Puddle Dining

In a field quite near us.  I like storks.  I think I like being in fields even more.  I do love my peace & quiet

A lovely day at work though.

I'm normally a very cautious chap when it comes to saying "I know something".  I like to check and double-check, and very often confer with someone just-to-ame-sure.  Today, however, was different.  I know my systems and I know how to analyse problems.  So the first 5 phone calls were a really good boost to my never-very-high levels of self-confidence*.

And in the afternoon we were host to a new trainee at work.  She's going round various departments and seeing what they do and having a bit of a question and answer session with them.

She's very new to our world - but we don't bite and we try to make everything fun.  Well, as much fun as things on a mainframe can be.  It doesn't take much to make us happy.  She seemed to enjoy the afternoon - here's hoping she did, she's back tomorrow for an afternoon of practising what we were talking about today.

*True story - from a company I used to work at. 

We used to have annual reviews.  And one of the things that I was always told was "You need to have more self-confidence". 

And so I tried, really I did. 

And in every following review it was the same old story.  We would never talk about what had gone well. Never.  But my manager would talk at length about the things that hadn't gone so well.  Even if it was one tiny little thing, there would be a shaking of the head and we would have to explore every reason why that thing had gone wrong and why it was my fault and why really, it was just so disappointing.

This never varied.  We would discuss only failure.  And then to round things off, my boss would invariably say "And you really need to build your self-confidence".

And they could say that every year.  And did.  And so I failed at improving my self -confidence every time.  Why would I have any, when I knew that when it came to my review, we would only focus on negatives.

There's a few people there who really deserve a Jobby-In-A-Box.