National Bosses Day

Good morning, dearest blog readers

Today is National Bosses Day here in South Africa.

I know working for ‘The Man’ (or woman) isn’t always easy, but know that a boss also has difficult decisions to make and, consequently, has a lot on his/ her plate. Besides, it’s not as if all of us have completely horrible bosses… right? Right?!

My ‘boss’, aka my manager (the person I report to directly) is really nice; so is our Publishing Manager (who is my manager’s ‘boss’). I’m lucky to be working for such a great company 🙂

Even if you don’t feel very enthusiastic about your boss, I think some adknowledgement is in order. That’s why I sent my boss/ manager an e-mail this morning, thanking her for all her encouragement, support, the way she manages things, your positive attitude (schools publishing is very challenging + ever-changing!) and the wonderful way she works with everyone.

You all might think that I’m trying to play suck-up, and that’s fine. I appreciate my ‘boss’, our Publishing Manager, my colleagues (yes, even Betty Bright *laugh*) and all the freelancers we work with…

…though, I’ll admit,  a little less so when things are crazy/ delayed/ causing me great frustration 😉

Have an amazing Friday, everyone!!!

It’s madness – madness, I tell you!!!

I know I’m always willing to lend a helping hand, but this is getting ridiculous…

Have I recently lamented over the fact that it gets on my nerves when I’m busy doing things at work that technically aren’t my responsibility and they end up becoming a real pain in the you-know-where? Well, it’s that very thing that’s making me slip into madness…

(“Haha,” you say, “we know you’re already crazy, don’t try to deny it!”)

Although you wouldn’t say it by walking around the office, things actually are going up the creek without a paddle. I have two words for you: Price Fixing.

I. HATE. price fixing.

First we’re told to do it one way, then another… and then, again, yet another way – and the whole time, like a fool, you actually try to achieve something while everyone else is busy making up their minds and, in the process, making your life hell. You constantly communicate with and check up on the people that are slowing things down… and that also gets on my nerves. Seriously: I’m not that person’s mother or manager, so it’s not my job to check up on him/ her and ensure that he/ she is doing his/ her job. It feels like the rest of us constantly have to spoon-feed them… in essence, we’re doing their work for them. We’re held responsible and told to oversee things, and when you complain, what are you told? That that specific department is under-staffed.

Really? R-e-a-l-l-y?? Is that MY problem? If so many jobs are being advertised, why don’t you try and get them another staff member or two? Why do I have to do work that isn’t stipulated in my contract and run around and still do my job but the real problem (and this specific department is always the problem) isn’t addressed?

It’s madness… madness I tell you!!!!

*inhale, exhale, inhale, exhale*

Okay, rant over. Back to  being a mature, professional adult 😉

[But if you work in publishing, or – more specifically – in the same building as yours truly, then you know what I mean and will agree that this small rant is justified.]

I’ll just make myself feel better with the following sayings: 

“Science has not yet taught us if madness is or is not the sublimity of the intelligence” – Edgar Allan Poe

“No excellent soul is exempt from a mixture of madness” – Aristotle

“Sanity is very rare: every man almost, and every woman, has a dash of madness” – Ralph Waldo Emerson

“There is no great genius without some touch of madness” – Lucius Annaeus Seneca

“Madness need not be all breakdown.  It may also be break-through” – R.D. Laing

Work musings

* I wonder how self-conscious people feel when they go to the bathroom to have an explosive bowel movement at work. I have noticed that they tend to stay in the stall until they think everyone is gone, or at least until they feel that it’s ‘safe’ to escape while the other stalls are still occupied. In fact, it happened when I went in there to wash my hands about half an hour ago.

* Last July, when I started my internship at OUP (can that really have been a year ago already?!), I mentioned the reproduction of the Mona Lisa hanging in the ladies room. In case you were interested, it’s still hanging at a slightly slanted angle. My obsessive-compulsive tendencies are going haywire.

* Wouldn’t having a massage at work feel weird? Do they do it at your desk, or in another room? And how are you supposed to jump back into work after that if you know that it’ll lead to stress and tension and the necessity of another massage that you have to pay for…? At least our company is taking the initiative to look out for their employees’ needs and well-being.

* Are vending machines at work really such a good idea? Even if you have a healthy variety of muffins to choose from (such as spinach and feta)? Just let me mention that these muffins aren’t packaged individually, put in packs of 3 or 5 (not sure about the exact amount at the moment).

* The fact that I am working has caused me to start eating ‘breakfast’, which is a good thing because it is alleged to be the most important meal of the day. True, ‘breakfast’ consists of only an oats-and-raisins cookie/ bar, which I ingest while sifting through my e-mails during the course of the morning… but that’s beside the point. At least it’s filled with fibre and iron! (And isn’t eating something better than eating nothing?)

* Working also ensures that I drink a lot of water throughout the day, something I do without even noticing. I bring about 1,5L of water to work with me, and by the time I leave, I’ll have drunk it all. I don’t even have any tea while at work. Only water. Not only is it cleansing at keeps me hydrated, but it means that I don’t have to get up from my desk every now and again to make tea, which takes time.

* LOLcats can brighten up any workday and should be shared with colleagues. Just be sure to look busy when someone approaches you.

* I’ve been pondering the possibility of having the company come up with an agreement to have us finish work earlier on a Friday. If some government employees only work until 1PM, why can’t we clock off at 4PM, at least? One hour makes a big difference. [Note: this is simply wishful thinking… though I’m sure that many of the employees here would agree if we were ever to take a poll/ vote on such a decision.]

* If it weren’t for lunch times and a few minutes here and there waiting for correspondence or documents to arrive, would I have read as much as I have already this year? I think you appreciate your spare time much more when you’re working and then use what time you have to catch up on things you enjoy. When you’re sitting at home all day, you become lazy and usually end up doing not much of anything.

* Just because I work at a publishing house doesn’t mean that I’m a walking dictionary/ thesaurus/ encyclopaedia.

* Having someone who you can talk to, who understands you, who knows exactly how you feel about certain things, and who you can share a laugh/ smile/ look with adds so much more value to a workday 🙂

* Never would have thought I’d be comfortable wearing jeans to work. During my internship, I only wore my jeans once or twice. Now that I’m here as a Project Manager, I’ve started wearing them far more regularly (though, at least, they look very neat and are black, thus they don’t look as casual as faded/ blue jeans).