishman, used to call it.
I gather MbW might be an actual managing practise, where the manager walks down the corridor each day (or similar) and pops in to every employee's room to have a chat. The manager stays in touch with the team and vice versa and so on - you know the jargon.
His version, though, went roughly like this: you take care of most of your daily duties by going to see other people in their rooms and talking things through. You only call, send e-mail, arrange a meeting etc. if you cannot for some reason reach the people face to face. (Hmm, maybe it should be Managing by Talking instead?)
Anyway, I picked up some the habit from him, and at least in my coordinating role and at our office it seems to work pretty well :).
You can't add any more comments, but if you wish you can email the author.