The Halo Effect Book Review

The Halo Effect: ... and the Eight Other Business Delusions That Deceive Managers by Philip M. Rosenzweig
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I've always loathed business books and management books because they all usually set out with the goal of providing you with some magic formula that will make your management style or business transformational! Data tells us so! The thing is, just like any magical investing formula, if it actually worked EVERYONE would be using it and it wouldn't be some secret that has been a mystery up until the publication of said book and after publication everyone would be using it. There is no magic bullet, and I'm glad The Halo Effect illustrated that.

However, this common sense principle of "no magic bullet" was stretched pretty far throughout this book. The first half of the book is simply examples of contradictory feelings on companies dependent upon performance and then illustration after illustration of halos existing. This is all good and well, but the point is made pretty quickly and I felt there was a bit of padding here.

Categorizing the different issues with some of the past business books was actually the most interesting piece of the book and it was a small section towards the end. I would have loved a more thorough breakdown of past business books and how their "results" were tainted by the various styles of halos. Alas, what is there is at least engaging.

At the end of it all, this is a good counterbalance to the myriad of management books out there that make you think you can do one specific thing to be a better manager or create a better company, but I feel it left a lot of unexplored territory on the table.

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Collaboration in the Cloud Book Review

Everyone is talking about "the cloud," but what is it really and how does it apply to today's IT landscape. And how does it make things better? How does it facilitate collaboration? If you haven't at least talked about how the cloud could fit into your IT organization, you're falling more behind than you should be.

It's pretty well established that collaboration is of utmost importance in today's businesses where teamwork is key and making collaboration as efficient and friction-free as possible. The biggest tool that is aiding collaboration is the concept of the cloud and, from it, the proliferation of social that it enables.

This book, while presenting a superb overview of the topics in its title, doesn't really bring anything paradigm shifting to the table. What it does is gather into one book all of the disparate topics that are somehow related to cloud revolution.

If you're a new IT professional or someone with an inkling about what you or your company can do technologically to help become more social and collaborative, this is a perfect starting point for you. Experienced IT professionals should already have this all filed away in your brain's knowledge locker by now.

If interested, you can download the book in pdf form here.

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To Chicago and New York and Back Again

My view as I flew into Chicago

I haven't given up on blogging shortly after having restarted again (after a couple of years off). No, instead I was trying to keep my head above water last week as I made my to Chicago and then New York for work trips. And, of course, as I'm traveling my usual operational and support workload doesn't lessen... it just gets pushed off, so that's what this week has been focused on catching up with.

Traveling always seems to sap my energy. It's taxing and, as much as I really wanted to do some blogging about Chicago or, especially, New York, I didn't for a couple of reasons. First, I was in meetings most of each day and then at dinners with people from work in the evenings so when I got back to my hotel room it was usually me reading for about 15-20 minutes, trying to scan through email, and then hitting my head to the pillow. Second, I didn't get a chance to really do much in either city. While in Chicago, I wasn't in Chicago proper, but out in Oakbrook Terrace. While in New York, even though I was in the midtown area, I didn't have a chance to go walk around or see anything other than my view from the building we were working in and what I could see in the 5 block area where the path from my hotel to the office led me.

The view of NY from my conference room

It was probably good for me to do some traveling as I haven't in quite some time for work, as I do like seeing new places, but the process of traveling always drives me batty. That, and I truly hate/fear flying. I don't know what it is, well, actually I do (combination of fear of heights and giving up control), but it makes the process of flying very stressful for me. Well, and you can also toss in that flying sometimes is a trigger for my migraines, which again was the case as I flew into Chicago, so that adds to the downside of traveling for me.

Anyways, what I was getting to is that it was good to travel this time around as I got to meet a number of people from our company that I've worked with for years over the phone and through email, but never seen in person. Putting a face, body, and mannerisms to a voice is always great. And I got to see some people I've not seen in a year or two, so from a connections standpoint, it was great. From a work perspective, it was also a good trip. I'm in the process of leading a project for which I've been tasked with some responsibilities not previously given to me, and I want to excel at this as it could be a feather in my cap towards other similar projects. The project, not to be too vague (but I will be) has me more in a project manager and subject matter expert role as opposed to working in a quality assurance role, so it's nice to get some strict PM work as well as doing some business analyst work as time permits.

This project will also be a heavy contributor to keeping me away from blogging as my free time seems to evaporate quite quickly nowadays and the free time I do have I don't always want to be in front of a computer, but maybe that will change as the fall and winter of Minnesota start to force me indoors for more hours of the day. Then again, maybe I'll just hibernate!

Refine Those Regression Scripts

When it comes time to test a new release of a software application, I'm always anxious to dig into the new functionality to start mapping out exactly what needs to get poked, prodded, and kicked. Figuring out how to test what's new is, of course, going to be interesting because, well, it's new.  On the flip side, there's also regression testing that needs to be performed to make sure that everything that used to work still works. In between the two there's some integration testing that makes sure the new functionality plays nice with the old functionality (and vice versa).

New functionality testing will always entail creating new test scenarios, test plans, and data sets so you know you have to dedicate the time and effort to do it. Regression testing... well, that's mostly done already, right? It's easy to leave your regression scripts sit, untouched, until it's time to execute them since you're testing things that shouldn't have changed, right? It's especially easy to have this mindset in a smaller organization, but if you do give your regression scripts even a small amount of focus before re-using them, maybe updating them just a tad, you can make your regression so much more effective.

First, just do a scan through your regression scripts to make sure none of the new functionality has changed the existing functionality. If it has, make the appropriate modifications to your regression scripts so that they don't break down (if automated) or introduce confusion (if manual). I've run into more than a few situations where I had to modify regression scripts while running through them because something had changed.

Second, and I find this most important when reviewing your scripts, take a quick stock of where you had previously identified defects in releases past and make sure to cover situations that deal with replicating or attempting to reproduce those defects. You'd be surprised at how many times you'll find new defects in the same area or, heck, even notice that the previously uncovered defects aren't completely resolved. If you had an area of the application that had a few defects, pay special attention and make sure your regression scripts are giving the proper attention to that area--there are probably more issues where those you already found came from.

Third, look at where you can eliminate some testing. Let's be honest here--regression testing takes a long time, especially if you got a little overzealous when you wrote your scripts. You might not need to go through all of the tests you have in your scripts. Look for places where you can combine test cases or test steps. On one project I was able to combine 3 separate test chunks into a single battery of tests. I had separate testing chunks for adding a specific piece of data, deleting that type of data, and migrating that data. They were all written at different times so were in different spots, but as I reviewed the overall script, I found I could combine those tests into one test script that created the data, then migrated that created data, and finally deleted it. Combinations of testing chunks might not be as obvious as that, but if you know your application well and have a keen eye for evaluating your test scripts, you should usually find a spot or two where you can make them more efficient.

Lastly, and this should be obvious but it doesn't always get done, make sure to add regression testing for functionality that was added in the previous release. It's easy to be lax about maintaining your scripts and not adding to them with each release, but it is essential that you have scripts for new functionality from the last release. If you don't, you leave yourself with a gap that could become quite dangerous. You're going to give plenty of focus to your new functionality and your unmodified regression scripts will cover most of the older existing functionality, but the newer existing functionality may receive no testing which could leave defects uncovered.

I know regression testing isn't sexy and isn't always fun, but it needs to be done. Since it needs to be done, why not make it as efficient and effective as possible? It's not that difficult to give a little bit of focus to your scripts, so overcome that urge to assume you don't need to touch those scripts and give them the tune-up they need.

Performance Management: It's Actually Not a Waste of Time

We're coming up on the start of our performance review cycle here at work where there will be much gnashing of teeth, tearing of garments, soliloquies about the momentous accomplishments achieved, and anxiety over whether or not your boss thinks you did anything worthwhile... or at least to some that can be the mindset associated with the dreaded performance management process. It's quite natural to feel a significant amount of anxiety around this process for more than a few reasons--you are being evaluated by another person, you may or may not be promoted, your pay may change, and you have to attempt to grade yourself without sounding either self-deprecating or over-congratulatory. It doesn't necessarily have to be this way, though.

Many people try to avoid the performance management topic as much as possible and simply trudge through it at the end of the year because they have to. It's not something important, it's not something meaningful, and it's viewed lower on the priorities list than any other task being worked on. I held this mindset when I entered the working world, partially because I felt I was awesome at everything and didn't see the benefits that came out of the process, and partially because I didn't see any tangible benefits outside of my next raise. Of course there weren't going to be any benefits if I didn't take it seriously. Just like any one-way conversation, the person not invested will get nothing out of it. So if you have performance management anxiety or think that it does nothing for you, I may have a few things to offer from my personal experience that can transform performance management from a chore into a tool to get you where you want to be.

Get Invested

Frankly, if you don't have a care in the world about the performance management process your mind is made up that you'll get nothing from it and, more than likely, your manager or coach won't care a whole lot to do more than the bare minimum when rating you.  That doesn't help anyone and actually does make the process a useless waste of everyone's time.  However, even if you don't believe in the process, forcing yourself to get involved achieves two things--it gets your manager to note that you care about your development and, more importantly, it puts your manager on task to invest time and effort into truly evaluating you and your work. Shirking the process or avoiding meetings or tasks associated to it shows that you don't value it, but if you attend, engage, and force a smile (if you have to) it will do wonders for both of you because you'll start to look deeply at your work, your attitude, and your overall contribution, identifying what you are simply amazing at doing and, as a seemingly unfortunate byproduct (it's really not!), what you could improve.

Take the Initiative

This may be one of the toughest things to do when it comes to performance management, but it may also be the most important. Instead of waiting for each of the dreaded meetings you'll have with your manager or coach about "how well you did this year," take the lead and schedule some time with your boss to discuss how you've been doing. To really catch him or her off-guard, go outside of the standard performance management timeline and schedule your own meetings with your manager to discuss how things are going, ideally setting up something that is recurring throughout the course of the year.

By taking a peak at your performance and discussing it on a regular basis, once the year's end rolls around your final ratings from your boss shouldn't come as a huge surprise--you should already have a general idea of where you stand. You can also identify potential weaknesses to strengthen or pitfalls to avoid as the year goes on if you talk about what's happening in your work throughout the year. By doing this, you will also have demonstrable proof (assuming you keep notes) that you were improving, doing what was expected, or going beyond what was asked.  You're not stuck scratching your head at the end of the year trying to remember what you've done. Instead you have the groundwork already laid for your final assessment discussions.

Find Out "What It Takes"

We all want promotions. We all want more pay. We all want more perks. So how do you ensure that you get them? Ask.  It's a pretty simple concept, but it can often be hard to bring up or to get your manager to give you a well articulated answer. However, be direct and find out exactly what you need to do to reach the next level. You might need to initially settle for generalizations since your boss may not have actually thought this through in detail, but if you are both invested in your development, hopefully he or she will give some thought to the topic and have something specific to provide to you in time.

Once you know what you need to do, go do it!  Sounds easy, right? In some cases, sure, it'll be no sweat, but sometimes it may be more difficult. What it takes might be performing certain tasks that you don't have access to yet (like managing personnel... when you don't have any direct reports). If this is the case, explore with your manager how you can be put into situations where you have the opportunity to achieve what it'll take. It might not be something that can happen right away, but always be working to make it happen.

Change

One of the toughest parts of being evaluated is being told what someone thinks you're not doing well or what your weaknesses are. It's easy to get defensive, to shrug off what someone says, or to attack back.  It's much tougher to take in criticisms, reflect on them, and discuss them. Yes, it sucks being told you could do something better, but be honest with yourself--we all have weaknesses and could all use a bit of improvement, so take the chance to do so!

It is important to get specifics about what you could shore up. Generalizations don't help you since you don't know exactly what you could do differently, and it doesn't help your manager since he or she is throwing such a wide net that improvements you may attempt to make slip through the net because it's not what he or she is specifically looking for. Work together to flesh out where you can make improvements, make a plan on how to change, and then execute on that plan.

Be Serious

This should go without saying, but it is possible to make attempts at implementing the above changes without really taking things seriously. If you want to succeed, in most cases, you can't do it completely on your own (if you can--great! I'm jealous!).  You can learn from those who manage you, those who have experience in your field, and those who have been tasked with developing you. You need to have levity when approaching the performance management topic, valuing it as a tool in itself and not just a means to getting your next raise. In the short term if you "game" the system you can get that incremental raise or look a bit better than your co-worker, but from a long-term perspective if you seriously want to grow, develop, mature, and achieve personal goals, you need to take performance management seriously and, as much as it may pain you, go through the full process being fully engaged.

At the end of the day, it's not your manager who decides your future, even though they may control your next bonus or promotion, it is in your own hands.  If you are fine with the way things are and think you're doing great, then this article wasn't really something you need, but if you want to aspire to improve and make performance management matter, I hope that I've been able to provide a little insight into some methods that could help. I can only speak from my personal experience, so take it how you will, but it's proven to be quite helpful in my current career trajectory up to this point.

Quality Assurance... How Did I Get Here?

For the last year and a half I've been working in IT quality assurance as a team lead for a small IT organization. To be completely truthful team lead may be a bit misleading right now as our QA team consists solely of me. It's not all that bad, though, since I generally get along with the people on my team (read: voices in my head). Oddly, though, when I look back on my career history and where I thought I was going coming out of college, QA was never a place I thought I'd find myself but somehow... well, it is a good fit for me.

I went to college at St. John's University in Collegeville, MN from 1999 to 2003 and graduated cum laude with majors in both computer science and philosophy, not exactly two majors that you would think go together, but I loved them both... to certain degrees. I came into college extremely focused on my computer science major. I loved technology, had dabbled in BASIC programming (yes, I realize how lame that sounds), and wanted so badly to get through college so that I could get that 6-figure salary working in a cushy office coding at my leisure. Well, that was until the tech bubble had burst and I came to realize programming might not be the thing for me.

As I took more and more of my computer science classes, I found a sharp distinction between those I loved and those I loathed. Anything conceptual I was mesmerized with; anything coding related I slogged through not really enjoying. It was this realization that led me down the path of also pursuing a philosophy degree (it's all about concepts) to augment (or offset... I'm not sure which) what I was doing with getting a computer science degree.

When I dipped my toes into the real world I had an internship for two summers at the same company working on simple coding for a project that didn't appear to be really going anywhere, but it was experience, right?  Being dumped into an environment where there were already thousands of lines of code, various technologies being used, and conventions that I wasn't used to did not bode well for me. I spent altogether too much time poring over the little details of how parts of the application worked, I used up a lot of time experimenting with my code to see what different results I could get by changing small things, and, since this was an internship, I played a lot of office games with the other interns and some of the funner programmers.

I quickly learned that programming for 8-10 hours a day wasn't for me, but I still loved technology and had a natural knack for writing (and could churn stuff out pretty quickly) so as I graduated from college, with the dot-com bubble explosion still looming over the tech industry and my not really being that interested in actual programming, I signed on as a technical writer for the company I had interned with. This was actually a pretty solid fit as I was still in the technology world, but I was focused more on writing. As I crafted a 250+ page opus of a user manual for a relatively established software package (that simply didn't have a manual up to that point), I found myself playing a lot in the application, pushing boundaries, and being a little too OCD about functionality... I was essentially doing black box and usability testing of the application while working on the manual, but didn't realize it.

My next move was to the business team for the same employer, working as a business analyst. Essentially I interacted with the company's clients, the business team, and development to see where changes/upgrades/fixes were needed and then write the corresponding requirements documents and specifications. It was interesting in that I was tasked with creating documents that straddled a very thin line between being understandable by the business yet getting across enough specificity that our developers knew how to implement and code the requirements. I found myself drawn to the more complicated requirements where I was forced to search for every possible scenario that could be encountered and specifying the desired outcome. I was intent on making sure every base was covered. I was, in essence, creating test scenarios and use cases that not only translated to development of the application, but fit nicely into a QA format.

Eventually I moved on to another company, this time as a "technology specialist" (quite the ambiguous title, eh?). My job consisted of a myriad of tasks--application configuration, documentation, training, and performing user acceptance testing of applications our team would be using. I was moving on from dipping my toes in the QA waters to actually stepping in to see how the waters felt. I ended up being meticulous with my testing and kept a number of application releases from seeing their scheduled production go-live dates because of issues I had uncovered, which sucked for getting things deployed on schedule but was great for me as it was pointing me in a direction of something I might have a knack for...

This leads us to last year when I was officially given the reigns of a QA team (consisting solely of myself) and practice (which previously didn't exist). It seemed like a natural progression from the path I was on, but I quickly realized that, hey, I was never actually trained in QA!  No formal training, no tutelage under another QA professional, no involvement in a QA team... everything I knew was from first-hand experience when given the job of "making sure something worked."

It's worked out well so far, though, as I've continued to take everything I've learned, add some gradual maturity to it, figure out what does and doesn't work, and do the best I can. I've started some training through IIST (working towards my CSTP-M certification) to fill the formal training gap that's missing, I'm trying to read more blogs on the topic of QA, and am trying to interact with other QA professionals through social networks. And, since I seem to cover just about every other topic under the sun that I'm interested on this here blog, I might as well write about my experiences. It might just provide to be helpful for other people that have stumbled into the QA world by accident or, at the very least, give seasoned QA professionals something to snicker at!

Upgrading is Never Easy

In the quest to always have the latest and greatest, I volunteered to be a guinea pig at work and test out a new migration tool and build in order to have a newer laptop, as well as to have the latest software packages available. My prior computer was also having some issues, so this seemed like the logical thing to do. What comes with being a guinea pig, however, are all of the associate little issues that haven't been worked out yet.

For the most part, the transition to my new laptop went pretty well. It took about 4 hours for everything to get transfered from my old machine to my new one, but just about everything made it over. However, I did have to dedicate a few hours to re-installing a bunch of programs that I had on my old machine that I needed on my new machine to feel at home again. I just can't use a default Windows XP environment. After having so many utilities and tools that have made my everyday activities so much easier, you can't go back.

I got everything moved over, all my settings copied over, and it looked like everything was up to speed and rocking. Unfortunately, that was too good to be true. My mouse wasn't working and I figured maybe I just needed some updated drivers, but since it's a bluetooth mouse, there was a whole other world of pain associated with trying to get the thing working (and it still isn't as of right now).

In my most humble opinion bluetooth is a horrible technology that was poorly thought out, has been poorly implemented, and proves to cause more problems and headaches than it is worth. In my experience, I've never had an encounter with bluetooth that went well and this was another case. There was firmware mismatches, software mismatches, driver errors, and everything else you could imagine associated with my mouse and computer. What's crazy is it is a Microsoft mouse and we can't get the damn thing to work on a Microsoft Windows XP machine using Microsoft's drivers and even trying out a Microsoft bluetooth attachment. It's all Microsoft technology, but none of it works. Thank goodness I sold all of my MSFT stock so that I don't feel bad when I talk crap about them.

Anyhow, let's just say that having a new laptop is awesome, but bluetooth is not since it wasted a couple hours of my day and will cost me more in the future since my dumbass mouse still isn't working.

The Office that Doubled as a Tomb

You know, I really don't understand why companies just don't give employees the entire week between Christmas and New Year's off. It seems like the vast majority of people take that time off anyways. Teachers have it off. Students have the time off. Why don't we just do like some foreign countries do and somewhat "unofficially" give the week off.

As I'm sitting here in the office, there are probably about half as many people, or less, that came in and it seems like a lot of them that did come in just don't have that much to do or aren't motivated. Unfortunately I've had more than enough to do so I haven't been able to indulge in slack time, but if I could I'd at home watching TV right now. Thankfully I have a four day weekend staring me in the face. Can't really complain about two four day weekends in a row.

Really, though, would it be too much to give people a few more days off just to be nice? I know some select companies do give the entire week off, which is beyond kick-ass, I just don't work for one of them. It's not really that much fun to be in the office with hardly any people around, wondering what everyone that's not here is doing because it is, no doubt, tons more fun.

Cubesville, Ahoy!

It was bound to happen sooner or later, and I'd been trying to prepare myself for the day it would happen, but no matter how much I tried to remember that this would eventually happen, it still doesn't make it any easier. For the last year and a half, I've occupied various offices at my job, most recently one that was a double sized office, so I had more room that I really knew what to do with. I loved the office environment. There was no worries about people walking by and bothering you, people yakking on the phone near you, or other distractions and if there was, all I had to do was close my door and I was isolated.

As of yesterday, however, I've been transplanted into a cubicle. Who would have thought going back would be so different. I'm not used to the ambient noises, having people able to hear me while I'm on the phone, or the cramped space of a cube. It's not all bad, though, as I feel a little bit more connected since I'm in an area that has a few other people in it, but I'm not a part of their team and there isn't that much interaction besides the occasional hello. Still, I will say it is refreshing to be in the midst of people again.

Having to move to a cubicle that is way smaller than my office was has also helped me to sort through the crap I've not gone through and toss out stuff I no longer need--documents that have been updated, sticky notes for things that were done a long time ago, and random printouts that have accumulated over time.

I think the adjustment will be ok. I was in a cubicle at my last job the entire time I was there, so it's not so different. And as my manager tells me, this should give me even a little more motivation to strive for my next promotion because I would then be at a level where I would be granted an office.

Work...

...is killing me. The last few weeks have been filled to the brim and, more often than not, overflowing with stuff to do and stuff to do NOW. So many little things have been snowballing and building up into piles of junk. And considering that the end of the year is coming up, there are a lot of projects that we have slated to have complete by that magical December 31st date. So, really, that's why I don't write anything lately.

I've got some reviews to write for Decoy yet that I haven't gotten to. I picked up a PMP Certification study book that I'd like to get started on. November is here so I need to organize broomball teams and winter ultimate frisbee teams. I also need to get my ass outside and get some more running in before I get too fat. In the last month and a half I've put on nearly 10 pounds. Not good.

And to top it all off, where the hell did October go? Are there seriously only two days left? When did that happen? I didn't even get around to making a jack-o-lantern or anything. Before I know it I'll be home for Thanksgiving and trying to figure out what to get everyone for Christmas. Oh, and side note, stores should NOT be allowed to put out Christmas stuff until after Thanksgiving. Having Christmas crap out on the shelves before it is even Halloween is ridiculous.

Oh, and my car died. Awesome.

Get Restarted

Ever get that mid-afternoon dragging feeling? All you want to do is curl up in your office and sleep for hours? Heck, I know I do. Most days, even weekends, I have a hard time soldiering through the afternoons. What I discovered in college, and still practice to this day, is something Lifehacker is just pointing out to everyone now -- take a caffeine nap.

I don't usually get to take a standard caffeine nap, really, because I have already had either 10 cups of coffee or about 24 ounces of energy drink in me throughout the morning, but what I will often to do get my juices flowing again is zone everything out, set my blackberry to go off in 10-20 minutes, and close my eyes. Sometimes I get to sleep, but most often I float in that weird zone of just lazily thinking and walking along the borders of sleep. Sometimes it feels like a dream, sometimes I just end up thinking about stupid junk. Either way, I make sure not to think about work or anything stressful at all.

Once I wake up in 15 minutes or when my blackberry goes off, in about 30 seconds I'm back into full wakefulness and ready to go. And I feel energized. The grogginess is completely gone. Seriously, it works wonders and helps keep me focused on getting things done when I would otherwise just lazily plod through things.

Dreary Saturday Tops Off a Bleak Week

That'd be the headline if there were a newspaper article written about me and this previous week's activities. It's just been one of those days where things don't quite go right, then they go even more wonky, then other things get thrown into the mix, then your stress level starts to eat at you, then nothing seems to fall your way, and then to top it all off there's that existential yearning underpinning everything and sucking the meaning out of anything you do.

It's harvest time, and every year around harvest time I long for being on the farm, being around the machinery, watching as the fields provide everything they've grown all summer to the farmers who have cared for them. I don't even care if I'm involved in the harvest process, I just like being around it.

When I lived with my parents, I didn't get to do any of the important tasks like driving the combine or running the grain trucks. Instead I usually ended up chopping stalks (which is a process where we take a gigantic lawn mower thing over the corn fields to shred up all the stalks) or plowing. It was pretty boring and I was completely isolated out in the fields that had already been harvested, but I felt like what I was doing was contributing to something bigger. I was participating in bringing food to the world.

My current job (and every job I've had other than working on the farm) has never brought me the same amount of fulfillment. What I do now is more challenging and I don't mind what I do, I simply don't get that same deep-down, intrinsic happiness from it. I don't see how what I do contributes to anything outside of a small function for the company I work for.

I deal with it, though, and once winter sets in this longing again subsides. It's not all that bad dealing with the longing, but when other things start to weigh in on you, that's when it starts to suck. It was a long, stressful week this week at work. Fighting a cold after getting back from vacation, I had a lot of things I needed to get through at work. It was stressful, but I dealt.

Being sick is never fun, but in the middle of this week, I ended up having a migraine that knocked me the hell out on top of already feeling like ass. And don't even get me started about my lame attempts at trying to exercise. It just doesn't work when you're sick, no matter how hard you try to convince yourself you can do it.

And now, this morning, as I tossed in the towel on the week, chalking it up as a loss, I tried to smile and march on. But then I did my morning errand running at Target... and found they didn't have a few of the items I wanted, one of my credit cards didn't work, and it started to pour out as I was leaving. Wonderful. Some days you just can't win.

So now I'm here sitting at a local Caribou Coffee shop, catching up on some work, and hoping that I'm finally out of the woods because I'm getting sick and tired of crap not going my way.

Frustration

How do you deal with it? It's a part of our everyday lives, especially when it comes to work. We all have horribly frustrating times at work now and again (some way more than others). If you somehow don't get frustrated while at work, I hate you and you should be tossed into a wood chipper. Well, maybe not, but I'm at least jealous.

Of all the things I hate dealing with at work, frustration is the thing that sets me off the most. Boredom doesn't really get to me. Having to do busy work isn't all that bad (as long as it's not the only thing I do). Being constantly micromanaged I can handle, but don't really like. Being overwhelmed is not all that fun, but it can be managed. Frustration, however, sets me off like no other thing.

Most of the time, when I get overly frustrated one of two things happens--I either give up on what I'm doing because I can't focus or I dive in headfirst, trying 10 times as hard, and bust my ass to beat whatever was frustrating me.

For a portion of this afternoon, I was dealing with the second case. Being totally frustrated, I went headlong into my to-do list wanting to knock a bunch of items off of it. To keep me focused, keep my juices flowing, and not let outside distractions get to me, I cranked up some of the heaviest stuff I had to listen to at work (which happens to be August Burns Red and The Red Chord) and went nuts. Once I got out of my focused phase, I realized that anyone walking past my office could probably hear my headphones I had them turned up so loud in our crypt-quiet work environment.

When I work from my home office, I tend to do the same thing--find some ridiculously heavy, breakdown filled music and turn it up as loud as my stereo will go as I dive into what I'm doing. It seems like angry, loud music is one of the outlets that actually alleviates some of my frustration. It's odd that something so abrasive would counteract such a charged feeling of frustration. Maybe it just takes fire to fight fire because I know that some lame ass Enya crap sure ass hell wouldn't settle me down.