My new baby
This is my new baby at work, the ThinkPad T61 Model 7664A24. It replaced the T43 you may have seen in my other blog. This baby’s got 2GB of RAM, 250GB HD, a 14.1″ WXGA+ display and three USB ports instead of the usual two on other older T-series laptops.
Of course it’s not really mine, it’s the company’s. But I get to use it. Yeah. Small pat on the back for working so hard, I’d like to think. A raise and a trip to Hong Kong Disneyland, now THAT’s a pat on the back that I’d really like, but I’ll settle for this one for now. I’ve had this one for a week now and it’s sleek and fast and can stand its share of rough handling. Just the kind of thing for the way I work.
There’s a lot of things I’m looking forward to these couple of months. There’s Season 7 of CSI:Miami which airs in the U.S. on the 22nd. Couple of days from then it should be available for download on my favorite torrent site. There’s my participation in the CSR program of one of our clients when I’ll be going to Masbate with 10 or so desktop computers for donation to the schools in that area, and teaching the teachers and students how to use them. There’s sem break for Kuya Maui and perhaps another visit from Kuya Pax, and maybe this time we can go somewhere nice.
Double-time
It’s a manager’s nightmare, when a team member leaves just when clients are coming in and bringing more work our way. I for one do not blame people for looking for greener pastures (LGP, as opposed to Looking for Better Management- LBM). But for one to abandon ship just when things are definitely picking up, well … there’s really not much I can do about that except look for a replacement.
I’m not looking for some top-notch developer with code coming out of his ears. I want someone teachable, a fast learner and not averse to a night or two nights of overtime (with free dinner) in a month. But the pattern we seem to have reached at our workplace is everyone wants to join the tech group, and no one wants web development.
I’m not sure if it’s because of the non-challenge. My brand of web development is to create something attractive with a backend that the client cannot destroy. That means Joomla / Wordpress and a good designer and a php coder. My brand of web development is to make it as easy for the client to maintain his site, with the minimum of help from us, so we can pick up and do other things.
I did get to interview a couple of guys, with two more perhaps next week (if they show up, because some of them email back and then do not show up). But until then the workload of the guy who left rests squarely on my shoulders, and I am doing double time again.
All work and no blogging makes for a stressed out Bambit. I look like someone an insurance agent would hesitate to give a life insurance quote to.
Easy come, easy go
Employment screening is indeed one of the basic tasks of a human resources department in any office. However in small companies such as the one I’m employed in, a few unintended shortcuts may have been made in the effort to acquire new personnel. There had been times in the past when we needed people right away that we were willing to take on a couple of people who were on a waitlist to go abroad, just so we could have them for the duration of their stay. We figured it was a two-way benefit. We got our manpower and they got a few more months of training prior to leaving the country.
These days however, keeping a good man on board is a lot more difficult that usual. There are many things to consider, other than the potential employee’s agenda for his professional life. There is also the problem of homogenizing with the existing team, and working effectively with the manager. There have been cases where management was the problem and not the recent hire’s. That happens amidst much angst and disruption, and when the employee suffers, the company suffers as well.
Working from home
Real freakish weather we’ve been having here in Manila these days. You get really hot mornings and torrid mid-afternoons and then late in the afternoon comes a sudden downpour. That’s a real recipe for instant headache or fever or it can even be an excuse for crankiness which may lead to one working from home.
And that’s what I did today. Early this morning Kuya Maui came into our bedroom and weakly declared himself too sick to go to school. Then he plopped down on our bed and didn’t protest when I covered him up with my malong. Not an hour later I realized it was THAT time of the month again, happens when you’re getting old, visits just come unannounced, no more PMS, it’s just THERE and there’s nothing I can do about it. Except declare a work from home day.
Maia’s first day at school last Tuesday didn’t turn out to be the first day after all because an unannounced meeting the day before (which we didn’t get to attend because it was unannounced) moved the start of class for the Kindergarten kids to July. When in July is TBA.
So from home I monitored this new streaming video server the tech guys put up, and emailed my clients and Skyped the webdev boys. That’s me (of course) in the picture, taken by Sam.
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