Would you like to take a survey? - Conclusion!
At long last my 4-month surveying odyssey with Transport Canada is over! Well, technically it's been over for a good 3 weeks; I've been back home in CP since November 18. Unfortunately, my posting of this final "survey" entry was delayed by a series of extenuating circumstances (which I'll describe below). Frustrating, since I was chomping at the proverbial bit to wrap this all up, but hey - couldn't be helped...
First and foremost, I suffered the misfortune of having my beloved computer break down recently :-( It was on the fritz for a good week before I could get it fixed. After exhausting every option/trick I knew how to do myself for a couple of days, I ultimately wound up bringing it in to a local computer repair shop for debugging/system cleanup. Since I consider myself to be pretty savvy when it comes to my PC - I can usually fix most problems that arise myself - I resisted until the bitter end the notion of having to pay someone else to repair it. Alas, I reached the end of my rope; luckily I'm humble enough to know when I should admit defeat ;-)
All I gotta say is thank goodness for BWD Systems! Marcel, their head/chief technician, is a saint and a genius! He was very nice and helpful, walking me through the whole process along the way and explaining everything in detail. Turns out my hard drive was overrun by viruses, spyware and Trojans - 80+ in total!! Apparently Norton Antivirus is crap; it's deteriorating in quality performance and is increasingly deficient in detecting & dealing with newer viral threats, especially Trojan horses. They recommend avast! Antivirus software instead. So far, I've had absolutely no problems with it - very user-friendly & thorough! In any case, I'm very glad to have my baby back again! :-)
Secondly, while I was away in late August, we moved! Don't worry - I knew about it ahead of time! No bad surprise (i.e. showing up at the wrong house!). So, when I got back, I was distracted by the process of unpacking all my stuff and staging it where I wanted to. I'm still not done! There are a whole bunch of boxes of books & movies in my little home office here that have yet to see the light of day... To that end, I bought a nice, new tall bookcase at Wal-Mart - I simply have to assemble it at some point! It's somewhere on my "To Do" list...
Add to that the usual time-consuming stress and aggravation of Christmas shopping, as well as coming down with bad chest cold last week that just won't go away (grrr....), it means my productivity has lagging behind for a while...
Anyway, on to business. The whole survey experience was pretty good, all in all. While it had its ups and downs, I had fun overall. I enjoyed travelling for the most part - got to see more of my beautiful province, as well as a good chunk of southern Québec. Made some new friends and had some good times. Above all, I learned a lot about myself - what I'm capable of and getting a better idea of what I truly want in life, what's really important. Getting paid for personal growth and self-improvement...gotta love it!
There were some downsides, though. I'd be lying if I said there weren't any :-) First off, it was really starting to drag on by the end, especially with us having to endure increasingly harsher weather on site. Winter decided to come a bit early this year; standing out for 8 hours at night in the bitter cold and wind was distinctly unpleasant! Also, while it was fun at first, staying in hotels all the time got old pretty quickly. I was longing to sleep in my own bed by the end...
Moreover, there were the inevitable personal dramas that ensue when a group of people both live and work so closely together over a prolonged period. By the end, certain individuals had not endeared themselves to others. Arguments escalated, grudges festered, tensions boiled. There was the usual politicking, snubbing and behind-the-scenes intrigue; accusations of "back-stabbing" were thrown about. I won't bore you with all the mundane details. Suffice it to say that a lot of immaturity & childishness prevailed at times, unfortunately. It was sad and pathetic, really. Luckily, I was never directly involved in the worst of it (at least, as far as I know); I always tried to maintain an even-handed neutrality of sorts, and be kind & considerate to everyone in our group. That's just the kind of person I am - reflexively, instinctively nice :-) To the best of my knowledge, I didn't make any enemies during the trip!
However, there was one person on my own team that I consistently had trouble getting along with. Out of respect for her privacy, I won't give her name. She seemed to go out of her way to avoid and snub me whenever possible; our "conversations" were typically short, one-word or one-sentence answers - frigidly formal and polite. It always troubled me - despite my best efforts, I could not get her to lower her guard.
Essentially, she's a know-it-all. Now, normally, that doesn't really bother me - I can be a bit of a know-it-all at times, too! ;-) The main sticking point, though, was that she could never admit the possibility that she might be wrong, mistaken, or misinformed on a given topic (that was my impression, at least). Or realizing that constantly lecturing people and giving unsolicited advice can be really irritating. Whenever I or anyone else challenged her opinions, she would get quite testy and defensive; she refused to back down or concede a point in an argument. She would always be sniping away with petty little criticisms, looking every proverbial gift horse in the mouth and arguing any and all minor points, no matter how insignificant. Quite frustrating to deal with!
If she had the life experience and/or the education with which to back her pretensions up, she probably wouldn't have got under my skin so much. But she did not - she a tender 23 years of age, never married, and she didn't even finish her university degree (psychology, I believe)! By what measure do you presume to judge me, or anyone else for that matter?! That kind of arrogance & conceit really annoys me. Indeed, her behaviour was that of a typically impudent teenager. Reminded me of a funny bumper sticker I once saw: "Hire a teenager...while they still know everything!" Part of me thinks she might have some form of undiagnosed passive-aggressive personality disorder; in a lot of ways, she certainly fits the profile. I had to bite my tongue numerous times in order to avoid snapping at her; I dislike confrontation, and I didn't want to risk creating drama and disrupting the good professional work ethic/dynamic we had going on our team as a whole. Therefore, true to my Anglo-Saxon heritage & inclinations, I repressed my anger and other negative emotions as best I could. Lord knows, it wasn't easy at times!
To give you a concrete example, once when she was just walking back to our staging area after finishing a survey, I graciously offered her the chair I had been sitting on, so she could comfortably input the truck's measurements. Her voice dripping with snide condescension, she replied, "There are plenty of other chairs." She then deliberately took a few minutes to pull another folding chair out of the van and set it up a good distance away from me. Oooh, that really got my goat!!! A calculated snub, in my opinion. A simple "No, thanks." would have sufficed. You don't want this chair? Fine by me, but that's no reason to be so obviously impolite! Her response really left something to be desired... That kind of blunt rudeness really made me mad. I detest disrespectfulness, in any measure. Naturally, her reaction would upset me...
What really galled me about the whole situation was that she wasn't always so unfriendly towards me. At the beginning of the project, when we were in Québec, her and I actually got along pretty well! I remember having a nice discussion with her in a restaurant (with a group of us) about the nature of anxiety and depression. She even let me use her laptop the week we were in Trois-Rivières, so that I could write and upload my daily log reports to TC (back when I was still a crew chief)! By the end, though, I hesitated to ask her the time of day...! I never figured out what really prompted the change in our relationship. The only thing I can think of is the fact that, after the Labour Day break, I switched onto her team, while Danny was transferred out to replace me as crew chief. Perhaps that created some simmering resentment on her part towards me, for "breaking up the team" if you will. She didn't seem especially close to Dan, though... Maybe she simply doesn't like change of any sort. Still, you'd think after a good three months she'd warm up to me a bit, or least get used to me! I am a pretty likeable guy, I think. I just don't know...it really vexed me!!
In any case, it's all over now and I don't have to deal with her anymore. I don't believe in holding grudges - just not healthy in the long run! Besides, I can't really fault someone for their fundamental personality traits. I'm sure some of my own characteristics and idiosyncracies can often annoy or bother others, a fact to which I could easily be oblivious. So, I'm not one to judge!
Lastly, as promised many times in previous posts from the road, here they are:
PICTURES!
Fin.
First and foremost, I suffered the misfortune of having my beloved computer break down recently :-( It was on the fritz for a good week before I could get it fixed. After exhausting every option/trick I knew how to do myself for a couple of days, I ultimately wound up bringing it in to a local computer repair shop for debugging/system cleanup. Since I consider myself to be pretty savvy when it comes to my PC - I can usually fix most problems that arise myself - I resisted until the bitter end the notion of having to pay someone else to repair it. Alas, I reached the end of my rope; luckily I'm humble enough to know when I should admit defeat ;-)
All I gotta say is thank goodness for BWD Systems! Marcel, their head/chief technician, is a saint and a genius! He was very nice and helpful, walking me through the whole process along the way and explaining everything in detail. Turns out my hard drive was overrun by viruses, spyware and Trojans - 80+ in total!! Apparently Norton Antivirus is crap; it's deteriorating in quality performance and is increasingly deficient in detecting & dealing with newer viral threats, especially Trojan horses. They recommend avast! Antivirus software instead. So far, I've had absolutely no problems with it - very user-friendly & thorough! In any case, I'm very glad to have my baby back again! :-)
Secondly, while I was away in late August, we moved! Don't worry - I knew about it ahead of time! No bad surprise (i.e. showing up at the wrong house!). So, when I got back, I was distracted by the process of unpacking all my stuff and staging it where I wanted to. I'm still not done! There are a whole bunch of boxes of books & movies in my little home office here that have yet to see the light of day... To that end, I bought a nice, new tall bookcase at Wal-Mart - I simply have to assemble it at some point! It's somewhere on my "To Do" list...
Add to that the usual time-consuming stress and aggravation of Christmas shopping, as well as coming down with bad chest cold last week that just won't go away (grrr....), it means my productivity has lagging behind for a while...
Anyway, on to business. The whole survey experience was pretty good, all in all. While it had its ups and downs, I had fun overall. I enjoyed travelling for the most part - got to see more of my beautiful province, as well as a good chunk of southern Québec. Made some new friends and had some good times. Above all, I learned a lot about myself - what I'm capable of and getting a better idea of what I truly want in life, what's really important. Getting paid for personal growth and self-improvement...gotta love it!
There were some downsides, though. I'd be lying if I said there weren't any :-) First off, it was really starting to drag on by the end, especially with us having to endure increasingly harsher weather on site. Winter decided to come a bit early this year; standing out for 8 hours at night in the bitter cold and wind was distinctly unpleasant! Also, while it was fun at first, staying in hotels all the time got old pretty quickly. I was longing to sleep in my own bed by the end...
Moreover, there were the inevitable personal dramas that ensue when a group of people both live and work so closely together over a prolonged period. By the end, certain individuals had not endeared themselves to others. Arguments escalated, grudges festered, tensions boiled. There was the usual politicking, snubbing and behind-the-scenes intrigue; accusations of "back-stabbing" were thrown about. I won't bore you with all the mundane details. Suffice it to say that a lot of immaturity & childishness prevailed at times, unfortunately. It was sad and pathetic, really. Luckily, I was never directly involved in the worst of it (at least, as far as I know); I always tried to maintain an even-handed neutrality of sorts, and be kind & considerate to everyone in our group. That's just the kind of person I am - reflexively, instinctively nice :-) To the best of my knowledge, I didn't make any enemies during the trip!
However, there was one person on my own team that I consistently had trouble getting along with. Out of respect for her privacy, I won't give her name. She seemed to go out of her way to avoid and snub me whenever possible; our "conversations" were typically short, one-word or one-sentence answers - frigidly formal and polite. It always troubled me - despite my best efforts, I could not get her to lower her guard.
Essentially, she's a know-it-all. Now, normally, that doesn't really bother me - I can be a bit of a know-it-all at times, too! ;-) The main sticking point, though, was that she could never admit the possibility that she might be wrong, mistaken, or misinformed on a given topic (that was my impression, at least). Or realizing that constantly lecturing people and giving unsolicited advice can be really irritating. Whenever I or anyone else challenged her opinions, she would get quite testy and defensive; she refused to back down or concede a point in an argument. She would always be sniping away with petty little criticisms, looking every proverbial gift horse in the mouth and arguing any and all minor points, no matter how insignificant. Quite frustrating to deal with!
If she had the life experience and/or the education with which to back her pretensions up, she probably wouldn't have got under my skin so much. But she did not - she a tender 23 years of age, never married, and she didn't even finish her university degree (psychology, I believe)! By what measure do you presume to judge me, or anyone else for that matter?! That kind of arrogance & conceit really annoys me. Indeed, her behaviour was that of a typically impudent teenager. Reminded me of a funny bumper sticker I once saw: "Hire a teenager...while they still know everything!" Part of me thinks she might have some form of undiagnosed passive-aggressive personality disorder; in a lot of ways, she certainly fits the profile. I had to bite my tongue numerous times in order to avoid snapping at her; I dislike confrontation, and I didn't want to risk creating drama and disrupting the good professional work ethic/dynamic we had going on our team as a whole. Therefore, true to my Anglo-Saxon heritage & inclinations, I repressed my anger and other negative emotions as best I could. Lord knows, it wasn't easy at times!
To give you a concrete example, once when she was just walking back to our staging area after finishing a survey, I graciously offered her the chair I had been sitting on, so she could comfortably input the truck's measurements. Her voice dripping with snide condescension, she replied, "There are plenty of other chairs." She then deliberately took a few minutes to pull another folding chair out of the van and set it up a good distance away from me. Oooh, that really got my goat!!! A calculated snub, in my opinion. A simple "No, thanks." would have sufficed. You don't want this chair? Fine by me, but that's no reason to be so obviously impolite! Her response really left something to be desired... That kind of blunt rudeness really made me mad. I detest disrespectfulness, in any measure. Naturally, her reaction would upset me...
What really galled me about the whole situation was that she wasn't always so unfriendly towards me. At the beginning of the project, when we were in Québec, her and I actually got along pretty well! I remember having a nice discussion with her in a restaurant (with a group of us) about the nature of anxiety and depression. She even let me use her laptop the week we were in Trois-Rivières, so that I could write and upload my daily log reports to TC (back when I was still a crew chief)! By the end, though, I hesitated to ask her the time of day...! I never figured out what really prompted the change in our relationship. The only thing I can think of is the fact that, after the Labour Day break, I switched onto her team, while Danny was transferred out to replace me as crew chief. Perhaps that created some simmering resentment on her part towards me, for "breaking up the team" if you will. She didn't seem especially close to Dan, though... Maybe she simply doesn't like change of any sort. Still, you'd think after a good three months she'd warm up to me a bit, or least get used to me! I am a pretty likeable guy, I think. I just don't know...it really vexed me!!
In any case, it's all over now and I don't have to deal with her anymore. I don't believe in holding grudges - just not healthy in the long run! Besides, I can't really fault someone for their fundamental personality traits. I'm sure some of my own characteristics and idiosyncracies can often annoy or bother others, a fact to which I could easily be oblivious. So, I'm not one to judge!
Lastly, as promised many times in previous posts from the road, here they are:
PICTURES!
Fin.
posted by Blake @ 5:09 p.m.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
Subscribe to Post Comments [Atom]
<< Home