Suffering from a cold is how I ended 2017, and 2018 began with bronchitis. It's the first time in my life I remember being sick over the holidays. It makes things rough when you have family plans you have committed to. I managed to keep working only missing a day (good medical attention), though I feel for all the candidates who have had to put up with my damaged voice that surely sounds like I'm the Grim Reaper doing phone screens from the netherworld.
This weekend I knew I had to slow down and park it. I haven't even showered or changed my pajamas. My cats don't care. However, as soon as I'm done ecking this post out I'm headed for the shower before bed and snuggling under my freshly laundered sheets and magic blanket because by sense of smell has returned and I can't stand myself. That's progress at least.
It's what I call high season at my job. When an employee told me I'm only human the other day I quipped back, "Actually, I'm an Android." For it's with automaton performance that every willing individual in this part of the state has been or will be registered to work on-call snow removal. And so far, unlike the Polar Vortex and its Bomb Cyclone, the snow has largely evaded the region in plowable quantities. There is dread we'll get dumped on from a personal perspective. But, as a die-hard rooter for the underdogs of the world, I have plenty of hope for tons of the fluffy wet white stuff to fall from the sky for all the unemployed, underemployed and laid-off hopefuls focused on Accuweather waiting for a call to action, to earn some really green stuff.
Feeling somewhat improved in health, I decided to stop a fellow co-worker's miffedness about not having an up to date, comprehensive online staff directory forever at his fingertips, and had a lot of fun today going to town with Airtable. I bookmarked it a while ago with a few projects in mind, this not even being one of them. When it occurred to me that Airtable might be a good solution, after unfruitful and lengthy searching for the obviously wrong term "employee directory software", I brewed a fresh 16oz. cup and got cracking. I was in luck and found an already great template in the HR & Recruiting category. I uploaded a .cvs file from the Excel version in Dropbox we had been frustrated over using due to its wreaking havoc and conflicted versions by multiple users, and sprinkled in essential management contacts from Outlook. Voilà, a contact database with view only options that populate through a URL on any browser or great iOS and Android apps was born. I'm especially excited to see how those out in the field respond to the mobile apps, and if the guy across the hall stops asking the universe for so and so's phone number.
If you have anything to inventory, be it people, objects, ideas, or whatever....... give Airtable a try. BTW, the link I posted is an invitation link to this incredible free product, that earns me $10 every time someone joins through it - for a pree product. I'm using the free version and hope to gain some points to use on add-ons or something. Sign up please, and make something cool - for free! My short-term plan is to demo this creation and make the case to the company to put out for a paid subscription in order to rip the bandaid off some other projects and repair them for good with surgery.
Though I personally will continue to use Dropbox, I have learned it's not the right solution for every situation (or everyone).
While I was on a roll, I also moved and converted another highly valuable, very frequently used, and edited multiple times per day by multiple users shared spreadsheet, to Google Sheets in Drive, because of the same problems with the employee directory in Dropbox.
My not so long-term plan is to make the case for moving to G-Suite.
The only other update I have are the Quaker Oats Vanishing Oatmeal Cookies that I baked in bars in a 9 X 13 pan rather than cookies, threw in raisins and chopped pecans and glazed them for extra calories impact. I veganized the recipe and for the first time I tried a different egg-replacer, Follow Your Heart VeganEgg for 100% plant powered delish. It worked just great. If you decide to try this product as an egg substitute just be sure to follow the baking instructions on the package, which vary in preparation.
Oh yes, I did 4 loads of laundry too. Maybe I didn't rest as much as I should have, but I was so relaxed and enjoying myself so much I guess I didn't realize it.
Do you have any exciting projects for the New Year? I want to hear about it in the comments!
P.S. Crowning glory to the weekend, BOOTYBOO...@______.com just applied for a job!
Photo by Jeremy Bishop on Unsplash
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