Thread 18 - TalkLair: "That's no moon. It's a space station!"

[RasaSayangEh]

(Previous thread 17)

We've had our heatwave - is this it for the summer? All is lush and green in our LairGarden, flowers are blooming, berries are ripening...

In the TalkLair, all the windows are open, the Pimms is chilled, the MN massive salad is ready to serve. The denizens of the lair are a welcoming bunch, always eager for general chit-chat on all manner of topics. We just won’t mention the gnawed bones of our prey over there in the corner of the cave…

It was just me and TheCells.

Strangely strange, though, no doubt about it.

You mean you didn’t watch the door to see if he was still carrying them when he reappeared?

Everyone accessing MN OK? Its not working on my laptop, just an error message, Apologies, there seems to be an issue. Please try later. I restarted, and same. Tried Chrome instead of Firefox same again. But seems to be OK on my mobe, but I dont use that generally because ads.

Apparently it's to do with something called CloudFlare and sites are down all over the place.

Yeah, it's a major outage in Cloudflare. I think they do stuff like DDOS protection.

Yeah, seen that now, Veg. Seems like quite a outage.

Dear me at Mr. Crapper Diner!

I had Cloudflare problems for a while, too.

Yes, same here with Cloudflare.

Mysterious Toilet Man didn't reappear during our meal @Britinme, DC were watching the door most avidly!

I wonder if there was a fire escape to (for example) a green space or a car park at the back of the building, accessible only from the upstairs toilets? Or perhaps it was something more mundane, like a quick cottaging snack?

Definitely no green space around the building it was in! Possibly there's a secret exit to the car park level, but would be weird to have it behind the toilet door. I'm going to have to go back there to check, aren't I?

Small drama with students. Gormless finally sent a modified video and to be fair to her, it is much better and has incorporated many of my suggestions. I so sent a (probably too positive due to relief) review of it. Go-Getter has now emailed with a paragraph of criticism of the video and a lengthy general complaint about the unfair distribution of effort 🫣

I'm wondering how to reply, indicating that I have been very much aware of the difference in productivity but also that they have to sort this out between them as I shouldn't be intervening.

Did GG copy Gormless into the email or was it just to you?

To both of us!

I am liking the cut of GG's jib! I don't think I would have the nerve to do it, at least not at that age, but she's right not to say it behind Gormless's back.

100% this!

I would probably reply quoting my own terms of reference to make it clear that they need to sort this out between them. If I was GG I'd also be making it bloody clear what my part of the project had been in the finished report.

If I was GG I'd also be making it bloody clear what my part of the project had been in the finished report.

As in "I did the actual work while my "co-author" produced the CBeebies version"?

I think I would have asked someone working in the Macdonald’s…

I like GG’s agency, too, although it might have been better earlier in the process. That said she will probably have learned that it’s better to speak up early, than let someone get away with it for a while.

Last night I spoke to my manager about it (he already knew the general situation as I've been complaining to him ) as he's the actual group leader who is ultimately responsible for the projects. We've agreed on what to say, I've composed 2 emails - one to Go-Getter only and one to both, with manager CC'd in to make it clear that the Big Boss has eyes on it too. The project reports will be individually marked and the marking scheme has a section for "execution" so I've clarified this to Go-Getter. Hopefully she'll feel better.

I feel for GG -slightly less for Gormless. Thank goodness that kind of team effort was never expected of me. I think I’d have been GG in that situation and not had a clue how to handle Gormless, but I guess it’s all good training for the Real World.

Baby weasel has had similar this term with her group presentation of 4 people. I have told her that the real world skill is realising other people can be rubbish and you have decide if you want to join them or step up. Luckily/unluckily she's a stepper up. I have heard a lot of ranting whilst she deals somewhat more politely with their excuses. She was very sympathetic to one, who has a lot of very genuine difficulties to deal with, but even right-on baby weasel was struggling in the face of the claim that it was difficult for her to contribute on time because she found it 'very difficult to do...stuff'.

I feel very sorry for everyone in the generation where group work has become compulsory. And for those who have to manage that.

Me too. Unless the task is beyond me physically, I generally prefer to do things by myself.

It's a tough one, but I suppose the reality of many jobs these days is that you have to work in a team. Certainly that is the case in research science, not much opportunity these days for a single maniacal scalpel-wielding genius in his turret laboratory of a remote rain-drenched castle, surrounded by wolf-infested dark forests.

But I'm going to be out of it soon - I've just accepted a job offer in the admin part of the university

Result! Congratulations, Rasa! I hope you enjoy the new job.

Congratulations Rasa! Well done you!