interrobang (‽)

As Training Lead, one of my responsibilities is to provide User Procedures for the system we’re implementing. Because users have a nasty habit of taking my official global User Procedures and changing them to match what they want to do, I publish them in Adobe PDF format. And because I generate all of the User Procedures out of OnDemand, I just get OnDemand to publish directly to PDF, which it will happily do if you have the full version of Adobe Suite installed.
In order to meet licensing requirements, here at my current client if you need a piece of software […]

A couple of years ago, I bristled at a fellow employee berating me for running up the stairs at work and not using the handrail.  I argued that using stairs is something that we educated people should be trusted to be able to do without the need for further instruction or the helping hand of a corporate mother-figure.  Apparently I was wrong.
At my last location (which I’ve thankfully now vacated - geez, what a deathtrap that turns out to have been!) there were signs aplenty around the stairwells (of this two-story building!) advising people to hold the handrail, watch their step, […]

I swore I’d never do this, but I’ve been suckered into reading ‘management’ self-improvement books.  Last week I saw a copy of the ubiquitous Who Moved My Cheese? on a colleague’s desk, and scoffed at the ‘wacky’ title.  “Well, have you read it?” he asked.  Um, no.  “Well, it’s about managing change.  As you’re in Change Management, maybe you should give it a go.”  Never one to resist a ‘challenge’ I borrowed the book and dutifully read it. 
And it’s alright… It doesn’t offer any great insights or points of view (how could it in a mere 100 pages of wide-spaced, large type?), but its […]

There’s an episode of The Simpsons where Mr. Burns wants to send an express package to someone.  It rapidly goes through several handlers (in a parody of a FedEx or DHL advert - I forget which) before being given to Homer to deliver.  Homer sees Mr. Burns’s name on it, and not realizing that this is the ‘From’ person, rushes, panting into Mr. Burns’ office to deliver it to him, some 30 seconds after Mr. Burns sent it in the first place.  Classic stuff. But sadly all too real…
I’ve just relocated my office from Brussels (Belgium) to Houston, Texas.  I packed up my […]

I work for a company that prides itself on its safety-conscious attitude. This is generally a good thing, but sometimes they can push it too far.  Case in point: I recently had a run-in with one of their over-zealous, self-appointed ’safety enforcers’.  It was about 7am and I was just going into work.  I crossed the car park, stepped over the grass verge, and cut across the road to the building.  I’d barely reached the other side when a voice behind me boomed “Use the crossing!”  Admittedly, the crossing was only 5 meters further up the road, but this is […]