mekyria | Entries tagged with work

Most of my work revolves around an awareness toolkit that lives on an ancient on premise Confluence page.

The Confluence people need to keep their head above water and changed their payment plan, in such a way that maintaining the space is super expensive. Plus we already have another Confluence space for our company, so it sounds like an easy fix.

Except the Toolkit is meant to be accessible by people who work at universities. They do not have a SURF account. Which means I have to make the toolkit open to the public.

Except institutions shared examples of their materials and campaigns in a closed of environment. So I can't move those to a public space

Except the visuals we made with draw.io have to go, because I am apparently the only person using it and it costs 6500 euro a year.

Except I currently have no editing rights in the new environment (why?) and it is suuuuuper slow

Except creating new navigation to replace the old navigation makes it look like a nineties website

This is giving me headaches, I created a ticket and hope all of this will be fixed tomorrow.

Last week was kind of stressful due to all the things that needed to be done and ascencion day cutting the week short. Intold my manager that I was leaving and he tried to make me a counter offer. Sweet but no thanks. The contract for the new job was signed on Wednesday. Unfortunately my new salary is exactly the same as my old salary. Due to slight changes in pension and such my netto salary will be a little bit higher than what I am used to, and there is room to grow so that’s good.

I am a bit angry at E for being away so much last week. He was away three nights, rehearsal on saturday between 11.00-17.00 and he had a stomach flu thing on Sunday. It felt like I had to do a lot of thibgs on my own instead of doing fun things as a family.

Amélie is behind in her growth so a lactation consultant dropped by to see how she feeds and gave us a new schedule. I would love to not having to pump milk when I start my new job, and I really would like to get more sleep. She currently feeds at 19.00,24.00,03.00,06.00,10.00,12.00,16.00. Things could be worse but things could be so much better as well! Bottle fed children are supposed to drink 4 bottles of 200ml at her age. A doesn’t understand eating solids. She is enjoying sitting with us at the table and playing with her spoon and her food.

We received the information for when Eliza is going to school in novenber. She’s so big and sassy, I love having her around and I love having her experience school and make new friends. Mixed feelings, but all good.

Crossposts: https://mekyria.livejournal.com/801096.html

Yesterday was a shitty day at work. We're in a process to iplement a new social law, meaning we have to get infooamtion from us to other public organisations starting 1 january 2020. And it is important that it happens fast and accurate.

I advised on the secure way to do this, and now our ministry is giving us shit for being the odd one out, wanting to do things better and different. I began doubting myself. Looked back at my work. Nope, pretty sure that mailing highly classified personal data to other organisations is not AVG proof. Even if we're using several mail standards to heighten security. Too much risk for a process like this.

We are asked to write an 'appreciative' (don't let the name fool you) essentially meaning we have to write an official memo explaining why we are against 'secure email' as it is called.

The implication being that it appears that we are the only ZBO who has an issue with 'Secure email'and all the other ZBO's are using it. Either we are stubborn know it alls or the standard for 'secure email' is too low and all the other ZBO's need to alter their course. This also ramped up my anxiety.

But! I thought about a plan to get there. This has, ofcourse, all be delivered and finished in a week. A week where I am not in the office on Monday (home with the kids), Thursday (holiday) and Friday (my mother has other arangements so I am home with the kids). I'm at work now, feeling okay-ish.

I just finished the questionaires of my assessment and I am pretty sure that I did well. This weekend I am preparing for the roleplaying/ real life cases that we're doing on Monday. I got a book from the library that walks me through the different steps and gives pointers and I am going to try a couple of cases with E. I am afraid that I will 'fail' the roleplaying part because I sort of failed seven years ago at a similar assessment.

I learned so much since then, got some experience under my belt and I have held a similar type job for seven years so I probably don't suck at it. But I am still afraid that my people skills suck.

Crossposts: https://mekyria.livejournal.com/800557.html

Received an email that they can't get back to me before the weekend about the job interview last Wednesday. Boo.

I take it as a positive note: if they thought I wouldn't be a good fit, they would have told me by now. On the downside, now I will be anxious all weekend because I want to know. In order to keep my mind busy I started with the first couple of modules from the MBA. I am learning how the stock market works. Very enlightening. Never knew there were so many different types of stocks and bonds and what they do for a company.

Clever as they are, they put a gaming element into the course. I am revisiting the courses because I want to score 100% on the capstone test (you can retake as often as you want, highest sore remains). In addition I also have to do a bit of translating as accounting lingo in Dutch is different from the USA. A bond is an 'obligaat', a stock is a 'aandeel' and so forth. it keeps me busy! I am getting a head start because I have a holiday planned after Pentacost, and that is also the week of the accounting exam.

Crossposts: https://mekyria.livejournal.com/799569.html

My one year contract is ending and they decided to transfer it into a never ending contract. Yay for steady income and reassurance that they like what I do with data security and privacy stuff.

Crossposts: https://mekyria.livejournal.com/774797.html

I am bad at organizing soial events. BD events I can manage, herding dancers is no problem. But social events? Nah.

Last year I planned a school reunion that turned out with 8 people showed up. We had a good time and it was fun, but I wouldn't call it a huge success from an organziing perspective.

This year I am taking another Lucky shot by organizign a traineeship-reunion (so far about half of the people can attend) and my neighbor who's real name is Davina and I decided to attempt a neighborhood barbecue. Because we can.

My biggest problems are indifference (I don't care if a small amount of people show up. I am an introvert, I like small groups), minimalism in communication (You got one letter at the start and one as a reminder. Don't make me overdo it).

I do like having a small group of people show up and getting to talk to everyone. It's worth the (minimal) effort I'm making!

On the downside, my teak at work still doesn't eat lunch. I participated in the table tennis competition. I congratulate people for their birthdays and birth of children. I drink tea, share cookies and talk with people but somehow I am still searching for osmeone to eat lunch with every day. It makes me feel sad and lonely, not a good combination. I miss having coworkers who walk in and tell me to come lunch with them, or hand me chocolate, or ask me how I''m doing. Blegh.

Crossposts: http://mekyria.livejournal.com/755775.html

Had a lunch date with the man who hired me for my current jog. He moved to a different company before I started here so I thought it would be nice to wrap things up. He was a noshow and I had lunch with his coworker (account manager). I introduced myself and he offered me a job.

'Hi, my name is X. I am an Information Security Officer'

'Would you like to work for us?'

Six years ago it took me 8 months to find a job. Now they throw job offers at me during unexpected lunch meetings. WTF. I suspect that being female in the field of information security really helps, plus I can carry a conversation. As sad as that sounds, I met enough IT people who could not carry a conversation to believe that this might be true.

Current work is okay. Still feeling a bit lonely but getting things done, so go me!

Crossposts: http://mekyria.livejournal.com/755199.html

Nothing exceptionally bad happened this week but it has been rough nonetheless. I used to think that I was pretty good at managing my life, scheduling appointments, going on work on time, that kind of thing. Since Eliza was born, my whole life feels like an complicated math problem that I have to solve with too little time.

We have four family members (Me, E, Eliza and the Dog) living at our house (H). During the day, we each have our various activities and places to go to: MeWork, EWork, ElizaDaycare and DogDaycare. To get to our destination, we have modes of transport: Walk, Car, Bicycle, Public Transportation.

AND

DogDaycare can only be reached by Car after 8.30. Elizadaycare can be reached with all modes of transportation before 8.30. EWork can be reached by Bicycle or Car between 8.30-9.00. MeWork can be reached by Bicycle or Car between 8.30-9.00. This usually works out fine because I am home on Monday with Eliza, E on Thursday and my mum on Friday. I am not even mentioning the times at which we have to pick up Eliza and Dog from daycare or how Eliza needs her dinner before 18.00, plus our various evening activities. It's just too much.

BUT
if ElizaSick, no daycare.

Eliza got a fever on Monday and she stayed at home on Tuesday and Wednesday as well. It threw me off guard as I am in my second week at NewJob and I really didn't want to be late or take a day off. Both of these things happened and it made me feel bad. Like silently crying in the car-bad. The upside is, that since I am not sitting in a train I can now bawl my eyes out in private. To add insult to injury, I made a mistake on Wednesday and drove to the wrong place for our 9 am meeting. In my defence, naming our meeting rooms Streetname + Number in Utrecht while the whole building is in Utrecht, is probably not the cleverest idea. I showed up at the real address instead of the meeting room. *facepalm*

On Thursday I had a meeting in The Hague (Public transportation) and afterwards I visited the Lundia store because the guy that took measurements for the mirror wall/closet in the studio told me I needed to go there for the interior. The sales person in the store got really angry at me because I followed the online procedure and selected the local pick-up place instead of his store (Uh, didn't say that anywhere on the website?), basically called me freeloading scum looking for a cheap deal taking advantages of his store and ordering somewhere else and asked me to leave. Which I did. I get where he is coming from but I didn't know all that and it made me feel awful again.

And now it is Friday. Eliza is well and no longer running a fever. I am in a half empty office, getting some work done. The dreary weather is finally giving in to clear blue skies and Spring Sunshine. I hope that this week at least has a nice ending to it.

Crossposts: http://mekyria.livejournal.com/753117.html

This is the second week out of our house, only three more weeks to go. E has been back home this week for evening rehearsals (my huge amount of dance rehearsals is triumphed by E's amount of rehearsals for the big band/Dixieland/classic concerts/hunting). The inside wall of the extension is up! the door frame and windows are in place and they already placed the steel construction to create the opening between our old living room and the extension. It feels good to see fast progress, according to their planning they should be done in another four weeks. I doubt that we'll make that deadline but we'll be pretty close.

At work, my unit manager has decided on who will follow in my footsteps. Huzzah! He has four weeks notice so we won't see much of each other. Booo. I am going to plan a couple of sessions with him in the next couple of weeks and prepare a file and document structure to guide him.

I so desperately want to start at my new job that it is hard to stay focused at work. Despite everything I manage to fill my day to the brim with work stuff. Students finished a pentest on our external website and it was good quality work. I love how I can read their report and understand what they are saying, something I couldn't have done a couple of years ago.

Crossposts: http://mekyria.livejournal.com/751384.html

Trying to send a vopy of my ID to my new employer. Used the app made by our government to create a 'safe and watermarked copy'. Turns out copy is unreadable and unusable.

Breaks head over how to use a safe method of transportation, then gives up and sends it directly to new boss through whatsapp (encrypted).

If I needed confirmation that I am in the right workfield, being worked up about how hard it is to safely share information should be enough.

I want to go for the CISP exam but it is six hours, the exammalone costs 550$ and I need to read a book that is 6" thick. Still want to do it. I must be more of a masochist than I thought I was

It was to be expected that work would go crazy in the last weeks for Christmas. i've had several emergency meetings this week, all of them planned early in the day. Stressing the night before about being in time is something I really hate, but neccesary with so much distance to travel to work.

I am going to verbally hit a supplier on the head for not patching his servers or renewing his security certificate. Yesterday I had a meeting where someone exploded because the DMS/RMS apparently won't manage documents. Plus the people who said we should use structure A that is compliant are now saying we should use a totally random structure that they are going to come up with on Tuesday.

Their work? 'business and compliancy'. Facepalm.

Intried sending a copy of my passport to my new employer in a safe way but the app of the ministry of interior affairs creates copies that are unusable. Ironic, as the organisation I'm going to work for is also a government agency.

I gave a presentation on safe work practices and managed to turn forty women into paranoid conspiracy theory thinkers. Then they applauded and gave me flowers.

Last but not least, I had an exit talk with my manager who told me that he has a hard time finding a new ISO. The more he thinks of the things I do, the harder it seems to find someone who can navigate the University and it's various cultures. He asked if I could give a management summary on cultural change and things that should be addressed by the next ISO.

One more week to go before our two week Christmas Holiday. And then seven weeks to go before I start on my new job.

I'll start on March 1th as the higher education has a three month period for giving notice. I told my manager last Thursday who was happy for me, even though this puts him in a rough spot. The other ISO's contract ends in December. The privacy officer's ccobtract ends on December 8th. The general idea was that I was taking over their work but I an glad I am not.

I am secretly glad that I am on until March 1th because I want to transfer my work to the next ISO. Chances are they won't find anyone for what they pay and they are stuck without.

As a result of all the changes I am clearing out my wardrobe and buying second hand clothes online to build a new wardrobe. I am still in denial about my size, which seems to be a eu size 40. In my head I am a size 38.

It was good. The Chief IT operations is youngish (like, forty?) and recently started there. We had a good conversation about the pros and cons. The next two talks are on Tuesday. I had to reschedule a meeting and I hope people are not getting a whiff of my plans before they are confirmed on paper. The more I think about it, the more I want this job. I notice how I get more agitated by regular annoying things at work. As my fellow ISO is leaving at the end of December and the Privacy Officer is leaving on December 8th, all of the work would have fallen on my shoulders. Except that I probably won't be there. this includes the student who is doing his graduating thesis on privacy at the HHs. Who will be left without anyone to supervise him.

I did warn Paul that I can't take over due to too much work but he went ahead any way. Sigh.

I am about to leave for my meeting at the other company, which is also interesting. Maybe they don't need me right now and I think I need to wisen up a bit on the technical part but it sounds amazing to work there. Afterwards I'll go to the University of Utrecht because Little Brother is defending his theses today, so after successfully completing his sitting he will get his Bachelors degree. WOOt! He is now 31 years old and tried 5 studies before he found his switch for pulling through when his study got hard. I am very proud of him!

The builders are working on the pipework and cables today, things are looking up. I am hoping things stay this positive for a while, all this good news is making em wonder when things will turn sour.

I've been content at work, but I also feel like I need a new challenge. having tenure is a very comfortable situation, but I am still travelling quite a distance every time I go to work. Several things happened in the past weeks leading up to a change.

A recruiter cobtacted me through LinkedIn. Most of the times they match me with something that's completely unrelated to what my skills are. Like saying I would be great as an application manager for example. This time the match was near perfect so I called her to inquire. After the inquiry it still sounded interesting. Now I have a job interview next Wednesday for the position of information security officer at a semi-governance organisation. Eep!

At the same time I told my coworker about my plans and he recommended that I talk with his consultancy firm. That's what I am doing Friday in a week. Double eep!

In the mean time I am emotionally and rationally starting to detach myself from the university. It's hard as I have so many fond memories and good coworkers in the university. But it is time for a change after working there for five and a half years.

I prepared my foldingbike yesterday for the journey to work. Eliza is now waking up at six for her morning feeding. I chose to sta yin bed and cuddle with her for a bit afterwards instead of getting up. Got up at 7.15 for a quick shower, got dresses and got out of the house at 7.40.

It occured to me while I was on my way to the station that I cycle at least forty minutes every working day. Have to get used to it again.

Work was mainly talking to people and getting updates. Lots of things happening all over the place, people starting to understand the importance of security. I got my own key for the dedicated breast milk pumping room. It's well equipped with a fridge, table, chairs and even a bed. Someone pit up two small Anne Geddes pictures in an attempt to make it look more cosy. Pumping went well, I produced two complete feedings plus a bit extra. I am pumping four days a week now.

It was good to be back at work and during my lunch break I went to the shopping mall to get some more milk bottles. In my lunchbreak I can go places! And have lunch while talking to an adult! Weehee!

I go very tired around 15.00 and had to go home 16.15 in order to be home for the six 'o clock feeding. Hugging Eliza made me happy too 😊 I feel like I get to have the best of both worlds.

My maternity leave kicked in and this is my first week 'at home'. Suprisingly, I am not resting much because there is so much to do.

On Monday Noushka stayed home, so I had to walk her at 10.00, 13.00 (went to the park with the car, she loved it). Inbetween I did some crafting with felt (livingroom is a mess).
On Tuesday, Germaine dropped by for tea and chocolate, meaning I had to clean the livingroom. After she left I was too tired to do anything else.
On Wednesday I had a high-tea with

ikaya in Utrecht. The weather was good so I drove my bike, took longer but it felt good. Came home, worn out.

Today I'm digging into some work stuff. It took my boss and my coworker six days before they noticed that they didn't know where the last version of document X, Y and Z were. And these are 'urgent' documents. I didn't send it to them yet because I wanted to know how involved they are in the proces, considering we're supposed to be working on the documents together for the past three months (read: I wrote most of it). I'm going to update and send the files now, with a satifsied gloaty feeling.

I am evil.

This is my last week at work before my maternity leave, aka 20 weeks of baby training and I just can't seem to motivate myself to get stuff finished.

The daily commute is turning into a private hell. That's ten minutes on bike, up the stairs, 50 minutes in one train, ten minute walk, seven minutes in a second train, down the stairs, ten minute walk. By the time I get to the office, my energy is already spend. Sure, it keeps me mobile and my weight gain within boundaries, but it is still exhausting.

My replacement is Roel, who Ihave good faith in on account of I think he's brilliant when it comes to IT security and risk assesments though slightly socially challenged. Like me. I don't feel the need to hand him finished stuff on account of him having to work with it in the next six months when I'm not around, he might as well use his own ideas and policies as a starting point.

Last week I went to the office by car and took a big bag with me with books , certificates and stuff I want to keep. There's no telling whether they will move us around once the reorganisation has settled down so I am suming that everything I leave behind can and will be trashed. It's very refreshing to clean out my workspace.

I have today, tomorrow and Thursday. I will hand out a treat on Thursday by means of a farewell thing, and then I'm taking the afternoon off to go to the movie with Miranda. On account of it being the last time we can go to the movies together in a really long time, once the baby is here I'll work less but am more tied to my office hours and I still have a truckload of free days left that I should use.

I'll be back at work in March, for three days a week. Different world, different coworkers (though I suspect many of the same coworkers too). I find it hard to imagine myself back at work, the birthing thing is kind of looming in the back of my head plus being a mom is something I need to learn. I am not a natural at caregiving, that's for sure.

E had a job interview yesterday for a different function within his organization. Meaning a new challenge but within his current job contract with the Ministry of infrastructure and environment. He's looking forward to their response as he really wants to get out of his current position due to political games and bad management.

AND the job descriptions for the reoganizatio at the University were placed on the intranet yesterday, causing me to search for external job vacancies because why not? Found a vacancy at the municipality of Utrecht (the city I live in close to) for a security manager. I figured I had nothing to lose and appled. On one hand I a crazy to apply for a new job when I have a tenure contract, mterniy leave and parental leave lined up. On the other hand, it is another governmet agency and we can always discuss all of this if they want to hire me. The deadline closes October 17th so if they want to meet me I'll be eight months pregnant. The good news is that I could start after my maternity leave, so they won't even notice that I'm gone.

I have been working on the moongoddess costume, which is half finished. I have two nights and half a day on Friday to get it done and I am positive. Ofcourse I also need to bring my camera to the hafla, rehearse with my students, create a play list for social dancing and bring my laptop, but all in all it feels a lot less busy.

I finished the double layered white chiffon circle skirt for the costume this weekend, took me ages to hem because it is over 12 meters of hem. It looks good though. I also made a double layered chiffon circle skirt in the gold toned fabric and I cut the purple with gold sheen fabric so it is ready for assembly. The dog loves pattern paper and tried to tear the pattern to pieces. I scotch taped it back together. Sewing with a young, active dog running around is not easy and I assume that having a baby in the house will also make things harder. My grand plan is to do as much sewing as I can in the next five months or so, so I'll have plenty of stuff to wear in the year after giving birth. My plans include making wrap tops from shiny holographic gold lycra that will fit me no matter what my bust size is.

I had dinner with my intermediates yesterday and by now the group is very diverse and fun. Dancers from different years are coming together and still seeing each other. It warmed my heart that five people raised their hands when asked if they wanted to take bellydance classes next september. I am slightly sad that I won't be teaching for the next eight months but also relieved. No pressure to prepare classes and show up on Monday nights! weehee!!

I did a quick post about finishing seams on my costuming blog and I'll add updates on the moongoddess costume later. I am also dreaming up plans on creating and selling pdf patterns through my website, as this might actually generate some income. I am pleased with the response on the article on BDaaS about body acceptance and am now entering the phase in the pregnancy where I gain roughly one pound per week. I will take pictures next Saturday at the hafla and at the end of August at the beach party. My last performances are scheduled in September with the Dalla Dream Dancers, and then I am free to be at home and feel uncomfortable and heavy at my leisure.

I am glad that I can take time off at work but we are also reorganizing and things are looking crazy over here. I probably have a job to get back to, but with another boss, in another unit, with different coworkers. It's going to be an interesting time.

No students, less coworkers. Tomorrow I am working from home and then I can start celebrating the weekend! Strange, I like working during holidays because I can finally get things done, but after three days I get bored and want everything to get back to normal again.

Profile

mekyria

September 2025

S	M	T	W	T	F	S
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30

Syndicate

Page Summary

Style Credit

Style: Neutral Good for Practicality by timeasmymeasure

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags

Page generated Dec. 24th, 2025 08:13 am

Kyria's journal

Some things lost, some things gained, through living every day

Entries tagged with work

confluence headache

Relax

slightly better

delay

Work

Being a team player

Stop throwing jobs at me!

It's been a rough week

fast builders

I am my own worst enemy

Pre-christmas work stress

New job!

Second interview

Change

Back at work

At home but no rest

motivation, where did you go?

Job development

Updates on costuming

Spring break at work