We had a departmental retreat all day today. I have to start off by saying I hate meetings, meetings of any kind really, but especially staff meetings. This was just one long, boring staff meeting. I would have rather gone to the dentist, three days in a row than attend this retreat (sorry Dory) No slight to dentists intended.
The retreat was mostly the head of our department talking about her views on the direction we should take and most of us already know her vision for the department. A wasted day in my estimation.
I am very pragmatic when it comes to my work. Just tell me what is expected and I will work really hard. Period. I don’t need pats on the back, pep talks, or lofty vision and mission statements hashed and rehashed. I guess I am old school that way. Pay me a fare wage and I will work my tail off. Well, I used to work my tail off, now I just work hard.
I wanted to retreat from our retreat. Ughhh.
P.S. One of the things I miss the most with my little Charlotte gone is her barking at me to let me know she wanted help to get up the stairs. She was handicapped, and we had to help her navigate the stairs. She used to bark, which translated to “Hey, don’t forget about me down here”. I worry sometimes that I will forget some of the endearing, sweet qualities of my little baby. Time sometimes does that to my memory. I do not want to forget one little piece of all that is Charlotte. Please Lord help me hold on to all the memories.
Do they give you the chance to fill out information for feedback on these retreats? Maybe if they did it might open their eyes to the collective wisdom of wasted time and money. Just a thought.
As to Charlotte, why not write down everything that you remembering in a journal of sorts, so that when you are feeling sad or blue, you can look at this and not feel like you are losing the memories?
Hugs…
I have to agree with you about work. I call it rah-rah. I work for a big corporation and every month we have some big teleconference where we get to watch all the bigwigs slap each other on the back and talk about all the wonderful things they have done for the company recently. And then we the masses have the chance to ask questions. Uh. I like the people I work with directly, and I don’t mind a thank you or recognition for going above and beyond but other than that? Let me be the worker-bee and leave me the heck alone!
Don’t forget – everything you write here is a record too – so yes, a journal, your blog, what about a scrapbook? There are ways to preserve the memories you are afraid you are going to lose otherwise.
Thanks to both of you for the suggestions. I have thot of writing everything down. I just need to set aside the time and then do it. Of course I will be balling the whole time.
There are way too many meetings are not enough work going on in the workforce. It’s because all the companies are so top heavy.
I used to hate those so called retreats and “team building” days. All it really was was the ones in charge telling you, again, how they wanted things done, but doing in ways that were supposed to make you think you thought of it, or that you really were gonna have a say in the way things were done. and Yes, a waste of money. And when we got back to the office, work was piled up even higher than before.