Ring Challenge - Update

Remember the right challenge I had posted last week ? I am happy to confess, I am continuing to close ALL rings for the past 10 days !! Yay !!! That is such an encouraging thought and a milestone in itself ... so far I have never been able to close ALL 3 rings in a single day and now I have achieved this feat for the past 10 days ... I am beyond thrilled.

Keeping my fingers crossed so I can continue with this achievement for many many more days ... hopefully it becomes a habit :)

Empty office ...

I come to office and leave early from my work desk as well. I am usually at my desk around 8:00am, latest by 8:15am. Most days I find very few people in office when I arrive, around 8:30am, I start seeing some folks ... today it is close to 8:40am and hardly anyone around.
 Looks like everyone is either busy watching President Trump inauguration or are enjoying the rainy weather outside ... either ways, I am already here ... might as well get done some tasks.

Office stories continue ....

This person comes to office :

@10:00am - Tad late ... but not too bad.

Immediately goes to get a cup of coffee ...

while loudly saying Hello to everyone in the path between his cube and coffee vending machine.

Once done with coffee ... starts calling his friends ....

discusses about stocks, vacations, lunch, dinner etc etc .... LOUDLY ... very very irritating

Time for lunch now ... and goes to heat his food

Lunch done in an hour.

Checks emails and strolls around for few more minutes ...

Coffee break again...

In between attends one or two office calls for 30 mins ...

WHEN DOES THIS PERSON WORK ??? grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr

The choice she made ...

My colleague usually goes home for lunch. Today, there was a lunch out planned by her team and she was looking forward to it. But as luck would have it, she had to attend to some thing important, at the very hour when she was supposed to go for lunch. So decided to drop out of the group lunch.

She was done with her work in the next 30 mins ... now had the option to go for lunch. She had our office cafe, subway, home and other restaurants and drive through as her options. She also mentioned to me that her hadn't had her breakfast that morning and was really hungry ... "Go get a sandwich" I suggested. She listened and pondered about how to deal with her hunger. (The time she spent thinking about this, she could have got herself a sandwich)

She then stepped out ... went to the vending machine and bought a packet of pretzels. The lady in question is on the stouter side and tells me she is trying to reduce her weight. I have seen her cave in for sweets / pizzas / donuts when offered by others in the office ... and when she was really hungry she bought Pretzels ??? WHY ??

Should I remind her of her weight goals ?? Should I remind her of the healthy food habits ? Should I remind her that skipping meals is not the best idea to lose weight ??

ps: I didn't say a word ... just looked at her pretzel packet and asked "Is this lunch?" and she smiled back.

Forgetful me...

I had it all planned in my head the things I wanted to discuss with my manager before she went on a vacation. The clock ticked 4'o clock ... I reminded myself one last time of the 25 things I needed to discuss.

 I greeted her and sat down for the discussion. Just as I was done with my discussion, I remembered to discuss that last thing I had missed in reminding myself before the meeting. 

 I came out of the meeting feeling all smug about having discussed everything I wanted and more ...

 Only when I was about to call it a day I remembered the entire purpose of the meeting was to discuss the different issues to be taken care during the time my manager was to go on vacation ... I was going to act her backup ... and I forgot to wish her a happy vacation !! 

 I think I'll stick to my idea of writing down all points in a notepad before I head for a meeting ... 

Cruel experience

I came to office at usual time 9:10am. I recognized the SUV in the parking lot .. it belonged to my manager. I made notes of the things I wanted to discuss with him today. We usually discussed about pending issues first thing in the morning since we got caught up in meetings almost all day long.
My manager sat in the cubicle next to mine. As I entered my cubicle, I saw my manager's manager by his cubicle. She stood there waiting for something.... perhaps a print out she wanted from him I thought and quietly entered my cubicle. As I settled, I heard some noises of desk/chair being pulled, wires untangled, coins being emptied from lockers etc ... "He must be really searching hard for those print outs" I thought. Someone from the neighboring cubicle even joked "Hey, you seem to have a lot of money" and he said "Yes, I have".
Within 5 minutes or so, everyone seemed settled ... no more voices heard, noises disappeared ... "Back to work" I said to myself and continued to read through the mails in my inbox.
As I was reading through the mails, my manager's manager stopped by my desk and said "Can I see you in my office for a few minutes?" I was surprised at first but nonetheless followed her to her office. We settled into the chairs around the small round table in her office. She started "There has been some changes in our team which might have an impact on you. Today is the last day of your manager in this company". I froze ... didn't I discuss a million things over the past few days with my manager and in none of those discussions was there a hint of his quitting ... didn't he mention even last evening about the slides we needed to include in design sessions to be played early April? Didn't he schedule a meeting only last evening? Was this something he knew about ? Why didn't we have any Knowledge Transfer sessions arranged considering he alone was handling some important stuff? - Many other questions buzzed in my head within a fraction of a second.
My manager's manager continued "I would like you to take on all his responsibilities until we find a suitable replacement". I nodded ... language/words chose to abandon me ... I couldn't speak ... "I'll set aside 1 on 1 time with you on monday to discuss specifics" I mumbled and walked out of her office.
I HAD to talk to my manager to understand what had transpired between last evening and this morning. I went straight to his cube ... but he had left. I hoped to talk to him during the day ... but he never showed up again in office.

Today was my first hand experience of seeing someone being laid off. What's more, he was my reporting manager. The experience was quite chilling to say the least.

Working Lunch

We have a meeting starting early in the day ... we are told in advance to not bring in Lunch. Its going to be working lunch, we are told.
And so the meeting beings ... its lunch time ... I step out for a minute and return to find No Veggie lunch bags. I let the person responsible for lunch know that there are no lunch options for me ... she points out she had ordered few veggie lunch bags ... and perhaps they were taken. She settles down with her sandwich ... uh??
What about me lady?? You were supposed to make lunch arrangements for everyone ... how can you just sit back and grab a bite?

I hate these working lunch session.

White Elephant

We are having a White Elephant Event next week in our office ... I am new to this place and have no idea what to expect !
Any gifting ideas?

Beginning of a new chapter

Friday was my last day at work ... no I didn't quit my job. I am moving to a different project.
My last day was very relaxing in the office (as expected). I went around thanking everyone for their co-operation during my stay in the project. note: I only went and thanked those from whom I had truly benefitted. My colleagues surprised me with a lunch out. We went to a nice Chinese Restaurant.
I have to write about my almost embarassing incident at the restaurant. Being a vegetarian, I had very limited choice in that particular place. I ordered for Seczhwan Eggplant (pardon my spelling) and steamed rice. Now, we were a group of 5 and I was the only vegetarian. Anyways, the soup was served ... it had a decent taste. I was looking forward to my order. The waitress served a huge platter of eggplant and rice. The food was inviting and I digged into it greedily. As soon as I put the food into my mouth I realised it was super super hot and I could see fumes from my mouth. If I was at home, I would have just cleared my mouth immediately. Here I was, in the company of office colleagues, I managed to control my tears ... held my napkin close to my mouth and gasped a few breaths. Thankfully everyone was busy discussing about this new application at work. For the next 300secs, I did not dare to touch the food.
After lunch, I offered to buy them all coffee. We chatted our way back to desk discussing about my next work location, technology I'd be working etc. The next 2 hours, I just sat there staring at the monitor trying hard to stop myself from drowsing. This is when I realised, it hard when you have loads of work to do ... but it is harder when you have no work to do.
As soon as the clock ticked 3:00pm, I got up and handed over my laptop, my badge and other office supplies. Bid my final good bye to my manager and walked out of the office building recollecting my experiences in the project. The drive home was uneventful.
I now look forward to my new project ... hoping to learn new things and enjoy my experience at my new work place.