Office Pet Peeves Week - Day 3

The closed door pet peeve

I rarely close my office door - if  my door is closed there are 3 reasons for it
1) Someone is in my office and we are having a confidential discussion
2) I am on a confidential phone call
3) I am extremely busy trying to meet a deadline

98% of the time, my door is open.

However, it never fails that when I shut more door the following happens

Scenario 1:
Rude Employee: * knock, knock *
Rude Employee: opens door before I say "come in"
Rude Employee: Proceeds to ask me a question or tell me their problem even though they can clearly see I am in the middle of a meeting with someone else because the other employee is standing right in front of me.

Scenario 2:
Rude Employee: * knock, knock *
Me: No reply because I am on a phone call
Rude Employee: * knock knock knock knock knock knock * (and louder)
Me: No reply because I am talking on the phone
Rude Employee: opens the door anyway (although I didn't say "come in") and says "Oh, I didn't know you were on the phone" - I will just wait
Rude Employee: Sits down in my office and leaves the door open.
Me: I have to tell the person I am speaking with to please hold, then tell rude employee that I will see them when I am done with my call
Rude Employee: But I only have a quick question.

There are many others I can list but these are the 2 main issues concerning closed offices doors.

Office Pet Peeve Week - Day 2

Today's Pet Peeve is called the long e-mail add in

Two or more people have been emailing back and forth for days (or sometimes weeks).  You are unaware of this email or the subject matter at hand.

Suddenly, you are brought into the chain by one person that says "Can you answer Tom's question?"

You have to read through 18 pages of emails to find out what Tom's question is about and when all is said and done, it is something as simple as "When is the deadline for submitting XYZ report?"

Why didn't the person just send me a separate email (or pick up the phone for that matter) that said "Can you tell me when XYZ report is due?

Simple...but no, I guess it is much easier for THEM to have ME read through 18 pages of stuff to answer a single question.

So...when you loop someone into a string of emails that has been going on...summarize for the person FIRST - don't make them read the entire chain.

Office Pet Peeve Week - Day 1

 

I am sure if you work in an office, if you are like me, you have quite a few Office Pet Peeves.  They are not major things in the scheme of life or in the scheme of work but they are just little things that happen over and over and really bug you...or at least bug me.

So I thought I would dedicate a week to them. I actually think I could write a book about them, but pretty sure no one would buy that - haha!!


Today's Pet Peeve happened before I even arrived at work for the day.

Last week, I had to set up separate, individual meetings with over 20 people....so 20 different meetings.

We are supposed to keep our calendars updated.  I set up meeting requests LAST Wednesday - WEDNESDAY!

Of course I checked everyone's calendar, and as you can imagine, it is tricky to schedule 20 meetings based on (a) each person's availability and (b) the meeting room's availability.  But I managed to schedule them over several days.

Friday night - at 8:30 pm (2 days after I had scheduled the meeting) - someone replies "I'm at a conference next week, can  you reschedule?"

Here is the a triple pet peeve.

1) Your calendar indicates that you are in the office all next week and that you even have a couple of meetings scheduled - how was I to know you were going to be out all week, if your calendar doesn't indicate that?

2) I set up the meeting Wednesday, yet you wait 2 days to tell me you are not available?  Rooms book up fast so if you told me 2 days ago, I may have been able to find a room, now I have to scramble to find one.

3) You notify me of this at 8:30 on a Friday night, when you know the office is closed, when you know you are going out of town Saturday morning and it is clearly outside of business hours.

UGH! 

So now I have to schedule the meeting again, work with the other 2 people that are in the meeting and adjust according to their schedules, and the room availability.....and all of this extra work for me could have been avoided very simply, if only you had just DONE YOUR JOB and had your calendar up to date.

Funny Friday - An Apple - Guardians of the Galaxy Style

What Happened? Parenting Syles at Kroger

When I was a kid, my mom would try to go to the grocery store during the weekday, while we were at school - she'd plan the meals for the week, cook them and what was on the table each night was what we ate...she didn't make a special meal for me and a different one for my sister.

There wasn't any concern of gluten free needs or nut free or wheat free - no problems for any kids

Now, kids have so many dietary limits but do they? Really?  Now I know there are some TRUE allergies to certain foods but I find it hard to believe that 1/2 of Mrs. Jones 2nd grade class as a gluten allergy.  Really?  Especially when NONE of the kinds in my 2nd grade class were allergic to it but then again, that was quite a few years ago and parents didn't parent they way they do now.

As I said, mom my picked out our food for us, we seldom ate out.  It was a treat to do so.

When we opened our lunch bag at lunch time, we had some kind of sandwich on white bread (oh the horror) and it was generally peanut butter & jelly (Heaven forbid) or bologna with mayo or American cheese with mayo or sometimes - surprise - bologna & cheese - yummy - I loved those! We would often have a bag of chips in there and sometimes a pudding cup or an apple, once in a while (rare), we'd have a Little Debbie Snack cake - we didn't always have dessert in the bag though.

We ate it, it was good, we didn't go home and complain to mom that we didn't have this or that or that we were sick of this or that - we ate what we had or if we preferred, they'd give us lunch money to buy our lunch in the cafeteria.

Today at Kroger, I witnessed, not one, not two but THREE different families letting their 5 year old pick out the groceries.  Both their mom and dad were in tow.

Mom:  Anna Grace (little girls these days always seem to be called 2 names) - do you want cottage cheese this week?

Dad: Make sure you get the fat free

Anna Grace: Meh

Mom: Honey, tell mommy if you want cottage cheese this week

Anna Grace: Okay, I guess

Mom: Good, do you want this brand or this brand

(I am not making this up)

Anna Grace:  **  points to one of them

Mom: Are you sure?

Anna Grace:  ** nods, then walks over to ice cream freezer

Dad: No, honey, you can have some frozen fruit pops if you want some, do you want some?

Anna Grace:   - I want those - as she points to ice cream sandwiches

Dad:  Anna Grace, those aren't good - let's get some fresh fruit pops (dad gets some Blueberry Acai fruit pops then tells mom he is getting Nutty Bars for him)

Anna Grace: Meh

Mom:  Anna Grace, do you want some cheese stick for your lunch, do you like mozzarella or cheddar?

Anna Grace: Cheddar

Mom: Do you want this brand, this brand or this brand?  Come away from the ice cream, Anna Grace and pick out your cheese sticks.

Anna Grace: I want both

Mom: Okay - I'll get both

Dad: Did you get the gluten free bread for her morning avocado toast?

Mom: We need to head over to that aisle

Me: Standing off to the side, rolling my eyes out of their view...and thinking "are you kidding me?"

This was just one family - there were 2 others very similar that I witnessed - the kid was picking out everything and the parents were just asking them if this or that was okay with them.

Now I get wanting to buy your kid something that is healthy and something they will eat but....we ate what we were given!  My mom knew enough about us to know what we liked and didn't.  She knew if she made tuna sandwiches, we wouldn't eat it.

Mom didn't have to say "Now, I know you don't like tuna, honey bun, but do you want Jif or Peter Pan?  NOPE - mom got what was on sale!

For crying out loud - be the adult, take charge!!!

Funny Friday - Crochet Dog Sweater

W.I.P. Wednesday - Around the World Afghan - Restart

This is a VERY old work in progress.  I can't believe how long ago it was when I started this project.
I began it March 20, 2010 - WOW!  There are lots of reasons it sat dormant.

It is a BIG project - 1,073 tiny granny squares in 13 different colors. So, it is a big overwhelming when I think about it sometimes.

Also, because it is such a big project, I would set it aside to do other projects that had didn't take as long and I could see some results.

Sometimes I would get asked to make projects for others or for charity and I would stop and do that.

Then in 2014 my life changed for ever and I couldn't physically crochet for a while and even when I was healed and could....I lost the desire - I didn't do any crafting for almost 3 years - I just didn't have the desire - all I could focus on for a long time was just getting through the days.  This project was in the back of my SUV when I had my accident - my friend helped me clean out my SUV after the accident and I think in ways...this project sort of reminded me of that and perhaps that is another reason I kept it dormant.

When I finally did pick up my crochet hook and knitting needles again, I started out with small projects and even then, it was a slow process getting back into it.

After I started getting back into it full swing, I would look at the project bag and once and a while (the very big project bag) and think...oh boy...that is a huge project...how will I ever finish it? I wanted to finish it but I just didn't know when since it seemed I was always working on something else.

Well...I recently finished a small project and didn't have another one already started and I thought...it is time...before I start anything new, by golly I am going to finish that afghan.

I really hope I have enough yarn in each color because if I don't...I'm out of luck since these colors (except for black) are all discontinued now.

I started working on it Friday night and was getting a little frustrated because every time I reached for the next color, I had to root around in the big project bag and search and search and no matter how I tried to keep them organized in the bag, they kept getting jumbled around and difficult to find.  And with this project, I am changing colors A LOT !!

So...after making a few squares, I stopped, wound all my skeins it cakes, (because the skein were taking up more room...then luckily I had a big box that they perfectly fit in and I could organize them and keep them that way.

Isn't it pretty?  It looks kind of small in the photo but it is really a pretty large box...probably 24" x 18" and maybe 24" deep, so just the right amount of room to store the yarn cakes and store the afghan on to top when not working on it.

So...I worked on it some Saturday, while watching the final season of Orange is the New Black.  Then worked on it Sunday, while watching a Good Witch movie marathon. 

It is kind of hard to get a photo because it is very wide - about 5 feet so as I continue on...not sure how I am going to be able to take photos of it as it gets bigger. 

So far, so good and I am really want to finish this afghan.  It is quite a challenge due to the size, the number of colors, the time it will take but I really like it and it will be nice to have a very old WIP completed.