indigo_rose99 | Entries tagged with work

I expected it to be too much information too fast. And it was. I could not take notes fast enough. And I took a lot of notes.

The people were nice. I expected that, as people are typically nice to newcomers.

What I did not expect was the empty parking lot at 5:30pm. It is a pretty big company. Every large-company job I've ever had talked a good talk about "we value our employees" and "work life balance is important to us" but at the end of the day it was all BS. The expectation at every large company is that employees would be worked until they dropped of exhaustion. And "salaried" is an excuse to expect 60-70 hour work weeks without paying overtime. Laptop computers, VPNs and wifi on our homes just extended the expectations that all employees would never be able to truly leave work behind.

But... this company is different. They talk the same talk, but they seem to actually do it. I couldn't believe that parking lot at 5:30pm. And there was a clear expectation that "You should NOT be in the building after 6pm." and another one of "You better have a REALLY REALLY good reason for working 60+ hours in a week." ...It was a shock. A good shock!

Switching to a Mac is going to be an uncomfortable. I miss my PC. But otherwise I'm looking forward to the challenge of figuring out how I can make this company better.

Current Mood: optimistic

I have told everyone. I told the new company I'm taking the new job. I told my current boss that I am quitting. Within 15 minutes of doing so, I felt so much less stressed. I guess having all my balls rolling in the same direction is less stressful than having them crash against each other in my head.

So yeah. I'm changing jobs. I have a plane ticket for middle of next month to go to a week of orientation. More likely 2 days of orientation then several days of following people around and asking lots of questions. I volunteered for the last part. It seems like a good and fast way to both meet people, learn a ton of stuff about processes, and convince others I'm human and can be asked questions in return.

In the meantime, I'm winding down on this job. Trying to finish up my biggest current project. Making lists for the person who will take over my job. In spite of my many efforts to the contrary, lots of things are only in my head. Must write it all down! My poor replacement... He has a lot of reading ahead of him.

So T's idea was "If you are making a hugely stressful life change, we might as well get kittens now and get it all over with. ...Right?" Yesterday he bought kitten chow and was looking at litter in the grocery store. This morning I discovered that the huge box that was delivered yesterday was actually a cat litter box. I'm trying to remember that kittens are generally adorable and purr, but the idea of sharing my space with two other beings is... ick. I hate the idea. Only true love for T could convince me that this is inevitable (not a "Good Idea," just inevitable). We've been without a cat now for a little over a year. But the last one was outdoors. I still miss him, but there is a big difference between 2 indoor kittens into EVERYTHING and an outdoor cat who thought my lap was a wonderful place to hang out for 45 minutes. T just hopes I can avoid killing them until they become fat lazy cats.

So as my old job winds down and before the new job kicks into overdrive, I will likely have some time to so some hobby stuff. Not sure how I can fit in more paintings, but perhaps some of my other hobbies...

Current Mood: confused
Current Location: home

I hate change. Hate it, hate it, hate it!

Big life changes are particularly scary. Yesterday just before going out on my Valentine's date with T, I got both the job offer and the money number. It is.... respectable. And more than I'm making now. Enough more to make a difference in the mortgage payment that is ballooning in March because the mortgage company CAN demand I pay that much. T thinks I should just flat take the new job. I'm going to meet with my current boss this morning and talk about the future of my current company and job. And of course, if he can at least attempt to match the new job offer. I told the HR guy for the new job that I would at the latest give him an answer on Thursday.

Ack, but this is terrifying. I hate the thought of leaving my current company. So many things undone! I would totally want to take 2 weeks to just finish out the things I'm working on. Which leads directly to the thought of what if my current boss cannot match their offer? Or attempt to? So much change!

More travel. Expected 25% for at least a year or longer. Domestic only to middle-of-nowhere. And still persistent travel to the same boring location after that, but perhaps a little less often.

I haven't worked for a large corporation in... um... 16 years? I'm out of practice in adjusting to the weird things large corporations demand of their employees. Ok, yes, I now view them as weird. Small companies are surprisingly flexible about things.

Ugh. Just working through my freaking out.

Current Mood: awake
Current Location: home

I cooked lunch yesterday. I cooked lunch today and invited my husband home to join me! Yes, I'm nesting and it is a lovely thing.

Turns out that if you are out of milk and substitute whipping cream in macaroni & cheese, the casserole turns out really really addictively yummy. Trying-not-to-eat-entire-pan-in-one-sitting yummy. Even with healthy noodles! Ok, it could have been the extra cheese I put in. How could cheese go wrong? Not wrong at all...

I'm working short weeks. I'm targeting 35 hours per week and I think I'm actually doing 32 hours many weeks. Yay! Heck, I have ELEVEN WEEKS of overtime accumulated this year. I could take off the entire rest of the year and still not use it up! Oh, yes, I'm salaried so it only counts in my head. But it totally counts in my head. All of those 30-hour flights to the Philippines over weekends? Yeah, I am trying to get that time back an hour or so a day. I will fail, but I will enjoy the attempt!

Current Mood: happy
Current Location: home

Last week in an effort to not cry with how much I hate being here, I made a list of the nice things about this trip. The next morning I read the list to my husband in our brief morning call. He was supremely Not Impressed. He is teetering on the border of trying to get me to quit this job.

I'm going to interject some of the bad stuff in with my good stuff list. Just kind of sneek them in. If I think about to many of the bad things... well, it looks bad to start weeping at work in public.

I only get a week at home before the next marathon trip.

My headache stopped stalking me on day 3 of this trip. Yay! I didn't even run completely out of drugs.

I don't have to stand all day with people staring at me. Well, most days. Yesterday I had to stand half the day.

I get to do something I am oddly good at. Typing. Taking notes.

I had an odd conversation on one of the flights over with my coworker M. We were talking about our history in coming to this job. He mentioned that I had replaced D as the statistician. He said something about me doing really well in this job over the last three years. My truth urge said that D is a better statistician (which she is). M stunned me by saying that I have worked out better in the job, having a broader range of skills, than he things she would. It took me several days of pondering this to realize that he means: my ability to document what we do and bug check code. Not statistical skill. Hmmm.

I get to hang out with smart people all day.

I get Saturday and Sunday "off." ....Ok, that one turned out to not be true. I got to sleep in on Saturday. And I did get to go pearl shopping on Saturday. But beyond that... I got in 14 hours of work on Saturday and Sunday, mostly billable. I'm not sure that "didn't have to drive in to the plant" counts as "off."

My morning commute to my workout is pretty short.

I have gotten to thoroughly explore my new coffee mint

I get to see familiar faces and say "hello."

About 70% of the rooms have AC and are not sweltering.

I am appreciating my new quick-dry pants. They have come in handy.

Tomorrow is my last day here. I fly out tomorrow (Thursday night for me). And today is my last day to go in the plant. Though... Remember Saturday/Sunday? I suspect I will be working all day tomorrow. In addition to the midnight-2am phone call during which I am giving a huge presentation. Ugh.

I wanna go home. And sleep for maybe a week.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: Phillippines

My last traditional office-bound job was in January 2003. While my current job is less traditional, I still feel like there was a gap in which technology changed the way people work, and I missed the gradual change. Suddenly I'm in a workplace in which.... IMing between employees on the same conference call, to nag/remind each other to ask questions is common. In fact, quick IMs are as ordinary as leaning into a cubical doorway to say something used to be.

I missed the whole IM transition thing. I mean, I only got text on my cell phone a few months ago! Now suddenly I feel like I've been dunked into a work-IM-society I was not prepared for.

I'm sure there is etiquette. And while I don't mind learning, I would rather it not be at my co-workers' expense.

What is the polite way to start an IM conversation? Polite ways to end one? How do I acknowledge a received IM while I was away doing something personal without giving away more than they need to know? How do I emergency-quick-sever an IM conversation if I must run do something personal again without telling them more than they need to know?

Any other tips I should know?

Current Mood: careful
Current Location: somewhere in TX

I have been thinking about the bigger picture.

We live in a strange and mysterious world. I have many questions about our world.

We live in a fantastic time. Today we have data available in stupendous quantities. I want to use this data to answer some of my many questions about the world around me.

Along the way, I enjoy helping other people answer their questions with their data.

It is a fascinating puzzle: To understand and communicate the questions, to organize the data that might turn into answers, to figure out the answers, to turn the answers into something we can communicate with others.

Current Mood: optimistic

In theory, when I had an ordinary office job, I worked 8am to 5pm. I had an hour off for lunch. Once or twice a week I worked later than 5:30pm. I did not work weekends.

As a self-employed person, I typically had one work-related task at a time. Many days, just an hour or two responding to an email or call. The longer-term projects mostly work course development and I had plenty of time in advance of the class to polish. Very low pressure.

Now I have a traditional job. Well, sorta. More traditional than being self-employed. There is no being "finished" at my job. Or "caught up." There is always more and more tasks for me to work on. There are multiple layers of deadlines stretching out into the future. I work through lunch, every evening, and either work chunks of time in the weekend or feel enormously stressed because I'm NOT working during the weekend. Talking to my friends who telecommute, they say that I should either designate times (7am-4pm being my choice) or a limit of hours per day. In conversation yesterday with an old friend who telecommuted for years, she suggested that if I keep at the pace I currently am, I will have an overwork meltdown. There must be a balance, and I am not doing a good job of finding it currently.

I have been short of sleep for weeks. Or what feels like weeks. I have not had more than 6 hours in a night (8 is healthy for me, with at least 10 once a week to stay sane) in multiple weeks. Mostly I am getting 4-5 hours of sleep every night. I'm snapping at T.

So I slept in this morning. I felt guilty, but... T has conference calls tonight, which means I will (whether I slept in or not) be working while he is conference calling.

I think this is a step toward that BALANCE thing. Baby steps count, right?

Current Mood: optimistic
Current Location: home

The business trip is back on. And I don't leave tomorrow. Win! I (probably) have another week here. T will be back from his male-bonding-with-guns experience, and some things will be a lot easier.

Current Mood: optimistic
Current Location: home

Today I got the call.

"Buy a plane ticket. Now. For tomorrow." Ack! At least it is domestic. And work. Work is good. So I did. And started packing. And canceled my tutoring. And my socializing. And my dinner with Dad.

Several frantic hours later, "Changed our minds. Maybe next week." Managed to cancel the plane tickets. I'm sure the woman on Expedia thought I was crazy when I thanked her the fourth time.

*sigh* And they may change their minds AGAIN on Thursday. So I'm planning about 24 hours in advance now. I just hope my tutorees don't think I'm a complete flake.

Current Mood: rueful
Current Location: home

* woke up a few minutes before my alarm
* started a new, light book during my workout
* Was able to write down two hefty things for my work summary of today
* Was a GENIUS at one of them (though likely only I will ever notice)
* Was able to talk to T this morning
* Had dinner at an AMAZING vegetarian restaurant. Purple rice! Who has even heard of purple rice!?

I am having trouble seeing the silver lining in my days. So, I made a list.

Current Mood: trying
Current Location: Taiwan

In a preview of next week's jet lag, today I arrived at work at 8:30am (typical CA time). And they let me out at 7:30pm. 11 hours. Brain on FULL THROTTLE the whole time.

1 meal
1 bathroom break

Ye Gods, I really hope the next three weeks are not this intense. Brain full now.

Current Mood: tired
Current Location: California

International travel for the rest of the month, I am sure I am going to forget something. T tells me that I always say this to him on the way to the airport. ;-)

Reedrover recently reminded me of the many technology-related things we now do before travel. Like:
* Set out of office on my primary email
* Set my mobile voice-mail to out of range
* Call my credit cards and tell them of my travel plans, so they will not reject any strange expenses
* Pre-pay the likely household bills
* Make a list of all likely bills, how much I have pre-paid or autopaid, print out and leave for husband. The understanding is that he can now recognize unanticipated (or underpaid) bills and pay them.

Three weeks. At least.

I broke the "at least" part to T yesterday. He looked appalled. *sigh* Again, good for our financial stability, but challenging for packing and marital happiness.

I have packed many travel Woolite packets and a headset in case I end up Skyping in a public place...

Packed up.

Current Mood: nervous
Current Location: home

Last month I had a practice run. I went to CA to teach classes. Which, from a teaching standpoint, was tremendously comforting. My teaching personality kicked in on time.

Tomorrow I head out for my first work international trip in... um... over a year. What was old hat to me is now fresh and scary.

The logistics have been sorted out. I am packed. The unknowns include how the airlines will treat my likely over-weight carry-ons. This is after I stripped it down to the very barest minimum. And my definition of "bare" is pretty sparse.

Please don't weigh it, please don't weigh it!

Current Mood: scared
Current Location: home