The Tedious Monotony of Work

It’s been a tough week at work.  Been feeling very low energy, and struggling to get out of bed in the mornings (I’ve been getting in nearer 10 rather than 9).  A couple of days ago I tried to login to e-mail to say I’m taking a sick day – but I kept on getting error messages, and rather than phone in (a sign of changing times!)  I forced myself to come into work that day.  Probably a mistake, I’m not getting a lot done at the moment.  And today, I became aware that I might have missed a good opportunity to better my standing and status at work – I would have been assigned a lead role on an indication that has just been decided to advance to Phase III (which is a big deal in clinical trials) and which appears to be important to upper management, but with the change in my manager I am no longer attached to this.  It would have been tough – pressurized, and still at the whims of my old manager – but I’m very conscious that I am somewhat caught between the gaps in my current role and have felt rather underused and frankly disposable for some time now, and I need something that raises my profile.  The irony is that today I got awarded a Values at Work Award – in recognition of some other work I have done recently.  That is nice to be appreciated, but I still feel I am a long way away from doing enough to earn the promotion that I think is long overdue (and which frankly I need on my CV).  It’s definitely not happening from the mid-year evaluation.  Once again, I am really starting to question my future here – regardless of having a new manager. 

ICE

In a sign of the times, I’ve started to carry around my green card in my wallet again.  When I hear about stories like pizza delivery drivers being arrested due to their legal status, then I think my accent makes me a target of being reported – regardless of my skin color and the fact that I live/work in the environs of a sanctuary city.  But better to be safe than sorry, I’ve decided to keep my green card handy in case my legal status in the country ever gets questioned.  I think the chances of this ever happening are slim to none, but still there are enough nationalists out there (and under the current president, less shame in being openly racist/nationalist) that you never know.  I’ve definitely been the target of some abuse on the road due to the GB sticker on my car.  Mind you, stupid Seattle Seahawk fans probably think it stands for Green Bay (as in the Green Bay Packers).  Idiots.

World Cup Preview

It’s crazy to think that the World Cup is starting in just over a week’s time.  I haven’t given it much thought at all.  I don’t really know who made or who didn’t make the England squad.  Other than Belgium, I don’t know who else is in England’s group.  I don’t know what date and what time England’s games are – the time difference between the US and Russia would suggest that most games will be on early for me, so hopefully I can catch them before heading into work.  I don’t really have any high expectations for England at all – to be honest, I don’t have any expectations at all.  We’re not going to win it, but at least I hope we’re taking a young team who can get some good experience for future tournaments.  I don’t even know if England are a “good” side anymore – maybe, but history says that they will choke on the bigger stage.  Even without the US involvement (embarrassing), I think and hope that all the games are being aired over here – I think Fox shelled out a lot of money on the rights, so I would be very surprised if they aren’t showing them all (there is at least one Fox sports channel not available to me – so guaranteed they will air some games there…).  The few trailers I’ve seen have, probably unsurprisingly, focused on Ronaldo and Messi.  As long as they bring in some English play-by-play commentators, I’ll be happy.  I don’t give a monkeys who they drag out for the studio analysis for each game – that waste of time is getting automatically fast forwarded for each game.  So yes, this is probably the first major “soccer” tournament involving England that I’m not invested in at all – hopefully that will mean I can enjoy it more!   

History

I've decided what period of history is the most interesting to me.  It's not the First World War.  It's not the Second World War.  It's not the Vietnam War.  It's not the Cold War.  All of which at some point or another I've been really interested in.  Nope, the period of history I find most interesting is the period we are currently living through and which is a long way from finishing - the Trump presidency.  It's fascinating now.  It's going to be fascinating in 50 or a 100 years time.  It is crazy, it is memorable, it is fluid, it is divisive, it is either the greatest thing that has ever happened to America or the biggest train wreck that America has every experienced - depending on who you ask.  There are revelations we are hearing about during his presidency, there will be revelations we hear about long after his presidency has ended.  He may or may not win a second term, but his impact on America, American people and American government is enormous - for better or for worse, again depending on who you ask.  It is going to be difficult to separate real news from "fake news" - but again that is a big aspect of his presidency, since there has never before been a president who is such a bold-faced liar.  Every month, I've decided I want to buy and read a book that gives a good insight into Trump and his Presidency - think books like Fire and Fury, and Collusion.  There is going to be a steady stream of these books for months and years to come from journalists and insiders - so this is something that is going to sustain me for a long time hopefully!

Insect Bites

My blood is like heroin to insects - once they get a taste, they can't stop biting.  And having had some of my upstairs windows open recently due to the warmer weather, I've already started to see some insect bites appearing over my torso.  So, in a probably doomed attempt to make things better, I've invested in some plug-in bug zappers.  So far, they don't seem to have made the slightest bit of difference.  They kind of give out a UV-type light that is supposed to attract the insects - but I've yet to see any evidence that they attract or kill anything.  Might have to go back to Amazon and invest in something that is a bit pricier but might actually work.

Reclining Sofa

Now I've got a new mattress - my next furniture priority is a new sofa.  I hate my current one - I've had it for a while now, its worn, its uncomfortable, and it's broken.  I like the fact that it is reclining - but not when one of the levers to recline is broken.  So given the amount of time I spend on the sofa, I deserve an upgrade.  With Father's Day coming up, I've seen ads on the telly for sofa sales at one of the local furniture stores - so I might need to investigate further.  I'd love to get a complete living room set but I'm not really set up for that, so I just want to find a comfortable reclining (maybe power reclining) leather sofa. 

The Survey Says...

There was an employee survey at work recently, and they shared some of the initial results this week.  I won’t go into detail about the results, but the most striking thing for me was the way they talked about highlights and “opportunity areas”.  A classic HR term.  Personally, I would use the term lowlights – but I guess that is too negative a term for management.  I also don’t consider it correct to classify areas that didn’t score well in the survey as “opportunities”.  No, that is another attempt at positive spin - the correct term is “problem areas”.  It is not so much an opportunity as a necessity for management to address any issues that come up – otherwise employees will continue to be unhappy and continue to leave.  Naturally, being the negative person I am most of my responses tended to trend on the negative side – so I’m sure I helped skew some of the results (though not by much given the sample size).  The statistician in me would be fascinated to get hold of the data from the survey and explore the data for myself – especially since some of the cluster analysis they presented seemed like absolute manure (looking for patterns where patterns don’t exist, or proving the obvious, or mixing up “collaboration” with “being told what to do”).