Happy Easter!

This Easter was one of the most nontraditional Easters I have had, mainly on account of me living at my nonnas and my dad, who is the main organiser of Easter, working for much of this holiday period.

One tradition that was maintained was that I exchanged chocolate with my middle sister. We have had a tradition for years that instead of exchanging eggs, we seek out weird and interesting chocolate animals. There have been countless animals in the past - last year was fish and beetles, before that there were wallabies, bilbys, wombats and more animals that I can remember.

It is getting harder and harder to find these, but I has happy with this years find.

My find - A Chocolate duck.

What was even more impressive was my sisters find:

Chocolate farm animals and Chocolate dogs

 Happy Easter everyone!

Easter Mass

I attended Easter mass tonight ahead of tomorrow for logistical reasons - I am still living at nonnas and want to keep the morning free to have breakfast with her.

The new priest's homily once again drove home people who are Christmas and Easter catholics and questioned whether they were really at one with God. Personally, I found mass disappointing. It started 5 minutes late, then all were standing while one of the ministers sang a prayer. You could see in the crowd a lot of restless children and distracted adults. The mass continued with lots of singing but it felt slower than normal.

At around the hour mark, the priest did a baptism. Don't get me wrong, I am a godfather to my cousin and have been to many baptisms, but attending baptisms to people I do not know at Easter is not productive to me.

I eventually lit my memorial candles at the 1.5 hour mark. There had been no collections yet, no communion yet and I suspect the mass is still going on now. Really, if they want people to go to Church more often, they need to look at themselves.

Home away from home.

My uncle is my nonnas full time carer. A couple of times a year, he visits a farm 5 hours outside of Sydney for the weekend. When he does this, I sleep and live in with my nonna and support her where she needed.

Sure, I enjoy the comforts of home - the internet, my big tv, my kitchen, my double bed and being able to walk when I want. I also appreciate the mammoth sacrifice that my uncle goes through as my nonnas fill time carer and am happy to give him the occasional weekend reprieve.

Communication with my nonna is difficult - She often subconsciously speaks in Italian and when she does speak English, we often repeat the same old conversations. It is not her fault, just a symptom of old age. If nothing else, at least my time.is appreciated.

Crest Fallen.

There is a poker venue that is a 20 minute drive away that I was once a regular at. A friend has run the game for the last couple of years now. I stopped playing there regularly about 6 months ago and hadn't played in 3 months. I was well overdue for a return and tomorrow being a Public Holiday, seemed an ideal place to play.

I was a regular here once mainly to support my friend, but there were a few drawbacks that stopped me playing there. - It is a drive away and I prefer venues I can walk to, the game has a 'bounty' gimmick whereby a raffle is drawn and if you win, you win a bounty (I wish regular nightly payouts were propped up a little instead of having a jackpot determined by chance), the blind levels are very short and rise steeply and the crowd is very young (I find older players easier to read).

One of the highlights of this venue is the Smoked Salmon Caesar Salad and it was one of the venues main drawcards. That said, I was very disappointed with todays. The caesar sauce was watery, they stopped using fancy lettuce and instead used lots of plain shaved lettuce and put on a little grated cheese in place of the generous slices they used to dress it with.

Another annoying factor today was that the club have now set up a children's playground adjacent to the poker area, and where in the past there was a music jukebox, now this is replaced by screaming 6-year-olds going down slippery dips - my gripe was not that kids were having fun, it was more about our proximity to them.

The game itself was equally disappointing to me. I ended up being a bounty but far from capitalised - I flopped a flush when my opponent flopped a higher flush, then my 88 ran into JJ to ensure my early night. Whilst I wish my friend success in his business, It may well be another 3 months before I play there again.

Drowning before you can swim

I have been in my current role for a few years now, but it feels like I am still the newbie. I have a very knowledgeable boss who is great for sharing information, but sometimes I do not push myself hard enough and tend to coast at work.

This week I was assigned a particularly hard and scary fault. It was quite critical and had the potential to be high impact. I wss initially concerned when it was handed over to me. After reading and re-reading the network diagram, I think I have a good understanding of the fault and can talk to it simply. I'm pretty proud of myself as I have learned quite a fair bit in the process.

These are the sort of victories that make my job satisfying.

Road to Glory?

It is World Cup qualifier season and I have been watching a couple of games with my dad. Today was Australia vs Oman. It was publicised as a "must win" - but truth be told, I haven't analysed the tables and do not know how many games are left (though I take it that its close).

The first half was relatively boring. Australia conceded an early goal and had a lot of posession in the wrong end of the field. My dad showed his italian roots and was demanding Bresciano come on for most of the half, but the squads went to the sheds unchanged.

The second half saw another early goal conceded, this time it was an own goal. My dad finally had his wish granted and Bresciano came on with immediate impact. All of a sudden, Australia had attacking options and before too long Cahill's header gave us a goal. Sadly, Bresciano was injured 15 minutes before time and needed to come off, but a solid strike from Holman leveled the score and the match ended 2-2.

I don't think either side was happy with the result, but for the Aussies, If we cannot beat Oman at home, what chance are we of being competitive at the World Cup?

Happy Birthday Nonna,

As the subject suggests, today is my grandmothers birthday. I only have one grandparent left, so she is special. She is 87 years today and whilst she has her fair share of health issues, is doing Ok for her age.


I did my usual Sunday visit there yesterday with my youngest sister and passed on my birthday wishes. She was very appreciative. In the run-in to Easter I will be spending a lot more time with her.

"Game Changer"? Not quite...

One of the top 3 pizza franchises in this city recently went under fire for launching a new gourmet pizza menu. It was heavily marketed as a "game changer" for the pizza industry before its announcement and through modern social networking tool managed to get a fair bit of social media buzz.

Needless to say, once the social media army realised the announcement was nothing more than a minor gig-up of their "gourmet" pizza range, they had no reservations expressing so on the media used to generate the buzz. This was soon picked up by the greater media.

It is amazing how modern marketing machines adapt to change. Time and time again, large companies falter on social media campaigns and the speed, ease and public accessibility of feedback can quickly snowball with undesired consequences.

Despite the controversy, I was keen to try these and I had the chance today, thanks to a discount coupon. It was definitely smaller than a regular pizza and the bases were much thicker, however, the toppings were better than their standard pizza ranges. My one big criticism was that most large franchises have preserved toppings for convenience reasons, making most of them taste the same. It is no comparison to fresh toppings on a pizza which is harder to come across.Whilst I may have these again, I'm not in any great hurry.

Aloe Vera Overload

So my mum is going through a new fad- Aloe Vera. She read or heard somewhere that it is virtually a cure/prevention method for cancer but pharmaceutical companies are withholding the information as they want to manufacture more drugs and make more profit. "Once word gets out, everyone will grow their own plant" she explains. For most people my mothers age, Cancer is a major fear and talking point.

So today, I took her around to a few chinese shops trying to find the cheapest bottles of Aloe Vera I could find. We bought a couple in the end, the first bottle that I tried was rather sweet but mum insisted that the benefits outweighed the negatives. It will be interesting to see how long this fad lasts for.

Blind leading the blind.

The big news story of the last couple of days has been the leadership challenge that wasn't. We felt moments away from getting a new (or should I say "recycled") prime minister only for Kevin Rudd to do his math, find out he was short and withdraw without challenging - hanging his colleagues who supported him out to dry.

Firstly, I feel for Simon Crean. He stuck his neck out for the good of the party and was let down by Rudd protecting his reputation and public image. I really wish he would have nominated himself for Prime Ministership but that wasn't to be.

Secondly, I cannot adequately express how disappointed I am in Rudd. Had he have been sensible and not challenged last year when he had no chance of leadership and challenged now, he would be Prime Minister today. Whilst he has a wonderful vernacular and speaks a language that resonates well with voters, it has been widely reported that he was difficult to work under and regardless of how many times he can say that he is a changed man, the events of yesterday prove otherwise. If you cannot get the numbers in this fragile climate, you will never have the numbers.

Now to our Prime Minister, Julia Gillard. Regardless what the media has said about her, she has held a minority parliament together for over 2 years now. She has passed many major legislation items and is liked by the caucus. She should be congratulated for that but also realise that she is not charasmatic enough to win over voters and is steering a sinking ship. Labor voters are no longer listening to her and she has no chance of winning, regardless of all this she stands defiant. I really hope she comes to her senses before next election - the last thing I want to see is a coallition landslide.

All of the above just highlight how disfunctional Labor has become and proves that something has to change in the way the party is managed. I'm all for balance but it certainly looks like annihilation from here.

Fire, Water, Burn.

I arrived at my friends hotel early yesterday to the sound of fire alarms. The building opposite my friends hotel was being evacuated and police had just arrived on scene. When going down the hill, I noticed large flames coming out of the side of the building

Fire crews were not far away and roads and footpaths were progressively being blocked off as emergency services needed more room on the relatively narrow street.

 Emergency services did their building walkthroughs and checks. The event was over in about half an hour. I waited for my friend in front of a temporary barrier manned by a police officer and listened to some of the silly questions passer by's asked. "Did someone Die?" asked one lady, "Can I run back into the building and get my phone" asked another. others tried to barge through barriers, some succeeded. In all, emergency services handled the incident well, people disappoint me though.

A coworker that I have high respect for surprised me last week and showed up at the office unannounced. The surprise was amplified as he is now based out of San Jose and was formerly from Melbourne. The Sydney office is the last place I expected to see him but he had the opportunity of a Sydney junket to help out a local customer and grabbed it with both hands.

As i was on call last week, we agreed to meet up for dinner one day this week and that was tonight. We spoke for hours on work issues and my future career progression plans along with personal chit chat. His insight was impressive, for someone in his mid-20s he has slot of.maturity and knowledge.

He told me what I needed to hear - I am cruising in my current role and either need to become an expert or learn another product. We ended with an extended walk around the harbour foreshore before I ended up catching the long train home.

I had a really good time tonight, although I am definitely getting too old for these late ones on a school night. I will definitely pay the slumber price tomorrow.

Credit Card Surcharges.

This week is meant to be the end of the dreaded overpriced credit card surcharge. For a few years now, merchants have been able to pass on credit card surcharges. For the most part, retailers have made their own call with most major retailers absorbing the charges as they always have and some choosing to pass on the charge.

There are three major players that have went above and beyond- Taxis, Airlines and Ticket agencies. They tend to charge well above the 0.5% - 2% charge that banks charge retailers and either slap on a fixed fee or a fee well in excess of what is being charged to them by the banks.

I have had run-ins with 2 of these this week. I've looked at flight specials this week thinking of planning holidays. On some sites, a credit card fee has been replaced with an equal "service charge". I also booked some tickets at Ticketek, on  $70 worth of tickets, they wanted to charge me a $5 "admin" fee for printing out my own darn tickets, then slap on a credit card surcharge on top of that.

I have no quarms with retailers passing on a credit card fee, particularly if a fee free option is also offered, but charging rates over 10% for using a card is just gouging in my eyes. Retailers who use processing costs to justify the over the top fees do not hold water in my book either - retailers need to expect that any form of payment requires a processing expense and this needs to be taken into consideration in any business model.

I really hope that pressure is applied to these companies and that the industry is revolutionised once and for all.

Waste - a pet peeve.

I have grown up in a household whereby waste is rare, particularly when it comes to food. Leftovers are always eaten and

On the weekend my dad noticed he had a pox of peaches rotting away,  so had the idea to boil them and turn them into a mushy sweet that he likes. He later had a change of heart and soaked them in cask wine to make a sangria with them - sure they were the wrong type of fruit for sangria but it did the job.

Today in my evening walk I innocently ventured behind a closed fruit shop and noticed an untouched avocado that was sitting there behind a roller door. It had surely fallen off a box and would have been wasted. I felt it my duty to take it home and let it ripen.

I feel good that so little is wasted, however, on the flipside, I do tend to hoard belongings and it is often hard to throw anything out, but that is how I have been wired.

F1 GP

My work walking partner is a fan of F1 motor racing. It has often been a talking point during our walks and a sport that I hav epassively followed over the last few years. Usually the races are on far too late for me to watch it, but today is the start of the season and the race is in Melbourne (falling conveniently in my timezone).

I do not relegiously follow a builder but barrack for the aussies (Weber, Riccardo). Sadly, luck were not on their sides today - Riccardo did not finish with technical issue and Weber had a horrid start and never recovered.

For years I had thought of it as a boring sport but it is starting to grow on me. The greenie in me is disappointed that they waste so much fuel and wish that there were incentives to be more environmentally conscious, but this may happen in time. At least I have something to talk about in tomorrows walk.

Time flies

Today marks 3 years since my grandmother died (my mothers mother). She had been quite sick for at least a year beforehand and was in and out of hospital with what was suspected as a form of Leukemia.

I was never as close to this grandmother as I am to my grandmother on my fathers side - maybe it is due to my mother not having the sense of strong family value that my dad does, maybe its because she would often go on rants (usually mostly in Maltese) and I could not understand what she was saying, or maybe because she was not as geographically close (though she wasn't walking distance, she was a short drive away). Either way, the cards have been dealt and I have no choice but to accept that.

Her death sparked a family feud of gigantic proportions. My mother and her sister believed she played favouritism and due to some clever accounting from a particular uncle, feels cheated. I don't know if she was a victim of her own stubbornness while she was alive or could not foresee the consequences, but it has made life difficult for the rest of the family and made interactions between cousins awkward.

When rivals meet.

Thursday Night Football is a relatively new innovation for the footy this season. For the first 4 rounds, we get footy 5 nights a week. Yesterday was the start of Round 2. My team the Eels met up with one of their traditional Sydney rivals the Bulldogs.

My father is a St George supporter but hates the Bulldogs. The game itself was good - there was lots of tries in the first half and the Eels played better than expected but they lacked creativity in the second half and ran out of time and lost by 4 in the end. Whilst the result was disappointing the game wast too bad - it was competitive from start to finish and despite a few silly mistakes had you on the edge of your seat.

The last live game I saw was a fey years ago now. I saw it with my dad. It was a finals game between the Eels and the Bulldogs. Dogs were favourites that game too but Eels managed an upset and ended up at the Grand Final. At least the Eels one the game that mattered.

May I have a large container of coffee

Today is March 14. Or 14.3. or, in the US, its 3.14, which is con incidentally a decimal representation of Pi.This it is International Pi Day.

Pi is a number so irrational that you can celebrate it twice. 22/7 is a pretty close fractional approximation, so some can celebrate it on July 22. I much like 355/113 as it is easy to remember (just split 113355 and reverse the values) and very close to accurate. Even this post subject is a decimal Mnemonic.

Calculators have probably spoiled a bit of the fun people have remembering Pi, but that doesn't mean you can't have a little bit of fun a couple of time a year.

Lacking focus.

I really need to get back onto the wagon. I have been using my bruised foot as an excuse to get out of walking. I have been trying the fasting diet and starting strong in the mornings and afternoon but see cracks in my defenses as soon as I am home to my open kitchen.

I have been up and down many times before. I just have to pay with disappointment and force myself into a cycle I am happy with. My walking needs to start up again. My diet needs to improve.

I know I can get there, I just need to find my focus. .

To the Conclave!

So a bunch of Priests are locked away at the Vatican, waiting for God to tell them who the next Pope will be. As all eyes are on temporary chimneys and all ears listening to the bells of St. Peters, Its a good time to wonder what the new Pope will hope to achieve.

Religion is fast becoming outdated in the developed worls and is a source of hope for the developed world. The new Pope is going to have to tackle child abuse and demonstrate that the Church has no tolerance for it. It would also be a good chance to modernise customs and beliefs.

I think men and women have urges that the vast majority cannot control. I do not see the problem with priests dating and marrying women. I would think no less of such a man. I'd also appreciate it if they spent their time with an adult and left our kids alone.

There are lots of little things that the Church can do to make religion more relevant. Don't forget - the bible is over 2000 years old. I think that the Bible was created to help explain the unexplainable 2000 years ago. Now, science has disproved large chunks of it and many parts are no longer relevant. It would take alot of courage for a new priest to modernise the Church, and would also take a great deal of commonsense. Sadly, commonsense is not always that common.

Working from the"Regional Office"

Recently, the CEO of Yahoo came under fire for banning her employees from working from home. I work for a company that allows Working from Home  and in a bid to reduce need of office space is starting to encourage it on a Seniour management level (although Line Managers do not seem as enthusiastic).

Someone who I play poker with is a line manager. His company's research suggested that employees were less likely to resign if they were allowed 1 work from home day a week. He told me a few weeks ago that he allows his staff to do it, however, requires that they update a procedure while they are at home. He felt that home workers were less productive.

I rarely work from home. I like overhearing my bosses technical conversations at work and feel that I benefit more from the knowledge I gain when I am at work. That said, I will do if I have good reason - usually when I have worked the night before or had to go to the doctors. Today I took advantage of it as I didn't feel like driving with my bruised foot.

Had I have not been able to work from home today, I may well have taken a sick day. Working from home meant that I could update my cases, do a training course I was avoiding and keep on standby for any faults that may have arisen. Sure, it wasn't the most productive days work I have ever done but I was far more productive than I would have been had I taken a sickie.

I think Working from home is worthwhile if done in moderation. It improves employee satisfaction and can save companies money if implemented correctly. It can be abused and line managers are right to be cautious but giving an employee a work from home day once or twice a month is more than reasonable.

Decisions

Today is the birthday of a former Uni friend and work colleague. We have been through a lot together. We failed similar subjects at Uni, We did several uni assignments together, spent countless nights intoxicated at UTS bar and have similar tastes in music.

In our final years of uni, we both secured full time employment at an ISP. We did our penance and started on Phone support. He ventured in to test based interactions and I dabbled into a few different areas but after a few years there we both knew that the job wasn't for us.

Our ministry is very volatile. My friend started a work before me, and in that time, the company changed ownership and names 3 times. Members went up and crashed down. there were several waves of redundancies and we kept ducking the water. We were both very bored there and needed new challenges but also wanted our redundancy packages before leaving.

One day, not long after knocking up his 5 years, my friend had drawn his line in the sand and resigned and moved to Ireland. Whilst I commend his courage, his timing was slightly off as had he waited 3 months, he would have received his redundancy package like the rest of us.
 
He still works in the ISP industry but is more into the sales side now. He is well settled and has a long term girlfriend there now. I haven't visited him or seen him in a few years now, but still think of him from time to time, particularly on this day.

Limping away

I managed to kick a doorframe hard today. This has caused pain and bruising around my rightmost toes on my rightmost foot.

I had wanted to walk up the road and watch the footy at a local pub over dinner, but my foot stood in the way of it. I limped all the way there and had missed most of the footy by the time I arrived. I limped home in quite a bit of pain holding a shoe.

While it is not visually pleasant right now, I'm really hoping that the pain subsides and I can get back into my walking routines.

Kick off.

Football season started last night. I like having a 5-month break away from football - when the season finally kicks off again you really get hungry for it. I have watched about 2 halves of football and am eager to see the eels kick off tomorrow.

This year I am in an el-cheapo tipping comp with my youngest sisters husband. So far, I am 1 from 2. I think it is relatively easy to tip an upset at this stage of the season and it will take a few rounds to sort the contenders from the pretenders. Still, its a talking point and worth the $20 to gee each other up about.

Being a little naughty.

I was all set and prepped for my regular lunchtime walk with a coworker. We work in different buildings that are about 15 minutes apart, so leave at the same time and meet in the middle.

I had put my walking shoes on and had entered the lifts to the ground floor. Just before it closed I had heard a familiar voice. "hold the door!". To my surprise another coworker was up from Melbourne for the day. We once worked closely but have always kept in touch on a professional and personal level.
He persuaded me rover ditch my walk - something I rarely do - and have lunch at a pizza parlour not too far away that I like eating at on the company. I had tried to decline, but the.offer was too good to refuse.

We caught up on changes in our respective offices and general office gossip. We also talked about a mutual former coworker that we havent seen in years. By total co-incidence, I saw her a few hours later in my local shopping centre. Just goes to show that ears can burn sometimes.

Playing to ones strengths

A few years ago, when middle sister moved out of home, middle sister wanted a PVR to replace her VCR. Her needs were simple - needed a USB port, decent sized hard drive, needed to be able to watch 1 channel and record 2 others and have a time-shift feature. I found her a box that was near perfect and highly recommended on forums. She bought it and has been happy with it for 4 or so years.

In the last couple of months, playbacks have been skipping for her. One of her friends recommended ditching the PVR and buying a TV with the PVR functionality included. I suggested to her that there are cheaper and better solutions, namely getting me to fix it. I've been reading a fair bit about the units and have a 4-pronged plan of attack to fix it.

I don't know if I can fix it or not, but certainly want to give it a try. When it comes to research and problem solving, I am in my element.

Fast

So I made a post about a week ago about how I was lacking motivation to lose weight. In the week since I posted that, I've heard alot about a fasting diet being mentioned. The basic premise is that you eat what you want for 5 days a week and only eat a quarter of a standard dietary intake 2 days a week.

The merits of the science behind it sound plausible. The hardest thing about losing weight is that unlike smoking, drinking or most other habits, you cannot simply give up food. You have to continue it in moderation. I don't know if this diet is just another fad or a silver bullet, but its something i'd like to give a go.

I had an aborted attempt at a fast day last Saturday, but decided to give it another try today. I had a small peach with my soy cappuccino for breakfast. By the time I finished my lunchtime walk I was starving. I wanted to buy a salad but was tempted into eating a seafood quiche with it. My big crack was getting a Cornetto when I filled up with petrol on the way home - It was hot and I was stuck in traffic.. I had a few rice biscuits when I finally made it home and had a small fruit salad for dinner.

Whilst I was not as disciplined as I was hoping for, I made a decent start I must admit that I am still hungry now and quite moody and tired as a result. I'm hoping I can keep this up. I am still not brave enough to get on the scale but my belt wil be the first indications as to whether or not this works. I may not be in the right frame of mind right now, but at least this is better than doing nothing feeling sorry for myself.

Death to the broadsheet

Today the SMH went from a broadsheet to a compact format. They are cautious not to use the word "tabloid" as that denotes a trashy form of journalism often dished out by News limited. The website has had a makeover as well, I expect in preparation for the paywall due in the coming months.

We have had the Daily Telegraph delivered at home for years. I hate the paper and would never pay for it. Dad likes it because it is loaded with biased stories that support his point of view. I think that the SMH being a broadsheet is a good thing. I've never worked out a way to hold the large pages and I wonder if the Daily Telegraph would be as successful if the SMH had put its act together years ago and changed format before the decline that all printed newspapers are going through right now.

I can imagine that there are fish and chip shops and charity outlets up in arms about losing such a solid source of disposable wrapping paper. I don't know if the move is too little, too late or not but I wish them all the best with it - the more competition News Limited has, the better it is for all.

The Bourne Legacy

It has been a couple of weeks since I have watched a movie and today was The Bourne Legacy's turn.It came highly recommended from my father whom rated it higher than Skyfall, although a coworker who had seen   both scoffed at the suggestion insisting that Skyfall was far superior.

 

I have seen the previous Bourne movies, I don't know what it is about this series but I find it very easy to forget them. The storylines feel intertwined and there were several references to previous movies, however, I wasn't able to make the links. It almost feels like Bourne should be a TV show instead of a movie series - the plots are detailed enough, but thats just my opinion.

As far as action goes, this was great. The effects were a little better in Skyfall but this was certainly up to scratch. I also liked how the plot developed - how you get constant and significant scraps at the beginning but have to wait until two thirds through it to make sense of what they mean.

All in all, I'd probably give the edge to Skyfall but there wasn't much difference between them. I'd love to sit down and re-watch the Bourne series one day which may affect this opinion.
Either way, its not a bad flick.

Light on my spinach.

My dad is quite strong. he is built like an ox and generally has no trouble lifting heavy objects. He often recalls stories from his childhood where he would carry oversized reams of firewood from their country farm back to the house or his weightlifting days as a teenager. He has other similar stories which are often busted out on days like tiese..

Today we bought a wardrobe and I help him move it around. Whilst you could sense that it wasn't my dads favourite Sunday task, he seemed to manage it with ease. I on the other hand am quite weak by comparison. I look strong and try but the lifting makes my arms shake. I don't know if it is because I work in IT and never had to lift regularly or whether I am just not built for lifting, but either way, I feel useless when I have to lift and struggle. I do my best, but it isn't easy!

It makes you wonder how much of be is biological and how much is environmental. If I had kids, what traits would I pass on? Would they be as weak as me or as strong as dad? Even so, would it be due to biological or environmental reasons? i guess there is no accurate answer, but the question has to be asked.

Rewarding a Bludger

I work in a cutthroat industry. There are several telecommunications equipment vendors out there and only a limited pool of customers. My company has a reputation as a market leader, however, is also relatively expensive and cost cutting, efficiencies and transformations are always at the front of upper managements plans. Labor costs being what they are, the Australian employee base has been gradually eroding over many years whilst people sparred are encouraged to be more adaptable and take on more work.

There is one particular employee who has been with the company a little over 8 years. He has a reputation for being invisible - he is a good talker but never does any work. His manager is based in Melbourne. My workplace allows people to work from home, but he takes true advantage of the privilege and turns up on average about once a month. There have often been snickerings my many, including yours truly, on just how he manages to keep his job. Is his manager incompetent? Is he blinded by this employees gift with words? Does this employee have a medical or personal condition making it difficult to get rid of him for legal reasons?

I have seen him turn up to work three times this week. Today I found out that he had been made redundant. He had kept the news quiet while he works his notice period, but will be entitled to at least 6 months pay. I think it is a positive move for the company as it is about time they cut their losses with this guy and am very surprised that it took them this long.

My walking partner was unaware of the redundancy until I told him, which is slightly odd since they are technically part of the same team. He is an older employee that would be ecstatic with a golden handshake and has a similar negative opinion of the employee in question. When I broke the news, he was quite upset. "Why is he rewarded for doing nothing?". He has a point - a more proactive manager could have dismissed him without a package. Maybe its because I am not looking for a package that I see the benefits of getting rid of him by any means outweighing the drawbacks of retaining him.