Love-Hate relationship

When having a detail-oriented supervisor is good, it's very, very good. When it's bad, it's horrible.

This guy tends to be meticulous, detail-oriented, voluble and jovial. All that stuff combined makes him a treasure in some cases and an insufferable loon in others. I can switch from loving him to hating him several times per day.

He has a personal system for organizing projects that never changes, is logical and intuitive, and lines up perfectly with the "official" system when it matters. He also takes care of all that himself rather than leaving it up to me to fumble through. That might sound anal, but considering how closely it relates to what I do and how much of a mess some projects become and how much effort he puts into preventing that, it's awesome. Sometimes I have got lumps in my throat and choked up with gratitude by contrasting his style with other RDMs.

He's equally detail-oriented in conversation. This is how he starts to get annoying. I wish he wouldn't go over when and where and how and what if that doesn't work and what exactly to do if that doesn't work either for totally routine tasks.

For example, this is the guy who asked me to work on the PowerPoint presentation. My buildup and letdown could have been avoided had he made it clear how minor the work would be before asking me about my schedule for the next two weeks.

And more recently, last week, we worked on comments from DHS on a document. He happened to warn me about it a couple days before there was actually any work to do. He spent 20 minutes just explaining that in exhaustive detail. When I say that it takes him 20 minutes to say "heads up," that's not hyperbole.

Being positive sucks

I meant my previous post sincerely: getting to work was rough, but that e-mail seemed to say that the reviewer had made minor changes and they could be safely rejected if they weren't easy to handle, which would be purely good news. I was feeling good about the doomed project and today in general for a few minutes because of that.

But I began working on his changes, and most of them were as stupid and pointless as ever. There are two recurring issues that I want to ask the lawyer about, because I know what policy we've agreed on between me and her, but program offices just keep on doing it differently over and over and over again. And yet again, this guy was working in a seperate file rather than the main document, which means I had to work my version control magic, and calling it magic sounds totally fair considering how hard it is for these idiots to figure out working in a common document.

And then, one hour later, the lawyer sent an e-mail saying that she'd need input from other people to properly address the edits in that e-mail. She left for the day right after that. So for a while I thought I'd either have to make the judgement call myself to either delay things by a day or reject the recalcitrant office's edits, neither of which is in my job description.

It worked out OK in the end - I found an approach acceptable to everyone who mattered, and we got the project moving - but despite how optimistic I felt during those 15 minutes when I opened that e-mail and wrote the previous post, it turned out to be the only remotely fun time that morning.

Mondays

It was raining this morning, so I didn't bike.

After I'd left my apartment, my girlfriend called me back and asked me to sign something I'd forgotten about. Glad she remembered that; it might have been a real pain.

I tried to go to the ATM on my way to work this morning. My bank has two in my neighborhood, but neither of them worked for me. (I'm pretty sure the problem is the ATMs and not my card or account, but I can't help worrying a tiny bit.)

I might have missed the shuttle from the metro to work just because I wasn't paying attention. It wasn't where I expected it to be, so I just stood there waiting, but after a few minutes I noticed it was just a little ways down the street, like 20 yards. Unfortunately, that one was full, so I had to take the next one. And this isn't even new, they've been stopping down the street for a couple weeks now I think, I just didn't look around much this morning.

When I got to work I realized I'd forgotten my belt and wristwatch. The belt was because of a change in routine; normally I leave it at work, along with outfits for the week, but I'd worn my work clothes home Friday and forgot to bring the belt back this morning. The watch was just absent-mindedness.

So it was a rough morning, and especially rough to start the week with. But when I checked my e-mail, I found a message from a recalitrant office that said they had made minor edits to the doomed project but "I saw or made NO policy changes...  If ANY of my editorialial polishing tempts ANYONE to call for a schedule shift to the right DISREGARD them!!!", and that made it all worthwhile.

I annoy myself

Here's a habit I've been trying to break for a while now: I stay at work too late.

Not hours, just five to 15 minutes. Work isn't overtaking my life or cutting into stuff I care about much, I'd just like to have dinner ready a few minutes earlier or get other stuff done before I start cooking or commute when traffic is slightly better. But I can't, because I keep staying at work just a tiny bit longer than I'm obligated to.

I can think of three completely different reasons for this, and if it were just two, I probably wouldn't even mind.

1. It's hard to figure out exactly how long I'm obligated to stay, because my routine after getting to work takes quite a while. This is mostly because I bike, and therefore have to shower and change after getting to work. Add in a trip to the cafeteria for coffee, and all that takes over 15 minutes. In theory I could claim to be working as soon as I first get to my desk, and if I had to I would, but it would seem dishonest to do that regularly if I'm still wearing shorts and a t-shirt. 
2. My job doesn't ask much, so time is the least I can give it. Obviously, it's not very stressful or demanding. So I figure it would be kind of crappy of me to cut corners on my time.
3. If that was it, fair enough, working long hours might be just the price of getting exercise as I commute and keeping my conscience clean. However, I have to admit that the third reason is the real one, as often as not: I procrastinate. I put a task for work off until the last minute and it takes five, or I'm reading an article or blog and decide to finish the article before I go home. 

Now that is stupid. I think procrastinating on leaving work and going home for the day might be taking procrastination just a little bit too far.