Things have turned a bit slow at work, as the projects I am working on are in a weird state of being "in limbo" pending decision which are a great deal above me head. To make myself useful, I have restarted the "Operation Organize E-mail" to hopefully push through to the end. 72% of the e-mails are now organized, leaving only 28% to go.
As I have been reworking my way through documents and chains that are two to three years old, I am struck by two things:
1) The amount of time and energy that were spent on things that, looking back upon them, did not matter as much as people thought they did. For some things (blessedly few, as it turns out), present successes were built on these past achievements. For many others however, the evidence seems slim that they mattered in the long run. Five e-mails on a simple office relocation? We may have passed the point of sanity. "Paperless Office" improving our lives, indeed.
2) I am reminded again, as I have been in the past, that there are certain moments in any environment which are magical and golden, where the perfect combination of people and circumstances combine to make situations which are savored long after the situation has passed.
The odd thing is, you cannot "make" them. You cannot force people or circumstances to combine to make the situation - there have been as many "dream team" failures as they have been random successes. And they do not happen all the time - in looking back I have found jobs where during my entire reign of employment, nothing came together.
I have had more than my fair share at places of employ: 1994-1996, 2009-2011, and most recently 2018-2019.
It is hard to truly date such things except by when they end. For the most recent (and reminding myself via e-mails), it was around May 2019: I had just been promoted, we had finished our campaigns with success, the personnel operational issues that came up later had not yet started, and there was just a sense that it was a good group to work with and a good place to be.
It never lasts, of course: like trees, the color is always the most brilliant just before the leaf falls. But to look back on those moments in time now - especially now, with the intervening 2 years - touches a note of sadness within my soul.
Nothing Gold Can Stay (Robert Frost)
Nature’s first green is gold,
Her
hardest hue to hold.
Her
early leaf’s a flower;
But
only so an hour.
Then
leaf subsides to leaf.
So
Eden sank to grief,
So
dawn goes down to day.
Nothing
gold can stay.
As machine design engineer, I mostly can't relate. I was always working on the next product/machine we were going to produce, seeing it brought into fruition, teaching those around how to assemble it and then off to make the next product/machine a reality. I spent very little time dealing with emails. They were mostly just an update to others of where my new project was.
ReplyDeleteDo you consult?
DeleteNot anymore.
DeleteEd, when I worked in production side of things, that was true of me as well. On the knowledge side of things - and especially now due to everything being electronic - this is about all I do. It is what makes my other life - gardening, Iai, even now blacksmithing - more enjoyable: It is real.
DeleteDream team.....
ReplyDeleteI volunteered for a project at our home office almost 10 years ago. A Bostonian, a Californian, and me, a DOT (danged old Texican). The previous two weeks had a larger contingent that had tons of drama and resulted in a 20+ year employee's termination.
The stage was set for a mess, the Boston boy was loud and obnoxious, and obvious high performer. The Californian was late, overly polite and encyclopedic in knowledge, and then me. I like to have fun at work, and fill where no one else does.
We clicked. We still communicate. We had more fun and got more done than the previous group. Halcyon days indeed.
STxAR. That is the way of it sometimes. Even when things seem at best unlikely and at worse impossible, the most amazing things happen. It is a wonderful thing when it happens. If someone was smart, they would understand what makes this happen, and replicate it.
DeleteAs much as we think what we do is either profound or useless, we are here by God's will to pave the next step forward in His plan for humanity. We are here to accomplish God's will, and that is accomplished through us as we live our lives. In the end, our lives amount to nothing... and EVERYTHING...
ReplyDeleteAs for our jobs... Mehh... They pay the bills...
Fair point Pete - We are paving the way in God's economy for those that come after us. It is good to remember this sometimes.
DeleteAnd yes...they pay the bills...
Gawd I hate hate HATE G Mail. Supposedly it helps folks sort massive amounts of email, but for me it offered no positives. I am smart enough to prioritize, sort and discard my email on my own. Why do I need to learn how some idiotic machine does it? It seemed to try and integrate these tasks all together - and just ended up doing them all badly.
ReplyDeleteI used to push back on people that spammed me with email too. "Didn't you get that email I sent you?" they would ask accusingly. I would tell them that I am on the road, in and out of meetings and have a work load of my own. If they have an emergency... why not PICK UP A PHONE AND CALL?
Errrrrrr.... I am ranting and gobbing again, aren't I...? I used to tell my guys that tools are TOOLS. If you are going to let them do your thinking for you, you will be at their mercy when they fail.
But whadda I know...?
I only used G-mail because of work Glen. Our company started out with it because it was small at the time, and then went on using G-mail. Everyone else in the industry uses Microsoft. When the change came - and eventually it did come - it was much more expensive than when we should have done it two years ago.
DeleteInterestingly enough, I am the opposite. I prefer e-mails to the phone. With e-mails, I can respond at my leisure. With phones (or now texts), it is people "demanding" I address them now.
But yes, tools are only tools. We forget this to our detriment.
TB- I also prefer email for anything other than inter-family or the like communication. Two reasons- one is that my hearing is a bit less (ok, a lot less) effective than it used to be. Maybe a few too many biker bars and rock concerts in the past is what I tell people, but the reality is too many hours of power tools with no protection. Anyway, written email promotes clear communication, as opposed to trying to decode a conversation over a limited-bandwidth cell phone connection.
DeleteSecondly, an email provides a record that can be referred back to, or forwarded to other people.
NM - I was long ago told by a lawyer "E-mails are read, conversations are remembered". E-mails do promote clarity of communication, except when fools (and there are many of them) cannot communicate clearly.
Delete