Work is interesting again

Summer came and went, and I grew my beard for the two weeks that I was in England with my family, but shaved it off again afterwards in the hope that this would be better for work. Well, after a few setbacks, I am now enjoying work again far more than at any time since I had my own company. It probably does not have anything to do with the beard; it probably has a lot to do with organisational changes in the company where I work. I am just enjoying getting interesting things to do and seeing how well I can do them. In a way, that is the way it was in school, which was a very long time ago.

Without a beard

When I left school many years ago, I spent the Summer travelling from town to town within Great Britain playing in a number of chess tournaments. Along with several other tournament chess players, I took the opportunity to grow a beard. I kept the beard throughout my university days, and for very many years after that. It got longer at first, and then shorter. Finally, last weekend, my daughter removed it, with my consent of course, and I am without a beard for the first time since my school days. It feels naked. Unfortunately, I don't have a camera at the moment. So I cannot upload a photograph. It is certainly interesting to try something out. I had noticed that I had been trying out too few new things in the last few years. I wasn't exactly stuck in my ways, but I felt that I was becoming a trifle lethargic - at least relatively.

The best opportunity to grow it again is in the Summer. So there is a long time to make any decisions, and I would rather like a photograph!

Internet Radio

One of the advantages of the internet is being able to listen to radio programs from back home. I was cut off from radio programs from England for most of the time I have been living in Germany. At first, it was at least possible to tune into BFBS, but the broadcasters made sure that people who were not members of the armed forces or their families were not welcome to listen in. After BFBS was shut down, I didn't hear any radio programs in English for quite a time, but now I listen to the omnibus edition of The Archers on Sunday afternoons. I don't listen at the time it is broadcast because that doesn't fit in well with the way Sundays are spent by myself and my family. Being able to choose my time is a great improvement on the old days . The Archers gives me a feeling of keeping up with what is happening in England, although I realise that there is a lot missing. A discussion about organising pancakes for a cricket match to be played on Shrove Tuesday is rather nice to hear, and bigger problems are also discussed, of course.

Now and again, I also listen to other programs that happen to take my fancy. I enjoyed King Lear a few weeks ago, and I listened to some live football commentaries, but I simply didn't feel very involved. I didn't care enough about who was going to win. So I shall not be listening to any more in the near future.

Coyets' Random Thoughts

Staying in

Because it has now been raining on and off every day for the past week, I have not been as motivated as usual to get out and about. I go to work on Mondays to Fridays, and I do some shopping on Saturday, and since there is a new Sunday newspaper in this town, and it is free for a limited period of time - at least so many vouchers are handed out that there cannot be many people paying for it - I have also been taking a walk each Sunday to fetch this slightly entertaining and somewhat informative tabloid. The darkness early in the evening does not exactly aid motivation for getting things done. However, there are millions of people who live further North and who therefore have even darker evenings, except when they get the aurora borealis. One Winter only a few years ago this phenomenon was even visible in this town, but obviously not as spectacularly as it is further North. Living in a large town, or rather small city, is not exactly the best motivation for looking at what goes on in the sky at night. I always enjoy being in a smaller town or out in the country on a clear night, but because I spend so much of my time in places where the artificial lights spoil the view of the stars, planets, etc. I hardly recognise anything up there any more.

EGS

I just found some photos of the school clique reunion from a few years ago. It was a very enjoyable evening. I hope we will be able to repeat it before too long. The main hinderance at the moment is that I have no real plans to visit England in the short term.

Company Service

Yesterday was exactly ten years after I started in my present company. The first time I reached five years with one company, I received a 'golden' needle, but that seems very old-fashioned now. Yesterday, someone shook my hand and three people congratulated me, but working for a long time for one company is not the way the modern economy works. Companies no longer grow slowly to be successful. They are constantly shifting the industries in which they are working, and the size and make-up of their workforce. So yesterday was just another normal working day. I enjoy my work, and I like the atmosphere in my office, but I remember having more personal dialogue with my colleagues back in the days of the 'golden' needle.

One of the reasons why the presentation of something solid was more important in those long ago days is that there were fewer perks at work. For instance, private telephone calls were much less approved of than nowadays, and the marketing departments never seemed to organise anything special for the staff. It is not so much the intrinsic value of the presents as breaking the monotony of routine, and being acknowledged like the economics textbook factory workers whose productivity increased when the lights were turned up, and increased again when they were turned down.

Because I started work in my present company on All Hallows' Day, I suppose it has more significance than it has for most of the people in Europe. When I mention All Hallows' Day, the usual response is ignorance of the term. In Germany, by the way, it is a public holiday in five of the sixteen Länder, all of which are in the South and West of the country.