Posts tagged work
Who knew Scrabble could be therapeutic?
Feb 10th
I didn’t write last week. I couldn’t even keep it up for one week. But in my defense, work was insane. I came in to the office at 6:15 or so one morning, and by 7:30 or so a couple mornings (I don’t usually work extra hours, so I’m not used to it). That was good, because I got a lot more done before the phones start ringing and everyone else got here.
This reminds me of when I was in elementary school. I was always good at school – got almost straight A’s (or E’s and S+’s when I was in elementary school), and never really struggled with it. But I have always had a hard time concentrating on work when there is a lot of outside noise. This is probably why I developed into a speedy test-taker. If you are one of the first ones done, you don’t have to worry so much about other people talking and screwing up your concentration.
Anyway, when I was in second grade (I’m pretty sure it was second grade – with Mrs. Rislov (?sp)), we were working on some sort of worksheet or something in class. I don’t even remember what it was. All I remember is that I didn’t finish it before everyone started talking. They were second graders – you can’t really fault them for talking. But I COULD NOT concentrate enough to finish my work, and kept getting distracted. I was missing out on stuff! So eventually the teacher sent me to the principal’s office to finish, because it was quiet. But I was mortified. I did NOT get into trouble in school. Ever.* I was obviously scarred for life.
Work lately has been crazy – with a million things to do, and people calling our office and yelling at me.** And sometimes it’s just too overwhelming. So instead of taking a smoke break (I don’t smoke) or going for a walk (I would just get more overwhelmed thinking about work while walking) I take a quick Scrabble break on Facebook. The game saves even when you aren’t online, and you don’t both need to be on there at the same time, so it’s perfect for playing over the course of a few days when you are just making a move or two on a break. And it makes me think about something else for 5 minutes. And it has saved my sanity this last week.
What do you do to relax when work is getting overwhelming?
*Except for the time I walked out on my gym class in like 5th or 6th grade because the gym teacher was encouraging the other team to cheat. I’m such a rebel. I know.
**Only 1 person called our office and yelled at me, but it wasn’t my account and it wasn’t anything I can do anything about. And also, there is never a good reason to yell at people over the phone. If you are that upset hang up and call back later. I don’t want to listen to it.
Drowning in work! Send chocolate!
Jan 29th
It’s the end of the month so work is a little busier than usual anyway, but these past couple days I have gotten just buried. Coming in at 6am on a Friday is just wrong, but it looks like that’s what I’ll be doing.
Remind me please that I should be thankful to have a job at all. I know that’s the truth, but it’s hard to remember sometimes.
Thursday already? SWEET!
Aug 7th
That sums up my general thoughts about today. It’s a nice sunny morning, and I’m in a good mood. I’ve been debating about whether or not I should talk about some changes that may or may not be happening in my life. On the one hand, nothing is for sure, and so why get people excited about something that might not happen (including myself)? And since this blog isn’t totally anonymous I sometimes worry about what I write…that it will get back to someone I don’t want it to (see my rant a couple weeks ago about payday). But on the other hand, I don’t like censoring myself on here, and I am so excited even about the possibilities that I don’t know what else to talk about right now. So here we go.
I have applied for a couple jobs completely out of my current industry. I know that most people are always keeping their eyes open for opportunities, and smart people are always open to changes. But I have always been a loyal employee wherever I’ve worked. And it feels weird looking for a new job when my current employer doesn’t know that I’m considering leaving if I get the right offer. It’s not at all that I don’t like my boss, or the people in my office. My previous rant notwithstanding, I have really enjoyed working there. But there is no room for me to move up in the organization unless I want to go into sales. And while I don’t mind soft sales or promoting something I believe in, I don’t want to go into insurance sales. (Note: I am not saying that I do not believe in insurance. Everyone should carry insurance. Everyone should carry enough insurance. Not doing so can ruin your life. Seriously. Don’t do it.)
While thinking about that, I’ve been thinking about whether I even want to stay in the industry permanently. Living in Duluth, my options are extremely limited…it’s not like we have insurance companies headquartered here that I could go work for and do something entirely different than what I do now. My options are pretty limited.
So, I had made the decision that I wanted to move on to the next challenge. And I thought of what I would really like to do. And here I have a confession to make. I LOVE HR blogs. I read about 5 or 6 of them regularly, including a few that are well-respected people within the HR industry. I find Human Resources totally fascinating, and I think it is an area in which I would do well. And since HR is much easier to break into than the only other job I could think of that I would really love (teaching college courses), I have decided to pursue that route. And don’t worry, I’m very aware that working in HR isn’t just like reading an HR blog. I know that it will have its own challenges. I want to do it anyway.
And so here I am. Obviously I’m just at the beginning stages of my search, and I’ve only applied for 2 jobs so far, but the thought that I’m ready to move forward when the right opportunity presents itself makes me really happy.
If you pray, say a prayer…my current job was my first “real” job, and so this makes me very nervous.
AHHH!
Aug 1st
You know those days when you want to get to work super-early so that you can get a bunch of stuff done before everyone else gets there? That was supposed to be today for me. I had the alarm set for 5am. And then I woke up and it was 8:04. AHHH!!!
Bad enough I slept in, but did it have to be on a Friday? I’m the only one in our office from 8-8:30 on Fridays. Of course. So if I smell funny and my hair looks like crap they will just have to deal with it. Because I was here by 8:15. How’s that for a commute?
Hopefully everyone else’s Fridays are starting off better than mine!
I’m in a pissy mood today…
Jul 9th
So no questions, although I do want to get to them this week – I swear! Maybe tonight after a beer or 2.
The reason I’m pissy is because of my work. One of the owners of our smallish company does the payroll himself. They went to direct deposit within the past year or so. Since they did that, we’ve been paid late about 4 times or so. And these aren’t “oh I got deathly ill the day before payday and couldn’t make it to the computer.” They were “I have too much sh*# to do, and can’t be bothered to make sure I get payroll done by 3pm the day before payday, so you all are getting screwed over.” I could understand the sick excuse. I cannot stand (or understand) the too-busy excuse. Hire it out to a company that does payroll if it’s so time consuming. The thing is, most of us are “salaried” anyway, and so our paychecks are the exact same from payperiod to payperiod. It’s not that complicated.
I think part of the problem (who am I kidding? probably the entire problem) is that the bosses don’t live paycheck to paycheck like some of the rest of us (I know I should be budgeting better, but that’s an entirely different discussion and does not make this an ok thing to do). And so they don’t understand why it’s important. Also, it’s rather intimidating to go yell at your boss when they are screwing up, considering they control your raises and other information. So no one really talks to him about it. But you wouldn’t think we would need to. You would think that respect for your employees would be enough to make sure you get this done on time.
Bah. I’m probably not making much sense because I’m so pissed about this. Sure, it’s only 1 day, but that’s one more day without groceries. One more day without gas for the car. Grr. And thank God I don’t have bill withdrawals that happen right on the 10th (which is when payday is supposed to be). Because that would be a huge mess. Other people in my office aren’t so lucky.
So, in conclusion: if you are in charge of making sure an office full of people get paid on time (or even if it’s only one person) GET YOUR SHIT TOGETHER AND DO IT ALREADY. Ahem. Sorry for the yelling. I’ll go back to my corner now.
Maybe I take myself too seriously sometimes…
Jun 20th
Do you ever have times where you think that you must not be very good at your job? Maybe a customer yells at you and hangs up on you, and then out of nowhere (as far as you can tell) another customer suddenly decides to go with another agent with no explanation of why they left. And it’s just the latest in a recent string of accounts either leaving or just closing up shop. On the one hand, I know that most of this is not in my control – what I was being yelled at about wasn’t my fault (seriously), and I can’t help someone stay in business if they want to close. But it’s hard not to take it personally when you spend all day working on accounts and you talk to these people on a regular basis.
I know that I’m just a little overemotional right now, and that’s part of it, but I feel like I must not be doing a good enough job if these people aren’t happy. I must be able to do something better. And yet…I don’t know. Sometimes I don’t know that I see myself here permanently…I like my workplace – the people are great, and I like working downtown. But I don’t know if insurance is what I want to do the rest of my life. But then, I don’t know what else I would do. I know, in theory, that I’m young and that I could do pretty much anything. But anything is too broad of a category for me to choose from. I want someone to just sit me down and tell me what I would be good at, what I would like doing, and how to get started doing that. Any takers? ;-)
Edit:
Alyson (my college roommate) was here this weekend. We were talking about how we were both in this boat – not happy with our current work status, but not sure what to do about it. She shared something someone else had said to her, and we thought it summed up our work wishes quite well. “I’m not f***ing cut out for customer service.” Give me a job that I don’t have to talk to customers. In fact, I would prefer a job without a phone at all, but I understand that’s not really realistic. So one only other people I work with or other people in my industry call, please. Thanks.
The time! It is flying!
May 28th
10 days left. And still so much to do. And we are having people stay at our apartment this weekend and it’s still full of boxes and such (although when Ryan’s desk gets here that will help).
I apologize for the lack of posting lately, but you’ll have to forgive me. Apparently I’m getting married in 10 DAYS!!! And there is a lot of stuff to do to get ready to get married. Especially when moving TAKES OVER YOUR LIFE for like 3 weeks. I’m so over moving it’s not even funny. Thankfully, I think we are done. Ryan has to go back and take down the internet (hahahaha….Ryan is taking down the internet…like it’s a tube that you can take down….shut up. I thought it was funny). And he has to take down the christmas lights that have been attached to our upstairs deck for a year and a half (oops).
Well, it’s time to head to work. Only 3 days left including today. Which would be awesome if I didn’t have SO MUCH WORK to do. And if I knew how to prepare for being gone for 2 weeks. Yikes. Any advice, internets?? I’ve never missed this much work in a row….especially not at a real job that has actual work involved that can’t just be taken over by someone else easily.
If I don’t get back here (although I hope to, but the way things are going…probably not so much), I will talk to you all after I become Mrs. instead of Miss. Yay!
10 DAYS!!
It’s Friday! *doing the happy dance*
Mar 28th
I love Fridays.
I am reminded of a Douglas Adams quote. “I love deadlines. I love the whooshing sound they make as they fly by.” hehehehe
Totally random, I know. But I love Douglas Adams too. Can you see a theme? I love EVERYTHING!
We are getting company this weekend to celebrate Sam’s birthday. He’s going to be a quarter-century old on Monday! Woo hoo! It should be good times.
In other news…I don’t really have other news. I talked to my mom and my maid of honor last night, which was fun. It had been a while since I’ve talked to Mom, so it was good to chat about stuff while she was waiting for her flight at the airport in Minneapolis. PS – you know the state is big when your company will fly you to a different part of it rather than having you drive. Or you are very important. I think my mom is important AND the state is big. ;-)
I got an email from my aunt Marcia (Hi, Aunt Marcia!) today detailing the plans for “Ladies Culture Day 2008″ and I am so excited! Jesus Christ Superstar at the Orpheum, with dinner afterward and a shower (bridal, not wet)! It shall be swell. I love my family.
Anyway, I should get going. Work is short-staffed today because Dinny the plague-monkey* got sent home (she really is a plague-monkey – she’s been hacking a lung up since Wednesday and she looked and sounded awful when she came in this morning). I’m sure she was relieved to go home, but she’s such a worrier. It’s cute, but sometimes you just need to let it go and take care of yourself!
*Plague-monkey is a term Ryan came up with for people who are obviously sick, although not necessarily with the plague. But maybe.
