Luke Warm
Our water heater is acting up ... again. Everything seemed fine when I had a hot shower yesterday morning, but when I went to wash dishes later in the afternoon the water was only hot-ish. I checked the breaker, and all seemed well, so I let it be and by evening it was pushing out hot water again.
This morning
atara complained that the shower turned cold on her after a few minutes. This is the same behaviour it exhibited when the lower element died a couple of years ago, which leads me to suspect that the replacement element is likely at fault. It has probably been long enough that it is no longer under warranty, so I guess I'll have to get somebody out this week to replace it again. When they fixed the lower element earlier, they put in a 1500 watt element to replace the 1000 watt element that had been there. It's a 2000 watt circuit, so if anything, the lower element should have been under-driven. If it failed again this soon, I can only guess that it was faulty. Bugger.
The past month has been a series of ups and downs at work. In one week I was informed that I would be required to complete Locomotive Engineer training this year, and I was to arrange the best time with my boss. Later that week I noticed I got a modest bonus on my pay cheque for something cryptically described as a "CEO spotlight". I knew that my name had been put in for an award, but I'd expected to hear something before having a weird line item show up on my cheque.
Last week I had such a rough go of it at work that I had both my boss, and later my director call me at home in the evening to apologize. Then I got a letter from the CEO the next day telling me that I was doing a wonderful job.
I know that they like me there, and I like the work I do and the people I work with but ... I am tired of working for a company where my bosses feel the need to call me after hours to say they are sorry. I've seen this place go from a flawed company that I could still recommend as a decent employer to a place where I actively steer people away from applying. I knew we were in for a rough ride when we had a change of CEOs a few years back, because the guy coming in had a nasty reputation. There was a steady exodus of people higher up in the ranks who suddenly found opportunities with other career paths, or abruptly decided it was a good time to retire. They knew what to expect.
Our new CEO took that as an opportunity to replace them with people who embraced bullying and intimidation as a viable management style. Even though he is gone, his own replacement shows no sign of addressing that. About the only thing he has reversed from his predecessor is to go on a hiring spree to help fill some of our decimated ranks after his predecessor's incomprehensibly deep cuts. Even if we get some of our numbers back, we will never get back the valuable knowledge and experience we lost.
Anyway, as I have said (or at least alluded to) in earlier posts, I am 90% sure I will be pulling the pin later this year. I want out of this toxic environment. I'm too young to just slide quietly into inactivity, so I will have to find something productive to fill my time. Either I will find some part-time work to fill the void, or volunteer to work as a cat cuddler at the Humane Society. I think I would be pretty good at that.
This morning
atara complained that the shower turned cold on her after a few minutes. This is the same behaviour it exhibited when the lower element died a couple of years ago, which leads me to suspect that the replacement element is likely at fault. It has probably been long enough that it is no longer under warranty, so I guess I'll have to get somebody out this week to replace it again. When they fixed the lower element earlier, they put in a 1500 watt element to replace the 1000 watt element that had been there. It's a 2000 watt circuit, so if anything, the lower element should have been under-driven. If it failed again this soon, I can only guess that it was faulty. Bugger.
The past month has been a series of ups and downs at work. In one week I was informed that I would be required to complete Locomotive Engineer training this year, and I was to arrange the best time with my boss. Later that week I noticed I got a modest bonus on my pay cheque for something cryptically described as a "CEO spotlight". I knew that my name had been put in for an award, but I'd expected to hear something before having a weird line item show up on my cheque.
Last week I had such a rough go of it at work that I had both my boss, and later my director call me at home in the evening to apologize. Then I got a letter from the CEO the next day telling me that I was doing a wonderful job.
I know that they like me there, and I like the work I do and the people I work with but ... I am tired of working for a company where my bosses feel the need to call me after hours to say they are sorry. I've seen this place go from a flawed company that I could still recommend as a decent employer to a place where I actively steer people away from applying. I knew we were in for a rough ride when we had a change of CEOs a few years back, because the guy coming in had a nasty reputation. There was a steady exodus of people higher up in the ranks who suddenly found opportunities with other career paths, or abruptly decided it was a good time to retire. They knew what to expect.
Our new CEO took that as an opportunity to replace them with people who embraced bullying and intimidation as a viable management style. Even though he is gone, his own replacement shows no sign of addressing that. About the only thing he has reversed from his predecessor is to go on a hiring spree to help fill some of our decimated ranks after his predecessor's incomprehensibly deep cuts. Even if we get some of our numbers back, we will never get back the valuable knowledge and experience we lost.
Anyway, as I have said (or at least alluded to) in earlier posts, I am 90% sure I will be pulling the pin later this year. I want out of this toxic environment. I'm too young to just slide quietly into inactivity, so I will have to find something productive to fill my time. Either I will find some part-time work to fill the void, or volunteer to work as a cat cuddler at the Humane Society. I think I would be pretty good at that.