Duck for cover

I'm starting to think that Anarchist Prime is taking the short path to the firing squad - or at the very least, an almighty row with Mr Big.

After an issue with a product some time ago, certain in-process checks had been implemented, with other provisos added. This had been done under the instruction of our lord and master, Mr Big. Now, Anarchist Prime is fiddling around with them. I can understand Anarchist Prime's point of view in this, but he's completely disregarding previous actions and reasons in order to do so. Not even Darth Chaos did that!

I think the main problem is that he's an Alpha Male. Why I think that is a problem is because Mr Big is an Alpha Male, too, and their territories are crossing. And, in the Battle of the Alpha Males, Mr Big outranks Anarchist Prime in a big way.

I just hope the row comes when I'm elsewhere.

Scurriulous Gossip

I was chatting with the Office Gossip during my tea break, and the subject of Anarchist Prime came up. I had commented that Anarchist Prime was somewhat earlier than usual to work today, and the Office Gossip told me that Mr Big was starting to crack down on him.

What made this interesting was that another one of my work colleagues (who shall remain unnamed simply because I am yet to come up with a suitable nickname for her) told me that she thought Anarchist Prime was taking too many risks. I had personally thought that he was overstepping his bounds somewhat at various stages.

Because of that, it comes as no surprise to me that Mr Big is starting to crack down on him. All I can say is, "It's about time."

(Incidentally, the Office Gossip's next topic of conversation was to wonder who would be the next to leave. I kept my big mouth shut, having advance information on this subject, but I can't help wonder if the Office Gossip wasn't also thinking about Anarchist Prime. Because I do think that, for the various reasons mentioned above, not to mention those in my previous post, his days here are numbered.)

It's all the Quality Director's fault. Or possibly his wife's.

We have this little problem with Quality Directors: they have a) a tendency to come from interstate and b) their families don't want to move to Canberra. Darth Chaos did this, and Anarchist Prime is doing it too (albeit from the opposite direction). As a result, they only last a couple of years before their families put their foot down and start threatening divorce if they don't stop this commuting malarkey. (Okay, so I'm basing this on our experiences with Darth Chaos, but any spouse who is strong enough to refuse to move to Canberra is bound to start threatening divorce sooner or later. And I don't blame them. I always thought that 'until death do us part' was the whole point behind marriage.) It's only a matter of time, really, before Anarchist Prime's missus starts making the same threat. It took Darth Chaos' husband two years - Anarchist Prime is 9 months into his reign.

Now, their commuting isn't my problem - not directly, at any rate. My problem is more with one particular side effect: documentation. Anarchist Prime did exactly the same thing that Darth Chaos did when she came to power: they both took one look at our quality system and said, "This has got to change! New headers, new footers, new layout, new everything!"

This would be fine and dandy if our Quality Directors were to stay for more than two years. If they put in a good, solid six years or so before they were hauled back to home and hearth by their lonely spouses, it would be great! Five or six years is probably about the right time period for a complete overhaul of a quality system. Two years? That's even less than our standard review period! (We go for a three year lifecycle, barring other required changes.)

Oh, well. At least this time I don't have to give the whole lot new numbers as well.

RSS is good.

Why the hell can't the TGA have RSS news feeds like the FDA does? It would be so much simpler to scan a newsfeed every morning rather than surf the website for updates (or, of course, subscribe to a blasted email newsletter.). Grump.

Farewell parties

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but my Jedi Master is leaving. This is his final week. So, Principal Girl arranges for us all to go out to a Turkish Restaurant nearby for lunch on Friday. This is all very good and well and normal. But then Principal Girl decides that we can't possibly manage without having one of our bring-a-plate efforts as well.

She decides, in her infinite wisdom, that Thursday for afternoon tea is the go. Fine. She told us this yesterday. After lunch. After the lunchbreak when I had already gone to the supermarket to pick up a few things.

Naturally, most of the people in the room then say, "Oh, please bring your fabulous chocolate and raspberry cupcakes!" (I happily throw aside all modesty at this point to say that they really are spectacular.) Equally naturally, I don't have all the things I need, leading to a second trip to the supermarket that evening.

Therefore, I have a recommendation: when organising farewell parties, two or more days' notice are required. Minimum. One day to bake, and one day to decorate.

But, even though they are a little bit fiddly to make, and I didn't have everything I needed on hand (one of my first priorities for choosing recipes for this sort of thing is whether or not I have everything I need already), he's worth the effort.