for da luv of guv
Greetings, internet, and happy National Public Service Week!
What's that? Didn't realize it was going on? Well, fancy that: I apparently have readers outside Ottawa! For the rest of you, in celebration of our mutual accomplishments, I offer you the following (entirely unedited) appraisals of me and my past year's performance. Shockingly, these have yet to appear in any sort of job evaluation, so you're really getting in on the ground floor here.
You are way too nice.
This lady has the best grammar in the entire building.
It looked like you were going to EAT that woman.
Every conversation we've ever had has descended into absurdity.
I don't understand how you're not dead.
That was the least clear email I've ever read. Like, ever. I have NO idea what you want from me.
Why are you still here?
Emm, you personify Values and Ethics.
"Oh, I'll bend them to my will." "I have no doubt that you will."
It's funny that NPSW comes in the same week that my interview suit is getting a harder work out than I do before a half. On the one hand, I'm busy cataloguing all the many shiny, wonderful things I've done (and contemplating what I've learned from their not-so-shiny and not-so-wonderful counterparts), but on the other, I'm struck not by how lucky the PS is to have Interview Me, but how lucky I am to have it. Other people get up in the morning and have to work on ways to make sure that their companies get ahead, or that their research comes out on top, or that they get the edge over some sort of competitor, and I get to get up and work on ways to make Canada a better place. And so do most of my friends.
Those of us who come from regions where the PS isn't a big employer have to get used to the jokes, to the perception that we're all overpaid and underworked, to the fact that the people nearest and dearest to us sometimes have no idea what we actually do all day. But to those of you who know how hard it can be to solve that client's problem, to come up with one more good idea, to write the most convincing words we can find when we've already used all the words we know, and to those of you who understand that "coming in early" means "before the sun is close to up," and "staying late" means 10 or 11 (not 5 or 6), and to those of you who still nerd out at the thought of the federation, or establishing broad priorities, or the sight of those pointy buildings on the Hill, whether you're in the Centre or the Periphery: thanks. Have a great week.
What's that? Didn't realize it was going on? Well, fancy that: I apparently have readers outside Ottawa! For the rest of you, in celebration of our mutual accomplishments, I offer you the following (entirely unedited) appraisals of me and my past year's performance. Shockingly, these have yet to appear in any sort of job evaluation, so you're really getting in on the ground floor here.
You are way too nice.
This lady has the best grammar in the entire building.
It looked like you were going to EAT that woman.
Every conversation we've ever had has descended into absurdity.
I don't understand how you're not dead.
That was the least clear email I've ever read. Like, ever. I have NO idea what you want from me.
Why are you still here?
Emm, you personify Values and Ethics.
"Oh, I'll bend them to my will." "I have no doubt that you will."
It's funny that NPSW comes in the same week that my interview suit is getting a harder work out than I do before a half. On the one hand, I'm busy cataloguing all the many shiny, wonderful things I've done (and contemplating what I've learned from their not-so-shiny and not-so-wonderful counterparts), but on the other, I'm struck not by how lucky the PS is to have Interview Me, but how lucky I am to have it. Other people get up in the morning and have to work on ways to make sure that their companies get ahead, or that their research comes out on top, or that they get the edge over some sort of competitor, and I get to get up and work on ways to make Canada a better place. And so do most of my friends.
Those of us who come from regions where the PS isn't a big employer have to get used to the jokes, to the perception that we're all overpaid and underworked, to the fact that the people nearest and dearest to us sometimes have no idea what we actually do all day. But to those of you who know how hard it can be to solve that client's problem, to come up with one more good idea, to write the most convincing words we can find when we've already used all the words we know, and to those of you who understand that "coming in early" means "before the sun is close to up," and "staying late" means 10 or 11 (not 5 or 6), and to those of you who still nerd out at the thought of the federation, or establishing broad priorities, or the sight of those pointy buildings on the Hill, whether you're in the Centre or the Periphery: thanks. Have a great week.