2002-04-04 - 1:09 p.m.

Returned to Work

It has been almost a month since I actually traveled to work. I did come in a few days in early March, but the pain was too much then. And I also tried to come in one Wednesday in the middle of March. But work just isn�t physically comfortable and it is stressful. My project is considered one of the high priority projects, but the time line that I was supposed to crank out a model study and write a report that is going to end up in the courts was low balled.

No, it wasn�t low balled. It was ridiculously unrealistic.

Yesterday too many people in my office. I don�t mind telling people who ask me directly what is wrong that I have epididimytis. And I don�t mind telling people, it is a male only infection of your epididimis. And if they continue to ask, I explain �It is a tube, that when twisted or swollen is incredibly painful.� Some people will blush, but I wish some of them would just accept the fact that I�m sick and say, �I hope you get better.� They are concerned, but they turn around and ask me work questions.

There is no doubt that my medical condition is linked to pushing myself too hard. I do. But people around here need to change now. They need to carry my weight in addition to theirs, and I feel like I�ve been carrying others for some time. Not everybody though.

In English: returning to work is stressful. My meds ran out, and I�m in serious pain. I�m now telling people I simply can�t start any new projects until I finish documenting this high profile project I�m working on. Fortunately Bronco is helping me, and she knows what she is doing.

It wasn�t her fault, but she ended up linking my Excel documents to my Word memo (I use that word even while describing a 70 page environmental report). The problem being, multiple people continue to use my data, and now it appears that the network has lost some data. I�m sorry, but I�ve tried to use some of MS Word�s advanced features before. Unless you are a network administrator, don�t link documents. I�ve done it and been screwed before. Now they went ahead against my protests and did this. We�ll soon see how much data was lost (but I am getting the lost data error message).

Yes, I�m cranky. But I wish my co-workers would listen to me about these things a wee bit more. Sometimes automation is not worth it, if it fails at critical times. The silver lining is I can recreate this stuff too. And now that somebody other than me may have been zinged, I�m guessing tried and true methods will prevail again in the realm of editing technical documents.

LISTENING TO: Front 242 Backcatalogue

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