Hypocritical Discrimination

We've really become hypocrites when dealing with discrimination these days. It's ok to run your business the way you want...unless you happen to upset someone that is different from you.

A christian baker refused to bake a cake for a gay wedding and is sued, harassed and put out of business

A muslim truck driver refuses to deliver beer on religious grounds, is fired, sues the company...and wins.

Apparently, religious freedom doesn't go both ways...at least not if you're a christian. Sure seems like those that claim to be christian are getting the short end of the stick in these situations. You have to be tolerant and accepting of all other races, genders, sexual orientations, etc but they don't have to reciprocate.

What I find very disturbing about the bakery incident is the statement from the attorney on the case.
"At first blush, it may seem reasonable that a private business should be able to refuse service to anyone it chooses," Spence wrote. "This view, however, fails to take into account the cost to society and the hurt caused to persons who are denied service simply because of who they are."

Say what? "The cost to society and the hurt..." More proof that we've become a land of pansies that can't hand adulthood without someone there to soothe our egos if we even get a hint that someone doesn't like us.

Get over it butter cup! That's life. There are always going to be people that don't like you. Suck it up!

Why do we keep catering to these whiny ass people that want something for nothing? Grow a pair, get a job, take responsibility and stop the damn whining! Those of us that aren't offended by everything are sick of hearing it!

I just want a chance

After a recent disappointment I've been rethinking my plan for the rest of my life. What the hell do I want to do until I die? I don't know the answer to that question and that's a problem.

I've never had a clear career goal in mind but I've learned over the years that I'm happiest at work when I can investigate and fix things. So, where does that put me? Unfortunately, the positions that would allow me to do that at my current company (apparently) require a degree. I can't even get a courtesy interview even though I feel I could do what is listed in the job description if given the chance.

It's so frustrating to work for a company that doesn't seem to be willing to take a chance on you when your last employer almost always did. It's hard to feel pride in your job when you never get any recognition for anything that you do and you're overlooked for special projects in favor of 2 or 3 of the boss's favorites. I was able to ignore these practices until they decided to promote some folks internally and I know who their top 2 are, and I don't feel they are qualified to hold a supervisory position.

I'm also very upset with myself for not realizing that I needed to be that "fake" character during my interview to advance to the next level. It's sad to say that but I really feel like the first round of interviews was nothing more than a personality contest...which I'm never good at. I've never been good at bragging on myself but you have to be able to do that, without going overboard, in an interview. I think I've only ever been through 3 or 4 job interviews in my life and I've never gotten very good at it.

It's time I step up my game and get more involved so they know what I'm capable of. Instead of holding back my ideas and suggestions because I'm not really in a position to implement them, I'm going to start telling them how I feel things could be done differently to make things better, more efficient, easier. Showing them that I have the experience & ideas to make things happen.

I have to make them realize that they made a mistake when they didn't choose me for the position because I. CAN. DO. IT! In the meantime, I'll be looking internally & externally for other opportunities that will allow me to utilize my experience & skills...and make more money, of course. 😀

At some point, I may need to look into an online degree program to get some sort of diploma on my resume...since that appears to be one hurdle that some employers just can't get over. Actually had a recruiter tell me that I had the experience but since I didn't have any "education" I wasn't really in the running...and they never called me again.

It's so frustrating that experience seems to be a curse these days. They want new graduates with no experience so they can pay them less and mold them into whatever they want. I'm willing to learn new things but I can also offer feedback from my experiences and history that could be beneficial to the company. Just give me a chance.

I'm in the middle of having too much experience and not enough education so most places won't touch me with a 10 foot pole. I'm going to have to step up my game and get my life/career back on track.

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)

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.

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!

New Job Self-Service Training

Is this a new trend where companies sit new employees in front of a computer and tell them to train themselves via computer based training? I can see where using this for part of the training information can be helpful; however, I do not suggest this be the majority of the training program.

On September 19th, I started a new job and, what is scheduled to be, 6 weeks of training. So far, about 80% of it has been self taught. Don't get me wrong, I don't need constant supervision and I like to have some time to review and learn on my own but we spent 6+ days working on the same set of curriculum. It took me less than 1/2 a day to get through the computer based training so the rest of the time I was left to "practice" in the system and find my own way to learn other things about the system we will  be using. A couple of us actually started making copies of live purchase orders from the other reps so we could practice what we will be doing once we get out of training.

I don't know about anyone else but we need more training intervention to keep the entire group on track and at the same pace. Because we weren't all progressing at the same level some of us had more "free time" than others. Basically, we covered entering a sales order and the various steps and processes involved in a new order. It really wasn't something that I think needed a weeks worth of practice.

Do we need to practice to learn? Yes!
Will we benefit from practicing the same 3-4 steps for a week? No!
Will we make mistakes when we go live? Probably.

We need more real life examples of what we should expect when we get out on the floor and start dealing with customers. We had to beg for examples of what would be on the first test and our training refuses to even give us a clue about what is going to be on the 2nd test on Tuesday.

Monday (1 day) will be spent going over a step that we've been practicing on our own all week. As if we've never seen or done it before. I'm just a little confused about the goals here and what is expected. I think if I could sit with someone that has live customers and experience I would learn more about what happens in a real day for them.

Unfortunately, the other reps are new as well, just here a few months, so there aren't any real stable folks to fall  back on and observe. I really hope things calm down and start to make more sense soon. I can do CBT's all day long but until I can actually see what a real request or customer interaction is like I am blind to my new job.

Hoping for patience because we've still got 4 more weeks to go!

I'm a perfectionist...and it sucks!

Ok, let me preface this by saying I'm only an anal retentive, perfectionist at work. :)

At home my dishes sit in the sink for days, dirty clothes overflow the basket & I don't always put clean clothes away. I'm less concerned with perfection because very few people see my house so I'm allowed to be a slob within these walls.

At work, I want everything to be perfect & I cannot stand it when I struggle to find the answer to something.

Today was a prime example of this. We had been given several hours to go through an online, self service training which covered the basics of the system. Then we spent another couple hours walking through it with the trainer and getting a little more detail. Then, we had several hours to "play" in the system. Tomorrow, we have a test on the info covered the last 3 days.

We got a few sample questions and a couple of them were items we had only covered for about 60 seconds. The trainer refused to tell us anything to help us find the answers and I was extremely frustrated with the entire scenario. I get very mad at myself when I can't grasp a new concept or figure out the answer to something.

Right now, I'm going to go through my 30+ pages of notes & screen shots and hope her questions make sense tomorrow so I don't completely bomb the test.

Can't wait til we can actually get into real life scenarios instead of all this hypothetical stuff. I learn much better with real situations to work with.

Job acquired!

On Friday, I finally received the call I was waiting for. Job training starts 9/19/11 and I'll be working with at least 2 folks I've worked with before. Can't wait!

Day 3 - Going Insane

I know it does me no good to dwell on the amount of time I've been waiting. I also know that it's only been 2.5 days of actual waiting time after they said they would begin calling people back. I just can't help but be stressed out about it.

I'm going to try to remain as calm as possible through tomorrow and then, I'm going to have to start looking in other directions. I was so sure this was the one, and it still could be, but I'm really getting anxious about the future.

I don't like it and I need to change it...soon!

Day 2-Still no news

I know I shouldn't stress about it but I can't stop. They were supposed to start making calls yesterday and they had less than 25 interviews the first round so there should have been less this time.

I can't help but be anxious. This is the most promising lead I've had and if I don't get this job I'm going to have to change my plans for the future. Just not sure what to do but something has to change soon.

Maybe they'll call tomorrow. :)

8 months wasted?

Today is the first day of what could, potentially, be a new road in my life. You may know that I lost my job in January and have been looking for one ever since. Been having a hard time even getting interviews but not really sure why. I think I fall in between what employers think they want...12 years of experience but no college degree so people won't even give me a second thought.

Posted for a job at a company where a previous co-worker is employed and got an interview because she put in a good word for me. Luckily, I also managed to get a 2nd interview last week. I thought both went well even though I was very nervous at the beginning of both. It's hard to get back into the interview process when you haven't done one in 12 years. I feel like I'm a little rusty. :)

Anyway, interviews were to be completed Monday and calls to be made Tuesday or Wednesday. I haven't heard back yet. I know it's just the first day but I have placed all my hope in this one position because it's one of the 2 that have been promising in the 8 months that I've been looking. If I don't get this, I'm pretty sure there will be tears and self loathing while I try to determine what I did that was so wrong to prevent me from getting an offer.

The next thing I have to consider is what I'm going to do if I don't get this job. Obviously, I'll have to keep looking but I may be at a point where I have no choice but to go back to school to get that degree that employers are apparently so concerned about. Now, what should I study?

It will have to be something I can do online because unemployment won't last forever and I have a kid and household to support. I was thinking about accounting. There always seem to be jobs that require this sort of degree and I like numbers, even if I'm not all that good with them. Maybe going to school for it would be a good thing and accounting degrees could be general enough to carry over to other job areas too, right?

I just don't know...of course, it all depends on the financial aid. I can't afford to pay anything so if I can't get enough financial aid to pay for it 100% + books I can't do it! I hope I didn't waste the last 8 months when I could/should have been going to school. Just not sure what to do!

What might have been

Let me preface this by saying I'm not suicidal or homicidal. I just needed to get some things off my chest since I can't afford a shrink.

I've been doing a lot of thinking lately about what my life would be like if my past had been different. Just thinking about the coming school year and the struggles that are already starting, makes me want to go to sleep and never wake up.

I have to find a job soon but I don't know that I can trust Josh to stay home & out of trouble while I'm at work. Also, how many hours will we spend each night fighting over homework that he doesn't want to do?

I want to cry just thinking about it. I only have 1 kid to deal with. It shouldn't be so hard for him to just do what he is supposed to, be truthful & stop being an ass!

I just want things to work out and for the hassles to decrease for a change. I sure hope the 7 months of unemployment wasn't my rest period because that was not restful at all.

I just want some peace & cooperation.

Dream Job Averted

Ok, it wasn't exactly my dream job but it was the closest thing to what I had done over the last 12 years and I knew I could do it. I know several people that work for the company and I landed an interview a little over a month ago. I felt it went well, but then...I waited! After nearly 3 weeks I sent a follow up email, hoping it would at least elicit a response if the job had been filled or I was no longer being considered. I got nothing.

I expect to get nothing when I submit a blind application. I can even accept getting no response after a phone interview. However, once I've made the trip to your business to have a face to face interview I'd expect at least a response to my email. At any rate, I got nothing whatsoever to indicate my standings in the hiring process.

Maybe I was just a courtesy interview because I knew someone that put in a good word with the CEO. I don't care...is a response too much to expect? Even if you had no intention of calling all the rejected applicants shouldn't I at least have expected a simple response to my follow up email?

At any rate, I've been hanging on, all this time, hoping that somehow I'd gotten the job. At precisely 7:40pm CST tonight all those hopes were dashed thanks to Facebook! My previous boss updated her current employer and she had taken my job! The job I applied for. The job I interviewed for...twice. The job I knew about before her because my neighbor works there and told me about it 3 weeks before it was even posted.

Of course, as soon as I saw her post her new employer I had to call her up and let her know that she had stolen my job! Boy, does it pay to be on good terms with your previous boss so you can actually have those conversations without anyone getting ticked off. All seriousness aside...I'm ok with her getting the job over me. She has a lot more experience and will do a fantastic job. Not to mention that I wasn't completely excited about having people reporting to me again. I can do it...but it's not my favorite form of torture.

I'm gonna take that as a sign that there is something better out there for me.









I'm gonna remain hopeful that this was just practice for something bigger and better that is coming my way. I just hope that "something" gets here soon!

Another day, another rejection

Is it possible that employers are afraid of people that appear over qualified for a position? I am so tired of being ignored and rejected for jobs that I know I can do. I have 12 years of financial services experience, some of that as a supervisor in a call center but I cannot even get a job as a bank teller or at the registration desk at the hospital.

- Do they suppose I won't be happy and I'll leave soon after being trained? You would think my 12 years with the same company would show that I'm not a job hopper.

- Do they think I would come in and try to change things? Change isn't always bad. :)

- Do they think I want too much money? They might be surprised at what I'm willing to accept.

Maybe I should clean up my resume and make it look like I did almost nothing at my last place of employment. If they think I'm just interested in entry level jobs, maybe I can at least get my foot in the door.

Perhaps I should take a different approach going forward. When I receive a rejection letter, I should respond and ask them for more specifics. Did I not interview well, am I over qualified, did they have someone internal in mind all along? What am I doing wrong that is keeping me on this train of unemployment?

I'm really starting to get frustrated and I don't like it. I have seen the people that are currently working at some of these places I've applied (and been rejected) with. It's a huge blow to my ego knowing some of these people are able to get and keep a job but I can't.

Business Consultants-Helpful or Harmful?

Overall, I'd say consultants are a good thing to have because they can offer an unbiased view of your company and help you think of ways to improve that you may never have thought about. They may also suggest changes that will not work as they envision and could cause more damage than good. Just because they make a suggestion doesn't mean it's the best idea for your company.

That being said, I wish consulting firms weren't so driven to provide some sort of suggested improvements. It's very possible that the current procedures are working the best for all involved and there is nothing wrong with saying that you have no suggestions. Consultants don't always know what's best for each company.

Case in point, the purchase of CMC by 5th 3rd Bank.

BACKGROUND: 5th 3rd purchased CMC in January 2006. In July 2009, Fifth Third sold 51% of the CMC/Fifth Third Processing Solutions brand to Advent International. In 2011, the new company became known as Vantiv.

We were assured at the beginning that nothing would change and this was being done to provide CMC with more capital so it could continue to function effectively, as is. Boy, did that change fast.

5th 3rd decided to bring in an outside consulting firm, The LoBue Group, to review the processes in the CMC office and the OH office where similar jobs were being performed. The goal was to see how we could mesh our servicing so we could help each other leverage call center coverage, skills, etc. At least, that's what we thought the goal was.

During every visit from a LoBue consultant we were told how impressed they were with our people, our processes and our technology. Even saying that ours was better than the OH office on several occasions. We expected that our servers would merge and both sites would begin to handle the activities of the other to provide the needed back up in the event of disasters, vacations, etc. We were in for a rude awakening.

Instead of being told we were going to start learning new systems to prepare for the merge, we were told that our jobs were being sent to OH and we would have to go there to train our replacements. Imagine our surprise as many of us had been with the company for 10+ years and loved our jobs. Most of us were in no position to relocate our families so the majority of us are now unemployed. Some for over a year and some since the end of 2010.

As far as I know, none of us have been able to find a replacement job. We've been blackballed, it seems, because of our affiliation with Fifth Third Processing Solutions and the amount of time we stayed with the same company. Seems odd that tenure would be considered a bad thing but there is no reason why any of us should have been rejected for call center positions unless some black cloud was hanging over our heads. Several of us have been flat our rejected for bank teller jobs, which would be a piece of cake with our experience, without even getting a call.

The blame for this cannot be placed entirely on the consulting firm; however, their suggestions led us down this path and I can't help but be a little jaded against them.

Random Job Thoughts

So, the end of this month/year I'm losing my job.  I've known about it for months.  First I was being let go in August, then I got an extension til the end of December.  Now, it's all coming to a close.  Nearly 12 years with this company and I'm being cut.  Not because I did anything wrong but because some knuckleheaded consulting firm thought it would be a good idea to take a group of tenured reps in fraud, chargebacks and data entry and replace them with a bunch of people that have never done that kind of work before. As you can tell, I'm still a little bitter.  They wanted me to move to Cincinnati and stay in my old job but that just wasn't in the cards for me.  Amazing how they can have so many other people working from other states out of their living rooms with no supervision but they couldn't let me, and my 12 years of experience, work from the Evansville office.

I've been bitter about it for a while and though I try not to show it too much, I know people can tell.  I've come to the realization that while it's going to be scary to look for a new job and possibly be unemployed for a while this might be the time for me to get out and try something new.  Challenge myself to do something different with my life.  Unfortunately, I still don't know what I want to be when I grow up.  :)

Any ideas?