ongoing sickness

I can’t seem to focus very well today. My head feels like it’s enshrouded in a fog. My hearing feels muffled. My eyes feel like they are going out of focus on their own. The coughing and sneezing is down to a minimum. The aches are far less, but I feel constantly out of breath and weak. I’m having less trouble with the hot/cold fluctuations I was having the last few days, but I am still breaking out in random sweats and chills during the day, albeit less pronounced then before.

I tried to have a couple of work discussions today and they all went nowhere. It was obvious to my coworkers that I am having trouble concentrating and they all thought I should go home. I almost went home this morning, but I went in anyway because I was already closer to work by the time I seriously started going back home.

I’ve just taken some pain reducer/fever reliever, so I am going to sit around a little for it to kick in (which will hopefully mean lessened dizziness, which is the thing that worries me the most), then get to Seppo’s work so we can go home. I feel bad about making him leave so early, but I’m really close to literally crawling under my desk and putting my head down on the floor with my hands over my ears (when not sounding muffled, people talking around me is making me dizzy).

how to be a good coworker

A typical email I might get from a coworker might go like this:

Hi [my name spelled wrong],

Can you tell me about [some feature or bug]? It is really important.

[name of coworker I’ve never met]

This is the kind of email that will raise my ire. Now, I will present to you an email that will get you both a quick response to let you know I’m going to help you, followed by a detailed email that gives you precisely what you want to know:

Hi [my name spelled correctly with hyphen and capitals all done properly],

My name is [your name] and I am a [your position name] in [department/group]. [name of referrer] told me that you might be a good person to ask about [thing you want to know]. I am currently working on [project or problem you want to solve] and would appreciate your input. If I should be asking someone else about this particular issue, it would be great if you could tell me who to speak with.

Can you tell me about [some feature or bug]? My interest in it is [whatever] and my timeline is [something]. More specifically, [specific & detailed question(s)]? [Add any special circumstances or details here.] This has been flagged as a [high|normal|low] priority item by [exec/management/support/escalations/project manager/etc]. I would appreciate it if it would be possible to get back to me within [a day|week|whenever]. I understand that you are busy so I really appreciate any help.

Thank you,
[your name]

If I could force everyone at my company (and any other company I ever work at) to follow this format, I would be so happy. If I ever work in management, I will drill new employees with the importance of being polite, detailed, and appreciative of their coworkers. It just gets things done faster and makes people feel better about their working environment.

I think this goes back to the issue of communication. The first email example doesn’t do its part to communicate crucial information to me. It forces me to ask all the questions to fill in the blanks. I’m perfectly willing to do that, but it wastes an email cycle, when it could have been made clear from the start. It wastes my time, and because it irks me and doesn’t tell me how urgent it is (and who thinks it’s urgent), I generally assume that what I am already working on is more important/urgent, because I know my schedule in general is fairly tight. Come on people, do your half of the work. Since I’m gonna be giving you all the answers you need, just get off your butts and ask the right questions and give the right context.

i ::heart:: clinton

Clinton launches withering attack on Bush on Iraq, Katrina, budget.