by Heather Plett | Oct 6, 2005 | Uncategorized
I know better than to divulge too much information about work on my blog, but let me just say IF I HAVE ONE MORE CLOSED DOOR MEETING, I WILL RUN SCREAMING FROM THE BUILDING!
More than one really tricky human resource issue has been bubbling lately, so this has been a challenging place to be this week. It’s days like this that make me wonder about my sanity when I chose to become a manager. Today, I want to be unemployed, or perhaps a self-employed consultant. At least if I’m self-employed, I only have myself to yell at when the work’s not getting done or I’m pissing off the clients!
I rarely work with my office door closed, but this week, almost everyone who enters closes the door on their way in (or I do the same when I enter my boss’ office, or I have to close the door when I get or have to make an ugly phone call). Blech. I NEED AIR! I need an open door, with no secrets, no whispering, no confidential issues to deal with, no nasty e-mails or phone calls, no one blaming me or anyone else for anything. Just a little fresh air, friendly voices, and kindness.
There – I just had to vent a little. I knew you’d listen. Thanks.
by Heather Plett | Oct 6, 2005 | Uncategorized
Gotta wonder how something like this can possibly be healthy for all parties involved. But what do I know?
(Marcel, don’t even THINK about it!)
by Heather Plett | Oct 5, 2005 | Uncategorized
Martyn Joseph is the most AMAZING musician to walk the face of God’s green earth! (Or at least that’s what I think right now – until the next concert I see. 🙂
I love the buzz you get after a good concert, play, art show, poetry reading – almost any kind of artistic endeavour. It’s a feeling of being inspired, uplifted, and yes, almost a little invincible. It’s two feelings at once – a feeling that you could never be worthy of creating such perfection as you’ve just witnessed, while at the same time a feeling that you have no choice but to answer your own call to creativity after inspiration like that.
If you EVER get a chance to hear Martyn Joseph perform, do not pass go, do not collect $200, just go directly to the ticket seller and GET YOUR TICKETS! You will thank me for it.
by Heather Plett | Oct 4, 2005 | Uncategorized
These things I hate:
– when your staff member thinks that bad-mouthing you to anyone who will listen is an effective way of protecting her job
– when your daughter is reduced to tears while trying to do her homework because trying to remember French numbers makes her feel stupid, and tomorrow is Judgement Day when her teacher will test her and label her competent or incompetent
– when your other daughter comes home with reports of being bullied on the bus by mean-boy from across the street, and a bus driver who (apparently) turns a blind eye
– when your children fight ALL the way home, and you’re stuck in bumper to bumper traffic so it takes twice as long to get home
– when you feel completely overwhelmed and perhaps even a little incompetent because your absence from the office for a week means that you are miles behind and your workload seems like an insurmountable mountain
– when it takes all evening for your kids to get through homework and piano practice and cleaning up after supper and packing their lunches, and you realize they have barely had a moment to JUST BE KIDS!
– when, after listening to demand after demand after demand, it occurs to you that your children see the world through self-centred lenses and the only communication out of their mouths seems to be some version of “Me, Me, Me”
– when you look at the diminishing pan of brownies and realize that, at the end of a long and stressful day, you’ve turned to food for comfort
These things I like:
– when your wonderful husband realizes you’ve had a stressful day and makes sure supper is waiting for you in the oven, even though he has an evening class and it’s your night to cook supper
– when you emerge from a self-imposed timeout in your bedroom and find your daughters clearing the supper table even though they haven’t been reminded, and you consider that possibly they DO have a shred of conscience after all
– when you realize that tomorrow night you get to go to a concert and that your ROCKIN’ brother-in-law is willing to babysit
– when you watch your three-year-old daughter dance around naked waving a pom-pom just like a Dallas Cowboys cheerleader and you realize that a good laugh cures a lot of ills
– when you sit down to relax at the end of a LONG day and realize you can do it guilt free because the dishes are done, the laundry is clean and put away, the floor is swept and vacuumed (at least upstairs), the housework is basically caught up, and even your sink is shiny and clean.
by Heather Plett | Oct 2, 2005 | Uncategorized
I thought I’d take a moment to answer Dale’s question. About the pumpkins.
Why did I spend my Saturday morning picking pumpkins with about 40 other people? Well, the short answer is that they planted all those pumpkins to sell to raise money for Canadian Foodgrains Bank, a food aid and international development organization that I work for. The purpose of my trip was to visit churches and community groups who are supporting us through various efforts. The pumpkin project was one of those efforts.
The Foodgrains Bank is a christian-based organization that was originally started by a group of farmers that wanted to find some way of sending their surplus grain to hungry people overseas. Since then, it’s grown, and we now receive about $7 million in donations from Canadians, as well as $16 million from the federal government. The unique thing that I love about this organization is that there are 13 different church organizations that are part of it – everything from Baptists to Presbyterians to Seventh Day Adventists (and including your United Church, Dale). All these churches that preach different doctrine from the pulpit, work together to help hungry people. On Sunday, while I was in Nova Scotia, I visited 3 different churches, belonging to different denominations but still serving the common purpose.
The pumpkin project is one of our community growing projects. Rural communities get together, set aside a portion of land, and grow a crop which they donate directly or sell and donate the proceeds. I love the pumpkin project, because it includes 6 or 7 local churches in the Annapolis Valley, and they get a wide range of people working together as a community to pick and sell a field full of pumpkins. It gives you warm fuzzies to see something like that.
So now you know why all those pumpkins. And since I took all this time to put in a good plug for the Foodgrains Bank, next time you want to support a great organization, check us out! (That’s also why I was in Africa – to read more about it, feel free to peruse my February posts.)
