10:01 p.m. - 2004-08-06
Shudder in the Force
Rain washing down the house as I write, dear diary. Feels wonderful - the cool moist air flowing in and around me.
Forget about the Cat in the Hat, we have cats in the closets, the baskets and the plants. Summer means insects. Winged warriors. They absolutely fascinate and frustrate our furry family. The older cats meow indignantly at those critters that fly just out of reach and demand - in cat tongue - that they come down and fight like well..... Anyway. Ms Badger even insisted at one point that I lift her close to the ceiling so she could get that pesky moth pattering across the stipple. Rooting around in my closets chasing them down is the other exploit du jour. Sure. The kittens think the bugs are enchanting but prefer the wicker baskets we have around the house. They're usually filled with things like fruit; they are also exactly the right size to contain one kitten doing a fair imitation of the slalom or three-men-in-a-tub routine. The other babies push the lucky occupant around on the wood floors, I think mostly in the hope they can upend the toy and claim it for their own. They all dig up the plants to show their frustration when they can't have their own ways.
My supervisor called me at about 7 pm tonight - just after I had settled in for a nap. I called him back immediately thinking there might be more problems. He sounded beat, so I suggested he go home instead of talking. He allowed he thought that his wife probably thought so too. However, he had just read a cryptic e-mail from our liaison that she had sent him just before I left work today. That email really bothered him obviously and I think he wanted more information so he could address it right away if necessary. Our liaison comes into work quite late in the morning and then makes up the time by staying quite late into the evening, so he knew she would still be at the office. I understand that - when other staff aren't around one can focus on one's own work. I tried the same thing during the election only coming in early then working late into the night at home.
Anyway, I recapped the week for him except the underwear story - he's a guy after all. He often comments that his wife and daughter are mysteries to him, so I doubt I could begin to explain women's ways of expressing aggression. I explained my discomfort about having to work with data that was in the degree of disorder I was finding when I'd been instructed to just ignore that and just get the filing done without addressing it or recording the file numbers involved. There's liability issues there. He concurred and expressed concern as well. Explained that I liked the young woman I had been asked to take under my wing - that responsibility extending into today until the liaison's brother finally arrived and gave her her next assignment about two hours into the morning - but that I felt left in an untenable position given that the responsibility was added to my duties with no instructions or guidelines given whatsoever. Ditto for a lot of other issues that arose from the material I was handling. The liaison was always "Too Busy" to respond when I tried to ask for direction, which leaves my work exposed to criticism no matter how hard I try to do the correct thing. It meant a lot of work couldn't be done pending a response - lots of unfinished business. Prior to me beginning this assignment, the liaison had instructed my supervisor to tell me I was not to keep a log or a diary of my daily tasks as has been the norm. I did anyway since it was the only real protection I have had access to in these circumstances. That is a blessing now since it also documents the steps taken and the reasons for not completing certain tasks. I don't have the authority to act as is necessary on what was left undone. My only other option would have been to go over her head and that would be political suicide for me.
The events of today? Well the supervision issue first. Our liaison arrived about the same time as her brother, but was still too busy to even to say hello to me or the other consultant, although she did have a fair amount of time for the co-ordinator. Fair game she has to set priorities, but since the two of us she wouldn't talk with are contractors, it leaves us hanging and at risk in a number of ways against our will and our best efforts. The liaison's brother set tasks for the young lady and she was good to go for the rest of the day. The representative from the software company that is providing the new technology I am supposed to learn arrived at about 10:15 am and the session lasted until 2:45 pm woth an hour break for lunch.
The break was longer than usual so that the instructor could recode some of the software. During our discussion in the morning as he was showing me - the liaison's brother was present but was obviously already very familiar with the process - how to use it I was asking questions about a variety of features that would enhance the functionality of the program based on the software I've used in most other companies I've worked in - including the Federal government. The brother was asking questions based on what he had worked with in the company's other software as well - how to link and enhance that. Rather than a training session, it had turned into a planning session instead. Having just gone through this in the election, I also wanted to ensure that resources were programmed in to the software that would allow for tracking and analysis of use patterns among users so that training/orientation could be enhanced. I also raised the issue of security of the data given what I've seen elsewhere and asked how due diligence was going to be demonstrated with respect to data sold to other companies that would have to be removed and erased completely from the electronic collection. Our laws are very prescriptive with respect to that and it hadn't been given any consideration. "You mean other companies comply? Why the higher standard for electronic data? (it isn't) How do most of them go about it?" Yuh huh, my supervisor moaned a bit when he heard that bit. That caused quite a bit of discomfort for both men. So did the technical issues I raised about the reliability of the research tools attached since I could give them concrete examples from previous work I'd done in this company.
I went for my walk along the escarpment to the north of downtown for my break. I was wishing that manufacturers would provide a "walking loop" of fabric at about mid-thigh, that used to be common when long dresses were the norm once. Why? Well my stride was a bit longer than the width of the skirt I wore today and it didn't have a slit in it. I risked doing a face plant every time I over-stepped it's length. I hiked my skirt up with one hand as best I could, but that looks a bit affected doesn't it, dear diary. I got to one really steep part of the climb. I found myself behind an elderly couple and that reminded me of a similar tableau I'd witnessed a week earlier. The wife - frail and struggling to walk. The husband not intervening or trying to take over in any way, just being close and protective in case his parner's strength should fail. Last week it was a couple who were here for the square dance competitions. I think the only thing really holding her upright was the starch in her crinolines, but she danced anyway. This week the lady's hip, when going up that steep slope, was so unstable it was painful even to watch, but she obviously wanted to tackle the challenge on her own. Gave her the sense of independence she craved I think. I slowed down and just kept a quiet respectful distance behind so that neither felt pressured to hurry - the path being very narrow at that point. They turned near the crest and then started the climb up a set of steep steps set into the hillside. I continued on up the path thinking about that type of commitment between people. Pretty impressive. Over the hill and under the hill, over the bridge and across the island - Prince's that is. Shakespeare in the Park in Progress. This time Hamlet, although the tennis whites he wore really didn't fit with the Danish accent/Elizabethan language the hero was trying to maintain. Ophelia looking more like a Valkyrie from an Wagner opera, but sounding like einem gut hausfrau, verstehen? The crowd was in stitches as the hero freely interacted with them taunting and teasing as he went. Ophelia was satisfyingly "mad". Through the market and back to work with time to spare.
After a quick review of the upgrades and discussion of other possibilities, a practicum session. The brother turning to me at one point to ask if I felt the builidng moving. I think he was trying to make a joke about one of the very big males who had walked past our session (as had a number of other staff), but I just noted that I had had the same sensation a couple of afternnons ago in the stacks and found it very disorienting. I noted that the engineers had explained that the building had been designed at the 50th floor to sway rather than shear off when air or land motion was an issue. I commented that there had been no wind the other day so I was unsettled. He asked if I'd ever seen a Japanese pagoda and I did a bit of a double take. He went on to explain that they were built sort of on a tripod principle of construction to move with earth tremours. I wanted to explore that concept further but the instructor interrupted to say he had to leave shortly could we proceed. Well I guess so. I'm not sure why it was interjected to begin with but it was one of the most interesting things I learned today. The instructor spent the last few minutes talking only to the brother with respect to feedback and liaising - in passing he commented to me that he guessed I had passed the basic skill level requirements for working with his program. Whatever. Anyway, back in the stacks as the brother needed the computer to get some of his daily tasks done after our lessons were done.
Then our liaison came by with 15 minutes to the end of the day and asked me to come see her before I left. She noted that some of the work she had originally told my supervisor that I would be responsible to complete was now being sent out for bids from other companies because she wanted me to focus on capturing and cataloguing their electronic records that hadn't been addressed at all yet, as well as all the current hard copy data pouring in from various projects. Fine by me. She printed off the e-mail she had sent to my supervisor - the one that prompted his call later. She was saying that the contract between our company and hers still was going through the channels (it had originally been inked to begin mid-July) but not to worry - the invoices for my service would still be honoured. (That was the part of the e-mail that got my supervisor's attention.) She also handed me several documents to sign and return by Monday. Ones newly developed for personnel in their company. They included their new internet/communications use policies, code of conduct and business ethics, confidentiality agreement, harrassment policy and violence in the workplace policy - I kind of did a double take on the last one given my experiences at their company the past couple of contracts and noted I had signed similar agreements almost everywhere else -except for the last two. She said that they had been triggered by some in-company events. No doubt. There were several interruptions in the discussion because of calls from her family and friends that made discussion a little choppy, but the upshot seemed to be that there would be no problem with the agreement being approved by their legal department but that every contract was now being scrutinized individually rather than being given blankets approvals. Her comment was that the past history between the company my supervisor and I work for and theirs had been satisfactory and relaible so she didn't see any problems forthcoming. Uh huh. So now you know why my supervisor was calling dear diary. He had the same gut reaction I did I think. Manana.
�
�
