Ulrike Uhlig: Implementing feedback into our work culture
Everywhere I worked in the past, the only feedback that was asked of
employees was during a yearly evaluation meeting. These meetings always felt to me
like talking to Santa Claus and his Knecht Ruprecht. I was asked: Were you a good
employee last year? If yes, we might give you a raise. If no, admit all
your mistakes now, even if we already know everything, ho ho ho. And don't you talk about your feelings, or your
well-being, or say anything about the organization's (invisible)
hierarchies, otherwise we will put you on the "naughty list", and that's it with candy. The
yearly evaluation set aside, there was no other place to give feedback (except by escalating a matter by involving the Labour Court, if you happen to work in France, or going on strike, also mostly part of French culture).
Feedback allows to reflect on work processes, to situate oneself, and to get closure.
How surprised was I when, some years ago, I received an email from a
collaborator asking me: kindly for just few paragraphs (doesn t have to be
anything long) to hear from you about the process, your work, challenges
you had, or anything else you want to mention there.. Wow!This simple email allowed me to reflect about:
- What did I like about the project? What part of the work was fun, challenging, and creative?
- What went well or was complicated? How did our meetings work out? Were they productive? Was it easy for me to frame the work I have to do? Were expectations clearly defined? How were remarks and proposals for improvement presented to me? Did people test my work thoroughly and gave me useful feedback on mistakes or misunderstandings? Did I have to do lots of unexpected work? Were file formats, texts or other input not well formatted or unclear, or arrived late? Did I allocate enough time to the project? Was I late with delivering anything? Could I have done better?
- What is my overall conclusion for this project? Between what went well and what did not: were the issues, the workload, the assignments manageable? Am I willing to work with this person again? If yes, what needs to change? If no, why?
- What am I grateful for? What can I thank my colleagues/collaborators for? Did they have great communication skills, ideas, were they on time, did they voice issues early enough? How did it feel to work with them?
Here is my monthly update covering what I have been doing in the free software world during February 2020 (
A maintenance release 0.3.3.3.1 of 
It finally happened
On the 6th of April 2017, I finally took the plunge and 
Welcome to gambaru.de. Here is my monthly report that covers what I have been doing for Debian. If you re interested in Java, Games and LTS topics, this might be interesting for you.
Debian Games
As a cat owner, being surprised by cat intelligence delights me. They re not exactly smart like a human, but they are smart in cattish ways. The more I watch them and try to sort out what they re thinking, the more it pleases me to discover they can solve problems and adapt in recognizably intelligent ways, sometimes unique to each individual cat. Each time that happens, it evokes in me affectionate wonder.
Today, I had one of those joyful moments.
First, you need to understand that some months ago, I thought I had my male cat all figured out with respect to mealtimes. I had been cleaning up after my oafish boy who made a watery mess on the floor from his mother s bowl each morning. I was slightly annoyed, but was mostly curious, and had a hunch. A quick search of the web confirmed it: my cat was left-handed. Not only that, but I learned this is typical for males, whereas females tend to be right-handed. Right away, I knew what I had to do: I adjusted the position of their water bowls relative to their food, swapping them from right to left; the messy morning feedings ceased. I congratulated myself for my cleverness.
You see, after the swap, as he hooked the kibbles with his left paw out of the right-hand bowl, they would land immediately on the floor where he could give them chase. The swap caused the messes to cease because before, his left-handed scoops would land the kibbles in the water to the right; he would then have to scoop the kibble out onto the floor, sprinkling water everywhere! Furthermore, the sodden kibble tended to not skitter so much, decreasing his fun. Or so I thought. Clearly, I reasoned, having sated himself on the entire contents of his own bowl, he turned to pilfering his mother s leftovers for some exciting kittenish play. I had evidence to back it up, too: he and his mother both seem to enjoy this game, a regular fixture of their mealtime routines. She, too, is adept at hooking out the kibbles, though mysteriously, without making a mess in her water, whichever way the bowls are oriented. I chalked this up to his general clumsiness of movement vs. her daintiness and precision, something I had observed many times before.
Come to think of it, lately, I ve been seeing more mess around his mother s bowl again. Hmm. I don t know why I didn t stop to consider why
And then my cat surprised me again.
This morning, with Shadow behind my back as I sat at my computer, finishing up his morning meal at his mother s bowl, I thought I heard something odd. Or rather, I didn t hear something. The familiar skitter-skitter sound of kibbles evading capture was missing. So I turned and looked. My dear, devious boy had squished his overgrown body behind his mother s bowls, nudging them ever so slightly askew to fit the small space. Now the bowl orientation was swapped back again. Stunned, I watched him carefully flip out a kibble with his left paw. Plop! Into the water on the right. Concentrating, he fished for it. A miss! He casually licked the water from his paw. Another try. Swoop! Plop, onto the floor. No chase now, just satisfied munching of his somewhat mushy kibble. And then it dawned on me that I had got it somewhat wrong. Yes, he enjoyed Chase the Kibble, like his mom, but I never recognized he had been indulging in a favourite pastime, peculiarly his own
I had judged his mealtime messes as accidents, a very human way of thinking about my problem. Little did I know, it was deliberate! His private game was Bobbing for Kibbles. I don t know if it s the altered texture, or dabbling in the bowl, but whatever the reason, due to my meddling, he had been deprived of this pleasure. No worries, a thwarted cat will find a way. And that is the joy of cat intelligence.