Dorie Morgan’s Rising Up
Navigating Twenty-Something Suburban Life
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Archive of "work life" Category
Staff Surveys: Is it really worth the time?
Staff standard hours at the place that gives me a paycheck have become a sore spot for all parties involved. The millennials want flextime. Gen Xers can’t figure out why the millennials think they can have flextime. The boomers can’t figure out why everyone doesn’t just shut up and work 8 to 5 like they are supposed to. The mom’s don’t care because parents are the only ones who get flextime. And executive staff is just praying this HR nightmare goes away.
Sadly for executive staff, it won’t go away. Staff standard hours are 8 to 5 with an hour lunch. And no one likes those hours, except for maybe the executive staff. As a result, countless hours are wasted where everyone tries to come to some sort of agreement that could benefit the company as a whole but no headway is being made.
As an attempt to buy some time (before a revolt could be organized), a survey was circulated to the staff. It proposed that the standard hours be changed to 7:30 to 4:30. It also suggested the adoption of summer hours where staff would work four 10 hour days and have either Monday or Friday off each week (beginning at the Fourth of July and ending on Labor Day). Staff was asked to rank statements about how they felt on the proposed changes and then write about how it would impact their lives.
The moment the survey ended up in my hands, I went to Human Resources. Was this survey merely a waste of our time to fill out or would our feedback be seriously considered? Was there really hope that there could be flexible hours?
The answer? “It will be taken under consideration”. A coworker who overheard this exchange then wanted to know why bother if the majority didn’t matter. If executive staff would do as they pleased regardless, filling out the survey wasn’t going to make staff feel as if their opinions had been heard.
There is no perfect answer to this situation. Not everyone is going to be happy. At this point, the survey was not the way to go. By circulating this survey, executive staff is setting the stage for frustration on the team. How could this situation be better handled? Some suggestions:
Department Meetings – Instead of random surveys being dropped on staff desks, what if each department manager met with their team to update? Since we are a small company, the largest department consists of six people. The meetings could be manageable with a set agenda and give every employee an opportunity to ask questions. Asking staff to fill out the survey at the conclusion of the meeting makes sure everyone is on the same page as they consider the ideas.
Skip the survey – What happened when the survey was passed out? Rumors flew through the office. Some staff was terrified at the changes proposed. Some staff set their hopes high for changes to occur. Time was spent speculating. Chances are most of the changes suggested won’t ever come to fruition. A survey does not replace the need for face to face conversations with the staff.
Create Flex Time for All – At the end of the day, most of the suggestions proposed in the survey is an attempt to avoid formally offering flextime. But more importantly, staff continues to ask for flextime and threatens to leave without it. If flextime is the direction the company will head towards in a year or two anyway, is there really a benefit to putting it off? The solutions proposed sound like a nightmare for Human Resource to handle. Putting a band-aid on the problem won’t make it go away. And it probably won’t silence the requests for more than a month anyway.
Coping with Disabilities: How I can be ADD in the office
I have a love/hate relationship with my Attention Deficit Disorder. Since I was diagnosed at 13, dealing with ADD has been a confusing but rewarding battle of me versus me. In school, ADD meant more time for assignments, tutors if I wanted one and a steady diet of Ritalin. In the working world, ADD means creating a system of coping mechanisms that make me look quirky and neurotic.
It’s taken me a long time to get to the love portion of the ADD relationship. Prior to my diagnosis, I knew that I operated differently from my peers, I just didn’t understand why. In middle school and high school, Ritalin helped me focus but I hated the side effects. I had no desire to eat, my creativity was stifled and I was unable to sleep for more than three hours a night starting when I was 14. By the time I got to college, I knew something had to give.
I decided sophomore year in college that I had enough of the medication. I got to this point where the ability to focus just wasn’t worth the side effects. And then I struggled. I decided I didn’t want to have extra help that the college could provide me because no one would offer me extra help when I got into the real world just because I had ADD. And without the medication, I had no idea how to learn.
The plus side of a med free life was worth it for a time. My creativity flooded back to me. Suddenly, I had a desire to eat again (sadly, while there was no “freshman fifteen” my new found love of food led to a sophomore twenty five!). Without medication, I was brazen. Walking into a room where I knew no one was okay and actually enjoyable. And I discovered that it wasn’t that I had a problem focusing – I just couldn’t select what I would focus on.
Oh, and I finally was able to sleep for more than three hours at a time. Who knew feeling well rested would feel so good!
Then my grades went down. Ultimately, it took me five years to finish undergrad. Not being able to choose to focus on classes made writing papers and reading assignments brutal. But the ability to hyper focus enabled me to read all of Ayn Rand’s work my junior year (don’t ask me why that was able to capture my attention). Getting up each day to do work was a battle but getting up each day to discover new things was thrilling.
Post college life was interesting. Realizing that I couldn’t keep struggling, my doctor and I decided it was time for me to try new medication, this time in the form of Stratera. It seemed like a great idea at first but I soon discovered that the side effects were hellish. The world, which had been so vibrant for my four med-free years, was suddenly flat. Because strattera is a mild antidepressant, there were no emotional lows but that also meant there were no emotional highs. When I broke up with my five year on again off again boyfriend for the last time, I knew I should be sad but I just didn’t care. There was also absolutely no desire for sex and a desire to sleep for twelve hours a day. But I could focus.
Once again, this was not an option that would last very long.
I’ve been med-free for a little over two years now. The breakup with my ex was what finally led me to give up the idea that medicine would “fix” me. If I was unable to feel, what good was I as a person? I’ve been in pursuit of holistic, natural care ever since.
Surprisingly, the med free life has made my ADD more manageable than it ever was before. Here’s how I am able to do this now:
Holistic/Natural Medical treatment – I’ve been seeing a chiropractor for two years and three months. When I first went to Gorman Optimal Health Solutions, I thought the guy was nuts for telling me that he could treat ADD through adjustments and supplements. And then I discovered he was right. Before I start having back pain, I’ll notice I am out of alignment because I am more easily distracted.
Supplements – I take 5-HTP at meal times. It is believed to help children and adults with over focused ADD. Ravers take it to offset some of the fun after effects of ecstasy. There are plenty of supplement options that are suggested for ADD but after much trial and error (with the guidance of my doctor) this is what we discovered worked best for me.
Exercise – If I don’t get at least 30 minutes of vigorous exercise in a day, I’m done. My best days for focusing mean that I spent about 90 minutes in the gym in the morning. Exercise quiets my mind and it quiets my body. While I never had the stereotypical hyperactivity, I am constantly fidgeting with my hair, things in my pockets and items on my desk. Besides, exercise is just good for you.
Diet – As tempting as dessert can be, I can’t focus after eating sugary foods. Its okay to have a treat at home once in a while but if I hit the office candy dish, I can forget about focusing on the job they pay me to do. I do best when I stay away from carbs during the day and wait until I get home at night to enjoy them.
Color Coding – I have a ridiculous system of color coding in my FranklinCovey planner but it extends to other areas of my life. Work life items are blue. Yellow is for medical. Pink is for me. Orange is for home. Purple is for church. The list goes on and on. Certain times I focus on certain colors.
Limit Multitasking – It always seems like multitasking is a great idea but it fails me more times than it helps me. Instead, I focus on short bursts. I break most of my daily tasks into twenty to thirty minute blocks of time. Anything more than that I get distracted. In between those blocks, I give myself a mini break – I get a glass of water, I stretch, I check out a post of Brazen Careerist or I find a reason to talk to a coworker.
Talk about it – HR knows about my ADD. My direct supervisor knows about it. And a few of the moms that work in my office know about it as well. I do not broadcast it – there is no reason to show up at work with a flashing neon sign that reads “Dorie has Attention Deficit Disorder” but trying to hide it does not work either. HR and my direct supervisor need to know. But it isn’t enough to walk into their offices, say “Hi, I have ADD” and then leave. By having conversations about what my strengths and weaknesses are, they are able to work with me. And really, that is good advice for anyone regardless of whether or not there is a disability.
But why do I talk to office moms about it? Some of them are learning how to deal with parenting an ADD child. I believe its important for them to see how coping with ADD as a child translates into coping with ADD as an adult. If they can benefit from my experiences, it was worth it to share.
GenPink
Have you been to GenPink today? Its written by Elysa Rice and it talks about finding the balance in the twenty something female life. I’ve been hooked on her blog since she wrote her ABC’s of Gen Y. Elysa is also a member of the Brazen Careerist network.
Elysa was kind enough to share a post I wrote about Internal Interviews. Please check it out!
My day without talking
My day is feeling like a giant twitter. In fact, I might be more effective if that was the only way I communicated. This morning when I woke up, I discovered that my mouth was full of ulcers. Besides being really gross, it is also annoying because it hurts to talk and eat. I also couldn’t kiss my husband goodbye when he left for work this morning which just makes me sad.
When I got to work this morning, my very hungry self had to try to communicate this with HR. Seeing as I can’t really talk, this consisted of me writing notes to HR and the HR manager looking confused. Since my little meeting this morning, an email has been circulated to the staff that I can’t talk and I have a sign on my desk explaining the situation to anyone who opted out of reading the email.
Strangely enough, I’m having a really good day.
My day of silence is really freeing me up to get things done.
Its forcing me to really think about the words I choose. When someone comes over to my desk to ask a question, I have to write a response. Since most people don’t really want to stand around while I write them a book, I’m trying to keep my responses around the size of a tweet. Any response that would require more than that gets shown my post-it that says “Send me an email”.
I have pre-made responses. Next to me are four post-it notes. One says yes. One says no. One says send me an email. And another says “Thanks”. Guess which post-it I’m using the most – Thanks! And since everyone loves hearing “thanks”, most people are leaving my desk happy when they read it.
Email is my best friend today. Email allows me to give each person a thoughtful response. Not talking means there is a little more time allowed to think.
By changing the way I communicate within my workplace, I change the way I work. For at least today, I am freed my perceived need to multitask. Focusing on one task at a time really lets me clear those nagging items off of my to do list and produce a higher quality of work.
This certainly isn’t something I would want to do everyday but once in a while, it’s important to be silent to focus on what your priorities are.
Interviews: What not to say
Over the past week, I’ve been involved in the interview process for my replacement. Its a tough process – on one hand, I want my replacement to have different things to offer to my organization than I do. On the other hand, I want my replacement to be my mini-me.
I am very conflicted.
I’ve tried to keep my interviews interesting. Our interview process is fairly extensive and I don’t want to be remembered as the boring person. I want to have interesting questions and an enjoyable conversation.
My favorite interview question to ask is “If money was not an issue, what would you do with your life?”.
For me, this is the easiest question to answer. And a great opportunity to showcase my passions.
For my potential replacement, I was hoping to hear excitment and passion. I expected to hear about their hobbies or their dream job.
Instead, I heard confusion.
I heard an individual tell me that they only knew what they would want to do for about a week.
Another individual told me that they would travel. They knew the first two countries that they would go to but wasn’t sure after that.
Another individual told me they had no idea.
I know what I would do.
I would start a contracting business with my husband where I could make people’s lives better one house at a time. I would spend time recording all of my grandparents stories so I could share them with my children. And my children’s children. I would build a studio in my house and create beautiful things. And when I was too tired to do anything else, I would find a beautiful beach and an amazing book and I would be still.
Know what you would do in an ideal world. And be excited about it. If you would want to be a stay at home mom or dad, say so! But tell me why you would want to do that. Tell me about your excitement for your family, your fascination with small children, your desire to make the world a better place. If you would want to work at Disney as an actor, tell me. Tell me why you always dreamed of working in an amusement park or your secret love of a Disney cartoon. If you always dreamed of being a lawyer or a doctor or a teacher, speak up.
Have a passion. I don’t care if that passion has anything to do with the industry or the job or your past experience. I just want to see that you can be excited, that there is a spark in your life.
So let me throw the question out to you: If money was not an issue, what would you do with your life? And is that what you are doing now?
Workaholic: Is that me?
I’ve had workaholic tendencies for my entire life. The idea of a three year old workaholic may seem a bit absurd but in my case, it is a little more accurate than you might imagine. As a child, I could go ridiculous amounts of time without food as long as I felt compelled to keep working. I also remember refusing to go to the bathroom in kindergarten. I was working on a project and I convinced myself that I didn’t need to go to the bathroom until it was finished. I also remember deciding that day that I didn’t want to ever feel shame again.
And for someone with workaholic tendencies not feeling shame is a good thing. It makes it easier to be a workaholic. You can do some pretty god awful things to yourself if you don’t feel shame when your body betrays you.
When I was puttering around some blogs last night, and promising my husband that I would only read one more post, I read something about alcoholism. Of course that got my wheels churning and I googled “workaholic” to make sure I was spelling it correctly before I posted a comment.
What I really found was a twenty question quiz to determine if I was a workaholic. Three or more “yes” answers meant you needed to get help. I had twelve.
I was floored. I may joke about workaholic tendencies but really, I just think of myself as driven and motivated. I blame my ADD. And if anyone asks, my elaborate organizational systems are really just a coping mechanism for hiding said ADD.
I told Brian. Who was not floored. Who responded with “I didn’t need you to take a quiz for me to know that”.
Then he tells me “You know I have to call your office to make sure you are coming home at night”.
And it’s true. Because he does have to call to get me to come home sometimes. And I’m usually very confused if I only have worked 40 hours in a given week. And if it was up to me, every lunch would be a working lunch.
But instead of all of this urging me to think about getting help, it really leaves me questioning why Workaholics Anonymous implies this is a bad thing. Because almost every question where I answered yes, I really truly believe that only a lazy person would answer no. Call me a workaholic but I think I’d rather refer to it as a “Strong Protestant Work Ethic”.
At what point does motivation and a desire to succeed become a bad thing? And why are we so committed to a forty hour work week as healthy and a sixty hour work week as a sign that there is no work life balance? Is this a sign of an entrepreneurial spirit?
My advisor in college was a recovering alcoholic who was always concerned about me. He thought I was crazy for working full time, going to school full time and being overly involved in my sorority. He used to say that it was only a matter of time until my tendencies gave way to alcoholism. At the time, I used to tell myself that he was just overly paranoid.
Last night I started wondering if he was wiser than I gave him credit for being.
Interviews: What do you ask your potential replacement?
I’ve been puttering at work for the last week or so. There are plenty of projects I could be doing but for now I’m letting them fall to the wayside. Why? Well, on Monday I found out that I’ll be taking the new position that I recently interviewed for. I have a month before I start the job.
My current supervisor has decided that I shouldn’t take on any new projects and I should spend the next month “procedurilizing” (yes, she made up that word) my job and training my replacement. We still haven’t hired my replacement so that has to happen first.
In the meantime, I am a procedure writing machine. But since I’m not taking on new projects, I putter. Because writing a procedure doesn’t take any where near as long as everyone seems to think it does. I’ve been turning it into a game for myself.
Downside is I’ve been spending a little too much time with online shopping. FranklinCovey is like crack for me (fortunately for me, my company is filled with FranklinCovey enthusiasts so no one is really questioning the time I’m spending on their website).
Since I also have to interview my replacement, I’ve been searching the web for really unusual interview questions. The poor soul that replaces me is going to have to sit through six hours of interviews. The least I can do is make my hour mildly entertaining.
Questions I think I want to ask include:
- Tell me about a time where you needed to manage up. How did you accomplish this?
- How do you plan to become the office miracle worker?
- If I ran into your current boss, what would be the one sentence you would want to be said about you?
- How do you feel about working with scientists?
I’m still looking for more questions. What are some of the best (and worst) questions you’ve been asked in an interview?
Internal Interviews: They already know the answers
So far today, I’ve experienced three internal interviews that all started with the line “well, this is a bit odd since I work with you everyday”. Two of which also included the statement “I’m not really sure what to ask you since I already know you”. And my personal favorite: “I didn’t really you had a degree in small business!”
Apparently this isn’t just a first for me.
If you ever search online for advice about internal interviews, you’ll find that good information is hard to find and the information that is available is geared towards the mega corporations. I kept finding pages listing illegal interview questions and sneaky ways H.R. can get around it.
For example, they cannot ask me if I am married. Fair enough. But the interviewers are also the people who threw me a wedding shower at work.
They also cannot ask me if I have kids or if I plan to have kids. But some of the interviewers have gone out with me for drinks after work with my husband (where he told them we plan on waiting about four years).
Nothing illegal is being asked but could I still be discriminated against? These are people who already know more than they should. Like I said yesterday, maybe it isn’t a win-win.
Maybe what all of this is telling me is that I need to be more guarded about my personal life at work. Which then of course leads me to the problem of how can I have a blended life if I have to unblend for eight to nine hour chunks each day.
Internal Interviews: Was this really a good idea?
I recently applied for an internal posting within my company and then had the chance to sit around and be paranoid for a while as they decided whether or not I was interview worthy. The whole situation is like dating gone horribly wrong – I’ve already been on this “date” for the last year and a half, I’ve asked to take the next step and the other person is standing there and thinking about it while I feel awkward.
Now that I’m trapped in the internal hiring process, it is really starting to click in my head how many problems really are in this system. I’d love to say that being promoted from within is a win-win situation for everyone but now I’m not entirely sure.
For starters, what is going to happen to your career within the company if you are not selected for the position? Will that be remembered in the future if you apply for other positions? For example, could the ABC department turn you down because if the XYZ department didn’t want you, there must be a reason? The last few days, I’ve been thinking about this like a marriage proposal – does the relationship really survive after a rejected proposal or does it just limp along until someone has the guts to call it quits?
Next problem: I would be moving out of an administrative role but it isn’t unreasonable to think that I could be perceived as the new department’s copy ‘n staple bitch. Would I forever be seen as the coffee girl or could a truly become a vital part of the new department? Would I really be able to make the impact I am capable of making?
Finally, if this new position should work out, I’d be leaving my present boss in a bit of a bind. She would have to cover the work I currently do until they find someone to replace me or I could be expected to cover both positions until someone new could be trained. I really don’t want to leave my current boss in a bad position (I have a really great working relationship with her) but at the same time, I don’t want to put myself in a bad starting position.
My big interview is scheduled for tomorrow so I’m hoping I’ll know by the end of the week how this will pan out for me. Keep your fingers crossed it works out well for me and I’ll keep you posted on the process this week.
Should we be breaking up?
There comes a time in every girl’s life where she truly has to ask herself – Am I happy with this vendor relationship? Or am I afraid that there just isn’t anything better out there? Is it time to break up?
Then she has to fire a vendor.
I spent a lot of time thinking about this for the last month or so. My favorite vendor to use sadly has my least favorite account rep. Ever. The woman is almost enough to make me drop the vendor altogether despite the fact that her organization meets my needs (and my company’s needs) best.
How do you know if it is time? Ask yourself these questions:
1. Does my account rep communicate well with me? This is usually the first sign of trouble. When your account rep stops returning your emails or phone calls, it quickly becomes obvious that the relationship isn’t working. But what about when the rep is slow to respond to questions or concerns but quick to place an order on your behalf? If your concerns are not addressed as quickly as your orders, speak up. And if you can’t reach a new agreement, request a new account rep before you become so frustrated you drop the vendor.
2. Does my account rep call me about price changes? If an item you order on a frequent basis goes up in price, your account rep should call you before the price change occurs. If this is something you discover on your own, a red flag should go up. The account rep is there to keep you, the customer, happy and informed. The time it takes to call or email you to alert you of a price change is nominal compared to the level of frustration you will experience when you discover these things on your own.
3. Does my account rep know what I look like? I have been working for my employer for a year and a half – and ordering from this vendor for just as long. I know her office is within a half hour of my office. Do I know what she looks like? No. Does she have a firm understanding of who my company is? Definitely not. Your account rep needs to know who you are in order to help your company best. A ten minute stop in to your office goes a long way. The rep doesn’t need to be my best friend but she should be comfortable leaving her office and stopping by mine with new catalogs and services at least once a year.
I didn’t spend too much time thinking about these questions until the situation had gotten out of hand. Asking for a new account rep is easier than switching vendors and most companies live by the rule that it is easier to keep a customer than find a new one. Sure, the conversation is a little awkward at best but at least you don’t have return each others stuff at the end of it.
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