A work phrase

"We need to think about the effects of X on..."

With New Boss this is code for something, and I need to think about whether it means "don't do X" or if it means "X is making me nervous and I don't like it"

I mean, I think it's best to take it at face value, right?

So if New Boss is saying "We need to think about the effects of X on...." then I need to adapt my executive writing to emphasize the good news about the effects of X, or how we've mitigate those effects, etc.

It's my bad habit of gamify-ing everything I hear.

Work

We have big changes in our department at Prairie University, and this has me a little stressed.

My two peers and I will now be reporting at one higher level, as our boss has left for other fun stuff in another area completely.

Our new boss is a ... let's call him energetic and after a decade of working with old boss we had a lot of trust built up and we could get along fine.

I'm worried that new boss is less trusting, and will cancel a number of my projects.

See, there's this tension in our department about whether we're data-driven and vision-oriented administrators who provide a service to our university, or whether we are primarily responsible for implementing legislation from our government. And it's a good tension, but I tend to be on the data-driven side, so I'm worried that, because no one fines us if we don't do new things, that new things will be removed from what I'm allowed to do.

Also, given that I am working from home with the Peanuts, and that my Main Job, because of Covid, is now being done by, well, everyone, I'm worried I'll end up with no permission to do anything new, no ability to do old work from my office, and no role to play in my Main Job. And that would be no good. No good At All.

Curve predicting

I predict another top cycle at about June 2?

or End of July

Not... much... to.. say?

It's raining, I'm working, the sidewalks are all ripped up by Prairie Metropolis workers who are replacing them... The Peanuts and the Project Manager are sleeping in... what to talk about?

Oh, this guy! Karl Popper!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karl_Popper

Such an interesting guy and good and compellings things to write about the role of arguing in a civil and excellent society.

... and speaking of arguing, the family is awake...  Off I go!

Day... 1000000 of Covid?

We've backed off our bed time effort with Peanut #2, and it's worked well.

In bed, with books, and lamps, and a stuffy, and _the windows open_ and then off they go to slumber land. I think the issue before was that their room was way too hot.

Peanut#2 can't read yet, but man she is trying. She sees text, she tries to decipher it. She's really really close, so I hope soon. Same as her riding her bike, honestly.

Tomorrow I have to fix my sump pump and rain barrel situation.  Gotta.Might end up being the same solution, honestly.

New roles, Part II

So she says "what's the plan for dinner"

And I says "There isn't one"

And then we had a lovely evening, so yes, running All The Things All The Time is not necessarily required.

Negotiating new home roles

So as things settle into the next phase of coronavirus normal, it looks like they are going to be as follows:

I will continue to work from home for the foreseeable future, and the Project Manager will be back at work full time on this coming Thursday. This does not mean that she will work 40 hours a week, this means that she's more likely to work approximately 70 hours a week.

This is a role that I am very comfortable in, because I am a pretty good practitioner of the domestic arts how much if you need somebody to put things away and organize dinners and run your household I am your man.

so I'm quite happy to do this on an ongoing basis as my work is very accommodating to weird work hours I like in get quite a lot done first thing in the morning and late in the evening so this is all fun.

unless of course you don't want somebody to run your household. Unless of course you would like to be involved in the running of your household. In that case there is a risk that I will erase you from all household organization and operation so that you end up having about the same level of involvement in the household as a hotel guest. this is not going to work for the Project Manager.

So the behavior I need to remember is to leave things undone, to leave things for her to do that she wants to do otherwise I trap her in non participation.