40 hours this week

Regaining some verve

After the 16 hours of work last week, I got up for a new week unsure of how I would pull through I first full week of work in almost a year.

I got given some tasks that were a tad repetitive; repetition is fine for a finite number of systems but for a large number your approach has to change to considering automation.

There is usually no time for something sophisticated but a crude set of algorithms to batch together those tasks and produces a result you can clean up and use is fine.

I did not seem to have lost the knack for doing the absurd to get the sometimes incredible and soon I had completed the activity.

Breaking the week

By the end of Tuesday, I got home and literally crashed out, I got home and just went straight to bed, exhausted, tired but unable to attain rapid eye movement but another inspired thought crossed my mind.

Just about 8 weeks from 5 months of chemotherapy, it appeared I was pushing my envelop of recuperation, everyone had been saying I should take it easy, apart from friends, the hospital staff had been on my case.

So, I had a chat to the programme manager of the project and was grated the request of having Wednesdays off having consulted with all interested parties – the idea being breaking the week in two meant I had some recovery time giving me some balance.

Albeit, I did complete a 40-hour week, though towards the end, I felt I was wilting but in all there were incidental insights to certain bottlenecks that saved some situations.

Getting in the flow

And though I am just a technical hand helping others I suddenly found myself working with aspects that were my key area of expertise and then to learn that the environment was built and managed by an ex-colleague whose activities I once oversaw – the world is a very small place and reputations are just priceless.

I also found the social and communicative part of the technical persona coming out in certain discussions, I am usually for full disclosure that allows for users to understand how things might affect them; the jury is usually out on that in the heat of the moment but hindsight always prove that the best approach and experience shows I have kept my job for being informative where heads might have rolled.

No worries for form on forms

Whilst I did make it through the week, I also had to register as an employee of my company which was an inscrutable online application process that my highly educated native Dutch speaking neighbour found extraneous – spare a thought for those of us who have to tackle double Dutch.

That request was granted which allows me to send my timesheets, invoice charging value added tax and other documents to my client and I did wonder how I would make it to work on Thursday knowing it would all run out on Wednesday but following the advice of “a day at a time” from my good friends, the unemployment benefit part of my entitlements which just covers a month arrived on Wednesday.

Phew!

A long weekend, I have and without the mobile phone alarm to alarm me in the morning, I was up in time, but realised there was no need to prepare for work, I rolled over and …