July 29, 2010
Dear Everyone:
I am t-h-i-s c-l-o-s-e to completing the
next-to-the-last Hands-On Lab Simulation for the
document management
system computer based training (CBT) that I'm producing.
Everything is in place, just a few last-minute tweaks to finish
it. I had it down to only 97
slides before I did the "final" review.
Then I decided that we didn't need slide numbers 34 or 36.
So I deleted them.
Here's the thing about numbered slides:
When you delete one or two, the system automatically renumbers
all the remaining slides. So
when I deleted number 34, number 35 became number 34.
And when I deleted number 36, which became number 35 when I
deleted number 34, number 37 became number 35. So when I decided to
delete number 84, was it now number 82?
Add to that the voice files.
When I recorded them yesterday afternoon, I numbered them
according to the slide numbers.
Slides that didn't require any voiceover were skipped in the
numbering process. Hence,
voice file numbers may go, 81, 83, 85, 86.
Change the slide number, now try to figure out which voice goes
with which slide.
Then I decided to add some slides in the middle.
You get the picture:
"Who's on First, What's on Second, I-Don't-Know's on Third."
Nevertheless, I expect to have it finished tomorrow, when I will
have plenty of time to work on it.
The reason I will have plenty of time tomorrow is
because it is what's known as an "A-Friday".
In a nutshell, all my co-workers will be out of the office.
Here at work we have something called an
Alternative Work Schedule (AWS).
It means that people work something other than the "traditional'
8 hours per day, 5 days per week.
One of the most popular is called a "9/80".
It means that a person works 9 hours per day, Monday through
Thursday. On Friday, the
person works 8 hours. The
following week, the person works 9 hours per day, Monday through
Thursday. At that point, the
person has worked 80 hours in 9 working days.
They get that Friday off, with a 3-day weekend every other week.
Did I say it was popular?
So popular that when one of the Operating Companies
performed a pilot test of the program, they liked it so well that the
Company President announced that everyone in the Company would work the
same schedule, leaving all offices closed every other Friday.
The CEO called the Company President and "suggested" they try a
different approach.
That's when they came up with the idea of an "A
Team" and a "B Team". They
have alternating Fridays off, so the office is covered.
In time, some people preferred to take Mondays off instead, so "C
Team and D Team". I even
tried it myself about 12 years ago.
I worked the "D Monday" schedule.
But I found it didn't work too well for me.
Having a 3-day weekend every other week was lovely, but it messed
up my internal clock something fierce.
Plus I found that I was often tired after working a 9-hour day,
but couldn't put off necessary chores until the next 3-day weekend.
So after a year, I went back to the "traditional" 5/40 week (5
days, 40 hours per week) and have kept to it ever since.
So I’ll have the whole floor to myself tomorrow and
will be able to concentrate without interruption on getting all those
slides and voice files squared away.
After that, I only have the Module 08 Lab simulation to do.
That consists of four examples, so I should get through them
fairly quickly. There is a
light at the end of the tunnel.
Programming
Note: I have something
to do next week that will take me out of the office for a few days, so
no Letter next week.
Love, as always,
Pete
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