A Button Makes A Day ...

It's odd the little things that can make your day satisfying or give you a sense of achievement.

For me, it was the fact that I got through Friday without the button from my jeans falling off. An odd goal, you would think - and no, my waistline has not expanded so drastically that it is threatening buttons.

Simply because the previous button had fallen off of it's own accord when I tried to do something revolutionary like undo the button. So I spent Thursday evening attaching another button to my jeans.

And it stood up to the test.

Working It Out

So as far as I'm concerned, work is approaching a bit of a crisis point and potential showdown. Not as far as my own job is concerned - I'm happy with what I'm doing. But as far as the wider team is concerned, it's - well, concerning.

To briefly fill in the background - the team is 12 people + manager, of which only one has been on the team for more than a year and a half - and they're not really in the same 'team' strictly speaking. Of those, three are grads like myself; another four are essentially the same level. Another is part time, and there are three permanent experienced project managers.

Of those, two are extremely overworked - one experienced PM and the one person who's been there for a long time. The workload is fairly busy between all the grad/grad-levels on the team. People exaggerate how busy they are, but all are busy. The other two experienced PMs are not busy and not caring.

And they're taking the piss.

Not doing full hours, complaining about how busy they are and trying to reassign work to others who are busier. Claiming excessive time off in lieu when noone can remember them doing anything to warrant it. Working from home once a week - when you can get little done (although some might speculate how genuinely they are 'working') anyway.

Oh, and these are the people who are paid double most of the rest of the team - this should imply they put in the hard work more. I believe in a decent work ethic, but I'd at least excuse relatively more slacking off from someone on half the salary, a relative lowbie. Someone who should be showing seniority and behaving like it should definitely not.

As for our manager, she's absent this week (on holiday), but might as well be absent the rest of the time for the level of guidance and clear direction we get.

It's come to a head for me when this week when I learnt that some of the newer people to the team were feeling pressurised, guilty for taking off time in lieu (validly) and having to justify it. Justifying it because people are resentful of others taking excessive liberties with similar attitudes. People being resentful because there is no leadership.

It's becoming absurd, yet noone is saying anything. The ones who are complaining are, ironically, those who have no reason to. The rest of the team is either wanting to just get their head down and get on with it, not wanting to complain because they don't like to, or not wanting to rock the boat - and a combination of the above.

But when a relatively new starter to the team feels pressurised for doing everything right because others are resentful that others are doing everything wrong, then someone has to say something. Because this is unacceptable.

And I'm concerned that it's going to have to end up being me if noone else does.

Edge of Insanity

For those of you who have not seen the papers today, we have the insane story that an Italian prosecutor wants to convict an Italian comedienne based on jokes she made against the Pope, for insulting a sacrosant figure. This is flatly absurd. If you look beyond the political hypocrisy (yes, that's right, Italy as a member of NATO have soldiers in Afghanistan to stop extremism ... guess they should try stationing them near St. Peter's Basilica and see if they have any more luck there) ... the entire issue is very, very strange. Not to mention disturbing.

With all due respect to the religious of you among my handful of readers, this is why the concept of organised religion deeply concerns me. It derives power from numbers, even when they are irrelevant and ambivolent.

This is a good example. The Catholic population of the world numbers in the billions. As the head of the Catholic faith, the Pope is a symbol of religious leadership. An insult against the Pope is not just that, but an insult against the entire Catholic faith and Catholic believers. But it's not. Some of them probably don't like the Pope. Some are probably only casual believers who will fill it in on a census form, but not much else.

Yet the weight of numbers, the statistics, builds this up in importance. And this includes many, many, many of those who say they are not part of the problem; that they are forward-thinking, open-minded, they condemn the extremist branches of their faith - and I can't argue with that, they are. Yet here, they are part of the problem.

Because this is how it starts.

And this is deeply unsettling.

National Disinterest

While the topic of the pubs and offices of the day has been of England and Walcott from last night, I have to confess to being entirely underwhelmed. I didn't watch the game, nor was interested in it. For me, football has become less and less interesting and this is the proof, where I now would probably prefer a defeat for the national team just to stop the ridiculous media hype surrounding it.

However, all credit to the players who went out and produced a superb 4-1 victory away to Croatia. But for me, that wasn't the story of last night. The big story was tiny Luxembourg, perennial underdogs, winning 2-1 in Switzerland.

Not that it was really noted among the Walcott delirium.

Double Century

So, today I got my first birthday present from my family - yes, you are correct, my birthday was late July and this is the second week of September.

The present in question was the CD Hvarf Heim from Icelandic sensation Sigur Ros. It's superb. It's very different, but it's haunting, ethereal, and very, very good. Listen to it, do.

Also, this marks my 200th blog post. Fireworks are in order.

30 Minutes

So, I had a new bed delivered today. Exciting, you don't say, I'm sure.

This is good, and it's a good bed. Problem is that because I had to clean out everything that was under my previous bed ... I now have far too much taking up far too much space in my room, and am feeling that I need much time off to probably sort out my room again!

Things I need to do:

- Find space for my CDs/DVDs as they're overflowing onto every available surface. Well, DVDs never had a surface of their own.
- Ditto books.
- Downgrade my stereo to a normal size one made within the last ten years so that it fits on my desk better, and gives me more desk space.
- Work out just what I'm going to do with all the lego that was under my bed.

That'll keep me busy for a while at least!

Insert Superlative Here

Well, it's Monday, my blogging run has gone a little dry, and I'm tired.

All in good spirits though. Chrissi is here (hurrah), and have had a good weekend. Was at Wembley for the second year running to watch St. Helens lift the Challenge Cup for the third year running. A good game, if not quite the epic game that the sponsor/announcer was overselling it to be!

Tries from Gidley, Pryce, Wilkin and Meli (2) meant Saints ran out 28-16 winners after it being far too tight at one point, and looking like they had blown it after they should've been coasting at halftime. But all's well that ends well!