This year I had to just stop. Some of it has been my job, and since the crazy hasn’t stopped yet, but I’m in a bit of a breathing-lull I’m going to at least explain why I dropped off the face of the earth. Or at least my blog. I can’t promise I’m going to be consistent again, because the next 6 months are looming large.
Seriously, my job has gone utterly mad. There were 5 people on my team. In April the team lead announced she’s retiring. AHHH. But ok. Then one of the other folks took a job elsewhere in the company (promotion, good for here). But seriously, this means 40% of the team is disappearing. JUST as several projects decided to run off the rails.
Ok, just one but it’s a MAJOR company initiative and OMG… I got pulled in to help with training (“not my job” but something I’ve done in a past job) and it is some of the most disorganized work I have had to deal with in a long time. Oh, and the 2 people leaving: were on lead on this training. SO on top of having to ramp up skills I haven’t used in a few years I’m trying to ramp up on knowledge of a MASSIVE project before the only 2 people on the team who know much of anything leave.
And all of this has been on top of juggling basically all my other job duties. Not because I don’t have backup. My direct manager (yeah, on a team of 5 it was 4 to the team lead and me to 1 of them) is ALSO working on some big projects and occasionally we had to have the “you or me and who can juggle the extra this week.”
Summer is always tough, some of our biggest annual trainings (company-wide, mandatory trainings) get launched. And of course this year the vendor making one of them was trying to win “most incompetent and obnoxious.” Things like “Oh, we forgot to include German and Japanese in one version.” Like…. WTF. We caught it before launch, but for some reason it took them three days to give us a new copy and I’m like “Ok, I used to make these kinds of things for a living and this would have taken me…. 30 minutes to recheck the boxes and wait for my pc to process?”
AND none of this includes the fact my doctor has been having to mess with my asthma meds because insurance decided they don’t want to pay for the one I’ve been using (very effectively) for 10 years. AND I got COVID and spiraled BADLY (I’ve tried once to write up the experience with Paxlovid, pretty sure it kept me out of the hospital). AND my kid got diagnosed with autism and I’m trying desperately to integrate that into my mindset… AND life didn’t stop while I’m stumbling around.
I barely get a chance to call my best friends. I haven’t been part of a TTRPG for too long and I miss it.
The rest of this year might still be rocky. New team lead they were able to hire her before our previous person retired so at least there was some knowledge transfer. You can’t transfer almost 20 years of knowledge in 2-3 weeks. New team member we’re training up. 2 more major company initiatives coming down the pipe (and one of them…. if it doesn’t make me curl up under my desk for a cry will be a miracle). New software being purchased to “support” (it will be good, I’m generally excited) our team we will need to learn, convert, and implement – and then train others.
It’s good to be busy, it feels good to see my work making an impact and seeing how what I do actually matters. But dear God, I am so exhausted.
Dream by Day 