Tuesday, February 21, 2012

Smoke & Mirrors

The meeting that was supposed to happen with my boss and coworker...never did. It wasn't even mentioned but my coworker was in the bosses office after 5pm gushing about something.

Instead, I was given a new task of sitting on an hour long conference call 3 times a week. I'm assuming she thinks I have too much free time so she wants to help me fill my day so I can't do any more damage.

It's almost comical now but I'm getting tired of the way things are being handled. Guess it's time to stop trying to do anything more than my basic job. Keep my head down and my mouth shut.

That's gonna be a challenge! :0)

Sunday, February 19, 2012

Frustrated with work

I expected things to be different when I changed jobs last year. What I didn't expect was to find myself in a position where my abilities & actions are constantly being questioned.

I'm not accustomed to people that don't believe in me and it's very difficult to adjust to. I'm also not used to working with people that are so quick to judge you based on their preconceived notions.

Yes, I'm independent and I don't often ask for help...but there's a reason. I dont need help...at least not managing my workload. I have no problem asking my peers for help when I have questions but I don't have a problem with my workload at this point. One day, that may change...but don't judge me for not asking for help I don't need.

Maybe, instead of trying to make me feel bad for not asking for help, you might pay attention to the other things I'm doing...like helping others when needed. Accusing me of sabotaging a coworkers accounts is not the way to encourage me to help. Especially when you have no proof. Not to mention that the coworker was already making huge mistakes before I ever started helping. (See previous post for more details on this issue.)

I'm not one to look a gift horse in the mouth (job) but I'm not sure how much more of this I can take. I will try to be optimistic because I like my job and (most of) my coworkers but the overall atmosphere is less than appealing.


Saturday, February 18, 2012

Sometimes I wish I'd just kept my mouth shut

I have a coworker that is struggling to keep up with her accounts. There are a lot of factors involved, including high volumes, limited training and poor organization. I've been trying to help her but she is so unorganized that she can't clearly give me things to help her with.

We started out with me helping her clean out her email box. She had over 800 emails in her inbox and we couldn't tell what had been done and what hadn't. I deleted the daily "garbage" emails that don't require review or action and filed those things that were sent to her as back up docs. I also marked loads of emails with follow up flags and added comments to each about what actions she needed to take. I then went to her desk to show her what I had done and ask her to look at the items with the red flags first because they appeared most urgent.

It took me 2 days...but I did it. I also gave her a list of tips on things that I did to keep my email box cleaned up and told her to let me know if she wanted me to show her some other things she could try. I never heard back.

Now, I can't stand to look at her email box because she's back up at 100 unread emails again. She's missed or nearly missed some orders that I've had to point out to her and she still can't clearly give me things to help her with. I think she is also worried about causing someone else to be stressed out so she holds back asking for help.

Last night, I approached my boss and expressed my concerns. I was told that my coworker wasn't worried about stressing me out, she was afraid I would organize her to death and she wouldn't be able to find anything. Um, HELLO!?!?! She obviously hasn't seen her work station lately! She could use a little organization in her life right now.

Then, she went on to say that my coworker felt she had missed some items because "someone" had moved or deletes the emails from her inbox. But she was quick to say she wasn't pointing any fingers. What's funny is, I'm the only one that has access to her emails so, obviously, she was talking about me.

I would bet $100 that the emails she "missed" are sitting in her follow up email box with a red flag and a note from me telling her what needed to be done. I'm sure that hasn't been done so I'm a little peeved that she would accuse me of deleting them. I will be checking that email box on Monday and you can bet I will be informing my boss of the situation if those are all still sitting there, untouched.

This whole thing just ticks me off. She's gotten tons of email complaints from the customers and I think at least one of them has actually called our boss to complain, yet they have done nothing to resolve the issue except tell me to help her...which I can't if she doesn't even know what work she has to do.

Monday we are having a meeting to find out what we can do to get her on track. If this doesn't work, I may have to tell the boss that I'm not going to take time away from my customers to clean up her mess when she isn't even trying to do anything differently. She obviously has no organizational skills at this point and won't take any advice on the matter.

It's not my nature to purposely let someone fall on their face but I guess that is what they want to happen. The environment is not the most ideal and some people just aren't cut out for it. I can't make her be something she isn't...but I'll try. I WILL NOT take people accusing me of doing something I did not!

And I will be removing my access from her emails because I will not be accused of causing her to miss something again!

Monday, February 13, 2012

Frustrating day

Not sure why today seemed so much worse than any other. Maybe I was just tired but everything seemed to make me irritable today.

Or perhaps it's just that people were being extraordinarily dense today. Felt like I was dealing with a few children, some idiots & several micromanagers.

Just leave me alone & let me do ky job. And stop making a big deal out of little mistakes. I'm busy fixing some huge mistakes previous employees made...cut me some slack.

Need a long, uninterrupted sleep tonight.


Did you get your efficiency ranking?

Last week, Vectren sent letters out showing us where we rank in efficiency with 100 similar homes nearby. First of all, we live in a 700 sf duplex with almost no insulation. I hope there aren't 100 similar homes nearby.

At any rate, my current ranking is 75 out of 100. Horrible number but they also pointed out that I was number 96 last time. I guess when you look at it that way number 75 isn't so bad.

Some friends on FB were in agreement that we doubted anyone got a ranking over 50 because they were trying to make us all feel like it was our fault that our bills were high.

I'm happy to say that I found someone in the top 10%. My grandmother is at #16 out of the 100 similar homes in her area. Of course, the woodburner & fact that she won't heat the whole house or run the dryer probably helped her number a lot.

She even got smiley faces on her letter. I sure don't remember any smiley faces on my "#75" letter.



Sunday, February 12, 2012

Kids these days

Dear parents of teens,
Do you have any idea what your kids are doing online? Do you monitor their social media accounts? Do you know their passwords so you can control what they are doing?

Think this is an invasion of their privacy? Tough...until they grow up and move out, they shouldn't assume they have the right to any privacy at all.

It's pretty easy to identify a kid with parents that don't monitor their online activities. They post provocative pictures of themselves, curse & talk about doing drugs & having sex.

It's clear their parents let them surf the web unchecked. It's possible 90% of their posts are pure fiction...published to make themselves appear more interesting than they really are. But...how do you really know?

Seems too many parents take the "what I don't know won't hurt me" approach. Thinking that there won't be any problems if they ignore the signs.

Had a conversation with Josh about some of the things I've seen posted online in the last few weeks. He then had a talk with one of the girls because she was making jokes about rape. Seriously?!??!?!?!?! Where are the parents these days?

Pay attention, control your kids & be involved...before something bad happens!

Sunday, February 5, 2012

New Weight Loss Blog

Need to separate this blog filled with whining from my weight loss blogging. Here is the blog where I'll be updating my progress if anyone is interested.

http://weightnomorekao.blogspot.com/

A letter to my mom

Dear Mom,
Last Sunday, I posted a picture to Facebook that really upset you. In fact, you were so upset that you left work early to come home and relieve me of my babysitting duties. I type this on day 7 of the silent treatment you've decided to give as punishment. I must be a horrible daughter to post the picture below making a joke out of the dirty condition your stove is in. Obviously, this is an underlying attack on you in general (even though I tagged you and Justin in the picture).

"01/29/12 Dear residents on Idlewild...please clean your stove. I nearly burned the house down with 5 children in it. Sincerely, the babysitter! :0)"

I have to assume that this isn't the real cause of your dysfunction but possibly the straw that broke the camels back. However, I do question your ability to remain rational in situations that become stressful. It shouldn't surprise me, though. After 35 years, I'm well aware that you tend to get upset about trivial things and hold a grudge longer than anyone I've ever know.

As my mother, I assumed that you knew my personality well enough to remember that I make jokes about everything. It's my nature...it's who I am. You either don't know me at all...or don't care.

That day, you also mentioned being upset about something I had posted over a year ago about being stressed out because my credit was all maxed out. And yes, I probably mentioned that your house and $3000 transmission bill were on my credit. I think after all that I financed for you, I'm entitled to be a little stressed out about it. I won't be able to get a decent car loan until that house is paid off and I really need to get a new car soon! So what? Is that really worth holding a grudge over? Heck, is it really even worth getting upset about?

When you called yesterday, I thought maybe you had gotten over it and we could get back to normal. But, NO! You just needed me so you could remove your cell phone from my plan, but instead of waiting the 20 minutes it took me to get the message, call Verizon and then call you back, you just set up a new plan. Not even thinking that I would then be stuck paying the bill for your current line until the contract ended in a year. If you'd bothered to call before you went to the store, I could have taken care of it. But no...back to the silent treatment again. Heck, you weren't even nice to me when I called back to tell you I'd taken care of it.

So I called Verizon and had the guy call you to clear it up. Did you bother to call me & tell me it had been taken care of? Hell NO, you didn't even call me the first time to tell me your number had been changed.

So, after all this childishness, we are back to the silent treatment again. It's frustrating, but I'm not making the first step this time. You've done this to me before and I'm always the one that has to be the initiator. No more...if you want to have a relationship with me and Josh, you'd better get that chip off your shoulder, get your priorities in line and make your move.

I'm not going to do it this time!