Red Cedar

i have two favourite images in my deskspace at work – one being the picture above of the endeavour hydrothermal vents that were approved as canada’s first marine protected area last year. beside my desk, just to the right is a large poster of these vents that has insets of a bunch of the previously unknown (to humans) animal species that exist only around hot-vent areas like these.

hydrothermal vents like these are believed to hold the origins to all life on this planet, being areas of some of the highest microbial density and animal abundance on earth. this particular hydrothermal ridge is located approximately 200 miles off the coast of vancouver island, and exist at a depth of 2,000 metres. this ridge is host to 12 species not present anywhere else in the world.

this is one of my favourite posters for a couple of reasons – one, because the imagery is gorgeous and a continual reminder of the amazingness of this planet – and two, because it reminds me of what i like about my job, which is that i am always learning new factoids (both interesting and disturbing) about where we live.

i don’t know why all of a sudden i have started with all these work posts – just one of those weeks.

this morning started off with a ranty email to a co-worker (a scientist who wrote to me complaining about the lack of funding for his program) who then responded with more horror stories of budget cuts. this then spiralled into me responding to a union email about the need to work on a campaign around the cuts to our department since we are now in danger (as my fellow workers are telling me) of not being able to meet our legal obligations owing to a shortfall in funds and staff.

so this became a discussion with my co-workers (as per the usual morning routine) who couldn’t agree more but are somewhat pessimistic that targeting a campaign towards ottawa will have any effect.

effect or no – here’s the point: if you know something is going on, and that something is contributing to the collapse of a species or ecosystem, and you do nothing to act on it – aren’t you complicit? wouldn’t that make me at least in part responsible for the end to salmon on the coast? am i not required to unify my co-workers in action (using the union mechanisms in place) to make the public aware that the federal government is not living up to its responsibilities?

at what point does personal responsibility begin?

today i am feeling really on, calm, rational and together – which is a good thing given the kindof day i have been having.

nothing really crazy, but it just seems that after a period of time the same issues just keep occuring over and over again…. today being a plethora of my favourites :

1) yes, the government of canada requires everything posted online to be in both official languages, i don’t care if your program has no money to do this, it’s required by law and i am responsible for our department to make sure it happens.

2) it is really important to me that our union local be transparent and accountable and not do dodgy behind the scenes things in decision making. the reason i am having a hard time trusting the executive body i sit on is because all sorts of deals seem to keep getting made behind my back which have nothing to do with process or individual merit.

3) do not forget (oh local president who thinks he can lie to me) – people like me… and thus, they tell me things. please do not tell me that co-workers i am very close to have told you things i know they haven’t – i will always trip you up in the most innocent of ways.

4) if you need trouble shooting with a website, don’t write me rude messages, and please include a url so i can see what you are talking about. (here is the message i received today – i honestly had no idea what this person was talking about: “Seems when I click on the link it comes up with “Forbidden” This doesn’t help much. Please see what you can do please to fix this. ” – i think the “pleases” in there were supposed to make me feel appreciated, but it didn’t work.

5) my job does not include anything to do with network administration, or training people to use software, or helping you with your email program. i project manage electronic communications – that is more than a full time job all by itself. we have a whole it department with a help desk whose sole function is to do these things.

6) if ottawa promises a national system, i can guarantee from past experience they will never deliver. no no no no – we should not support them spending money on another consultant…..

7) 4 years ago i told you that laying out a website based on the organizational structure was a bad idea, now that they just announced another re-organization (which means re-organizing a big portion of our website) do you see why i made that argument?

and

8) how exactly am i supposed to deliver web services to an active region of fishers and scientists with no annual budget?

(fortunately i have learned to detach from my job and so these things no longer bother me the way they used to – i post them here merely for my own amusement)

i know that if you don’t work for the federal government, this will all seem nonsensical – but this is my day. this is every day. somehow we lump along without ever making any real progress. i can’t believe there hasn’t been a revolution yet.