About sixteen years ago, I met him for the first time. My trainwreck sibling brought home this adorable puppy he had no business adopting because he had not one thing in his life that wasn’t a mess. I was furious at my sibling – he didn’t even take care of himself, how could he drag
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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.
It’s not anything so nuts as actually running the numbers, precisely. Sort of. I just decided that in the spirit of getting ready to pick up and fly where the winds may take me (am I mixing my metaphors?), it’s more than time for me to get more of my financial paperwork online.
Also, my receipts were all hanging out in a single envelope, and that’s unsightly. While I’m not ready to go all out like FB’s scan-a-thon, oh but I would LOVE to, I did want to get started.
So, I grabbed all my receipts, and sat up organizing them into several categories for the Schedule C portion of my income: Gasoline, Business Clothing, Business Gifts, Cell Phone, Dry Cleaning, Travel and Office Supplies. Then, I opened up a new spreadsheet and a kajillion new sheets on Google Docs. The dates, amounts and any applicable notes for each receipt were recorded in chronological order. It only took about two hours to sort, create, and enter the data.
Now that all of the amounts are in a single place, I can easily PDF the whole thing, and take them to my friend’s house to hang out with his dad and learn how to really do taxes next year.
My next step? Getting a good deal on a scanner and scanning all of the tons of files that I’ve got in my room. Offhand, I have files for:
~ auto insurance, maintenance and registration records for three cars
~ Rollover IRA statements
~ FSA records
~ old BT credit card records
~ airline and hotel rewards membership numbers and information
~ tons of credit card statements from the past few years
~ household bills/statements
~ cell phone records
~ payroll records
~ past three or four years’ worth of tax returns
I could recycle some serious paper!
*Now I’m oogling multipage scanners. I don’t need that…. I need to save money more than I do time. Then again, hmmm……*
September 4, 2008
One of my best buddies in the world invited me to his new house that he bought with his brother for a BBQ on Monday. I know he’s splitting the cost, and the house is in the boonies, but I’m so proud of him for having achieved my goal of buying a house first in the group. (Why would I have that goal? I don’t know. For having worked so hard for so long, I wanted something to show for it.)
Unfortunately, not 20 minutes after the grand tour, another guest was fixing a burger when the mustard bottle exploded all over the guest, the island, the new tile …. and the brand new cream-colored carpet.
*Oh. My. Lord.*
And can I tell you? Boys have the worst cleaning reaction time, ever. I was on my knees, dabbing up the mustard without rubbing it in within thirty seconds. Two of the boys were oblivious, and the other three were wringing their hands, in shock. And of course, of all the cleaning tips I could think of (listed below, I think courtesy of DebtHater), dealing with mustard stains in the carpet was not one.
I used plenty of water once I got the mass of mustard dabbed up and all that was left were the stained fibers, then used dish soap and more water. One of the three splotches disappeared completely, and the other stains became light enough to be mistaken for pee stains instead of mustard. Small favors, yes?
What should I really have done?
_______________________________
Other useful cleaning tips, not applicable to the above situation:
Problem: Ink on clothes
Solution: Spray the ink stain with copious amounts of hairspray (the cheaper the better). Then take an ordinary bar of soap (no dye, no perfume) and rub it into the stain. Then hand rinse it in cold water.
Problem: Melted candle wax out on carpets.
Solution: Put a folded paper towel over the wax and then press down on it with a warm iron (no steam). After about 10 seconds, lift it up, turn the paper towel to a clean spot and repeat, over and over until the wax was absorbed. If the wax was colored and left a stain, pour rubbing alcohol on it (make sure the carpet is colorfast) and scrub it out with a toothbrush.
Problem: Ugly yellow water stains in the bathtub.
Solution: Hydrogen peroxide and cream of tartar. Mix them together into a thin paste, then pour it onto the stain and rub it in with a sponge or cloth.
[Click on image to enlarge]
September 2, 2008
This weekend, I tried every which way to put together an outfit appropriate for making an excellent first impression in a business-casual encounter. Not for quite a formal Interview, call it a prelude to an interview sort of dealie. I wanted to establish a (preferably black) trouser, crisp button down shirt and belt combination as a go-to staple in my wardrobe.
Unfortunately, my attempts to look sharper at work on a daily basis have reduced my best black pants to second-best. They’re still nice, but they’ve lost that sharp, crisp look that gives off *professional* so well. Alas, they’re a bit worn. That’s what happen, y’understand, when you actually wear things on a regular basis and possibly also when you’re most frequently shopping bargain bin. At my size, bargain bin and quality don’t always go hand in hand.
In my frustration, I groused to a dude friend about the pants I didn’t think would be tailored quickly enough, and he convinced me to go shopping.
Macys, I decided. Macys would have a grand Labor Day Sale and I was armed with a coupon and gift card. To Macys!
To Macys we went, and seven pairs of trousers later, my attention span somewhere between my heel and the tiger bandaid on my foot to fend off a threatening blister, I was about to give up. I had, for once, been smart enough to wear heels of the approximately appropriate height that would normally be worn with the pants. Smart, I say! Except my feet were tired within twenty minutes and being somewhat less of a shopping maven as, say, my dude friend, I was ready to give up. He refused to hear anything of it, “we haven’t even gotten started!” and chivvied my lazy bum out to the next stores.
Le sigh.
It was a good job he did though because we hit the jackpot at Ann Taylor Loft. I only had a $30 gift card there, but I found three pairs of pants, all 00P, and promptly sent him to scour the sales racks while I found the dressing room. Had not yet gotten my hopes up since the price tag I saw was $79, when I tried on the first pair and my jaw dropped. They FIT. Perfectly. Seriously, they fit absolutely perfectly. Waist, length, tush, rise, everything. The only possible objection was that the fabric looked like a softer, heavier cottony material, instead of that more coarse, crisp polyester blend that’s commonly accepted as the more professional look. It also buttoned across the front, so it didn’t have belt loops. The next pair was the preferred material, and just about a perfect fit as well. It turned out they were the $79 pair, though, and for more than eighty dollars after tax, I’d like to see some lining in the pants. The first pair were *only* $60, machine washable, ever so comfortable and once again: fit perfectly.
I bought them immediately. So, chalk one up as a win for the wardrobe, and a $30 hit to the pocketbook. Overall? No blister = a good day.
Caveat: I would normally never advocate the immediate, impulse purchase of a nonsale item, but … it happens. And it happens more often because the good quality 00P sizes don’t occur very frequently in nature. This is an unfortunate, incontrovertible fact. I promise to take very good care of them.
P.S. I suck. There was a printable 20% coupon online valid this weekend. Drat. Should have checked before I left.
September 1, 2008
| Retirement Savings |
Rollover IRA: $1,452
Roth IRA: $3,779
401(a): $4,810
403(b): $16,045
Total: $26,086 (25,670)
|
| Emergency Savings |
Catastrophe: $18,547 (18,521)
Problem Cushion: $0
|
| Short Term Goals |
Car Maintenance: $953
Car Insurance: $604
Travel/Con: $406
Taxes: $3,474
Moving: $15
Total: $5,452 (5,582)
|
| Long Term Goals |
House Down Payment: $100
|
| Investment Loans |
Prosper-ish: $12,630
Personal Loan: $5,000
Savings Bond: $357 (current accrued value)
Total: $17,997
|
| Total Assets |
Non-Liquid: $26,086
Semi-Liquid: $17,997
Liquid: $18,547
Expense Acct: $1,693
Goals Savings: $5,452
Total: $69,775 (67,412)
|
| Debt and Liabilities |
Truck: $3,909
Citi: $429
Chase: $397
Rent: $1,360
Total: $6,095
|
| Net Worth |
$63,680 (61,095)
|
— Up 4% —
As usual, my retirement accounts are barely maintaining, and only thanks to continuous contributions, and the great 10% match from my employer.
The insurance company only paid for my deductible and hasn’t reimbursed me for the other $300+ part of the auto bill, so I need to follow up with them tomorrow, but the returned $1000 was a very welcome addition to the expense account.
I’m happy that I still have not had to dig into the emergency fund for any reason at all, and can’t wait to make more substantial contributions to the moving fund. I should be due for an extra dollop of income thanks to all the overtime I’ve been pulling, and happily, they’re actually paying the correct amount of overtime. It’s complicated.
August 28, 2008
BF and I are having a major difference of opinions and I’ve a bit of turmoil about it. In an nutshell? He’s ready for marriage, and I’m not. The point is being pressed because there’s a possibility that I may be, for a number of reasons, required to make some significant life changes and the idea that this LDR may be indefinitely LD is distressing to him.
The uncertainty is distressing to me as well, but the idea of dropping my career mid-stride to move to the Bay without any job prospects or direction just to marry him now that he’s ready to start a family is not palatable either. I don’t oppose the idea of starting a family, and certainly don’t oppose the idea of starting it with him, but even without considering the current upheaval that I’m navigating, it’s unreasonable to be upset/impatient with me because I’m not on the same timetable.
We’re a number of years apart, and I’m simply not ready to make that commitment before I’m actually ready.
I’ve got to take another step on my career path; there are things I want to accomplish that may take me away from where he’s based and while an LD BF is workable, I definitely don’t want to have an LD husband!
Limiting myself to NorCal in finding a challenging and rewarding job is daunting when my industry is most concentrated on the East Coast.
Besides the practical considerations, I need at least a year to re-establish myself and get my bearings outside of a highly toxic and discriminatory environment; I’ve lost my balance in a lot of ways and I’ve got entirely the wrong mentality to be starting a stressful new phase of a relationship.
Don’t get me wrong: I want marriage, and I want kids — eventually. And I definitely want my pets and my financial security and all of that. But I don’t want to jump the gun on marriage, especially not job and prospect-less, because I don’t want to start my marriage resentful and insecure in not pulling my own weight in the relationship.
I’m having flash-forwards to being alone in a strange city years from now, having pursued career instead of family and finding myself unhappy with both. Alternatively, I’m seeing myself in the apartment, jobhunting and depressed, but married. There’s a middle road, somewhere, I just know there is.
This, too, shall pass. Right?
August 27, 2008
*looking around*
Is it really Wednesday? The last Wednesday of the month? Already?
Geez.
I feel like it’s been ages since I last blogged, and it’s probably due to the action-packed-ness of life. Let’s see. When we last met … oh, that was yesterday? Good grief!
Well, since yesterday I’ve:
~ discovered that I would need to make 81% more money than I do now to be “equally comfortable” in New York.
~ forced myself to go to a networking event in the downtown area (I hate driving in downtown, especially during high traffic), exchanged business cards with two people, and got out of the scary dark neighborhood safely.
~ met with NY friends who were in town for a couple days, and recommended that they try public transportation to get back to the airport. Happy to report that went smooth as silk, and they enjoyed not sitting in traffic greatly.
Spending since Friday?
~ we had a mandatory work event on Saturday so I combined a help-a-coworker-out situation with the work event so we could carpool part of the way: + saved on a little gas.
~ went to tea with a coupla the gals: – $14
~ visited a comic shop: priceless (and I didn’t spend anything): $0
~ bought ten pounds of pork shoulder ribs (that’ll last our family a good while, we cook it various ways and I like pork): – $10
~ did my “home”work at Borders: free air conditioning! and made money, of course.
~ brother actually paid a bit of money towards household bills: + $100
~ missed a friend’s 21st birthday party because my train was late: $0
~ went to the networking event at a bar: $0
~ went to another bar afterwards to meet up with my friends: $4 for a burger I bought before getting TO the bar. Tacky? Only if the staff were around. We hung out on the patio after 10 when drinks were no longer allowed outside so there were no witnesses, and their kitchen was closed by the time I got there anyway.
My car is being a brat and celebrating our fifth year together by falling apart in tiny ways:
1. The auto lock on the driver’s side doesn’t work.
2. The window on the passenger’s side doesn’t work.
3. The “cabin” light switch needs strange toggling to work.
4. The heater went out this morning.
