The WordPress tag link unearths some more gems

I just love surfing around the other blogs on WordPress.com using the tag surfing functionality. I came across Sarah Maddox’s blog ffeathersblog and have enjoyed cruising through her archives. She is one of those brave souls who actually puts her real name on her blog. I was smiling while reading her blog, every time I came across her employer’s name, but I couldn’t figure out why that was…until I went to look at the company website, and then it hit me: we use one of Atlassian’s products at work! Funny how the world is so small.

Anyways, today was one of those rare moments at work where I managed to get a lot done, and the hours just flew by. Don’t you just love those days?

What are the best online viewers?

Yesterday I was hunting around online for a good Visio viewer, as I don’t have that installed on my machine yet. I’ll be getting it shortly, but as I don’t need it right now, the IT guys are taking their time. But I wanted to look at a flow chart this morning, and I hunted around for a good Visio viewer. I found a few, one being right on Microsoft’s website, but nothing that really intrigued me, as I wanted an online viewer, and I think the MS one was a free download for Office (I admit I didn’t really look at the MS site for this, but just noticed they had one.)

What do you use?

Ergonomics at your Work Station

How many of you use a keyboard tray at your work station? I do. Well, usually I do. My new job didn’t have one ready for me, but the Big Big Cheese told me today that I’d be getting one this week. Sweet. I suffer from mild repetitive strain in both wrists, mostly because I hit the keyboard to hard when I type. Funny, after the BBC told me about the tray today, I looked around and noticed that most of my colleagues probably wouldn’t need one because they don’t spend as much sustained time typing as a technical writer would. I’m looking forward to getting the tray, as I’ll be starting to type more than I have been, so it’ll be nice to save the wrists.

For me, it’s the pesky TAB key that does me in on the left side, and then an ill-positioned mouse on the right. I do have a stretching routine that I normally do, but I haven’t really been doing it since I started the new job. I should start that up, as I also tend to carry my stress in my shoulders and neck, so having all of that muscle tension isn’t good. Speaking of, I’m going to head out and do some knitting. Sure that doesn’t do much for my muscles, but it’s fun.

Why Using the Right Words is Important

Last week I was given a project to compile a master list of items for use by three different projects in the department. I was excited that I had something concrete to work on, and I even knew who to go talk to about it.  I met with the dude a couple of times to explain what I needed, and he knew exactly what I was looking for. So I proceeded to set up a doc for it, using the new templates I’d created earlier in the week, and moved forward.

At a meeting on Friday, a project manager asked me about this document, as there as is a fourth project that will be using it. I told him where I was at, and that Tuesday (yesterday) I was going to bother the dude about it and see what other info I could get. I didn’t get around to it yesterday, so today I went over to talk to him.

He explains to me that he doesn’t see the point of doing the research I need him to do right now because they’re going to be changing the items within the next couple of weeks. Sure, I understand that, there’s no need to duplicate effort on both his part & my part, if we have to redo it all next month. I speak to the project mgr again, and he says he’d like the list to use on this project and the other three as well. He realizes it’s a lot of work, but it’s something they’d like to have, so we’re just gonna have to bit the bullet and do it. Okay, fine.

I go speak to dude again, and he starts squawking, again, about this project. He ropes in someone else into the conversation, who proceeds to tell me that four other people have already started this project, so why don’t I go talk to them? Jeezus. At this point I was ready to toss my entire computer out the window! Dude #2 and I go and corral th e project mgr, because this was just getting ridiculous. The PM tells us that my doc will be the reference doc for the four projects. All the people should just get their sh!t together and get me the information that I need. Hunky dory. Dude #2 takes me around to meet a couple of people, he points me to some info on our intranet, and then he tells me he’ll copy me on any info changes for these items that they make in the future (the PM wants this doc to be updated whenever we make a change).

This whole confusing plot was started and confused by:

1. the PM who didn’t know exactly what he wanted.
2. me being new and not knowing who I should speak to, or who’s word I should be believing.
3. Dude #1 who, unfortunately, doesn’t speak the best English, so while I understood what he was telling me, it turns out that he hadn’t understood his instructions from his boss, so that he couldn’t communicate them properly to me. (Now before you all send me comments about how not everyone speaks English correctly, I would like to point out that I am the daughter of immigrants, so I understand the whole “learning a new language” thing, but the thing that cheeses me off about this is that I have met so many immigrants who haven’t taken the time to study English. I mean, you’re working in an English environment, I understand you’re going to have an accent, but you’ve got to at least learn some of the basics if you’re going to be working in a high-tech environment. [Also, I should point out that I have a double foreign language major from university, so I understand what it means to learn something new.] But come on!)

Through this comedy of errors and miscommunication, I managed to figure out what the PM wanted, and what I needed from the other dudes. I spent this afternoon in Excel hell, er, purgatory, working on the list.