Writing Challenge Day 26 [MAKEUP]: A Coworker

A coworker. I’ve got a few of those. Which coworker do I write about? I’ve already written about a couple of them.

A lot of folks in the translation department are parents. Nearing on half. And since the depart of our Russian translator, I’m the only father on the team.

One of the ladies on the team, aside from being every bit as much a coffee addict as me, has a daughter just a bit younger than Matthew. But they’re close enough in age that they hit the same phases around the same time, more or less, and we’ve passeda fair amount of time sipping coffee and discussing, and at times, whining about, our children.

She and I disagree on some aspects of parenting – what to let the kids watch, for example (you mean you DON’T let your daughter watch Terminator?!) – but we agree on quite a bit more, and I know I can always count on her for a wise and valuable second opinion, or at least just reassurance that I haven’t scarred my son for life.

So, coworker of mine, I owe you a coffee. Meet me at my desk at 9:30. 😉

Check out our other participants here –

Niki: Sometimes I Write

Becky: Free2B2Much

Tracy: CountryRoadChronicles

Writing Challenge Day 16 [MAKEUP]: Someone You Mentor

 

Someone I mentor. Mentor. It sounds so official, doesn’t it? Like I’m a learned elder with years of invaluable wisdom to impart, instead of the amazingly foolish (and amazingly young! [just ignore those gray hairs…]) dork I actually am.

But it is true that I am always happy to share any knowledge I might have, especially on programming and IT forums, where I’ve even written a few very well recieved tutorials.

But the only one I can really claim to have mentored (well, trained) recently is my new coworker. We’ll call him The Dude. The Dude comes, as many anglophones in this region do, from England. And while he doesn’t lack translation experience, he does lack professional experience. The Dude came to us full of passion and eagerness, and corporate life has yet to beat it out of him. Hopefully it never will, but I doubt it…

It is not any great life-changing or existence-defining knowledge I’m filling him with. Here’s how you file this report; here’s the least soul-sucking way to research this information; things of that nature. Nor is the exchange of information a one-way street: one of the very first things The Dude did when he arrived was improve a script I had written to automate part of my morning routine.

Also, I am not the only one “showing him the way”. I’ve heard it takes a village to raise a child. I don’t know about that, but it does seem it takes a department to raise a translator. And The Dude is coming along nicely. Hopefully he’ll stick around for a long time.

Check out our other participants here –

Niki: Sometimes I Write

Becky: Free2B2Much

Tracy: CountryRoadChronicles

Shady Business Dealings In France

Picture (completely) unrelated

Hello everyone. Just a short post today to share with you some interesting happenings in my professional life.

A Very Grammatical Christmas

Christmas is coming and I have a dilemma.

Recently I arrived at work, checked my mailbox, and found a memo telling me all about this year’s Christmas party. Date, time, etc.

There were a couple of interesting bits of information however. One, this Christmas party is going to have a theme (I thought Christmas already was a theme?). The theme is the 80’s, so this should definitely be interesting.