In the time since we added a new staff member, I’ve noticed a number of operational and process issues that should be addressed.

1. The new staff member appears to have no clear job description and spends most of her time sleeping or in the lunchroom. In addition, bathroom breaks are far too frequent.
2. Existing staff seem to be spending most of their time training or otherwise assisting the new staff member.
3. There is as of yet no clearly defined date when the new staff member is expected to perform productive work.
4. Performance measures for the new position are unclear and undefined.
5. The contract for the new staff member appears to be far too generous; no remedial action is allowed for the first several months and the staff member cannot be fired or laid off for a minimum of 18 years after the contract was signed.

As a result I have some recommendations:

1. Any future increases in staffing should only occur if a business case can be produced to justify it.
2. All new staff contracts should include a probationary period.
3. Rather than train our own staff, we should seek to hire new staff who have already been trained by other organizations.

Unfortunately, it appears that the sponsor responsible for the hiring process is unwilling to accept these recommendations.

On January 14, 2009, at 6:20 PM, Áine Tinuola Brennan was born at Mount Sinai Hospital in Toronto, Canada. She was 19½ inches long at birth and weighed 7 pounds. You can see Áine in the picture over there to the left, as well as part of her mother Leslie’s arm and hand. So far most people seem to think she looks more like her mom than her dad, except for the skin colour which is a lot closer to mine.

By an amazing coincidence, January 14^th is also my mother Jo and late father Terry’s birthday. As my cousin Daragh said, she’s “the first Brennan with perfect timing”.

Her first name is Irish and is pronounced “awn-ya”. It means “splendour, radiance, brilliance” and is also a slight variation on my paternal grandmother’s name (that link takes you to a article written by my late uncle).

Her middle name is Yoruba and was picked out for us by Leslie’s father. It means “she who was loved from conception”.

Her arrival was a little scary—we had a placental abruption during the birth. Thankfully, the nurse on duty recognized the severity of the problem and tripped the alarm, which got a team of about 10 doctors and nurses into the room to perform an emergency delivery. Thankfully they were able to get Áine safely out of the birth canal and start her breathing on her own before she suffered any harm.

We’ve been home for a couple of nights now. Mother and daughter are doing well although last night Áine discovered cluster feeding at about 2 AM, so we’re not exactly alert. Leslie, the cats and I are all adjusting to the new situation as well as can be expected.

And if you thought I was talking about some other version 2, well, I apologize. Sort of.

Kevin Brennan, CBAP
Proud Dad