It does!

Zen, look and see what is out there, while you're not under pressure. It can't hurt. Nose of Zen, please stop requiring the use of Kleenex to stop your temper tantrum.

Jesse, that sucks. Mightily. Constructive crit is fine, but at least have the common courtesy to bring it through the chain of command.

meara, I hope they realize they can't keep you going at this pace for too long. Things could get uglier if it does.

I sent my team member the Wonder Woman gif.

I. Adore. This. So much so that I have a tab open, and I've been flipping to it all week.

Dana, that sounds very familiar. We know no one like that. At all. Ever.

This sounds awfully familiar:

Aw!

What cute pussycats!

In a possibly-ironic twist, I'm still so aggravated that instead of telling another team member she needs to do better, I was very encouraging and gave some specific ways to show that she is doing better. I didn't have it in me to have another difficult conversation today.

This sounds awfully familiar:

Aw, that's wonderful! what a great write-up!

Zen, look and see what is out there, while you're not under pressure. It can't hurt.

I really should.

Aw, Arthur is famous!

Our "quick chat" (scheduled as an hour-long meeting but labeled a quick chat) was actually helpful. So that's nice. I have developed a headache, which is less nice. Meh. Maybe lunch will fix it.

I hear you, Zen. When what you want is a better working environment it's damn hard to look for that. As you say, you don't really know until you are there, so it would always be taking a chance, and while you have aspects of your job that you DO like, yeah, it's be hard. My mentor (I was assigned a mentor, which seems weird to me but I like her and think she has stuff to teach me so it's all good) asked me to come up with two job descriptions for the next time we meet - one that I would want to do if money wasn't an issue, and one I would jump on if it presented itself locally. Maybe thinking about what WOULD make you take a different job, assuming the workload was reasonable and expectations were consistent, would be helpful? If you didn't have to look, if it just dropped in your lap.

Zen, we should both resolve to look for new jobs, even though we can't see the way out right now.

I sent my team member the Wonder Woman gif.

That's my favorite thing right now.

This sounds awfully familiar:

LOVE!

If you follow the Daily Mail link there's a picture with Fred and Hubs and the vets and Arthur and the caption indicates that not only is Arthur the cat but also (pictured middle) just in case anyone is confused about who is human and who is cat.

I know cats sometimes get confused and think they are human.

AW. Thanks for saying that, I hadn't clicked through and the Daily Mail story is even better.