6,700 rows in an Excel file. I need to enter a check box or two-letter code into each of 4 columns, for every row. So Column A is "Description" B is "Compatible?" C is "Not Compatible" D is "Code ID" and E is "Other" This is just ONE of the 14 documents I need to complete - within the next two weeks - IN ADDITION to the 100+ page technical document I need to create out of thin air, that will convince the State of NY to buy our product over our competitor's products, and that we have an clear plan of action that will deliver everything they want, for a lower price than anyone else. Have I mentioned that government contracting is stoopid? Oh. And I have 5 other projects - three of the same magnitude and size - to deliver in the EXACT SAME TIMEFRAME. My boss shattered his ankle and is in the hospital on drugs and getting surgery and will be incoherent for at least the next 9 days. His boss's dad is passing away, so boss-boss has flown to the UK to be with dad and family. Unavailable. The guy that's kinda my boss's compatriot and stand-in to help me out when my boss is busy? Yeah... his wife just disconnected his cornea, and is undergoing surgery, and will need his help to do absolutely anything for the next two weeks because she is effectively blind until she recovers. --- The plane is still in the air... barely. But it is full of holes, the tail is missing, my copilot is dead, I'm running on 2 of 4 engines on one side, so I have to adapt to the one-sided torque with flaps and lowering a single wheel on the opposite side of the engines to create a little drag, fuel is running out of the bullet-riddled wings, and I can see the faint profile of Messerschmitts in the distance, if I turn around and look out through the hole in the bulkhead where my navigator's body was sucked out of the aircraft. The sun is coming up. I cannot see the English coastline yet... This is fine. Everything is fine.
Um, well. I feel you, not in the most exact sense, but this all feels familiar. Here are some mantras that help me get through all the soul-sucking bullshit: We get to come to work. (I read this in an article that I almost shared here recently but didn't, sorry, and also I have a coworker whom I love dearly who tells me this when I am ready to hide under my desk.) Laugh or cry, you choose. "When jarred unavoidably by circumstance, revert at once to yourself, and don't lose the rhythm more than you can help. You'll have a better grasp of the harmony if you keep on going back to it." -Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 6.11 'In all that happens, keep before your eyes those who experienced it before you, and felt shock and outrage and resentment at it. And now where are they? Nowhere. Is that what you want to be like? Instead of avoiding all these distracting assaults - leaving the alarms and flight to others - and concentrating on what you can do with it all? Because you can use it, treat it as raw material. Just pay attention, and resolve to live up to your own expectations. In everything. And when faced with a choice, remember: our business is with things that really matter." - Marcus Aurelius, Meditations, 7.58 (this is the one I am trying to keep in the forefront of my mind with regards to my work. In fact, I think I am going to put this on a post-it note and stick it under my keyboard. Folks are leaving where I work like rats jumping off a sinking ship and some days I want to go too, but I don't think I have anything marketable outside of where I am, so I am trying to concentrate on what I can do with what I have, where I am, without resentment, outrage. I got past being shocked at the things people think (or perhaps don't) to do a long time ago. Anyway, best of luck to you, just do what you can do my friend and know that I am rooting for you!