Book of Jamez

55 y/o malcontent, something of a writer

Tag: Clerk of the Works

  • The Dreaded Beast – Meetings

    The Dreaded Beast – Meetings

    Have I ever mentioned how much I hate meetings. Hate is a strong word, I know… I’m pretty sure it’s hate. Can’t stand them, go out of my way to prevent them from happening if at all possible. I haven’t pulled a fire alarm or called in a bomb threat, but maybe it’s worth the risk. Chances are we’d then have to have a meeting about safety and irresponsibility.

    I’m a worker. I want to get to the office sit in front of my computer and crank out work. There is always plenty of work. This hasn’t been true at many of my jobs in the past… Job after job after job I would find myself bored, playing on Facebook, playing solitaire or surfing the web when my work was finished… I did my job now I have free time to goof off. I even had a job where I could play World of Warcraft and still be productive.. not a lot to do so lots of time to be creative.

    My current job, in the insurance industry doesn’t allow me to play around… oh, I’m sure I could find a way to do nothing, but I don’t have to. I have so much work to do and the team that works with me does too… so there is no need to find other things to do to occupy my time… I have work that needs doing and I can do it so therefore I’m not bored… boredom is the day killer.

    A meeting, regardless of purpose (purpose is a rare quality in any meeting I’ve been to) is generally boring. There is no work being done. No one is being active… or perhaps one person is being active and the rest of the group is staring at their screen. One person will ask a dumb question and the rest of the meeting will groan to themselves and wonder why that person keeps being asked back to the meeting, secretly they’ve been planning his murder.

    Generally meetings consist of one of the following:

    • This work isn’t being done.
    • This work is being done incorrectly.
    • How can we get more work done.
    • We should schedule a meeting to talk about having a meeting.
    • Let me ramble on and on about a plan I would like to put in motion that will fix nothing but mandates you pay attention to me for an hour or more.  (generally a consultant)

    I try to stay open minded. I try to be helpful and input good information, if I have it. I try to take notes that make sense to me…. but generally, I’m bored.

    It isn’t just the boredom that gets me… it’s the frustration of knowing I could be at my desk at that moment doing ACTUAL work. Putting dents into large projects, finishing small projects, helping customers and generally … well working.

    One meeting a week… ok I can do it. Two – three meetings four days of the week… omg… help me… do I want to have another meeting… do you really have to ask me that question?

  • Promoting Change

    A few years back I worked for a small firm and, like always, I was looking to improve processes and make things run better than they currently were.

    The whole staff had company Blackberries that got their email and calls, yet they still hand wrote phone messages and had staff stop at the front desk to get them. I thought this was a rather odd way to do things given the available technology.

    At the monthly meeting I brought up the notion of sending emails and calls to the folks Blackberries directly so they could respond sooner. You would have thought I asked if we could try communicating telepathicaly or something… they were aghast.  (more…)

  • Purpose

    I wasn’t always a good worker. I was young and stupid once upon a time.

    One of my first jobs, at Arby’s I was insulted that they didn’t recognize how important I was in my own head. At my break they told me to hurry back as we were getting a rush. I was so offended they didn’t know how hard I had worked already that I never went back.

    Factory work was the next step for me – assembly plants, plastic injection molding, silk-screen printing and furniture (fabricated wood mostly and working with glazes for sweet finishes). That was more to my liking – everyone seemed to be a drinker (like me) and I was introduced to some other fun things not to be mentioned.

    I just showed up to collect the paycheck and see friends and then I’d head to the bar or home and complain, to who ever would listen, how awful my job was. Many a job was lost because I called in sick a lot, fell asleep on the job or just didn’t care.

    I somehow found myself working in an office overnights at a half-way house. The secretary would ask me if I could do tasks for her and I said sure… having no idea how to actually do what she wanted. I taught myself how to use Microsoft Windows back in 1994.. amazing as that was. I found that I was actually not to bad at figuring out how to use computers for that type of thing.  (more…)