Mon Dec 8: It's taking a long time to settle in with my co-workers. The full time workers are always busy. The same situation happened at Artisan which was understandable because of the Christmas season. Eventually I should know more about my co-workers. It took months to know all my co-workers at Artisan.
I was ashamed at myself not following the procedures I wrote in my note pad to add the RMAs in the SAP database. I skipped steps. I repeated mistakes. I wasted too much time with the assignment. I should have been more efficient. I spent too much time preparing the exporting and importing. I planned to rewrite the procedures eliminating steps and combining steps; for example, use more SQL.
The White Elephant pot luck list was created in the network folder. My name was missing. I felt sad I wasn't added on the list. I RSVP on the Outlook invite.
I stopped eating a bag of cookies a day. I'm going back to Belvita breakfast bars for my mid morning snack. I continue to eat a granola bar, too. I also stopped eating a hamburger to supplement my lunch on days I workout at the company gym.
I helped an employee enter the gym. He was issued a temporary badge because he forgot his photo badge. The gym was packed in the side room doing yoga.
Tue Dec 9: I found a new parking spot for my car. The new parking spot gives my car more shade in the afternoon.
The vice president of operations emailed the department roster. She revised three times because of mistakes in a span of 15 minutes.
I listened to KNBR at 3pm. I was dozing off. My brain was fatigued. I spent the entire day updating RMAs for a particular server. I should have taken more breaks. I should have paced myself.
I plan to take advantage more often my alternate route driving on El Camino Real going home. The traffic on the expressway was terrible. Coincidentally, driving on El Camino Real was required because I shopped at Macys.
Wed Dec 10: My engineer and I were in a meeting together. We reviewed my status. He answered my questions. He provided more training. He told me more information how the failure analysis process works. And he gave me an engineering lesson.
My brain was jelly after lunch. I lost concentration at 4:15pm. I became lazy. I felt like I was back in college studying for exams. There was nothing more I could study. I maximized my brain studying the concepts.
I worked out at the company's gym. The second workout I didn't eat a hamburger to supplement my lunch at home. I passed the test. I had plenty of energy to complete my workout. The first workout I didn't eat a hamburger was Mon Dec 8 which passed the test.
Thur Dec 11: The local news named the storm "The Storm Of The Past 5 Years". My commute was easy. More people worked from home. Some schools closed. The entire day rained.
I added my name to the White Elephant pot luck list. I bring egg rolls.
The CFO emailed the entire buildings all workers can go home early because of the storm affecting the roads and neighborhoods.
I reinforced the idea to pace myself updating entering RMAs in the database. Avoid burnout. Avoid brain fatigue.
I picked up my package in the shipping & receiving area for the first time. I walked back to my car in the rain to drop it off in the trunk. I made the choice to move my car closer to the front lobby because my current parking area started to flood. The choice was good because the rain continued in the night after my gym workout. My new parking space area didn't flood.
My stomach growled during the last 20 minutes of my workout. It appeared I didn't bring enough lunch. I managed to complete the workout. I ate the granola bar I didn't finish earlier in the day when I went back to my cubicle to take my laptop and belongings. And there were no clean towels at the end of my workout. I should leave an emergency gym towel in my trunk.
I drove home slow even though fewer cars were on the road. I took a detour driving on the freeway to the expressway because one of the exits was closed due to flooding.
Fri Dec 12: 14 minute morning commute. One red light. No traffic crawling.
I started writing the second draft on the RMA SAP data entry procedures on Word. I used the first draft written on my note pad as a guide.
Mon Dec 15: Light rained fell during my morning commute. The rain intensified as the day continued. The sewage plugged up at the front entrance. The entire workday was slow. I took my time. Too little work. Perhaps, I still completed my work too fast.
I drove to a fast food restaurant to purchase 24 egg rolls for the Operations Department White Elephant gift exchange during my lunch hour. Two other people went to the restaurant purchasing egg rolls and fried chicken wings.
Standard White Elephant rules applied. Draw a number. Pick a gift or steal a gift. Steal limit per gift was three. A common optional rule first person who picked could steal at the end was enabled. The vice president used a twist rule for which the last person could steal any gift including gifts stolen three times.
The best gag gift was a Sponge Bob Square Pants alarm clock. The stupid gifts which failed to be a gag gift included a talking parrot and a baconator. The most quantity and most stolen were Starbucks gift cards. The most thought gift was an empty fish tank, fish food, and a live fish. The giftor gave the giftee a cup with a live fish inside seconds after the worker unwrapped the gift. My gift was Smart Ass The Card Game I stole.
The gift exchange went smoothly. My behavior was satisfied analyzing my actions. I mingled with some people. I communicated seriously and sarcastically. The 60 people who participated in the gift exchange lasted 1.5 hours. Some of us went home after the exchange was over.
Tue Dec 16: App games are addicting. Last night was a typical example. I played games on my phone ending at 1am. App games are enemies on a weeknight. I used my sleep app to calculate optimum sleep setting my alarm clock to wake up maximizing my sleep cycles.
I woke up in the middle of the night experiencing my throat drying. I drank water. I went back to sleeping thinking the worse which was getting sick. I thought about the possibilities causing my potential sickness. The possibilities were lack of sleep, the sickness in the air, co-workers, food I ate at White Elephant, and going to the gym feeling so-so. Fortunately, no sore throat.
My engineer assigned my first report. It was a simple one liner. I took my time. I listened to the Gregorian Chat at calmradio.com.
I saw workers repairing the sewage line from yesterday's sewage problem walking back to my cubicle after lunch.
The third and last Xmas work gathering involved my contractor company. All of the contractors were invited to a cupcake social at 2pm. The event was disappointing. Low turnout. The atmosphere felt like nobody wanted to attend. I wanted to attend and stay the entire hour. I arrived ten minutes late. I managed to talk with three people. I met some kind of regional manager for the contractor company. Everyone started to leave at 2:30pm. Disappointing. I should have stayed.
I felt pessimistic after leaving my contractor's company gathering. All of the contractors I talked since my first day their contracts were extended. I don't see my contract being extended in the 1.5 months I worked. My assignments are heading to mind numbing stage. I innovate the procedures using my past experiences in Excel, Access, and MySQL. I'm creating more free time. I stay busy pacing myself already with the experience to complete some assignments in half the time. I can't think of new responsibilities my engineer and risk manager assign me. My risk manager gave me one assignment. My contract status can be extended with more training and learning for which I getting none of those recently.
On the other hand, some of the people who said their contracts were extended may be exaggerating. They may have similar work environments. They may be in my shoes. They say anything to stay busy.
All departments are different. The Operations Department employs two contractors. Other departments employ a higher percentage of contractors. One of the people I met at the contractor's company gathering his department employs mostly contractors. I think the operations department is new employing contractors. Obviously I work for 6 weeks. I need more investigating. In contrast, Cisco employs thousands of contractors for which Cisco has the experience relating to contractors.
Wed Dec 17: The easiest work day. Maybe the hardest work day trying to stay busy. I worked on a second report my engineer requested. I added a pie chart. I really took my time. such that I email the report tomorrow.
Email: feedbackininblog@innovateinfinitely.com
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