You'll love this one...!! A book club & more discussion

It's time to think about the April Toppler. It will be a 24 one, from noon Saturday to noon Sunday EST. I've set up a poll to vote for the date. It'll be open through Sunday night.

Here's the link - https://www.goodreads.com/poll/list/1...

Looking forward to it! :)

Thanks for the link, Pragya.

Just a reminder - April 5 is Easter.

Thanks Pragya, I always forget :)

Thanks Lanelle, a lot of folks might have plans then.

Or will have 4 days to lie around reading? *looks expectantly at everyone*

Rusalka wrote: "Or will have 4 days to lie around reading? *looks expectantly at everyone*"

Yep, that's me! I've voted for this weekend. :)

Maybe you and I can have a mini toppler, Dawn ;)

I doubt I'll be doing much reading on the 4th. It's my dad's 86th birthday and I'll be spending the long weekend with my parents.

Yay for family time. A happy birthday to your Dad much in advance, Janice. :)

Rusalka wrote: "Maybe you and I can have a mini toppler, Dawn ;)"

We can turn it into one for the whole 4 day weekend, instead of just 1 day! :D

PArty!

Dawn wrote: "Rusalka wrote: "Maybe you and I can have a mini toppler, Dawn ;)"

We can turn it into one for the whole 4 day weekend, instead of just 1 day! :D"

What four day weekend do you two get? I am looking on my work calendar and I do not get a Holiday until May 25th (the last was Feb 16th which was a 3 day weekend). Are you talking about Spring Break?

Cherie - I'm guessing folks are talking about Easter on April 5. We don't get more than the Sunday off :-)

Good Friday and Easter Monday? That is a travesty if you guys don't get that off.

I always forget when Easter is because it's not celebrated in Japan... but I always know when the Equinox is because it's a national holiday. Tit for tat? -_^

Nope generally not Rusalka. Although I think some folks get Good Friday off - schools, etc.

My work schedule is Sunday through Thursday. I don't even get Easter Sunday off... :(

That's all terrible. Although day off for the Equinox Kazen, does make up for it.

Funnily enough Easter Sunday is the only day that isn't a public holiday. Easter Saturday however is, and is the only day of the year that you get double time and a half (250% of your pay rate) - public holiday on a weekend. My staff used to almost get to blows over those shifts.

Rusalka wrote: "Good Friday and Easter Monday? That is a travesty if you guys don't get that off."

Yep, these are the ones I have too. Though I only get Easter Monday because I'm a government employee.

we get good Friday and Easter Monday off. I expect we'll go for a journey up the canal in between diy.

Sarah wrote: "we get good Friday and Easter Monday off. I expect we'll go for a journey up the canal in between diy."

Same here. My father-in-law turns 85, so we'll be having dinner in a restaurant on Easter Sunday to celebrate that.

The 4th definitely doesn't work for me. Not only will I be out of town visiting family and friends that weekend. But we are als0 having a birthday party for my youngest that day. and my hubby and I plan on going to see a movie that night, lol.

I probably wouldn't have included the 4th if I had realized it was Easter. Glad some of you get days off (and jealous!), sure wish I did.

This has absolutely nothing to do with the date, I'm fine with any weekend except the one mentioned above. Is there a theme or tasks we need to complete during this particular Toppler? And it is an individual one, am I correct? Although I do have to admit, I enjoyed my first team Toppler!

We will have to wait and see, Berit. Jmom tends to get the date organised first, and then let's us know what she has planned. Only thing we know for sure is that it's 24 hours long. The suspense usually kills us.

I only get the Friday and Monday off if I want to schedule them as vacation days. I might think about it. Our spring break is the week before Easter, and many of the employees with school age kids take the week off. I like to take the week after, but I have not scheduled it yet. We are having an office re-layout and we have to pack up and be out of our offices in the middle of the month. I will be working from home for six weeks while they reconfigured our whole floor. We were just downsized from 9 ft x 9 ft "cubicles" to 6 ft x 9 ft cubes 6 months ago and now we will be squashed into 6 ft by 6.5 ft spaces with no storage (file cabinets or overhead flipper cabinets). We get to have one small roll around under our desk for personal items. We don't even get to have a phone on our desk any more. We have to use a headset plugged into our laptop for confrence calls and on-line meetings. The problem with working from home is that they expect us to be available every minute incase someone needs to IM or call, since we cannot go to each other's office or go to a confrence room. Even when I schedule days off, I get phone calls because I have no back up coverage.

Oh gosh. That sounds really bad, Cherie.

Hope you don't feel too oppressed in the new cubicle, Cherie.

Berit wrote: "Is there a theme or tasks we need to complete during this particular Toppler? And it is an individual one, am I correct? Although I do have to admit, I enjoyed my first team Toppler!"

Rusalka wrote: "We will have to wait and see, Berit. Jmom tends to get the date organised first, and then let's us know what she has planned. Only thing we know for sure is that it's 24 hours long. The suspense us..."

Although in the whole time I've been part of the group, the 24 hour topplers have always been individual challenge.
Individual for 24hr, team for week long.

Cherie, the changes at your workplace sound really demoralizing. I work for state government, and we fight budget cuts almost every year, but at least they haven't encroached on how much space I have to work in. Good luck with the changes.

I just heard on the radio news, that it is now becoming a trend to have complete Lee open office space, with no cubicles, no separation. I myself have never worked in an office environment, so I don't know if this would be productive or not. Fortunately for me I have always worked in the fitness industry, and have never had an office or had to sit still :-)

Berit wrote: "I just heard on the radio news, that it is now becoming a trend to have complete Lee open office space, with no cubicles, no separation. I myself have never worked in an office environment, so I do..."

I guess I'm lucky in that due to the type of work that I do, I will always have my own room.

Berit wrote: "I just heard on the radio news, that it is now becoming a trend to have complete Lee open office space, with no cubicles, no separation...."

I used to sit in an open concept similar to this and it was okay. I think it worked for us because it was just people from the same department, others were still separate.
Now that I have a private office with windows I don't think I'll be giving it up in a hurry though!

Wow Cherie. Sorry to hear that this is happening. I've never worked in an office setting myself, but that sounds hard. Hopefully it won't make your job too difficult to complete.

Lynn wrote: "Although in the whole time I've been part of the group, the 24 hour topplers have always been individual challenge.
Individual for 24hr, team for week long.."

Ah. Not for me though. We've had team 24hrs in the past.

Ah Cherie, that sucks! They were trying to reduce our station size when I was in the public service from 3m squared to 2m squared, while I was union rep. We managed to fight that one.

The home thing, I completely understand. Just because I am at home, doesn't mean I am chained to my desk. Just like at work, I'm not always at my desk. The expectations at home seem ridiculous.

Does that mean no outside calls can reach you at work anymore? Or get out? Wouldn't that be a safety issue?

I was so excited when I moved to the Uni with my own office with a door and windows that opened, I took photos and sent them back to my old workmates. I was in a cubicle set up before I moved with 30 other people. I was given when I moved to that old job the desk in the middle of the walkway between all the cubicles, so I was always walked into or had people stop and chat OVER MY HEAD! Never ever hated a workplace that much ever.

I just saw my new office for my new job yesterday. Still own office, with door but different style building so I am in the middle of the building with no windows :( But cannot complain compared.

The downsizing is supposed to be to get more people into less space and they want us to go paperless as much as we can. It is hard for me to work without some amount of paper clutter on my desk because it makes it easier to refer to. I already work with a secondary monitor and my laptop screen, but it is very hard on my eyes and can get quite overwhelming with a lot of aplications and windows open. The group I work for is only a small part of the businss unit that I work for, and a lot of my job function is training people how to use the on-line tools as well as getting work done for others. A large part of the work requests come to me via email and IM. I can still get outside phone calls on my home phone while I am working from home because my laptop is hooked up via the headset to my office number. We use Microsoft Lync for the work phone, Instant Messaging and on-line confrence calls and meetings. We use Microsoft Office for email. My cell phone is still available for either outside or office calls because we are required to have a 2nd source of contatc, especially if we are our own coverage, but it is supposed to be only for emergencies. In the office - I work 10am to 7pm. We get 1 hour for lunch. I have a lot of overlap with folks in Shanghai, China and Guadalahara, Mexico, and a group in Malaysia.

Working from home, I will need to be on-line at 8am and I will probably leave my PC on until 7pm. I can walk away and even leave the house if needed as long as I leave my out of office message turned on to indicate when I will be available. The Lync messanger shows if I am in a meeting, on the phone and off-line. I can set it to say "be right back" too. It is not that bad, really. What gets crazy is when 2 or more people try to IM at the same time. Some days I just want them to call me because I get tired of typing responses.

I took a picture of my office and will take a picture of the new one when I get it. I think I will go home now.

Rusalka wrote: "I was so excited when I moved to the Uni with my own office with a door and windows that opened, I took photos and sent them back to my old workmates...."

I did exactly the same thing, especially the view out the window, as I face the park and it's really quite nice!

Cherie wrote: "I only get the Friday and Monday off if I want to schedule them as vacation days. I might think about it. Our spring break is the week before Easter, and many of the employees with school age kid..."

:-(((((

Today's the last day to vote. The poll's open until 11:59 pm EDT.

The Toppler will be on April 18th. Now come the hard part - waiting! Details will be provided at the end of the month. Just remember...

Mariab wrote: "Cherie wrote: "I only get the Friday and Monday off if I want to schedule them as vacation days. I might think about it. Our spring break is the week before Easter, and many of the employees with..."

Too funny. I just found out that I was a week off with the spring break information. It is March 23 through March 27. I scheduled vacation on Friday March 27th, Monday, March 30th, Friday, April 3rd, and Monday, April 6th. Just because. Two four day weekends, two four day work weeks and one 3 day work week. Hope the weather cooperates!

Wow, Cherie. Where are you off to?

Pragya wrote: "Wow, Cherie. Where are you off to?"

No where. I have lots to do at home.

Cherie - those short work weeks sounds wonderful! When I was a teller I worked Saturday mornings, but had every Wednesday off. I loved the break in the work week! I hope you have some relaxing plans for yourself.

Cherie wrote: "Pragya wrote: "Wow, Cherie. Where are you off to?"

No where. I have lots to do at home."

Oh, hope you find time to relax other than all the work.

I can't wait for Toppler details!! lol

jaxnsmom wrote: "The Toppler will be on April 18th. Now come the hard part - waiting! Details will be provided at the end of the month. Just remember..."

...I'm trying so hard to be good and wait patiently...