Writer's Block and Irritations of Life
The postmodern irony version of this post would be a blank page...
However, I'm hoping my usual mutterings and mumblings will leak into the academic part of my brain and let me get beyond the 10% of my final OU essay that I'm currently stuck on... Part of that's my fault, I'm gambling big with a large multifaceted approach to the question which makes juggling the elements a little more difficult and piecing them together an headache.
However, stuck in the doldrums of the Newfoundland and Rotherham Sex scandals and their religious components is not a place anyone can lurk for long without getting angry...
Which is a slight problem as I'm angry enough this week. Two promotion applications, two sets of feedback not calling me for interview. One set I fully accept, its was a tilt at windmills job and the feedback is about what I would expect - need more big team management (as a scientist, I have more management experience than almost all of my peers, as an Administrator less so). The second, well I was taught on my sifting and interviewing course that you should always remember that people will have put a lot of time and effort into applications and that as someone doing a sift I had an obligation to them, and to the organisation, to give good, actionable feedback and to do it with respect.
Which is why I tend to see red when the feedback is you need to do the job in the higher band, and whoever put it in the system left typos in and didn't have the courtesy of proofreading it (a couple of sentences make no sense whatsoever).
There could be a good reason, but quite frankly none of them stack up against that central ethos of doing a job properly.
Which probably comes across as a bit bitter... and probably is, but I've been passing selection panels for the next band up for a decade, and under our system that means nothing to anyone (apart from me, and a collection of frustrated, and unsure what advice, to give managers). When someone from HR does a career review and comes to the conclusion that I "just need some luck", I drag down my copy of the Civil Service code and look for the references to luck...
Ho hum...
Back to running stuff...
I'm a published running article writer!!!! Odd, I know for a blog starting with writers block...
Like The Wind Magazine is a brilliant running magazine that focuses on the why we run, rather than the how... And they liked and published an autobiographical piece on why I run.
Most of it will be familiar to those who've read this blog over the years, but as ever I hope it shows what can be done from the back of the pack.
I'm in the final bits of training for the Liverpool Rock and Roll Half - after doing Cambridge off the back of one eight mile run, my training for this has gone well... Out to ten miles once, bits of speed work, and back up to team miles next weekend before a short one week taper.
So all in all a mixed week, and now back to abusive priests and cab drivers...
TTFN
Paul
Of course, me being me my annual bout of hayfever has kicked in so my 5k efforts run last night was a no-no, and Today's 10k run will depend if I can breathe and see... The good news is that I tend to get hayfever for three days...
However, I'm hoping my usual mutterings and mumblings will leak into the academic part of my brain and let me get beyond the 10% of my final OU essay that I'm currently stuck on... Part of that's my fault, I'm gambling big with a large multifaceted approach to the question which makes juggling the elements a little more difficult and piecing them together an headache.
However, stuck in the doldrums of the Newfoundland and Rotherham Sex scandals and their religious components is not a place anyone can lurk for long without getting angry...
Which is a slight problem as I'm angry enough this week. Two promotion applications, two sets of feedback not calling me for interview. One set I fully accept, its was a tilt at windmills job and the feedback is about what I would expect - need more big team management (as a scientist, I have more management experience than almost all of my peers, as an Administrator less so). The second, well I was taught on my sifting and interviewing course that you should always remember that people will have put a lot of time and effort into applications and that as someone doing a sift I had an obligation to them, and to the organisation, to give good, actionable feedback and to do it with respect.
Which is why I tend to see red when the feedback is you need to do the job in the higher band, and whoever put it in the system left typos in and didn't have the courtesy of proofreading it (a couple of sentences make no sense whatsoever).
There could be a good reason, but quite frankly none of them stack up against that central ethos of doing a job properly.
Which probably comes across as a bit bitter... and probably is, but I've been passing selection panels for the next band up for a decade, and under our system that means nothing to anyone (apart from me, and a collection of frustrated, and unsure what advice, to give managers). When someone from HR does a career review and comes to the conclusion that I "just need some luck", I drag down my copy of the Civil Service code and look for the references to luck...
Ho hum...
Back to running stuff...
I'm a published running article writer!!!! Odd, I know for a blog starting with writers block...
Like The Wind Magazine is a brilliant running magazine that focuses on the why we run, rather than the how... And they liked and published an autobiographical piece on why I run.
I'm in the final bits of training for the Liverpool Rock and Roll Half - after doing Cambridge off the back of one eight mile run, my training for this has gone well... Out to ten miles once, bits of speed work, and back up to team miles next weekend before a short one week taper.
So all in all a mixed week, and now back to abusive priests and cab drivers...
TTFN
Paul
Of course, me being me my annual bout of hayfever has kicked in so my 5k efforts run last night was a no-no, and Today's 10k run will depend if I can breathe and see... The good news is that I tend to get hayfever for three days...
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