Getting back to work

One of the biggest advantages to working in public education is the two-week break you (except, of course, I mean "I") get at Christmas. Yes, we in education suffer from sub-par salaries compared to those who perform the same tasks in the private sector, but one of the perks is the extended break we get.

The hardest part of the perk, of course, is making the shift from mental shutdown to setting one's brains back into gear for work. I have found, through my years of personal experience, that 'catching up to speed' comes quicker then is ever anticipated. Being off for two weeks doesn't quite mean what it used to before e-mail, cell phones, and smart phones were everywhere. During my time off, I checked email for 'major' messages, so there were no huge surprises.

The biggest project of the day turned out to be a meeting regarding the new building our organization is planning. I feel very lucky in that my boss actually includes the technology department in the planning. Seriously. I have heard (and seen firsthand) school districts and other co-ops build a new facility without ever once talking to the technology folks about the technology needs of the new building.

The discussion centered on electrical and network routing, office layouts, and more. While it proved very productive, the purpose of this meeting was to prepare for a meeting we are having tomorrow (Tuesday) with the architect over the same issues. Yes, something of a 'meeting to have a meeting...' Hey, I'm just happy to be included at all!

I spent much of the rest of the day catching up on voicemail, answering new email, and cleaning out my inbox. Yeah, a couple times a year, we send out a list of the 'top 10 offenders.' I sent out the list, letting the top 10 know they need to clean out their mailboxes, delete old mail, and empty the deleted items folder, etc. The biggest problem we have are attachments. Frankly, I wish email never allowed attachments in the first place. Email was never supposed to serve as a file transfer system, yet I am just as guilty as anyone of sending a file to myself or another person. But, really, those attachments are a nightmare on email systems. The best thing a person can do is save any attachments they want to keep and then delete the messages. I had (and still have) a lot of old email that was taking up space. I did a lot of housecleaning and hope to finish up tomorrow while doing some literal house cleaning around my desk.

I'll let you know how that goes...