At work there is a specific set of data that my team must collect and organize every month. Over the course of many years, there have been changes in collection methods, spreadsheet organization, analysis, and who receives the final product. Due to some changes in organizational structure, for several months now we’ve had no idea …
When I was a teenager, I had the privilege of attending a presentation by Mark Scharenbroich, an award-winning motivational speaker, author, and filmmaker. It was a powerful experience at the time, and many years later, when I was struggling with depression and negativity, I looked him up, read his book, and was reminded of the …
Being somewhat hooked on to do lists, I have day like this about once a week, but today is the official Still Need To Do Day. Today is a great day to: Take stock of the things you wanted to accomplish in 2019, and try to get in a few you’ve left untried or unfinished. …
The ability to access work resources remotely has greatly increased over the course of my professional life, and it can be a mixed blessing. Sometimes (not often, but occasionally) I regret being so plugged in, as it can allow work issues to intrude in situations where I’d prefer they stay more distant. Generally, though, I …
National Cat Herders Day is actually tomorrow, but I have something else planned for tomorrow’s post, so I’m saluting chaos coordinators a day early. I’ve loved the expression “like herding cats” since the first time I heard it, and there are so many situations where it applies (my nieces’ birthday parties, my friends on a …
Many organizations have one big holiday party, and call it good. Not my job. We have ugly sweater days, and gift exchanges at team meetings, and department parties, and whole staff potlucks…we love the holidays. I have a holiday event with one group after work today, and one during a meeting tomorrow morning, with several …
As usual, lots of people at work have been adding holiday decorations to their desks, shelves, doors, etc. I am no exception. However, my new favorite decoration (pictured above) has gotten some interesting reactions. The most common (as the post title implies) is “What is THAT?” Others include: “Is that a frog? No, it has …
As I mentioned last week, things at work have gone sideways and the pressure is on. After our first week of extra long days, multiple meetings, and minimal argument, I’m happy to report that my “crisis team” is making progress and on track to meet a critical deadline in mid December. It’s going to take …
So some things blew up at work this week, and as a result there are several people, myself included, who are going to be doing a whole lot of extra work in a very short time period. This is not a case of me stepping up to fix someone else’s mistake (as I cautioned against …
I believe that it’s very important to be generous, helpful, and available. I spend a lot of my time trying to make other people’s lives easier. It makes me happy to do that. However, there are limits. That’s been a tough lesson to learn because setting those boundaries has meant dealing with a lot of …
Amanda Cade 