We used to have a pretty great roller rink nearby. Large, spacious, okay food, full bar, and they'd even play Prince occasionally if I begged them. That one closed just before the pandemic and we're left with a crappy one that is/has none of those things.
Anybody else notice that work projects are like offensive drives in football? You can be moving the ball right along and then you get down to the red zone and things just stall.
More like a practice scrimmage, since some of your coworkers are on the defense as well
Yes. I find this kind of thing corrosive to my morale. My work frequently occurs at the beginning & end stages of collaborative projects. I know my colleagues have their own projects to manage, but when there’s an opportunity for us to collaborate and we can’t get our efforts/energy/interest in sync, that is deeply frustrating to me. By the time someone else works up a head of steam, my enthusiasm has waned because I have been spinning my wheels trying to keep up forward momentum.
A couple months ago I pitched a collaborative analytical project that, across the entire institution, only my office is capable of producing. It was timed to a significant upcoming anniversary and would have been a real showcase — up to 15 years in the data set we could draw from, and a ton of interesting questions begging for analysis. The colleague who was even more enthusiastic than me about it flaked on the meeting, and interest fizzled when our other colleagues got the pitch.
One of the issues I'm coming to terms with is our company has been built largely through M&A. My coworkers are mostly young(er) and mostly came from smaller constituent companies where they were one-man bands. They didn't require collaborative processes because they ran projects end to end. Also, the department is growing fast because ownership is investing generously in marketing. But for now we're having to define and implement our work processes as we do the work, which is like servicing a car with the engine running. Nevertheless, I've stepped up and taken on process definition, documentation, and improvement as part of my job duties.
I’ve been part of three person team driving a major renovation project that I thought we were turning over to the brass last week. We’re talking about a 25 million dollar project involving the tearing down to the studs of a third of our complex in the French quarter.
Turns out I’m going to keep driving this project because the leadership team doesn’t know how to step up. If my team walked away having completed our initial charge this project would languish and never move anywhere. That’s something I have a hard time believing due to my position in the org chart.
It was time to put our toaster oven out to pasture so I pulled the trigger on a new Cuisinart toaster/convection oven, half price because I had a bunch of credit card points to use on Amazon. Air fried bacon is my favorite thing so far, but I'm going to try making chicken wings soon. It takes up more counter real estate than our old one, but still fits nicely under the cabinets. Mrs. Twayn found some accessories on sale at Target -- cake pan, broiler pan, muffin pan, etc. I imagine the fun and excitement will wear off about the first time I have to clean it, though.
Fat Guy throws TJ Watt to the ground, yells "I'm open!" and catches TD pass. Excellent.