A nice work thing
Dec. 3rd, 2024 08:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
cosmolinguistI was in meetings for almost 7 hours yesterday and I started this morning with another one that was only two hours but still felt like a lot.
It was lots of work: thinking deeply about a complicated problem that doesn't have an answer yet, and trying to present my organization's (unsatisfyingly inconclusive) position on this accurately is extra important because the issue can be, in our small circles, a contentious one.
Also because my counterpart from the most similar organization we work with was there and she knows a lot more than me.
Also my manager was there unexpectedly, which made me nervous. He's great but I just feel self-conscious being Perceived while I try to do my job.
It worked out really well though: part way through the meeting he sent me a private message saying "You are really killing it in this workshop!" It made me grin. I said I was glad to hear that because of the thing about how I always feel inadequate in the company of this other person. He said "You and she work really well together. Your additions are so calm and clear." Clear thinking is among the highest praise from him so that was really nice to hear.
What with the verge-of-burnout much of this year, the sword-of-Damocles "transformation" (i.e. redundancies) hanging over us since July and not getting resolved until March, internal struggles made worse by how stressed everyone is but leading to me not really having meaningful work to do all year, and my manager having to support a team full of people in more or less similar positions to mine...there hasn't been a lot of positivity and affirmation for me at work lately.
So it was really nice to get that this morning.
(no subject)
Date: 2024-12-03 08:53 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2024-12-03 10:03 pm (UTC)Hate vague and annoying positions.
(no subject)
Date: 2024-12-03 10:15 pm (UTC)Yeah it's frustrating when you have to say "Do Not do this the way you've been doing it, it's not safe or accessible like that" and, if you're lucky, you'll be saying this to people who go "okay, how should we do it instead then?" and you have to go "uuhhhh, we dunno, no one knows, more research needed."
Sometimes that's just the way it goes of course, that's what's true. But it's really tricky to get right. Usually I can just say "don't do x, we recommend y" and that's much better for everyone, heh.
(no subject)
Date: 2024-12-04 12:18 am (UTC)We're hitting issues with assistive apps that use generative AI, so Grammarly and the like... Or AI that is auto captioning/transcribing but has cybersecurity and or privacy risks... So students are at risk of trouble from apps DSA pays for... FUNTIEMZ!
I'm neck deep in it all from a policy side cos I can't challenge the security/privacy risk so have to work out how to communicate that to people whose tools we're just blocking... It is forcing the uni to consider buying in solutions where we are confident security/privacy are not at risk but that'll take months and need piloting...
Big multi org things are always challenging when there's other constraints which are seen as more urgent than access. Thankfully the Head Of Actual IT is very decent and has gone out of his way to personally talk to us (me specifically) about issues and is driving work to get solutions through the decision process.
In other news, I got funding for something I've only been battling since 19th September for thanks to financial process bullshit. I can see why no one wants to work freelance for a uni, cos they can't get fucking paid!
(no subject)
Date: 2024-12-04 10:21 pm (UTC)Given how deeply you do think
Date: 2024-12-05 10:18 pm (UTC)about the implications of your actions, this praise is earned and well-deserved!
(no subject)
Date: 2024-12-26 10:01 pm (UTC)D works in information security in further education so is having very similar fights about "AI" and privacy/security risks that no one else seems sufficiently concerned about it.