11:12 PM - 13.04.05
This and that
Work started out with a jolt again today. My computer had been powered up sometime during the night. Second time this week. I called tech support to advise them, just in case someone tried to use the unit inappropriately. They had told me last time that their department will sometimes power a unit up remotely to install a patch or carry out maintenance. I guess I can understand that, although this is the first company where that has been a practice. In any of the others, they simply programs the patches to install at start up. Even the ones that were absolutely more security conscious - even moreso than me. The other thing that nags at me is the fact it was the second time in three days. We receive email advisories when anything is done on our email program. That happens at least once a week. Why would the protocol be different for a patch operation? Don't know.
I was keying away when the one manager in the department, who gives extra work to the woman at the desk right next to mine, came up to talk with her. I had my headphones on, but I had run out of CD. I hadn't gotten around to doing anything about it, because I was concentrating on some research I needed to do. She said that she wanted my neighbouring co-worker to come see her because she wanted to help her. "I know what's going on, and I want to make certain that I'm not causing you any harm. I'll help you get your other work organized too." This is the co-worker who was dissed by three of the other supervisors just after she went home a couple of evenings ago. I don't know when she got her "talking to", but obviously the one supervisor felt that what had been said and done was unjust as well. The tone and way she spoke about it implied that "She knew what was going on" in more ways than just with this co-worker. This particular supervisor has given me a heads up a couple of times about some issues going on in the department that would have caused me problems had it not been said aloud. Her number two person has come by with comments too.
From what happened this morning and another comment made to me at noon, I think things may have escalated so that more open power plays are happening. That comment wasn't all that earth shattering. It was just one of the other supervisors in the department making a point to call me in to take part in a casual conversation with her group of workers, making certain I felt accepted. They all seemed to feel that I wasn't being treated properly, although so far I haven't had many complaints myself. It's all relative to what one has experienced before, after all. She was talking to me about the professional association that most of us belong to. I don't, because I consult rather than work in a permanent position which is one of the criteria for full membership. There had been a lunch workshop that noon and I'm guessing that the rest of my group had gone without me being asked. I had been out with my walking partner, so I wouldn't have even been aware if they hadn't told me all about it. Truth is it would likely have been very useful to me, because it was about the implications of the US Sarbanes-Oxley Act for our work. She went on to mention some of her connections to people that I've also worked with in the industry. It sounded as though she might have done a stint with my last supervisor, since she mentioned one company I know he worked for for a long time. She seemed to be trying to tell me something with out being direct about it, but I still am not certain why.
Maybe that hour in the sun sitting by the river with my walking partner had just scrambled my brains though. She was telling me about the workshop she had attended on the weekend. How to go about making a drum for sacred ceremonies. We have several first nations reserves near the city, so if one wants to learn their spiritual traditions it is possible to find teachers quite easily. I allowed that I wanted to make a drum for my grandson, but that the timing didn't feel right yet. The rest of our walk we mostly talked about the practice of Shamanism and its applications in some of the studying we each have done. Comparing notes and sharing the names of teachers and books that have helped us on the path. I told her a bit more about the play day and the courses I was working to make available through the dance studio. She is consulting too, so she had thought that she wouldn't be included in the day. She was quite excited when she found out that this company wants us to be involved.
Chatted with the one mover toward the end of the day. He has been shifting two very large sections of the records collection for about two weeks, trying to create space for all the incoming data that is pouring in. I've mentioned before that any other time I've seen him in a company it usualy means a big sale or purchase of some description that is the cause of the need for space. I've done some of that work myself, so I can tell by looking whether the transfer is going to be enough or not. Whatever is coming down the pipe in this case isn't going to fit in anywhere. I asked him where the extra room was going to be and he said he was barely going to be able to make any space at all in the one area. I think the instructions he had been given had been bothering him too, because he commented that he had tried to make a couple of suggestions that would have provided about a years worth of grace spacewise, but that it hadn't been accepted. I know what that feels like, but there is only so far you can go to do what you know is best in the long term when the client clearly doesn't want it. The fact that you will be the fall guy when the mistake in judgement comes back to haunt them sort of rankles, because it can damage one's reputation for knowledge of one's discipline even when you've done due diligence. He went and spoke with the second in command about it, but I don't think, at this stage, much can be done to remedy the situation. He just shrugged and allowed that he'd likely be called back in a couple of months to redo the whole process over again. Frustrating, but I guess it does provide job security in a backward kind of way. Sort of like my work. I wouldn't have a job either if the regular staff planned for more than a few months down the road. Businesses are always going on about goals and long term vision, but it doesn't really hold much water if they haven't built a foundation to sustain it. Does it?
On the way home with my neighbour tonight, I felt almost as if she was setting me up in a different way. A couple of mornings before, her daughter was going on about all her dates the weekend before. I wasn't really paying attention when she threw a question at me about how "wasn't it nice I didn't have to deal with all that angst any more". I just noted that young adult males had just as much emotional distress over the dating scene as the girls do, from what I had dealt with with my six sons. I repeated a conversation I had had with some of the other single moms in our group earlier about how much we enjoyed living like nuns. No muss, no fuss, no bother. I allowed that when my guys figured that out - living like monks instead, of course - that I assumed the angst factor in my home would settle down. She and her daughter exchanged one of "those looks". Then she restated her query. "No, I mean aren't you glad that YOU aren't having to deal with dating again". I said I hadn't even thought of it in that context and changed the subject. So today on our way home, she said she had to stop at this one store to pick up some supplies. Fine. I needed a few things myself, so I was good to go. As we were walking toward the store, a male that I know is a good friend with both her husband and herself approached from the store. It felt a lot more like a "casual" introduction to a potential 'date', than anything else. The conversation they had was obviously rehearsed. After we moved on, she provided a lot more particulars about his background than was necessary for me to know. Oi. Next was the question about the meeting being held one community over tonight. Sponsored by the city, it is about their plans for industrial development north of our homes, near the city limits. If she went, did I want to catch a ride with her to check out what was up their sleeves. City council had tried to sneak in a cattle processing plant there just before the last election in October. That in a residential area where there are a significant number of Hindus. They hold that cattle are sacred and are not to be slain. I can empathize, because my cats have made it clear they feel they are also sacred. I would never allow anyone to turn them into McDonald's fare. My neighbour hasn't gotten involved in anything civic for at least 15 years no matter how controversial. As Jarvis Church sings "things may not happen for a reason, but they're never just because"
Too much paranoia for one day. Time for bed.
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