If you want to work for a particular employer, there will be times when you must obey a rule simply because its there. That's the employer's prerogative. If you don't like it, you always have the option to leave. That is how it is with Paul's rule about not using the internet for personal reasons during working hours.
I think it is a stupid rule. If other people get upset when I check my e-mail during the daytime, then surely that is their problem. I'm not asking to be treated differently to everyone else. I couldn't care less if they did the same - it would have no effect on me being able to do my work. If Paul is concerned about me wasting time, then I would have no problem with staying at the office longer, to make it up. I would prefer to work long hours with many breaks, rather than a shorter set of hours, nonstop.
But, this e-mail rule is something that Paul is stubborn about. He will never change his mind about it. The rule of employer prerogative applies, and I have to cope with it. I would probably never leave my job here, because it would be too difficult to find anything else to support myself. If I were in New Zealand, I would be more likely to quit. I would have more employment options and, in the meantime, I could probably rely on living at my parent's house.
It shouldn't be too hard to follow through with this. There are plenty of other things that I can do as a break. I can also think of it as an exercise in self-discipline.
posted by James 7:01 pm
I was called into the meeting room, this morning, and Lia was there. I think she and Paul were having a meeting about reraising the traineeship. It seems that Paul wants a new trainee to start here before I finish - creating an overlap period. I may be involved in looking through CVs and conducting phone interviews.
For the part of the meeting that I attended, Paul discussed some issues about my performance and general attitude at work. I had the opportunity to raise some points of my own about Paul and the office. We were very clear about our opinions. I actually talked about some of his past actions which came across as stubborn, inconsistent and hypocritical. In the past, this might have turned into an argument ending with me going outside and kicking a series of rubbish bins. But, it didn't. We were both careful about addressing the behaviour or the office rule, rather than making it a personal attack.
Lia's presence possibly made a difference. I appreciated her patience because we must have been talking for half an hour. I'm sure she has a better understanding of my work issues.
posted by James 7:41 pm
Yesterday, we received a query from the client about the spreadsheet. There was a difference between what I had sent him on Sunday, and an earlier version from September. The difference was big difference - the revenues across the whole project had fallen by $10 million.
We had to confirm which was the correct version. The easy way would be to compare the calculations in the earlier spreadsheet to those in the current one, and make an assessment. But, there was a problem. On Sunday, when I had finished my work, I had deleted the older versions in the folder. Our only copy of the September spreadsheet was a version where I had copied and pasted the values. There were no formulae in that version of the spreadsheet.
Paul was frustrated. He couldn't check the earlier version, and he commented that my spreadsheet was complicated with too much detail. He said that he had lost his "overview" and ability to manage the spreadsheet. I agreed with the points he made - I shouldn't have deleted the working copy of the older spreadsheet, and I could format the spreadsheet sheet so that it would be easier for other people to interpret.
In any case, I did my own calculations. I compared a print out of the older version and the current working version on the computer. The formulae in the current version were all working as they should. So long as the inputs were correct, the current version should be the correct one. I thought this would be easy to check - we could refer to the business plan for the input information (size of apartment, price per square metre and number of apartments sold) then audit the spreadsheet inputs for consistency. I told Paul my findings and we both had the feeling that the current version was correct.
Yet, Paul's strategy for solving the problem took all afternoon. He was completely focused on retrieving the old file. He wanted to analyse its formulae to understand why it gave a different result. It seemed so irrelevant to me. Why concentrate on the old file, which would be difficult to recover, instead of checking the new one? Especially when we felt that the new one was probably better.
I did what he told me to do all day - calling various people to see how our backup system worked, and being guided over the phone on how to recover the deleted file. The outcome was tragic. The backup system had been configured to save all of the folders on the server, except the one which held the file in question. Shame! But, honestly, this came as a relief to me, as it meant that we wouldn't be wasting any more time on finding it.
At around 5pm, we checked the new spreadsheet against certain facts in the business plan. Paul had the plan and I was in navigating through the spreadsheet - making a series of comparisions and control checks. As I felt all along, the current version of the spreadsheet was correct.
I felt vindicated that the current spreadsheet was found to be accurate. Also, I was pleased with my patience throughout the whole day.
posted by James 7:30 pm
In pool, playing your shots delicately is more accurate, but smashing them is much more fun.
posted by James 9:04 am
My most recent task at work has been to update one of the financial spreadsheets. It sounded simple - move the forecast forward six months and make some small alterations to the numbers. In practice, however, it was much more difficult. Moving the forecast forward six months required changes to the formulae and structure of every worksheet in the spreadsheet (over 20 of them).
I worked on it over Thursday and Friday. My work on Friday was more rushed as I learnt that the client needed the spreadsheet by Monday morning. At about 5pm on Friday, I had made the necessary changes, but the numbers did not balance correctly. There was an error somewhere which lead to a difference of over $7 million. This is a very material difference, so I had to find what was wrong with the spreadsheet and correct it.
I went through the spreadsheet twice on Friday night, and could not find the problem. I had various "theories" about what might be wrong, but as these were systematically proved wrong, I could feel myself becoming flustered. At 10pm I decided to just go home.
It was such a frustrating experience. I had made this spreadsheet, it didn't work properly and I didn't know why. If I couldn't solve it, the spreadsheet was useless. My self-esteem was a little low. Also, I knew that I would have to come into work the next day to have another attempt at fixing it. Of course, there were other things that I would much rather do. If I worked on the spreadsheet, I couldn't be doing those other things. Yet, I had an obligation to fix the spreadsheet first. I wasn't even sure where to start. I was still baffled about why the spreadsheet didn't work.
I got home at 11pm and made myself dinner. Martin and I had a beer each, and he encouraged me to have a vent about the spreadsheet.
On Saturday, I was more refreshed and it was easier to look at the situation from a different perspective. Working on the spreadsheet would be an excellent excercise in patience and time management. It wouldn't be a waste of time - I would still be improving myself, somehow. Also, I could motivate myself by thinking about how satisfied I would be if I fixed the spreadsheet. The satisfaction would be in direct proportion to the frustration that I had experienced on Friday night.
The most sensible solution was to take the version of the spreadsheet from last Thursday morning, and start making the changes from the beginning. After almost every change I did, I checked the Balance Sheet to confirm that it still balanced. It was a slow, meticulous process. Yet, by 9pm I had fixed the structure of the spreadsheet. The spreadsheet worked properly and everything balanced, as it should. I felt very pleased as I walked to the train station to catch my ride back to Tilburg.
I have been filling in the final details of the spreadsheet today. The easy stuff. And, just half an hour ago, I saved the spreadsheet and e-mailed it to the client.
It is satisfying to have this completed, but I would rather not go through that experience again.
posted by James 3:20 pm