March 3, 2009
While still employed
~ Complete as many Professional Development classes as possible. I might, if I stay employed through April and get off the wait list for one set of classes, manage to get enough classes in before the layoff to complete my Certificate in Management. *cross your fingers for me!*
~ If there’s space, or I get de-waitlisted, I’d like to take Excel and Illustrator classes. We’ll see about approval.
~ A friend’s fiance is a freelance web designer who is willing to teach me web design and programming skills. Whoo! I’m calling it an “apprenticeship” for now, I’ll do work for him, he’ll teach me how, and maybe when I get good, he’ll hire me on! We’ll see. For now, I want to learn some basics since I’m pretty clueless. It’ll come in handy here and professionally.
~ In other good news, when they changed our retirement plan last July, we were automatically vested. So whenever the axe falls, I get to roll whatever little money accrued from my first two years into my existing retirement plan. Since I didn’t contribute anything, it should be qualified for a relatively hassle free rollover. It’s good for a few hundred, I figure. I just hope that it can also be sent into my 403(b) as well. (Hope hope hope).
~ Do the math. Well-Heeled reminded me that if I do that math, unemployment will cover a good amount of my household expenses, even with 3.5 people. So I can breathe a little easier knowing that my e-fund will last longer than previously anticipated. (Now I have to do the math to see how much longer that means.)
~ Need to settle the final details and applications for: renter’s insurance, long term care insurance, life insurance, safety deposit box, my will. Whatever I can get employer rates on (LTC, for one) and is portable is a priority.
December 24, 2008
Even if I’m awake at 6, 8 or 10, my brain doesn’t seem to really be IN until around 11. No wonder I’m routine-centric, I’d waste half the day waking up before getting ’round to anything useful, otherwise.
It’s the 11th day of Christmas!
I only have 11 of the 12 steps in my post about pending resignation and layoffs written.
And that’s all the elevenses I’ve got. It’s Christmas Eve and, ensconced in a quilt from my best friend’s mum, heater at my feet, I’m trying to transfer all my files from a Mac to the new PC with Vista in the most tedious manner possible. Not that the goal was to find the most tedious manner possible, it’s just that all the methods of saving data (to external hard drive, to memory stick) tha are most efficient are not compatible between the Mac and my Vaio. Sooo I’m burning CDs. Uh-huh. I’m burning CDs on the Mac, unloading the files to the Vaio, clearing the disk, repeat.
I’d complain but I don’t want to. It’s forcing me to learn my way around Vista, the new programs, and shortcut keys, and awful as it sounds, that’s how I learn best. Involuntarily and out of necessity. And, I’m discovering what’s on all my unlabeled CDs. Only in one case was that sorta exciting — found some old music from my college years! 🙂
Possibly the best part about this is that it’ll allow me to discard more clutter, set up the new computer, clean up the work compy of anything personal, and motivates me to copy over my language CDs to the computer and discard those boxes and CDs too! Italian, Japanese, Spanish and Chinese, here I come!
I must admit, though, while I’m not an Apple Addict, the Mac is So Much Simpler when it comes to this basic organization of files. It really is. But that’s why I bought the PC (other than the much more affordable price tag), I’d hate to become so attached to one platform that I forgot how to use the other.
September 5, 2008
I love this little tip for a more positive, productive approach to addressing an underperformer. It acknowledges past performance, if there was any, and emphasizes communication which is so much better than just imposing a top-down decision meant to “fix” the employee without actually interacting with him or her:
Budgets are too tight, margins too close. You simply can’t tolerate underperforming employees. But replacing deadwood is arduous and time-consuming. Plus, successors need months to start producing value.
So, take a shot at improving unsatisfactory performance–especially if the employee has shown value in the past. One common cause of poor performance is confusion over expectations. Ask the employee to list the three most important things he’s paid to do. Do the same exercise for him. Most likely, the two lists will differ dramatically. Use them to align expectations more clearly. You can then help your employee focus on doing the right things.
Adapted from “Will You Help or Heave Your Underperformers?” by Paul Michelman, Harvard Management Update, March 2004.
July 14, 2008
After a few unanswered emails inquiring about the local Toastmasters meetings, I was advised to just go.
Ugh. Really? I have a thing about showing up to events uninvited, unexpected, and uncomfortable. It’s part of my whole thing about talking to people I don’t know.
My friend said “grow a spine, and just go.” With that encouraging push, I screwed up the courage, and drove myself over to the restaurant where I was directed to the back room.
Oy. I dragged my feet a bit, and came home feeling emotionally exhausted from the likely misplaced nervosity, but I’m glad I went. If only so I could come back and tell you that I did grow a spine and went!
They threatened to make me participate in the Table Topics, and gently ribbed me when I said that I couldn’t guarantee that I would not pass out if forced to speak at my very first meeting, and generally welcomed me to observe and explained each part of the meeting so I wouldn’t be too lost. Apparently it was a smaller than usual gathering, which was really nice for my first visit. I’m going to visit their meeting again in a few weeks, as well as some Wednesday night meetings to get a feel for the different clubs and find the one that fits me best.
So far, so good.
May 16, 2008
There’s a day I was going to be out on sick leave. I’d finally managed to coordinate three important appointments in a single day because dealing with piecemeal appointments is aggravating and being out of the office for personal business has become taboo due to disintegrating relationships. What happens? Naturally, BB wants his birthday celebration scheduled the very same day.
Of course.
He’s completely unaware of my appointments, as is his wont, but there’s no profit in pointing that out.
In the spirit of learning how to think about all the possible political ramifications of this conflict, I’m weighing the pros and cons of rescheduling all my appointments or refusing to accommodate BB’s whims.
Stand my ground because:
I don’t have to struggle to coordinate three departments’ schedules.
I win personally. Professionally, no win. They don’t care if I have to go through a lot of trouble or not.
I don’t look like a pushover.
I win personally. Professionally, possibly negative. They want me to be cooperative with them. I can stand my ground with other people, just not them.
My presence isn’t that important.
It’s not, but I don’t gain anything by proving it. However, my absence may be remarked upon and I would have no control over the commentary that might ensue.
Change the appointments because:
As above, it’s not my presence that’s as important as my absence would be.
Yes, other colleagues have been absent for other staff members’ birthdays, but this is the Big Boss. It’s different.
It’s not impossible and doesn’t cost me financially to reschedule.
Unless it was a prohibitively expensive trip or appointment, the trade-off would be an intangible benefit to a tangible cost.
LB is all about sacrifice.
And is demonstrably bitter about the appointments of various kinds and trips that he’s chosen to give up. Obviously, they were all choices on his part, but he’s definitely bitter about it, so it doesn’t matter that it was his choice to do so. As long as it looks like sacrifice to him …..
Ultimately, it seems that I have nothing to gain, but potentially could lose a chance to rebuild frayed relationships if I choose to retain my current appointments instead of taking the time to reschedule for a later date. Even if the effort turns out to be futile, ie: they change the date of the celebration, the effort to accommodate them was made. While it could be construed as overly accommodating, or even syncophantic behavior which I’m not noted for, it’s also a concession. And if I concede this battle, knowing what and why I’m conceding, I’ll be more prepared for other battles that may be more important to fight. (ie: Con. I’m not giving that up.)
Rusty though they are, I feel like I’m working out my political chops a bit.
May 14, 2008
I even had a note on my planner that the book would arrive on Friday the 16th, in case it was late, so I was uber-excited to find a fat package in my mailbox three days early.
I’ve already started reading it, and am 100 pages in. I stopped, though, because there’s a lot of good material in there, and I want to absorb and practice some of the thinking that Reardon talks about, in chunks, before moving on to the next chapters. I’ll post about it as I go along.
*excited*
May 8, 2008
Back in the day, I was relatively decent at office politics. I knew who the enemies likely were, after a while, after a few hard knocks, and learned when to keep my mouth shut and when to talk, mostly. I did ok for myself. But over the last several months, I’ve lost my groove. Somewhere along the path of chaos and upheaval, I just plain lost my way.
Well, no more. I may not be long for this job, but I need to learn from this mess and get my political sea legs back under me. Determination alone, though, hasn’t been enough, so I’ve ordered this book for a refresher and perhaps new insights that I haven’t learned through observation:
In Ms. Miniducky style, I didn’t just order it from Amazon and add another $15 worth of filler order to get my free shipping, though I was tempted. I ordered through ebates for a 4% rebate (less than the 5% from Fatwallet) but that triggered my first purchase bonus of $10. Yay! Here’s hoping this has good information.
