August 7th, 2006 by 
gowest
I am working for a company with offices in 4 different time zones (considering India not as part of this spiel). The majority of the offices and employees is located in a stated further west from where I live. The most annoying with those people is their ignorance. It seems like they seem to think they are all alone in this universe. First of all as part of my job I am on call 24/7 - a really annoying part of my job. In the very beginning I was trying to monitor emails until like 9 or 10 at night, but I got flooded with useless emails that could have easily waited until the next morning. Then the so called monitoring. Do you believe that a large company with thousand of employees is not able to put sufficient server monitoring in place? Our monitoring and reacting is pretty much based on users reporting a problem. As if that would not be enough, there are still things that easily go beyond of what I already wrote about.
With people located in different time zones it takes a little more effort to schedule meetings for times convenient for everyone. I consider that common courtesy. Those goofys out west don’t care. I get meeting requests for very late afternoon or by default scheduled into the lunch hour. But hey, that is not all. Even if I already have a meeting scheduled for a certain time, I still get meeting requests for the same time. I know the meeting requestor did not even bother to check availability. All it counts is the convenient time for the requestor.
I consider it sad with how much respect ( = none) co-workers treat each other. But it is a symptomatic for many things I see day by day. The scary part is that nobody seems to care. This week one team member who became a team member of mine through the merger of teams, freaked out and sent out an email questioning the loyalty of everyone. What had happened? Well, he got a request from management to do something and it just overwhelmed him. I mean - the guy is sending emails 24/7. I think he lacks on time management and thinks that every request management gives him needs to be done ASAP. Poor guy and also bad management. Employees are just squeezed out until they snap.
What shall I say? I am trying not to be part of the whole thing and work with an attitude. Surprisingly I am still way ahead of when it comes to deliver significant results - even with ignoring emails after I go home.
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August 4th, 2006 by gowest
Do you know that when a 16 month old screams or cries into your ear while you carry him on your arm, it gives your eardrums some really good vibrations? I mean, I don’t know if it is really good, but I had the feeling it took a long time for the vibrations to stop. So, the volume level must have been pretty good. It almos felt like when I was 18 and went to a heavy metal concert for the very first time. After the concert it took about 3-4 hours for the high pitched noise to go away. Those were really good vibrations.
I wonder if those vibrations and the associated loss of hearing is one of the blessings people are referring to when they talk about kids? I mean - it can be a real blessing if your hearing ability goes down a little bit and you do not realize how loud that 16 month old is really screaming. I think kids are a blessing, I really do. I am just not sure if I appreciate every single piece that ‘comes with the package’ as much as other people do.
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July 31st, 2006 by gowest
I feel a little bit like Harrison Ford or Tom Hanks stranded on an island since my mother in law arrived 10 days ago. It’s like forever already that she is here and there is no chance of getting away from this island in the near future. There is almost no private moment in this house anymore. “Grandma” is everywhere. She is there when I come out of our bedroom to leave for work at 6.30 AM and she is there at 4.30 PM when I come home from work. And you probably guessed it - she is around until it is time to go to bed. The only moment of freedom I get is when I get up at 5.00 AM to go running and do my morning workout.
I feel sorry for Logan, too. As nice as it is for him to have Grandma here (and I really mean it), he cannot play for himself a moment. She has to interrupt him with comments or the attempts of having him to drink or to eat. The poor kid must get confused and must overreact at one point. One thing we noticed - he does not like to be near grandma when either Simone or me is around. Again I really mean it - I feel sorry for Grandma (mother in law). When she was here in April she broke her arm and did not get her quality time with Logan and now that she is back he is a few months older and shows different behavior.
What shall I say. Only 34 more days to go until my mother in law will go back to Germany. Does this qualify for any kind of medal?
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July 29th, 2006 by gowest
Nap time. So we thought when the afternoon approached and we wanted to put Logan down for his regular afternoon nap. No way. He did not wanted to sleep at all. We tried all our known tricks, but nothing worked. Nothing. If you have a baby yourself you know how stressful a baby can be with no sleep. They become fussy and are completely out of control depending on how long this situation lasts. Well, here it lasted until the evening was there and everybody was completely exhausted. We even had to put Logan into the truck and take him for a long drive to have him calm down. What a nightmare. And you here people say that kids are a blessing. Well, they are - when they eat and when they have enough sleep.
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