WA and OR Peaks

Whoops, I forgot to post yesterday.  I'll post some more photos, this time from the plane window, tonight.

San Francisco Bay

Managed to sneak in a brief walk alongside San Francisco Bay yesterday after work, before the sun set and before I headed back to Seattle today.

Average

Well, today went about as well as expected.  As in not very.  For the second year in a row, my manager downgraded my self-rating of “Exceeded” to “Achieved” in my job (which is like downgrading a B to a C).  Not a surprise but I didn’t take it very well, arguing that my ability should not be judged by factors outside my control (delayed timelines due to slow recruitment) and lack of opportunities.  Which are the reasons she gave.  Then I tried to find out what I could do to improve my rating – and that’s where some other factors came to light.  Things like not managing any full-time reports (not a requirement for my job level so it shouldn't count against me), not leading some of these workshop meetings she likes to have (I argued that I wouldn’t even have these meetings if I was in her position, but that didn’t go down well), and that she wants me to be more vocal in meetings about things I cannot vocalize (such as sharing lessons from my past work experience, things that I either cannot or don’t want to share).  The whole thing reeks of BS.  I am better than my rating (and job level) and deserve more responsibility and respect (and not being patronized and micromanaged).  I talked about how underused and undervalued I felt, and I don’t think I got any responses to suggest that that will change anytime soon.  So all in all a very, very unsatisfactory meeting.  I just think we are 2 incompatible people with polar opposite approaches to work – and it is not in my best interest for her to remain my manager.  I hope this can be addressed, but I am fearful it won’t (the subsequent meeting with her manager did not appease me) – so it seems I will remain stuck being managed by somebody whose management style I detest.  I desire change, and if that cannot be achieved internally then I will start looking externally.  I think it is time to update my CV.  You can expect a lot more work rants in the upcoming months.

Rolling out the red carpet (not)

And you wonder why I don’t go visit my company HQ all that often.  I had a cubicle “reserved” for my 2 days.  When I got here this morning, there was absolutely nothing in the cube – no phone, no monitor, no laptop docking station, not even a fricking chair.  Just a power strip.  Thanks for the welcome….  And the office is like a ghost town, hardly any conversation or interaction – just the occasional noise that emanates from a stray cubicle or office.  I knew it was bad – I had heard tales of people leaving without any fanfare, without anybody knowing  and without any type of send-off whatsoever, and that doesn’t surprise me.  I kind of forced myself to go round and meet up with a few people that either I have worked with or will work it, which sometimes went well and sometimes was a bit awkward – but at least I tried.  What an absolutely terrible working environment – which is why I would never want to work in this office, and why I should appreciate working in the Seattle office a lot more (despite the many things that get on my nerves there).  Also - in the two stints that I’ve worked at this company, I’ve been to visit here maybe about 4 times and always stayed at the same hotel; but if I have to come here again then I won’t stay at the same hotel again.  It may be convenient – 5 minute drive away from the office – but it sucks: the terrible water pressure, the terrible internet service, the weird smells (I’m sure I smelt some kind of combination of weed and bleach last night), the lack of sound-proofing and hearing everything your neighbor is saying, doing, and watching.  I’m sure this isn’t the first time I’ve had an issue, and this ain’t a cheap hotel (though, admittedly, I am expensing EVERYTHING on this trip), but clearly I am not learning from my mistakes (something that can be said about me on all manner of topics).  With a rental car, I don’t have to be quite so picky about where I stay.  Still, I’d rather avoid coming out here again as much as possible – the last trip was about a year and a half ago, and hopefully the next one will not be any sooner than that.

I hate flying into San Francisco

Well, I'm writing this from my hotel room in the Bay Area.  Seemingly San Francisco was the only destination flying out of Seattle with big delays - and my flight was delayed by over an hour.  At least I didn't take the preceding flight which looked as though it got cancelled entirely.  Always seems to be delays flying into SF - it sucks, you'd think they'd be used to fog and low cloud.  I think it's also the only airport where I've ever been in a plane that had to abort its landing and circle round to try again.  Thank god I had no plans to go into the office this afternoon - but instead I caught the rush hour traffic after picking up my rental car, which was exactly what I wanted to avoid.  But that wasn't enough to stop me going to In -N-Out Burger - I definitely miss their delicious burgers so I always make an effort to go there whenever I go to California; they may have over 300 locations but none in Washington State sadly.

 

Stupid

I'm flying to San Francisco tomorrow morning so tonight I came home, had my tea, packed and was thinking I was all set.  Then it dawned on me that I had made a serious omission - I had totally forgotten my work laptop.  And worse, that I had left it at work.  D'oh!  So after a "quick" 50 minute drive to work and back again in the late evening, this time I think I am set (though hardly in the best of moods!).  Thank god I didn't realize this too late, or it could have been a total disaster.  It's weird, I had powered off my laptop before I left work the first time - but I'm not in the habit of taking my laptop home, so I just left without it and didn't think anything of it.  It's not helping that for the last week it has been one of the busiest I've been at work for a while, so my mind is frazzled and distracted.  But that's no excuse - I'm just stupid for forgetting it (or perhaps showing early signs of dementia - yikes.)

Quote

The current quote I’ve got attached to my profile on work IM: “We all grow up wanting to be Luke Skywalker, but when we grew up we realize we’re just another Storm Trooper.”

 PS If it came down to Oprah vs Trump in 2020, then I would definitely vote for Oprah.