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Actual thoughts
Dec. 10th, 2011 07:31 pmI know, it's been a while since I posted Real Thoughts. Part of this is because my home computer has been away for 4 weeks, traveling around the globe in an attempt to fix a nagging problem with its VGA output. (I feel sorry for the tech support people, who never were able to reproduce the problem but who eventually put in a new motherboard anyway just to shut the crazy lady up.) Now it's back, and with it, my LJ client, and the chance to write posts on my comfortable keyboard.
Another part is that I've been pretty on fire at work -- in a good way, getting lots of things done and also being pretty invested in doing it. (Tie this together with the last thing, and you can infer that most of my personal internet time lately has been me sitting on my couch with my work laptop. It has often seemed more compelling to get a new changelist started or reviewed than to try for a post.) I think I'm successfully proving myself to the new boss, who I've decided to call Empire Builder, although who really knows.
The wildly interesting/freaky part is that we had a preliminary discussion on the topic of having a real discussion in 6 months about my possibly taking on some direct reports. That would mean that the people on the team I tech lead would also report to me as a manager, while I keep reporting to him. At first I said I anticipated probably saying no, but that I was willing to be a pretty people-oriented tech lead. Then I went off and had several different one-on-one talks with people, from whom I've picked up two potential reasons for saying yes. One of them is the positive "I would like this one aspect" sort, and one of them is the avoidant "don't want this part of the alternative to happen" sort... which I do not at all find to be less valid or smart than the positive kind, for the record.
So... the possibility of direct reports. Huh. I do not seek this, but the idea's not boring.
Toledo's sent me directions for my fourth (and though he doesn't know it, last) six-week stint with him. I can start it on Monday. My plan is to make it a fairly hardcore six weeks -- use a new notebook, schedule the time, get my wakeup schedule back where it needs to be and really do it. Because it has some exciting stuff in it. A new kind of one-legged squat that I'm guessing looks kind of awesome, and drills aimed at muscle-ups (!), and a wall-assisted press handstand that I actually DID today, ugly though it was. The upcoming holiday time should help me stay on track since I don't have to travel anywhere, as long as I don't mind the visiting friends looking at me funny.
Oh, and one more thing about work. The guy next to me seemed mildly concerned when I mentioned that I find work stressful (I had given a talk to visiting grad students about my project, and only after the formal Q&A did one of them ask me whether it was stressful working at Zillian. I rolled my eyes, smiled and said ohhh yeah, and then related this whole story back at my desk). He explained that work is the easy part of his day, because he feels he understands what parts of his work are rewarded, which are tolerated, and how it works; and because he trusts his manager (also Empire Builder) to not blindside him with things. Obviously he also considers himself able to easily do enough of the parts that are rewarded, a point so banal he didn't even make it. So, later still, when everyone else was briefly away, I asked what the stressful part of his day was -- he said "home life, the three kids, the wife". Wow, I said, everything is peaceful for me at home. And it is... it's peaceful and snuggly. Of course not every moment is fun, like when one of the cats drags their butt around on the floor because they have a turd stuck on them and we have to clean it up, but I wouldn't call it stressful, and I'd hate my life if it was.
All of which leads to one of those horrible either/or discussion questions: would you rather have a peaceful work-life and a stressful home life, or stress-filled work days followed by evenings of domestic tranquility?
I would choose the peaceful home life. At least work's not usually personal, and one gets paid for it too.
Another part is that I've been pretty on fire at work -- in a good way, getting lots of things done and also being pretty invested in doing it. (Tie this together with the last thing, and you can infer that most of my personal internet time lately has been me sitting on my couch with my work laptop. It has often seemed more compelling to get a new changelist started or reviewed than to try for a post.) I think I'm successfully proving myself to the new boss, who I've decided to call Empire Builder, although who really knows.
The wildly interesting/freaky part is that we had a preliminary discussion on the topic of having a real discussion in 6 months about my possibly taking on some direct reports. That would mean that the people on the team I tech lead would also report to me as a manager, while I keep reporting to him. At first I said I anticipated probably saying no, but that I was willing to be a pretty people-oriented tech lead. Then I went off and had several different one-on-one talks with people, from whom I've picked up two potential reasons for saying yes. One of them is the positive "I would like this one aspect" sort, and one of them is the avoidant "don't want this part of the alternative to happen" sort... which I do not at all find to be less valid or smart than the positive kind, for the record.
So... the possibility of direct reports. Huh. I do not seek this, but the idea's not boring.
Toledo's sent me directions for my fourth (and though he doesn't know it, last) six-week stint with him. I can start it on Monday. My plan is to make it a fairly hardcore six weeks -- use a new notebook, schedule the time, get my wakeup schedule back where it needs to be and really do it. Because it has some exciting stuff in it. A new kind of one-legged squat that I'm guessing looks kind of awesome, and drills aimed at muscle-ups (!), and a wall-assisted press handstand that I actually DID today, ugly though it was. The upcoming holiday time should help me stay on track since I don't have to travel anywhere, as long as I don't mind the visiting friends looking at me funny.
Oh, and one more thing about work. The guy next to me seemed mildly concerned when I mentioned that I find work stressful (I had given a talk to visiting grad students about my project, and only after the formal Q&A did one of them ask me whether it was stressful working at Zillian. I rolled my eyes, smiled and said ohhh yeah, and then related this whole story back at my desk). He explained that work is the easy part of his day, because he feels he understands what parts of his work are rewarded, which are tolerated, and how it works; and because he trusts his manager (also Empire Builder) to not blindside him with things. Obviously he also considers himself able to easily do enough of the parts that are rewarded, a point so banal he didn't even make it. So, later still, when everyone else was briefly away, I asked what the stressful part of his day was -- he said "home life, the three kids, the wife". Wow, I said, everything is peaceful for me at home. And it is... it's peaceful and snuggly. Of course not every moment is fun, like when one of the cats drags their butt around on the floor because they have a turd stuck on them and we have to clean it up, but I wouldn't call it stressful, and I'd hate my life if it was.
All of which leads to one of those horrible either/or discussion questions: would you rather have a peaceful work-life and a stressful home life, or stress-filled work days followed by evenings of domestic tranquility?
I would choose the peaceful home life. At least work's not usually personal, and one gets paid for it too.
