I am way behind on my apparently ill-advised movie watching goal for the year. To meet the goal I will need to watch 26 movies in the next 3.5 months, approximately. That will not happen. New goal for 2013: Watch more TV shows!
TV series are arguably an equivalent art form to movies now, with cable channels throwing tons of money and people like Alan Ball at them. I have not had more time for movies because I have been positively enthralled by shows like Downton Abbey, Louie, Homeland, Girls, and now... Oh, now. Now I am completely and utterly addicted (ha) to Breaking Bad. Greg and I started watching it on Netflix and got sucked in right away by the amazingly realistic characters and the fascinating plot. We are now up to the middle of season 4, and we literally can't stand to watch anything else. We have Real Time with Bill Mahers and Louies and Daily Shows piling up on the DVR, and they will all just have to wait until there are NO MORE Breaking Bads, because we can't watch anything else.
It's just such an intense, semi-movie-like experience to watch episodes of a series one after the other, instead of waiting a week or months in between. We have so many more we want to see, too. We haven't seen The Wire or Deadwood or... well, there are plenty to keep us busy.
I have completely fallen in love with my little Kindle, too. I bought a pink faux leather case on eBay, and I've even taken it to work to read on lunch breaks a few times. I've been reading a fairly mindless but cheerful and entertaining ebook series about witches. I saw a review of the one I'm reading now (#3) on Amazon that said the reviewer would not be buying any more of these relentlessly cheerful, unrealistically nice novels. But that's exactly what I am enjoying! I don't know, I'm not in the mood for realism and darkness. Or maybe I'm getting enough from Mr. White.
Work is going fine. I have literally read the entire manual for the program they hired me to know about, but I had no idea how many changes needed to be made, and I had no idea how far beyond my knowledge and experience this would go. I am liking the challenge, though. And I have to admit, being basically boss-less and working completely independently is nice for me. I find that if I keep trying I actually CAN figure out things that seem hopeless. This whole job feels oddly temporary, but so far I think I am doing a great job (even though, truly, no one sees it yet at all) and I'm feeling optimistic.
I have wanted to write about how excited I am to go see Adam Ant in concert on the 29th of this month, and it is such an emotional thing for me that I can't find the words. I'll keep trying, but in the meantime I have gotten thrilly butterfly-tummy at least once a day just at the mere idea of it.
I feel beneath the white
There is a red skin suffering
From centuries of taming
No method in our madness
Just pride about our manner
Antpeople are the warriors
Antmusic is the banner
A new Royal Family
a wild nobility
we are the family
~ Kings of the Wild Frontier by Adam Ant and Marco Pirroni
Tell me those drums don't make you want to buy front row center tickets to hear it live, and to DANCE.
Showing posts with label new job. Show all posts
Showing posts with label new job. Show all posts
Tuesday, September 11, 2012
Sunday, August 19, 2012
1) Take a note. 2) Make a list. 3) Repeat.
So week two is over.
One thing I decided to do in this new job is buy a pretty black leather case to carry around a notebook in (a spiral-bound notebook, I hate those pads and how the pages get all curly at the top when you have to keep flipping them over the back). I was determined to carry it around with me all the time and write down everything. So many times I'll hear something and it just seems so obvious I know I'll remember it, but then an hour later I've already forgotten. And since everything at this job is still new to me, sometimes I don't know immediately if a piece of information I've just received will turn out to be important or not.
So I've been writing everything down, all the time, and going back over what I've written to compile lists of things that need to be done, lists of questions, lists of problems. I have to admit, I am fond of lists, I find them comforting. On my third day it occurred to me to keep a record of what I do, so every day I keep a running list of what meetings I've been in, who I've talked to, what I accomplished, etc. I don't know why, really, except that I'm trying so hard to be organized and to not get overwhelmed. And I suppose a part of it is that I really don't know how long it'll take me to get everything working and figured out, and I want to be sure if someone comes up to me in a week or two and wants to know what the hell I've been doing, I can say HERE, I have documentation!
Because holy crap, I feel like I'm not getting anywhere very quickly. When I interviewed for this job they made it sound like everything was in place and it just wasn't being used, so they wanted someone to come in and use the tools they had. The more I get into the scheduling/forecasting program, I am realizing why they never used it or liked it. It's freaking broken. A giant chunk of it is not working correctly, and I doubt if it ever did. I have finally managed to coordinate a techie guy at my company with a techie guy at the software company, and tomorrow afternoon he's scheduled to remotely access our server to try to figure it out and, please please please, fix it.
Also, and this is HUGE: it was set up wrong initially. The way it was done split all the numbers into six sections, basically, and that wasn't necessary for this call center at all. So now I'm having to look into going back and re-doing the basic configuration.
Do I know how to do that? No! But I have a manual and access to their help desk and trainers and I am hopeful that I can figure it out and get it done. But it's going to take a while. And in the meantime I'm still struggling with computer problems of my own, like my email not working, etc. It's frustrating.
Who the hell knows when I will actually be getting to do any of the stuff they said they expected of me when they hired me, like forecasting and scheduling.
On Wednesday morning I got called into the office of the Director, and he told me that as of that day my boss was no longer with the company. WHAT. They said they were not going to replace him, so I assume he got fired. Now I'm reporting to a guy in a whole different department, which is a little weird. And he so far has been pretty distant, in that I have had no contact with him of any kind since the meeting where I found out he was my new boss. I was kind of glad to have my notebook filled with every damn thing I've done since I started, just in case.
I feel slightly adrift because there is literally no one who knows what I'm doing or what the status is on the things I'm trying to do. Frankly, I kind of prefer working independently, and have actually been getting more done now that I don't have to worry about putting together those time-consuming reports that my previous boss kept asking for. But it's weird.
The need for what I am doing is so obvious, I can't imagine they are going to let me go. Plus I think they would have already if they were going to. But it's a bit disorienting.
At the same time, now that I can see how sucky this broken program was, I can understand why they never liked using it and finally just abandoned it. Poor little broken program. It has so many awesome things it can do, I feel like if I can just get everything to be right they will be amazed and they'll love it. And I'll be the rockstar who pulled it all together.
One thing I decided to do in this new job is buy a pretty black leather case to carry around a notebook in (a spiral-bound notebook, I hate those pads and how the pages get all curly at the top when you have to keep flipping them over the back). I was determined to carry it around with me all the time and write down everything. So many times I'll hear something and it just seems so obvious I know I'll remember it, but then an hour later I've already forgotten. And since everything at this job is still new to me, sometimes I don't know immediately if a piece of information I've just received will turn out to be important or not.
So I've been writing everything down, all the time, and going back over what I've written to compile lists of things that need to be done, lists of questions, lists of problems. I have to admit, I am fond of lists, I find them comforting. On my third day it occurred to me to keep a record of what I do, so every day I keep a running list of what meetings I've been in, who I've talked to, what I accomplished, etc. I don't know why, really, except that I'm trying so hard to be organized and to not get overwhelmed. And I suppose a part of it is that I really don't know how long it'll take me to get everything working and figured out, and I want to be sure if someone comes up to me in a week or two and wants to know what the hell I've been doing, I can say HERE, I have documentation!
Because holy crap, I feel like I'm not getting anywhere very quickly. When I interviewed for this job they made it sound like everything was in place and it just wasn't being used, so they wanted someone to come in and use the tools they had. The more I get into the scheduling/forecasting program, I am realizing why they never used it or liked it. It's freaking broken. A giant chunk of it is not working correctly, and I doubt if it ever did. I have finally managed to coordinate a techie guy at my company with a techie guy at the software company, and tomorrow afternoon he's scheduled to remotely access our server to try to figure it out and, please please please, fix it.
Also, and this is HUGE: it was set up wrong initially. The way it was done split all the numbers into six sections, basically, and that wasn't necessary for this call center at all. So now I'm having to look into going back and re-doing the basic configuration.
Do I know how to do that? No! But I have a manual and access to their help desk and trainers and I am hopeful that I can figure it out and get it done. But it's going to take a while. And in the meantime I'm still struggling with computer problems of my own, like my email not working, etc. It's frustrating.
Who the hell knows when I will actually be getting to do any of the stuff they said they expected of me when they hired me, like forecasting and scheduling.
On Wednesday morning I got called into the office of the Director, and he told me that as of that day my boss was no longer with the company. WHAT. They said they were not going to replace him, so I assume he got fired. Now I'm reporting to a guy in a whole different department, which is a little weird. And he so far has been pretty distant, in that I have had no contact with him of any kind since the meeting where I found out he was my new boss. I was kind of glad to have my notebook filled with every damn thing I've done since I started, just in case.
I feel slightly adrift because there is literally no one who knows what I'm doing or what the status is on the things I'm trying to do. Frankly, I kind of prefer working independently, and have actually been getting more done now that I don't have to worry about putting together those time-consuming reports that my previous boss kept asking for. But it's weird.
The need for what I am doing is so obvious, I can't imagine they are going to let me go. Plus I think they would have already if they were going to. But it's a bit disorienting.
At the same time, now that I can see how sucky this broken program was, I can understand why they never liked using it and finally just abandoned it. Poor little broken program. It has so many awesome things it can do, I feel like if I can just get everything to be right they will be amazed and they'll love it. And I'll be the rockstar who pulled it all together.
Sunday, August 12, 2012
The New Job: Week One
It's been a long time since I was so happy for the weekend.
The hardest part of this job for me is going to be that it's not clearly defined. They want me to come in and tell them what needs to be changed, what processes can be more efficient, what procedures can be put in place to maximize profits. This means a lot of putting numbers in various spreadsheets and then analyzing them. It would be so much easier to come in and just be trained to do something, to look at how it's been done before and how other people are doing it and then do it myself, instead of having to make it all up from scratch.
I have a lot of trouble not putting too much pressure on myself. Since there are no defined parameters, there's nothing stopping me from feeling like I have to do everything right away. Friday afternoon my new boss (who seems nice) asked me to put together this giant mass of numbers to look for a pattern, and I'm either going to have to make a miraculous discovery about Excel tomorrow morning or tell him that it'll take me forever to do what he asked for, and make sure he thinks it's worth it. Especially given that the main program I need to be using is not set up at all yet, so no changes can really be made until that's done.
I literally almost cried at my desk. Then I forced myself to calm down and regain perspective. He doesn't have a clear idea of exactly what he asked, that's why he isn't doing it himself, that's why they hired me. There has been zero reason to think everyone isn't fine with my progress so far, and yet my default position seems to be to beat myself up for not doing enough. I don't know why I am so hard on myself, but it's going to be my focus now to STOP DOING THAT. I'm a smart person, things take as long as they take, that's all. Realistically, so far I think I'm doing great, really.
Everyone who works there has been so nice. It makes me kind of sad to remember my former job, in retrospect the lack of financial support seems crippling. Everything is just so pretty and new and clean at this new company. At my former company, due to budget cuts they wouldn't give me a 2012 calendar. At this new place, they set up a giant pile of fancy office supplies on my desk (although now that I think of it, they didn't include a calendar, ha) and told me to just ask for whatever else I might need. Maybe tomorrow I'll ask for a calendar, just to see what happens.
Unfortunately my desk is in the call center. My boss and the director of the call center both sort of apologized for that, apparently this company has grown so much so quickly that they are running out of space. It's not bad, except for the fact that this call center is dedicated to sales, and therefore they try to keep a very upbeat and energetic atmosphere. Which means relatively loud music. Seriously, sometime try to look at millions of teeny numbers on a spreadsheet the size of Canada and make sense of it while Call Me Maybe reverberates in your head. I actually tried earplugs on Friday, but they didn't help.
They also put me right next to Loud Guy. I am familiar with him, he works in every call center that has ever existed. And he never stays seated, he stands up and faces every direction and paces to and fro as far as his headset cord will let him. And because this is a call center with only one type of call coming in, he says the exact same sales spiel every single time. I know it by heart now. And I can tell by the slight variations if he's getting close to a sale, or losing it.
On the other side of me is Trainer Lady, and her tiny cubicle is piled high with cardboard boxes full of training binders and brochures and things. There's almost no room for her chair because of all the stuff stacked around her on the floor. She's been very sweet to help me with my computer woes (I still don't have access to the department drive), even though she's an older lady who admittedly is not an expert with computers.
Overall it went well, I think. Last night Greg and I celebrated with dinner at the Melting Pot, a place I have wanted to go but have balked at the price. I had a dirty martini and steak and shrimp and cheesecake dipped in chocolate, and it was a very nice and celebratory Date Night.
Tomorrow begins my new determination to be nice to myself for a change, dammit.
The hardest part of this job for me is going to be that it's not clearly defined. They want me to come in and tell them what needs to be changed, what processes can be more efficient, what procedures can be put in place to maximize profits. This means a lot of putting numbers in various spreadsheets and then analyzing them. It would be so much easier to come in and just be trained to do something, to look at how it's been done before and how other people are doing it and then do it myself, instead of having to make it all up from scratch.
I have a lot of trouble not putting too much pressure on myself. Since there are no defined parameters, there's nothing stopping me from feeling like I have to do everything right away. Friday afternoon my new boss (who seems nice) asked me to put together this giant mass of numbers to look for a pattern, and I'm either going to have to make a miraculous discovery about Excel tomorrow morning or tell him that it'll take me forever to do what he asked for, and make sure he thinks it's worth it. Especially given that the main program I need to be using is not set up at all yet, so no changes can really be made until that's done.
I literally almost cried at my desk. Then I forced myself to calm down and regain perspective. He doesn't have a clear idea of exactly what he asked, that's why he isn't doing it himself, that's why they hired me. There has been zero reason to think everyone isn't fine with my progress so far, and yet my default position seems to be to beat myself up for not doing enough. I don't know why I am so hard on myself, but it's going to be my focus now to STOP DOING THAT. I'm a smart person, things take as long as they take, that's all. Realistically, so far I think I'm doing great, really.
Everyone who works there has been so nice. It makes me kind of sad to remember my former job, in retrospect the lack of financial support seems crippling. Everything is just so pretty and new and clean at this new company. At my former company, due to budget cuts they wouldn't give me a 2012 calendar. At this new place, they set up a giant pile of fancy office supplies on my desk (although now that I think of it, they didn't include a calendar, ha) and told me to just ask for whatever else I might need. Maybe tomorrow I'll ask for a calendar, just to see what happens.
Unfortunately my desk is in the call center. My boss and the director of the call center both sort of apologized for that, apparently this company has grown so much so quickly that they are running out of space. It's not bad, except for the fact that this call center is dedicated to sales, and therefore they try to keep a very upbeat and energetic atmosphere. Which means relatively loud music. Seriously, sometime try to look at millions of teeny numbers on a spreadsheet the size of Canada and make sense of it while Call Me Maybe reverberates in your head. I actually tried earplugs on Friday, but they didn't help.
They also put me right next to Loud Guy. I am familiar with him, he works in every call center that has ever existed. And he never stays seated, he stands up and faces every direction and paces to and fro as far as his headset cord will let him. And because this is a call center with only one type of call coming in, he says the exact same sales spiel every single time. I know it by heart now. And I can tell by the slight variations if he's getting close to a sale, or losing it.
On the other side of me is Trainer Lady, and her tiny cubicle is piled high with cardboard boxes full of training binders and brochures and things. There's almost no room for her chair because of all the stuff stacked around her on the floor. She's been very sweet to help me with my computer woes (I still don't have access to the department drive), even though she's an older lady who admittedly is not an expert with computers.
Overall it went well, I think. Last night Greg and I celebrated with dinner at the Melting Pot, a place I have wanted to go but have balked at the price. I had a dirty martini and steak and shrimp and cheesecake dipped in chocolate, and it was a very nice and celebratory Date Night.
Tomorrow begins my new determination to be nice to myself for a change, dammit.
 |
| Blurry pic our Serbian/Greek server took with Greg's iPhone |
Sunday, August 5, 2012
Starting My New Job Tomorrow
Well, my summer vacation is over.
The first whole day is just an orientation deal. That's interesting, they certainly didn't have that at my old company. I don't know how paranoid I should be about posting about my new job, so I will refrain from saying the name of the company. I will say that it is a huge hotel chain, one of the largest on the planet. BIG company, much bigger than my old one. I will be working with the timeshare division. Hopefully one thing I'll learn tomorrow is how the employee discount for hotel rooms works, that could certainly come in very handy.
On Tuesday I'll start my actual job job. I'm pretty nervous. I don't even know where the restroom is. This company is doing so well that they moved into this new building just a few months ago, and already they are outgrowing it, which means that the guy who will be my boss couldn't even tell me where I would be working. I might have an office, I might be stuck in the middle of the call center. I hope they can find someplace at least a little quiet and a little private.
It's kind of a terrifying thing to start a new job, but especially after so freakin' long at one place. It's been forever since I started all over with a whole new place. It's weird, though, I kind of feel like I got sucked into a black hole at my last job. I never intended to stay there for so, so, so long, and I was never especially happy about it. I feel like I have finally broken free. Now I have a good resume and profiles on multiple job hunting sites, so I am trying to think of this new opportunity as a step, not as a place to stay till I die.
I'm still nervous, though. I'll just feel more comfortable when I know how it'll be.
The first whole day is just an orientation deal. That's interesting, they certainly didn't have that at my old company. I don't know how paranoid I should be about posting about my new job, so I will refrain from saying the name of the company. I will say that it is a huge hotel chain, one of the largest on the planet. BIG company, much bigger than my old one. I will be working with the timeshare division. Hopefully one thing I'll learn tomorrow is how the employee discount for hotel rooms works, that could certainly come in very handy.
On Tuesday I'll start my actual job job. I'm pretty nervous. I don't even know where the restroom is. This company is doing so well that they moved into this new building just a few months ago, and already they are outgrowing it, which means that the guy who will be my boss couldn't even tell me where I would be working. I might have an office, I might be stuck in the middle of the call center. I hope they can find someplace at least a little quiet and a little private.
It's kind of a terrifying thing to start a new job, but especially after so freakin' long at one place. It's been forever since I started all over with a whole new place. It's weird, though, I kind of feel like I got sucked into a black hole at my last job. I never intended to stay there for so, so, so long, and I was never especially happy about it. I feel like I have finally broken free. Now I have a good resume and profiles on multiple job hunting sites, so I am trying to think of this new opportunity as a step, not as a place to stay till I die.
I'm still nervous, though. I'll just feel more comfortable when I know how it'll be.
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