Wens' blog » Work

The airport

Wenslauw — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 16:09:04 +0000

My office is close to the main airport in the Netherlands, Schiphol. I took this picture on my lunch break. The landing strip is just about 500 meters from my office. If I look through the windows on the east side of the building I see planes taking off and landing all the time from this landing strip. Through the north looking windows we see the traffic control tower and planes landing, taking off and taxiing.

I love airports. The buildings are often interesting structures and outside these buildings these magnificent titanium and aluminium planes take off and land. Inside the airport you find a mix of people coming from all over the world. There are interesting luxurious shops and supermarkets. Schiphol is one of the few places where I can get the cooled Japanese tea that I like so much. The same supermarket also sells one of my favourite Japanese beers and so far it’s the only place where I can find maple syrup. Bookstores sell newspapers and magazines you can’t find easily find elsewhere.

The week has started…

Wenslauw — Mon, 04 May 2009 07:32:06 +0000

It took me more than 45 minutes to drive the 20 kilometres from my home to Amsterdam… In the background I hear a project manager say a high ranking manager has said her project is of strategic importance, which means she’ll fuck up the planning that took us weeks to make… A guy in my team think it’s a good idea to start the week browsing the Internet for the latest news… Another guy in my team that I told to help the browsing guy out is acting like he’s in his own little world… It’s sunny outside and I have to spend the day inside with a bunch of IT guys… I’ll have to contact a lot of unwilling people because nobody seems to be interested in holding any speeches… Yup, the week has started…

A talk with my mentor

Wenslauw — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 10:47:49 +0000

Everybody working in my company has a mentor. Even the president of the company. It’s a good system that works out well in several ways. Together with the mentor you set your goals for the year and he or she helps you keep track of the progress you make in that year.
You can also discuss the more personal side of work with your mentor. For example how you are coping with the workload and the travelling. He can be a mirror and give you some perspective on your situation.
Some perspective is what I really needed in January after I had a bit of a breakdown. I started having severe chest pains, pains in my heart and I suffered from hyperventilating. Seemed like I was getting a bit too stressed out. I had a good talk with my mentor and decided to take things a bit easier. It’s not always easy to do this as your own view on the situation is often not very clear.

Last friday I spoke to him again. We’re both working at the same customer, so it’s easy to meet up. We set some goals for this year and talked to each other about what it is like to work for this customer. It was interesting to hear how he felt and that he has the same experiences as I have.

We also talked about how it is to be a consultant for our company. I was happy to hear he has similar experiences. I told him I find the life quite hard. You’re away from home at least 10 hours a day (including the travelling, if you’re lucky) and several times a month you have to leave work early to take a 3 hour trip to the main office. Often not returning home before 11pm. One of those meetings in the beginning of the week completely messes up your week and you’re left exhausted until the weekend comes around and you have some time to sleep in. And usually you’re not done when you finish that day of at least 10 hours. You have to study and work on company projects too. My mentor told me my experiences are rather common in my company. Good to hear, I thought I was just being weak.

Beekse bergen

Wenslauw — Sat, 13 Dec 2008 12:15:30 +0000

I’ll be going to this place today. I’ll stay there in a ‘jungalow’ and return tomorrow… It’s the anual party of the company. I hope it’ll be fun. It will be a nice opportunity to meet my colleagues. Since I am always at one of the customer’s offices I hardly get to see them at all.

On Saturday there will be some events with the theme of a trip around the world. On Sunday we’ll be able to sleep in and for those without a hangover there’s the ability to enter the safari park.

This is gonna be a long one…

Wenslauw — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 15:32:14 +0000

From Tuesday through to Thursday I’m having meetings every afternoon the whole afternoon and that´s not all… This wednesday evening I have to give a 45 minute presentation. Of course it´ll be quite a struggle to finish a half decent presentation in time. I really do hate giving them. Having been awake most of last night, didn´t help either. Besides that not a single one of our releases is running well and production incidents are pouring in. We’re clearly doing something wrong… heh…

Ok, enough whining, I´ll just have to think of the holidays in a couple of weeks… Fun things ahead.

Herman Miller Aeron

Wenslauw — Fri, 31 Oct 2008 08:38:54 +0000

I went to work a bit early today, because we’re moving once again. This time it’s the same building. Just a different floor. We’re moving from the ground floor to the second floor. This move has been as badly managed as the previous one. I heard there was going to be a move and mailed management. A manager managed to secure 5 spots for me and my team.

One thing is pretty cool though. I managed to snag a Herman Miller Aeron chair. The chair I’ve been having wet dreams about for years. I love how it looks. It’s from 1994, but it’s already a design classic. It has its own spot in the New York Museum of Modern Art. And allegedly the chair’s exclusivitiy it became a symbol for the dot-com bubble in the late nineties.

I’ve been sitting in it for an hour now and I have to say it’s very comfortable. Because it doesn’t have cushions your body doesn’t warm up. The one I am sitting on now has extra support in the lower back. Which is very nice.

I hope I can keep it. Nobody else has showed up yet, but it could be an expensive chair like this one has been especially ordered for a specific employee.