5 minutes into the first work day of 2020 and boom!
Tag: work
Dilbert is really hitting close to home these days
Regarding VIP visits:
Regarding multi-site conference calls:
Regarding software/business requirements:
Does your desk have a snack drawer?
A Portuguese co-worker’s visiting family restocked me with low-sugar high-fiber granola bars with coffee and chocolate (!!!!). They’re available in Switzerland, but at three times the price so I use my network strategically.
In a parallel conversation, another co-worker was asking me why I could eat those granola bars, but not ones he’d just offered me:
Conversation went something like this:
Me – I can’t eat those, they have nuts in them.
Suttipong – Do they? I didn’t see any in the ingredients.
Me – See? Right there! (now keep in mind that the ingredient list is printed in such a way as to take up the whole back side of the packaging)
Suttipong – It’s so small!
Me – It’s written in bold and underlined!
Bring your Bean to work day
The Journée Oser tous les Métiers (JOM) has always been a very special day in the canton of Vaud, all the children of the 7P to the 9S are invited to discover the professional world of their parents. The goal of this day is to break down the barriers that exist between typically male and female trades; and to encourage children to imagine their future professional life outside traditional patterns.
Bean has finally achieved his goal to set food inside the NRC, where the security rules are more stringent than they were at the lakeside offices. As part of the JOM workshops, he’s done cell culture, electrophoresis on extracted milk powder proteins, made slime and had fun making density layers, extracted DNA from bananas and done chromatography. Compared to this, sitting at my computer and looking at the latest and greatest powerpoint slide I was making seems dull (in my eyes, at least! I sometimes miss bench work, even though I sucked at it).
One things Katy and I agree on – we didn’t do this in high school :)
How to be successful and less stressed at work
I can’t go home
At least not tonight.
Flight got canceled, woohoo! To make things even more fun, apparently Barcelona is hosting several large events/conferences this week and hotels are booked solid. The easyjet staff were walking up and down the queue of already happy people informing them that, yes, they could wait to get to the head of the line, but there was no guarantees that easyjet would be able to find them a hotel room by then. If we could find something on our own, we could get it reimbursed later.
I am SO happy that I finally got a corporate credit card just before my trip to Brussels. It’s already proven to be worth its weight in gold for occasions just like this. So now I’m I a very-nice-but-overpriced hotel room for tonight and I’m hopefully flying back tomorrow at noon.
I want to go home
Project mid-term review done. The project is seen in a very positive light within EIT circles. Positive initial feedback, good explanations, clear need, desirable, consortium seen as responsive. We will get the full feedback in a couple of weeks. I spent the afternoon walking around La Rambla and areas.
I’m at the airport now, but my 2050 flight has been delayed twice and is now showing for 2300. I’ve had fun, but I want to go home now.
Braindead owl
Bobbles is in Barcelona for the next 24 hours and has just spend the last 3 updating and revising the mid-term presentation for a large EU grant involving several partners and going over the current budgets. Bobbles realizes that he hates Finance & Control with a passion.
Dilbert sometimes hits too close to home
Jargon poisoning – also known as Buzzword Glossolalia
I shared these with our R&D legal team. They lol’ed. We like them :)
Getting ready
I’m in Brussels to give a talk at a personalised nutrition workshop. Bobble, who by law must always travel with me, is helping me go through my speaker notes.
I’ve also gotten advice and support from my colleagues.
