A colleague notes I have been extraordinarily productive lately, producing all manner of guidance needed by our team and the organisation as a whole. “What’s your secret,” they beg, “a new beverage?” It’s meant in jest, but they’re not far off. This productivity is indeed linked to nourishment of sorts: in this case, my quarterly …
This verse reverberates within. There is no escaping it after all I have seen. We will show them Our signs in the horizons and within themselves until it becomes clear to them that it is the truth. But is it not sufficient concerning your Lord that He is, over all things, a witness? Yes, I have …
Today, I asked Microsoft’s AI Assistant, Copilot, if it has the capability the enable me to create a shortcut to a prompt template I might use regularly. It replied, no, sorry, but here’s a work around… “You can create a standard template text and save it in a document or note on your device. Whenever …
I really must stop managers forwarding emails I wrote as if they wrote them, stripping out all indication they were not the author. What’s the harm in giving credit, or citing your sources?
Essential criteria: “Established credibility and authority, and experience of gaining the confidence of very senior colleagues.” In a way, yes, I meet this criteria. But only from behind my computer screen. In person? With my perpetual slouch, wonky teeth, and dithering conversation? Of course, I am not credible. I don’t have the stature required for …
I am a victim of both my success and my failure. The success: achieving the comforts of a decent salary and flexible employment conditions. The failure: not having confidence to approach new opportunities requiring different skills.
Perhaps I’m even too late to hold onto what I have. The ground has shifted around us, bodies have been replaced, new directions forged. And my allies at work? One by one, they’re retiring, leaving none to vouch for me, as the politicking and backstabbing ensues. Should I fear what comes next? Perhaps. But Allah …
The awkward moment when meeting with the CEO that you realise they clearly have no idea what your team actually does, and has based all their plans on that misunderstanding. Worse than that, their throwaway remarks that accidentally (or not) completely undermine the confidence of the team that they have a decent future here. To …
I can understand an office worker whose early career spanned the 1980s and 1990s struggling with technology in the workplace. But we’re now twenty-five years into the new millennium, where the internet and personal computer have been a constant presence. It perplexes me that so many staff can have such an abject lack of skills …
My web team proposal is officially dead. Nobody has any money. In its place, an AI-augmented single-person model. An annual saving of £140K right there. Not that this kind of spend was ever seriously on the cards. But we must moot these figures to focus minds should I mention automation or custom tools. No, but …
I did everything necessary to exit an unwanted contract on time. Produced the options appraisal, made a sound case for termination, won executive approval, all agreed well in advance. The problem? The head of service tasked with notifying the supplier forgot to action it, after confirming in writing they would. Yet more evidence that if …
I know my social gaze is problematic. For the past twelve years, I’ve resolved the issue by working from home and generally only socialising with those I trust. But now we have two adolescents in our midst who remind me daily that my gaze is broken. “Why are you staring?” they bark if I happen …
Alas, hindsight strikes a quarter of a century too late. All that strife from college, university and the early years of employment begins to make better sense now that I have a better understanding of myself.
