Tuesday everyone came back. Recap meetings abound. Thankfully I didn't forget anything. I'm in charge of getting a poster made for an expo, and coordinating things between the person with the info and the person in our graphics department.
After a short while of playing middleman, I shared my structural and political power and introduced each other, making a team instead of a hierarchy. Then I thought I created a monster because they started to snap back abd forth, which I had to calm down.
Now everything seems to be fine...
Wednesday was a bit anxious for me, my boss was at an offsite half the day, nothing much to report except a final in my summer school class.
Thursday was another sit-rep. Why do these things have to be done at the afternoon.. even though i take meticulous notes I dont remember until that next afternoon about them... I have to find a new system.
Today I'm focusing on this project I have with legal services... only problem is.. I have no clue how to do a business plan. Time for Captain Trial and Error...
Everyone but my immediate boss is back in. we got a crack in the "look and feel" stuff, they copied something verbatum from out of our website! Even an EVP came down.
I also got a "we'll try to get you back if budget allows" by my boss' boss. Yay!
I'm slowly whittling down the Hood stuff, slowly seeing the light of the tunnel.
Because of the lack of supervision, we've actually gotten more work done this week than before. Probably we'll come back down to an inferno.
We also have someone that might be copying and may infringe on "Look and Feel" aspects. They debuted this week. Fun fun! I've been put in charge of making sure that we get a brochure out, and our own website cleaned up alittle from past mistakes. Hopefully if I dont get anything else done, by the time everyone gets back, they'll be calmed down enough to actually do me favors!
The big week is here... i.e. there is no one in the office...and I'm halfway done the projects I have to do. looks like I'll finish my essay this week...
Short posts because of lack of interaction:
Lessons learned
- some people just dont get it.
- The trick is to not not make mistakes, but to not make the same mistake over and over because then you're a dumbass.... and someone else has to go and call people to get things switched on invoices, (which no one will ever do
Tuesday and Wednesday were a blur, more prep stuff, finishing projects, making upgrades to systems they have for this area only.
Social Experimentation!
According to Sociologists/Social Psychologists, men tend to look less at people then women. This apparently has cultural background, in which men > women. As a result, women are more affective with their words and thoughts (I.E. a guy will nod his head and barely look at you, a woman wills top you, and comment on your shoes).
I've also noticed...the less likely women are to look at you mean one of three things: A. people think she's a bitch, B. shes slow C. Shes got lazy eye.
The inverse can be said for men, the more a guy looks at you, it means one of a couple of things A. he's emotive B. He's interested C. He's making a joke.
So I've started to give people more "Gaze" (the formal word) time. Just to see reactions.
It was as predicted, women ask me how I'm doing as opposed to Hi (still walking though). Men look away as fast as they can.
Upgrades:
The guy who was before me, didnt seem to believe in Excel (And frankly, before Newman/Gurzick and Analytical [the class from hell], I didnt either.) however we had someone counting and doing inventory on tables in word. It's been my efforts to try to streamline this. Only because I DONT want to have my boss or anyone else running around with their heads cut off. Stangely enough, this has come under more resistance than anything. Not sure if they trust me, or if it's just apprehensive-ness
I also had my mid-term eval Yesterday
- The good
- I take Iniative
- I work well in teams
- I like fast paced work (Surprising!)
- I figure things out easily
- It's also been said that because I figure things out easily, things that my boos forgets to tell me, I've already asked someone else how to do. This has given the knee-jerk thought to others that "I've been here for X amount of years, I should know how to do xx"
- The Bad
- I work TOO fast, at the substitute of quality
- My writing is too casual, (which, I'm told, I learn over time..I just think everyone else is too stuffy here!)
- This surprised me, and it wasnt a complaint Per Se...but I need to dress a bit more formal if I want the first-impression respect. There have been no complaints, but it was more an "FYI"
.....
Early Post.
Very slow day. I inherited my boss' mailing work. Talking with our in-house graphics people in order to get a mailer out. The company we're using to do our graphics SUCKS. Capital S, Capital UCKS. I would bet GOOD money, if I threw three people from graphics/creative solutions in a room, fed them lunch and made coffee for them. By 2 pm We'd have an awesome brochure and dvd kit... instead we're putzing around with these snots who cant use an image gallery.
In their defense, though, I was told that most graphic design firms cattle-hire grads and toss them in, without a mentor or sense of formal direction. Instead we have a black and navy blue website with a white and bright yellow brochure... way to go color scheme.
But the EVP SWEARS by them...
-put a 1960's audience laugh track here-
I've also been putting together a binder to give to my next-of-kin to share this desk. It's strange in a way... like planning for a funeral.. or thinking a Car crash is sexy... just weird. Puts stuff in perspective, though (Mainly... "OH CRAP! I'MMA GONNA DIE IN CAPSTONE! HAVE MERCY JOSE!").
I dont remember if I've said this before, but I've been asked to come in a day or so a week. I wouldn't know why... I feel like a right brainer in a left-brained office. I also want to go ahead, eat my words and my foot and appreciate the journal. I hate writing about myself (normally because it ends up being a bitchfest, and thats never constructive).
Lessons Learned
- Always keep a fire extinguisher around for that lone fire.
- A sense of humor usually works well, too.
Anyway, let's see if I can remember the last couple of days...
Wednesday brought together a meeting of the minds. I wanted to get this employee book out asap. I had everyone and anyone who might have worked on it at this meeting. I got the most recent stuff...which became obsolete faster than a bargain laptop.
Lessons learned
- When you're dealing with ANYONE high up. Plan for a meeting to be 1/2 an hour longer (at least on paper), that way your ass gets covered if they're late or forget
- The too many chefs spoil the pot... oh yeah... its true.
Rush Rush rush, rush rusheddy rush... etc.
Two main things: We have a donor who gave us money to reach out to high schools and teach them about science and physics as it related to aviation (and then they'll want to fly!). They sprung up and said, "We''re meeting with the President on Monday, give us a usage report by end of business. This gave my boss an ultimadum on the project she'd had for the last... few months.
I was finishing my Employee handbook for Oshkosh ("After these corrections, just print it, otherwise I'll keep making changes" was the last reply) and printing them.
We finally got everything done at around 530, when my boss went up to give the president his packet.
I think the two of us work well, i'm the dreamer, and shes the realist. Many times shes come to me and said "I dont know how this should look" and I've given her the creative side of things.
Friday:
Started off with a meeting at Airport Inn & Restaurant with people from a company in Winchester, VA. We're going to help them put on a show, and I'll be here for all the planning things. I was subbing for my boss who fought a red light ticket (and won). Today was the employee meeting for the thing I made the book for, and it didnt go as badly as my boss thought it would have (last year there were a couple of hostile questioners in the office). Then we get wind that a startup in Denver has come EXTREMELY CLOSE to copying a brand name of ours. Currently my job is to scour the Blogosphere (Once again, Gurzick seems to emerge in these quite frequently) to see if there is any confusion.
This confusion would lead to patent/copyright infringement: this company may be using something close to our name in order to capitalize on our success. This has worked a bit in the book world, as "Jake Patterson" has Primo standing next to "James Patterson". We've had people confuse the two or just pick a book of Jake's off the shelf because it was "right there"
For the record, the general consensus says that he sucks. But he gets an A for Effort.
Book is nearly finished, am going to conference with my boss now. Day was relatively meek: I found out about a loophole in our reporting system. For each area a user can access a "I want something" request (free dvd, brochure, etc.) there is a project code. This is tracked (i.e. if 40 people want the DVD off of page A, and 2 off page B, what can we correlate), and filed.
the link looks something like: https://www.RANDOMRANDOMNESS.org/lgf/fo
where SX08DHM is the project code
i can go in and switch the code to something like ID10T or OU812.
Gurzick would be proud.
We have space purchased in regional publications. Someone writes it. then 40 BILLION people have to sign off on it because they cant be bothered to write it themselves, but feel more than happy to mark up....Something stinks... like stale French Fries...
Anyway, because of the Jacob's Ladder of griping and corrections, and because we're one "real" staff person short, we're now behind on stuff. Tomorrow is the deadline, and I have no draft. I don't even know if the thing has been written!
Anyway,
- Having your superior's calendar at your disposal is wonderful. you can figure out where she is and where the crap shes SUPPOSED to be
- When you're in charge of meetings, they go by REALLY quick
- When you have work to do.. the day goes REALLY quick.
Nothing more I think, I'm two pages short to finish this employee handbook for the event!
- The Good
- Short
- Lunch was provided
- they addressed the issues without being TOO wishy-washy or vague
- people in particular were "celebrated"
- the Confrence rooms were open to everybody, and we were specifically told NOT to go back to our desks, and not to go to our own Confrence rooms.
- The Bad
- no specific details on what we're doing
- the running gag afterwards was "How much will our dept. be doing?"
- One of the speakers insisted that, "They stood between us (the audience) and lunch" (Powertrip, mr. Bowman?)
- Right before lunch, people were getting ansy
Friday:
=IF(Mitch stares at excel screen, headache, wrong numbers)
Insert into Excel, rinse, repeat
The book to hand out to the employees is almost done! I need a meeting on monday, and to get the draft put together, and I'm good! I need to get my direction from my boss on what she's doing while shes out of the office. In addition, I'll be putting together this new business plan I'm supposed to have done by 8/23.
Alright, Lessons Learned....
- Tone counts. Our president is very conversational, our VP of communications is very stuffy and old-english-crusty-philosopher style.
- My writing voice is much different than my speaking voice, which isnt conducive to writing news releases.
- I cant simply pick up the phone and call my Boss' Boss' (2x) and ask for her cell # for an info book I've been assigned to draw up... strange...
- Email is worse!
- When making a website and print ad, they REALLY SHOULD look alike
I could have done differently today:
- Whored Myself out to other depts (as my boss was in meetings)
- Finished EVERYTHING I could possibly think of that I have, then whored myself out.
- Read a social networking book I've got for this job.
And I STILL cant figure out why I'm broke...
CD project is done. It doesnt look pretty, but it works. Went through a mini training session, will elaborate tomorrow!
Sound like grunt work? You Bet! With a Caveat.
My boss, while anal as hell, tends not to even touch something that she has to spend a long time thinking about...especially on "OMG everything is, like, due today!!!" days.
And for the record, I KNOW there's some way I can make this confusing, especially with Excel...
On unrelated news, my FCC Social Psy course starts today. So TWO jobs and TWO classes.
Things learned:
- Just one: Even if you do the gruntwork, and someone else presents it: it's fine so long as you have a good relationship with the person presenting.
- I prepared notes and info for my Boss' meeting with her boss and her boss' boss. While I'm 75% sure she didnt say "OH! I Didnt make that up, HE did." I know she appreciated it regardless.
- Now if she was a total hump to me, I'd feel otherwise.
- Maybe.. JUST maybe recognition on a one-on-one basis > Group recognition.
I have my project: Create a business plan to reinvigorate our legal services. I have to put it all down and formalize it out (hopefully practice for Jose's class). I'm not sure really what Legal svcs does, except the little blurb I heard from boss-lady today.
We're now tracking EVERYTHING with this new website, and have run into a barrier called "Wait.. you mean the program we bought DOESNT do what we planned on it doing?"
In other related news, I'm trying with the admin assistant to get everything I can with our upcoming event (July 23rd-8/5ish). Not sure WHAT I'll be doing, during that time... but we'll burn that bridge when I get there.
No lessons learned today, pretty much a meeting + "Lets talk about this on Monday" Day.
Who knew PR was getting things places... I thought it was just telling people where the things were going!
Today was a slow start... boss didnt get in until 11, problems at the warehouse in Hagerstown... she lives in Mt. Airy.... something tells me I would have been closer, if I had only know what I was looking for.
- Had to call Verizon, they sent a refund check to us made out to the event instead of the company. 5 numbers and 3 people later I finally got someone who didnt know WTF happened. About 3 hours later (before leaving for a meeting) I got another call from Verizon asking "Hi, WTF?"
- **MY** next step is to produce step-by-step instructions for the next-in-line. I'm replacing someone who left a week before I came on, and they're currently interviewing people for my position starting 8/26/08 (or so).
- This should make it easier on the training level.
- I talked to My boss today, asked what I was doing well and what I sucked at (and yes, I did use sucked. Nothing pisses me off more than a sugar-coated or half-assed evaluation "Oh he was fine on everything." [Pure B.S. I know I'm not perfect!])
- Good
- Logical (despite what I say)
- A bit creative
- Fast worker
- I get more done in less time than my predecessor
- I take initiative
- Bad
- Fast, prone to not being thorough enough
- Haven't synced up my "voice" with the Association's.
- I don't see a big ENOUGH picture (despite what I say)
- I can't spell initiative without looking a sheet of paper with it written on
- Lessons Learned
- A bit of perseverance, despite Verizon's call centers being run by dumbasses, and my setbacks yesterday, I seem to be doing fine
- If you work later, and people see it, you get a bit of cred.
- Marketing Firm meetings run late, they have a lot to say or a lot of pictures with explanation needed
- We had two marketing/pr firms present their findings today, with all the VP's in attendance. The sign was supposed to read one way when the first group came in, then be changed to the second group for their entrance (around 3pm)
- Come 3pm I get a call from the PR admin assistant to see if the sign is changed. It isnt.
- Around 330, the firm comes in
- around 345-4 the first firm gets out of their meeting (running anywhere from a 30 mins to an HOUR late) (and they shouldnt be seen by the second group... Whoops! Too late...)
- They didnt have much to say, and left 45 mins later.
- "Yes Ladies and gentlemen of Fleshman & Assoc., please exit out the back door while The Ogilvy Group can come in the front, please dont stop for anything, as we'll send our summer intern out after you screaming like a banshee and waving around a Wiffle Bat"
2 Cases in point:
1. We have a marketing firm that deals with our social networking sites. I had told them to put a forum post up advertising our next event.
"(Marketing firm),
I wrote up a little blurb about ____ going to the event. Is there any way you could create a thread in Facebook, and a simliar posting or thread on Myspace? The blurb is below, with a line to represent where "myspace" and "Facebook" would go. I'd really like this to go in a forum/less formal area than the "recent news".
If you have any questions, you know how to contact me.
Many thanks!
Hey everyone!
This was sent back to me:
"Hi ___:
We’d be happy to post this information on our new-media sites. But before we proceed, since we get our direction from (my boss' boss' boss) and (my boss' boss). Marketing firm's boss asked me to confirm with you that one of them has signed off on this.
Also, since members of our new-media sites may not be familiar with the event and the group, we plan to revise your copy a bit so that it’s more inclusive, geared toward all levels of aviation enthusiasts. "
This is despite the fact that I've sent her things before with no problem. Looks like her boss decided that he had nothing better to do than to toss his weight around.
2. I posted something on the forums at work (for our members, not for our coworkers). It was taken down a few hours later. It wasn't anything bad...just made my boss' boss uncomfortable.
Something tells me I have to formalize up and get all obsequious or write/speak as if I'm doing so for a final exam
< /end program="Corporate line, emblazen it on the muskets and fifes">
So everyone's running around like chickens with their heads cut off. Of our six-strong P.R. and Media group, one is on vacation, another is picking up his slack by answering the media phone, and doing our video work, my boss is working on last minute legalese and logistics, the admin assistant and I are taking care of an UPCOMING event, and the VP of comm. is hoofing around like Speedy Gonzalez.
Lessons Learned Today:
- Be concise: While MLA and APA formats and professors love when students move past generalization to the mythical land of "Explanation", AP style and our members who-will-take-potshots-at-any-ammo-that-t
hey-even-might-THINK-they-see-but-cant-t ouch - E.g.
- Me (in a release): "Flying is a smart business decision"
- Members: "Well, Aviation gas is $7/gal! That's not smart!"
- Me: "I don't think YOU (as an individual) qualify as a BUSINESS"
- Read fine print: Always look for fax and email numbers to save the pain of having to rush to a fedex or UPS dropoff.
Smithsonian Udvar-Hazy Show: Same thing as the fly-in, only this time done by the Smithsonian. There are a few items of note here:
- My boss is very anal and particular about things, she doesn't want to jump in head first (probably because she saw me do it and I just dived into an empty pool...**CRUNCH**)
- E-mailing the Smithsonian to get information to fix the above is like pulling teeth from an ostrich... impossible
- Me: "Yes, I'd like to know how many vendors will be there, (and 20 other questions)"
- Smithsonian: "Because the Smithsonian is a (insert some accounting bs name here), we dont allow people to sell anything, they're called 'Displays'. (end of E-mail, no other information on the 20 other questions I asked)"
- The setup of the day was awesome: The event was in a large hanger (see my display picture, that "Air France" is a Concord. There was also a Space Shuttle, a Blackbird Stealth bomber and a Boeing 707 in the same Hanger) and the Smithsonian put the
vendorsdisplays around the main walkways (as opposed to in a straight line one after the other) then had events at one side of the hanger, then the other, ensuring foot traffic back and forth.
- I will probably learn how to set up, and take down a booth in record time.
- The Dulles Toll Road is highway robbery... (2.80 from Dulles-Leesburg on a Weekend)
- Getting caught in a torrential downpour on the Dulles Toll Road is...fun... (although people will wait it out on the side of the road and give you a free highway!)
- You should always remember the name of the event, especially when you THINK you know it... Calling the "Udvar Hazy Center" the "Udvar Huzzy Center" is NOT the greatest of ideas when in a meeting...
Here's a story for the political frame: We're starting a new effort to get people to learn to fly, it WAS called "Discover Flying". Turns out Cessna (airplane builder company) used it in a slogan wayyy back when. Upon our president calling their president, Cessna said, "Sure, why not!?"
Until they came to the table to sign the agreement, then they pulled out. I have no real comment except for I think someone didnt realize someone said something on Cessna's side.
Started in new digs: Have a cubicle, still littered with stuff from the previous guy. I'm the summer replacement for some guy who left. Apparently he was a bit of a hardass, but in a good way. Everyone else thinks he would have been a good police officer. Compared to me, this'll be fun. I'm a bit more.... "lighthearted" than he, and it may be a whole study on whether brute force efficiency or politeness and a bit of sarcasm will win the bees (your guess on which is the honey and vinegar).
Snooped around new desk: I've got two overhead bins filed with past magazines, dictionary, thesaurus, and other DVD's filled with stuff. In addition, there's a previous version of the book I'll need for a PR class in my upcoming semester.
I Realized that e-Mail sucks!: Maybe it's my demand for attention or the desire for instant gratification, but waiting for a response seems to just not be worth it. Part of my job is to send out finished editorials from our President to the various flying and aviation publications. Each needs a separate size and has a different date. I took the list my predecessor had and called each of them up to get a live person. (This then later "backfired" because they had my own number when I couldn't light a fire under enough rear-ends in order to get the editorial out on time).
Music is necessary: Despite the fact I have the attention span of a five-year-old, having SOMETHING on beside the click-clacking of keys seems to keep me sane. If I had to take a stab at it, I'd guess it's probably a sense of ownership (e.g. "It's my cubicle! I can play what I want!) In that same breath, the one woman I share a cube wall with used to own a roller-skating rink, so she's down with just about any type of music!
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