{"id":4720,"date":"2024-11-02T10:19:50","date_gmt":"2024-11-02T14:19:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/?p=4720"},"modified":"2024-11-02T10:19:50","modified_gmt":"2024-11-02T14:19:50","slug":"2-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/2024\/11\/02\/2-2\/","title":{"rendered":"2"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Write about things that really bother you<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A friend of mine once talked about a job interview he had. This wasn’t for any sort of really-professional job, and it was in Texas, so it makes a bit more sense. The anticipated parts of the interview had gone well, and it looked like he had a good shot at getting the job.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After the HR troll questions were finished, the interviewer thanked him, and said something along the lines of, “I’ve got just one more question, and it’s kind of a personal thing — What really pisses you off?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This isn’t quite that, but, I’m sure there’s a nails-on-a-chalkboard thing for almost everybody out there.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When it comes to me at work, it’s the oft-proffered, “we have a requirement.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Oh, yeah? Which one? Where’s it documented? Who approved it? How does it fit into solution design? What are the test cases that demonstrate its satisfaction? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I ended up working more yesterday to finish the ton of yearly training stuff for work. Of course, it’s due right after I’m supposed to get back, while I’m still technically “off.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And I couldn’t get through it. But I did finally get into the benefits site so I can adjust the bits that are coming out of my paychecks.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maybe I should do this by levels of annoyance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

    \n
  1. Human Resources. It’s transformed over the past twenty years or so from a position of trying to get employees what they need to do their jobs to one of creating labyrinth processes to keep employees so busy that they can’t be individuals. Yeah, we’ll help them get what they’re after. After they do these 98 courses that make them into exactly the sort of people we want them to be. During my workout, I got Creep<\/em> by Radiohead. I’m thinking Fitter Happier<\/a><\/em> might be something that’s on repeat for a lot of these folks.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. “Negative Impact.” This is an outgrowth from Dr. Santoro<\/a> in college. In addition to whatever GE class he was teaching, he was really intent on making sure that his students could express themselves well. An “impact” is a collision. Learning to use “affect” and “effect” really improve your writing. With that in mind, “negative impact” started bothering me when I was writing mainly broadcast copy. Several years later, I was working with someone trying to “sexy up” language in something I wrote. He rewrote something, and used “negative impact.” My response was something along the lines of, “A negative impact is a vacuum; it sucks.” That was back when using such language in polite company, much less on TV or radio.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Catastrophizing. Sadly, this is in overdrive until Tuesday. I listened to this<\/a> yesterday, and found myself disagreeing with pretty much all of the guests. I did sent my absentee ballot yesterday.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

    I probably could continue pounding things out, but I’m tiring of trying to think of things. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

    I also need to go fill out more paperwork.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Write about things that really bother you A friend of mine once talked about a job interview he had. This wasn’t for any sort of really-professional job, and it was in Texas, so it makes a bit more sense. The anticipated parts of the interview had gone well, and it looked like he had a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4720","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-journal-writers-month"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4720","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4720"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4720\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4720"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4720"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/control-h.org\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4720"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}