And . . . relax

Glossing continues.  All upstairs is done now and ready to come down the stairs, so nearly getting towards the step before the bend ahead of the final straight.

Work is very busy, with stuff that is important, to others, which means it is urgent for me.  To be fair, it is both important and urgent, but it is taking an inordinately large amount of my time.

One of my team, let's call him The Farmer, is very vocal about many things.  He left us for four months, and the peace that prevailed was heralded, and greatly enjoyed, by all.  He has now returned to us.  The Farmer is also very opinionated, which just adds to the overall mix, a potent cocktail of loud and opinionated.  Ouch. 

Anyway, he asked me the other day why I was so busy when the volume of requests in our pipeline is so small.  I said that the pipeline management is something I could easily avoid completely and still be fully occupied, and it is fair to say that he was unable to compute that, since for him, my job is all about the pipeline, and nothing else.  I am trying, but so far not succeeding, in offering for his consideration an alternative view on both the world, and my role, not least because he is probably the best option to be my replacement if/when I move on.

"Best option" could easily be misconstrued, since the stock of possibles is very limited, partly due to a lack of people with sufficient experience to do the role (the inevitable outcome of years and years of pruning, itself driving some to move to a different inter-galactic provider.  In fact, one competitor has had five of my type of cadet in the last four months).

It is also partly a matter that the role is not attractive.  We are tasked with running a team, doing all the interface work between our local account and our profession, with coaching, reviewing, supporting and mercilessly beating our team to produce their widgets both quickly and of a high quality, and at the same time we are measured on how many widgets we can produce ourselves, and penalised because we inevitably cannot produce at the same rate as our team DUE TO THE TIME WE SPEND SUPPORTING THEM (sorry for shouting).  I think this is the Starfleet variant on the Catch 22, and it would be a lot funnier were it not so grim.

This weekend will be more glossing, clearing the leaves from the garden, and hopefully going to a fireworks display on Saturday night.  Around that, I hope to get some remixing in, and some rest, and some Strictly.  What a heady combination.

On that note, I wish you a great weekend, and speak next week.