Kraft Kosher

Friday, August 19, 2005

Fire Drill

We actually had a fire drill at work. I actually was under the apparently false impression that these things actually ended in grade school. But in the middle of the day, they actually marched us out of the building into the parking lots to wait for about 15 minutes before letting us return to our desks.

At least I was smart enough to save my work on my PC before I evacuated. Or perhaps, I was foolish?

Wednesday, August 17, 2005

Down Time

Computer virus...spreading. Second day with no computers at work. I thought big corporations would have all the fancy systems in place to keep us up. I managed to find enough offline projects to keep me going. My desk is shiny clean, and all my Kraft trophies are neatly aligned. Fortunately, we had a (Kosher!) group lunch scheduled today, which ate up (no pun intended) a lot of the downtime.

Please give me my internet back.

Tuesday, August 16, 2005

Group Blog

We had a meeting to discuss some morale building initiatives for our group. We brought up communication inefficiencies that our floor has, and one of the fellows suggested a group blog as a good way of keeping communication flowing. I nearly burst out laughing.

That's all I need, competition.

Monday, August 15, 2005

Tasked

The group's planning a lunch this week as a farewell to our summer intern. I've been assigned with the task of finding a kosher eatery for the date. Unfortunately, this is no easy task. We've gone on three lunches to date- and covered all the possible eateries. I don't know if everyone will think it's weird to go back to the same place again, or if they will just think it's weird that there's so little selection.

Thursday, August 11, 2005

Good for Nothing

I'm not only good for nothing with my family. I went out for lunch to a Kosher restaurant...and didn't think to ask my boss if he wanted anything. Not that I caused any damage by not putting forth a kind gesture. It was just a lost opportunity for me to do something for somebody else.

Sunday, August 07, 2005

MAP

At work we have a semi-annual review known as a MAP (Manager's Assessment of Performance - or something like that). Basically, you formulate your goals for the year, and then measure your progress against them.

I'm not going into the Human Resources and productivity aspects of this exercise. But I do think that it is a fabulous lesson akin to the Jewish idea of Cheshbon Hanefesh- An accounting of the soul. In that spiritual exercise, a person measures their life against the spiritual ideal. The obvious link is that both activities are meant to force us to reconcile where we stand presently with our stated goals. And the intention is that both will remind us of what is needed to get there.

Being goal focused is one of the hardest things in life for me. Having a goal means having failure when you don't make it.