Whine, cooler.

Oh Hi.

I started writing a post last night - primarily about work - but it started getting very negative and gloomy and...well...just plain "whiney". Mel told me to give it a rest and go to bed instead. I did, and looking at what I wrote 24 hours ago, she was right. I'm a little more relaxed about things today, not quite so negative, and the post looks much too serious in the cooler light of day. Here's what I mean (it's the start of what I wrote last night):

I've said before that I have a reasonably good job - especially in comparison to a lot of the difficult jobs that others find themselves in - and generally that is true. But I have to admit I'm more than a little hesitant about heading back in there this week. Last week felt like a very negative, nasty week, and I can't see that changing this week either (unless my boss has taken his pills). It's possible that I'm just overly-sensitive, and blowing it all out of proportion, so I'll rattle off a few of the odd events of last week, and you can be the judge. Am I just overreacting?:

Exhibit A: On Tuesday morning, I was involved in a weekly phone link with my boss and the rest of the team in Sydney. As I'm the only team member working remotely (not from home, but 1000kms away from my boss), there has always been a level of autonomy and trust: I haven't needed to be 'managed', let alone 'micro-managed', and there has never been a question about my capability or commitment to work professionally without 'being watched'. Anyway, as part of the phone hookup, the issue of housekeeping came up, and my boss noted that he had observed some paperwork and empty coffee cups left on the Sydney team's desks overnight. He reminded the team that he wanted papers locked away and cups tossed in the bin before people went home of a night. Simple enough (more than a little "OCD", but simple enough I guess). THEN he said, "Matt, you're not immune from this - how does your desk look?". "Yep, I keep it very clean - pretty much just my phone, laptop and a picture of Jessica." "Well, I'd appreciate it if you would take a digital photo of your desk as it looks at the moment, and email that through to me." Sorry?? I'm almost 32. I've been married for 11 years, I have a daughter, and I've been working since I was 15. I discuss Big People Things with Big People, and most people consider me an adult. So it's somewhat disconcerting to be asked to take a photo of your workspace for a housekeeping inspection. Despite my internal protestations, I did take a photo, and I did send it through, and it did meet the standards. Maybe that's not an unreasonable request - and perhaps I was wrong to feel so slighted by it. I'll move on.

Exhibit B: The very next day, I was emailled a softcopy of the bill for my work mobile. A terse note was attached suggesting that I needed to address the "excessive" and "unreasonable" costs I had been incurring. When I replied that I did not think $17.24 (58 cents per day!) was necessarily excessive in a business environment which requires a great deal of off-site communication, I was publicly (via CC to the rest of the team) chastised for my impertinence. The whole rest of the team were then asked to scrutinise their bill also, and prepare a detailed action plan for cost reductions, as a penalty for my temerity. It seemed quite unusual, but again, maybe my expectations are unrealistic. I'll move on.

Exhibit C: My Sydney counterparts had received a particular training session earlier this year, which myself and one other Melbourne based employee would have benefitted from. My boss asked the trainer to include us when he was next in Melbourne. The trainer responded that he gets to Melbourne infrequently, and would organise a session directly with us when he was next in town. My boss then sent a note last week, asking me if I had received the training yet. I replied that I hadn't, and also CC-ed him on an email to the trainer, asking when he might next be in town. The trainer replied that he had not yet made it to Melbourne, but would still include us in the program. My boss then replied, to me, that it was MY fault that the training had not been conducted, and that 'had you followed this up personally, the failure would not have occurred.". Riiight. At this point, I had to start wondering if I'd done something to upset him: a pattern certainly seemed to be emerging.

There's an Exhibit D, E, F & G aswell, but I won't elaborate (difficult to do so without discussing where I work, which would be indelicate of me). Suffice to say, every day of last week there was another example of pettiness and belittlement. Not sure why it all happened last week, and there is absolutely no avenue for recourse should it continue. So it's dampening my enthusiasm for heading back in there tomorrow!

I probably sound pretty feeble with all of this petty whining (if this is the extent of your problems at work, Matt, try working in a mine, or a casualty ward, or a sweatshop, or as a peacekeeper, or a single-mum, or just about anything else. Yeah Matt, you've got it realllly tough!).

Based on that self-absorbed drivel, I don't think I should write about Work anymore! Unless it's a light-hearted discussion of the similarities between where I work and the BBC series of The Office (a brilliant series, which I have watched from beginning to end probably 10 times, and which should not be confused with the dreary, unfunny, American version which yesterday inexplicably won the Emmy award for best comedy - beating Scrubs and Arrested Development in the process). The extent of my future work comments might just have to be random quotes from David Brent and the rest of the team at Wernham Hogg.

Anyway, moving - swiftly - away from Work and onto nicer topics....What else has been happening? For one thing, some of the family have started up their own blogs in the last couple of weeks - you can follow links to the right of this message. There also seems to have been a lot of birthdays since I last posted (Happy Birthday Cordy, Anthony, Noah, Matty & Rachel - and Happy Birthday in advance Sammy & Eliza). On a related topic, I got onto Google Calendar and have started filling in everyones birthdays and anniversaries, which I'm then able to share online with family & friends if anyone else wants to link in. Pretty groovy idea, and it's great to receive an email notification of upcoming birthdays, and a 4:30am email each day, listing Matt Lowe's itinerary. It's a little bit sad that most of the time it says "You have no events scheduled for today"! Perhaps I need to link in with the Google Calendar of some interesting people, and live vicariously through their itineraries?

Look at that - it's 11:30 and I need to be up early for an appointment, so I'll have to leave it there. Once again, I wrote too much about nothing and ran out of time to write something interesting. I'll try to do better next time.

Good night for now.

Keep those desks clean.

Matt