Stress Relief!

One thing I noticed being away for so long from my wife and kids is that I get stressed out easily. Only then do I realise how much the impact of having my own family around on reducing my stress level. I believe I could handle the pressure and stress while at work, it's just when I get back to my parents' house, there's no way for me to destress or forget the challenges at work. I end up doing more work and getting more worried about the task I'm working on. Hope this will end soon or I need to find some ways to release the tension.

On other matters, the project I'm working on proceeding well so far, as well as it could be, given the limited time we were given to deliver. As expected, my major challenge is managing the various parties and people involved in this project. Handling users' expectations, controlling the vendor and at the same time, controlling the overall schedule and other aspects of the project. It is quite a big task and it being a high profile project kind of doesn't help. However, I hope to hang on and see this task through right through the end. There are still some areas which can be improved such as the communication within my company's team and the contractor's PM must really buck up. He's just so emotional and defensive at times. Just do what you're expected to do lah and don't wait to be reminded.

I also would like to see more commitment from my company's team involved in this project. I was kind of parachuted into this project and I don't have any direct reports, compared to my last job. This sort of posed another challenge as I have to get people to complete tasks for me while at the same time they are reporting to someone else. So far, I've not encountered so much problem on this and hope the support will continue. I do have a problem with regards to ownership and commitment. I see the users coming in during the weekends or going back late at night to complete tasks, and I wonder why we cannot match them in this case. Is it because of the lack of ownership to ensure your work area is completed? I suppose these are all the challenges that I need to manage in the coming days and weeks. Conflicts are bound to happen but as long everyone work together to complete the project, I'm sure we can be successful.

Just waiting for Friday to happen so that I can go back to see my wife and kids. :(