It Must Be Christmas Break

This evening I am trying to fix a date for a meeting at work after the first of the year and I keep getting automatic e-mail responses from people saying they are out of the office until after the first of the year. I will continue working until Thursday evening but I wonder how productive I will be. If anything relies on other colleagues, probably not very.

I woke up early this morning and had a call with my counterparts in Europe. Then I took a call this evening with Japan. That makes for a very long day in the office and so I made sure to take a break this afternoon around lunch and spent an hour on the ski hill. There is a marked difference between the skiers of last week, those that ski a lot and ski well, vs. today where people skied much more erratically, an indication of vacation skiers. I remarked to my wife that it must be Christmas break already.

On my call this evening we all signed off with, "Merry Christmas and have a happy Holiday." Things are really winding down and everyone is eager to celebrate the end-of-year break. Perhaps I will be able to get a number of projects done for work as I won't have any interruptions.

Probably the most helpful comment I can make in today's blog post is that I hope all your Christmas shopping is done. I have received a constant barrage of e-mails letting me know that the time has past for online retailers to ship stuff before Christmas. Of course there are some exceptions as next-day-shipping is always an option. My advice though is to visit a good old fashion store if you still have Christmas shopping to do.

Back at Sony

After leaving Sony Interactive Entertainment (PlayStation) back in November last year, I am back at Sony. I am working for a different part of Sony but will be working with a lot of my former coworkers back at PlayStation. It feels good to be returning.

Back in April I started working at KLAS Research and I didn't think I would be returning to my old employer. The people at KLAS are great and I have enjoyed working with them. While working at Sony I started a project that I felt very passionate about and when the opportunity to continue it appeared, I had to seriously consider returning to the consumer electronics giant. Hopefully it works out well.

Many will think that leaving a small research company that produces important data about healthcare software to go to one of the most recognized brands in the world would be an easy decision. Unfortunately it was not. In fact, I originally told Sony I wasn't interested. I enjoyed not having to travel every week to go to the office and being able to sleep in my own bed every night. After the honeymoon phase of the new job wore off, I realized that my quality of life was taking a huge hit at KLAS. I also didn't agree with how the research data was being collected and would never be given the chance to fix it. Fortunately Sony is not making me come to the office except when I agree that it is necessary, so I will spend most of my time working at home.

It is important that I let everyone know I am back at Sony so if you see me promoting their products, you know it is not an unbiased opinion. I will have to make sure I mention this every time I talk about something they make. Most of the time I will just refrain from writing about their stuff. Sometimes though that will be tough as they do make some really fun toys.

My New Work Laptop

I have been at my current company for 2 months now and that has given me plenty of time to run my new work-provided laptop through its paces. It is a Dell Latitude 5320 and nothing special. It has an Intel i5 processor with 16GB of RAM and a 256GB hard drive. A simple description would be that it works for my daily activities as the director of software engineering.

Earlier in my career I did a lot of software development and this machine would not be nearly powerful enough. Now I do a lot of management tasks and that doesn't require a powerful machine. Truth be told, I could probably get by with a powerful Chromebook but I do like having a full-functioning computer. I do a lot of Microsoft Teams meetings and I use the camera a lot. I also use the computer for e-mail and I like having a full Microsoft Outlook client on my machine. That gives me the option to compose responses to e-mail while I am not connected to the Internet even though I have never had the need to do so.

That last sentence is very common when we think about what we want in a computer. While we may never use a feature, we want that option. Unfortunately it leads to wanting a machine that is more expensive than what we really need. Understanding that and being able to recognize it can ultimately save some serious money.

Another shift that has happened in the last few years is the idea of creating a document and storing it on your own computer. Now I am more apt to store a document on Google Drive or Microsoft's OneDrive as it is significantly easier to share. A document can be either a spreadsheet, word processing document, or presentation file. As they are stored somewhere other than my local machine, I don't need a large hard drive. If I did, I could always add an external drive and I have several laying around my office.

Honestly I never would have thought such a low-end laptop would work for me but I have to admit that it is. Should I need something a little more powerful, I can always go to our IT department and request it. For now that isn't necessary.

What Will Work Look Like after COVID-19?

We had a group weekly meeting today at work and the question came about what the office environment will look like after COVID-19. A year ago I worked for a company that felt it important to show up at the office every day. My being able to work from home one day per week was considered a very special circumstance. Now that everyone is working from home, people are questioning the old corporate culture. Furthermore a lot of people are much more effective working from home.

Recently we hired a new project manager and while some of us are effectively working from home, on-boarding a new team member is less than ideal. It takes a lot more mentoring and hand holding to get the new person up to speed. So how will this effect work after COVID-19?

 The meeting at work today was held over Microsoft Teams, which is a relatively new video conferencing application. With the large number of people using the service, there is a lot of innovation happening with the tool. Furthermore there are a number of other similar services that are advancing at an equally rapid pace. Some of the new features being offered are making video conferencing a much more viable option as a replacement for in-person meetings. So how will this effect work after COVID-19?

My wife and I went for a walk this evening and the topic of our cancelled vacation came up. This led to the discussion of whether or not I will need to travel as much for work. I had one year where I went to Japan something like 7 times. We don't think it will be necessary to ever fly that much in the future but are not quite sure. Will other people want to be travelling as much as they have in?

Unfortunately I don't have any answers. I could make a prediction but will most likely be wrong. I would like to believe that I will be able to work from home most days of the week. That would really help me rack up the ski days in winter. I would like to believe that I will still get all of those wonderful trips to the exotic country of Japan. Unfortunately that doesn't work with the scenario of working from home more often. Ultimately the current work environment is evolving and we are not done yet. Hopefully we can all look forward to those changes. While many people are filing for unemployment, I sincerely hope there is a place for everyone and think there will be. Of all the things I want to be right about the last one is the most important.

Happy Birthday

Today is my 41st Birthday (I like Mounds candy bars for anyone thinking about getting me a gift). When you are a kid, the whole world can stop while you take time to celebrate. As an adult it generally means that you are just one year older and nobody but your immediate family really cares. That being said, I have already received several congratulatory e-mails and phone calls from friends. Now if we could only figure out a way to send someone Mounds bars through the phone or e-mail, my morning would be complete.

Every year I see my birthday approaching and wonder how I am going to spend it. My Dad thinks I go a bit overboard and says I am building unrealistic expectations in my children as to how birthdays should be spent. I just want one day a year to stand above the rest as truly "special" (besides Christmas).

One year for my birthday I rented a little 4-seater plane and flew down to Moab, Utah for a day of mountain biking. Since I don't have a pilot's license, it was quite the adventure. One of the guys I invited to ride was a pilot but he still let me fly most of the way. I took us off but was more than happy to let him land. The only unfortunate part of the trip was that one of the guys with us fell off his bike and broke his collar bone. It makes a great story though.

When my wife turned 30, she cashed in all my frequent flyer miles and took the family to Hawaii. That was a fun trip as we got to do the tourist thing all over Oahu. On the actual birthday, we had a fabulous Luau and ate like Samoans (they don't eat until they are full, they eat until they fall down).

Yesterday I logged onto my frequent flyer mileage account and looked into getting a ticket to Hawaii. With the downturn in the economy I actually could have taken a non-stop from Salt Lake to Honolulu in the morning, spent the day in Hawaii, and then flown back during the night. The only catch was that I needed to pay a rapid redemption fee of $150. When I was a Platinum frequent flyer member the airlines would waive the fee. I could think of better ways to spend frequent flyer miles and $150 and so I decided against it.

Tomorrow a big company is looking at some software I wrote over the past year. There could be a paycheck in it for me and so I want the demo to go flawlessly. So instead of doing anything exotic on my birthday today, I am going to spend the next several hours in front of the computer sprucing things up a bit. I guess I have to be a grown-up every once and awhile.