Her Little Efficiencies

First "interview" in 5 years tomorrow

2009-05-21T07:22:00.002-04:00

I have a meeting tomorrow with a competitor.....I was recommended to them by an acquaintance at a record label.

I wonder how many people leave jobs to go work for the competition? I must look that up later. In any case, I'm pretty excited (and nervous) about getting back in the game. Here is what has been occupying my mind since confirming the time for the meeting:

Appropriate costume - what's normal these days? I hear people no longer wear pantyhose, thank god, but can I go bare legged to a job interview? I have suits that were bought and never worn, but they'd be a bit dated now.....should I wear matchy matchy suit or sling a blazer over a pair of pants? I'm pretty sure that the office is as casual as our own, which means that most people are probably in sweatpants and torn concert tshirts. I know all the rules like "dress for the job you want", "better to be over than under dressed", etc....but still I'd like a more defined idea. Maybe I'll lurk outside their office for a while and watch people come and go. Most of them I should recognize from my online stalking I've done.

Online stalking - so it was the Pres's assistant that called me up and made arrangements with me. Since my search for Pres's name didn't yield very much, I thought I'd try her name. Never know what might come up. I felt a bit gross though, as I've now looked through her entire Flickr slideshow, read every post on her blog, and pretty well know her taste in food, music, pets, etc. The one fun thing that I found was a work-blog she created to chronicle a month of no shaving at the company. That's the blog that gave me a sense of the established dress code at the company (and the youth of the employees). The blog also showed me that the company likes to have a bit of fun and they look like they do things together, and probably are pretty supportive of this kind of online activity. That was pretty cool.

What questions to ask - thanks to Penelope Trunk, I have memorized the one question NOT to ask, as well as decent answers to all related questions.

How to appear enthusiastic without coming off as goofy - I find it hard to strike that balance. When I am enthusiastic, my voice speeds up, I tend to upspeak, and sometimes lose my train of thought. I'm going to have to do some deep breathing before I go in. There's a few schools of thought here on how to set your mind before going into an interview. Some say to think that you absolutely want the job, and do everything you can to ensure you get the job. Whether you accept the offer is a different story, but approach it as if you absolutely want to be hired. The other school of thought is to be slightly removed, and to be at the top of your game, but to appear slightly aloof, as if you have lots of other offers, and you better impress me before I'd consider working here. I most likely can't pull off aloof, so I'll stick with enthusiasm.

Anywhooo, it's almost 8am, and I'd better get a move on. I have to stop and pick up a copy of Best Answers To Interview Questions to stick under my pillow tonight.

Taking Charge

2009-05-20T07:44:00.002-04:00

I'm finally getting around to taking charge of my career. It feels good (and scary) to make some moves that will switch things around.

For five years I've been so happy with my job. I work with wonderful clients, I've had almost complete autonomy in decision making and I've had a chance for great opportunities and for the most part, I've been completely satisfied.

The economy is a bastard though, isn't it? In the last two years we've had so many changes and throughout it all, I've tried to keep a very positive outlook and do everything I can to ignore the signals around me. That all changed in the last week of January when I was asked by the VP of Finance to "come downstairs with me, there is someone that I want you to meet". I was so surprised, I just assumed it was some new client (the VP had some connections to a new artist). The first thing I said was "let me put on some lipstick" - naturally, I thought I was meeting a potential client. What a sucker. I was taken down to HR and laid off. Thanks to my head in the sand refusal to accept all indicators, I was blindsided and walked out of there completely devasted. The rest of the story is typical and somewhat boring but there was an upside. The layoffs (I wasn't the only one) caused such a furor among the clients, as well as some of the higher ups in different divisions who also worked with same clients, that the company scrambled and a week later I was brought back. The jokingly referred to it as "your little vacation". Vacation in hell is what the reality was. At the time, I was on a work visa tied to my job, and my layoff meant that unless I could find another company to sponsor me, I'd have to leave New York. During my "vacation", I was somewhat mollified to hear from two separate clients that the only reason they stayed with our company was because of me - and if I was gone, they'd take their business elsewhere. One very important (but small in revenue) client actually went so far as to call my boss and terminate their agreement.

So a week later I'm back at work. A few other people were hired back as well, but not everyone. I counted my lucky stars and thought that if I could hold out until my application for permanent residence was accepted, I'd be golden.

For the next few months, it was business as normal as cooler heads prevailed and executives tried to put together a workable plan to *not* shut down our division, but to merge it with another division and trim the roster.

We're now through the better part of May, and no plan is in place yet. There has been a lot of talk, but so far, no decisions. What has been decided, but not said out loud, is that the New York office is still going to wind down. They are just not saying it - but all indicators is that we're completely expendable. Any new clients are being managed by the division that is in the head office. Any new work or development is being done by that same division. We're still managing the clients that we always have, but with few exceptions, they are in a static mode and are just finishing out their terms. On top of that, a number of my colleagues who are better at seeing the writing on the wall than I am have left for greener pastures, leaving more work for less people to handle. I am now the employee that has been there the longest, and I've only been there five years. As a senior employee, I've had some hand in dealing with our entire client roster, so as people are leaving, I'm assigned more clients. So now I'm thinking -hey, I'm still here, I've been totally loyal, I still have the most clients of everyone, I should ask for a promotion and a salary review. So after some research, I put my plan together and I approach my new boss. We have a number of conversations and in each, he expressed regret for what's happened (although he wasn't directly involved as as part of the shuffle was made my boss) and delight in the fact that I am coming to him with a solid plan and he seems impressed with my commitment. Promises are made to continue the conversation, and put a plan in place for me. That was back in April. Nothing has happened. Every time I try and nail down a meeting to keep the conversation going, I'm put off. This time, my radar is a bit more finely tuned so I'm not assuming anything. But still, he seems very sincere, and for the most part, I chalk it up to his work schedule.

What's today? May 20th? Yup. Enough time has passed. I proposed a change that I thought would satisfy me and the company, I quantified it, I presented it. I can't do any more. It's clear to me now that the company is not operating on my schedule, and while my boss may have every intent of following through with me on an expanded role, our priorities are different. My priority is to be in a job where I can work hard, do well, earn a decent wage and every once in while be recognized for my contribution. To that end, I've spent some time updating my resume and have started a job search.

I have a few leads that I'm following up on, so who knows what will happen. What has already happened though, is that I'm in charge now. It's about time.

Our New Kitchen

2009-04-02T16:04:00.006-04:00

Well, this last week has been fun. Not. My husband's dad was taken to emergency last week, so J had to rush home to Edmonton. Coincidentally, the day before we closed on our new home. Bit of a mad panic arranging power of attorney so that I could sign everything necessary the next day.

Fast forward to almost a full week later, and I'm kind of physically and emotionally drained from the stress of getting into major debt, moving from a fifth floor walk up to a new state (ok so it's only across the river) and undertaking major renovations on my own. I have, however, had a few rays of light. One of them is this company called Basic Builders.

This is Peter Welles - and he's drawing me a new kitchen. Look at him with his old-timey tools! He's using a real pencil (which was tucked behind his ear) and graph paper. He did make a few concessions to modern living though - he had the most wicked laser pointer-er measuring thing.

My good friend Sarah had already been hard at work looking for pictures of kitchens that she thought would work, so I was able to at least provide Peter with some design direction - mainly that we have 'champagne taste on a PBR budget'. I'm sure that everyone says this.

Here's the dream kitchen:

We may just be 10 days away from getting to this point. Fingers crossed.

My first session with a Career Coach

2009-03-25T12:31:00.002-04:00

I had my first session with a career coach yesterday. It was ok. Just ok.

I'd been thinking about using a career coach for a while, and a friend had recommended checking with our company health plan to see if we had EAP (Employee Assistance Program) coverage for at least an initial consultation. At the time, we didn't, but by the time I actually got to really investigating the services of a coach, our health plan had changed, and voila - coverage.

So how was the session? A bit like a therapy session actually. I was shown into a small room that had a coach, a lamp, strategically placed boxes of tissue, and a chair. I guess I'm supposed to take the coach? I was SO tempted to sit in the chair and let the coach take the coach. It would have been fun to see her reaction.

My coach was a young woman, probably not even 30. Quite studious looking, and pretty, but pretty unkempt. I had fretted over my appearance for an hour in the morning, knowing that I'd be meeting someone that had the potential to be a business contact. I made sure that I was dressed professionally, had on a watch and stud earrings, had a ball point pen as well as a highlighter, had a notebook filled with notes I'd prepared, and that my breath was fresh. The young woman I met with had on a pair of pants with a fallen hem on one leg, was covered in cat hair, and had a limp, wet handshake. Not an auspicious start, but appearances and first impressions aside, we plowed ahead.

In the end, even though it was all classic therapy moves ("what I hear you saying is....", "it sounds like what you need is ....", etc.), there was still some value to the meeting. Just repeating my own words back to me served to crystallize some of the thoughts that I had. Also, presenting my 'case' to a complete stranger made me realize that I'm actually pretty prepared for a serious job search. I have a good understanding of what I need in terms of job satisfaction, I'm taking all the right steps in my research and I'm hiring professionals to do what I can't do well (a resume that acts as a marketing tool).

Now if I can convince Britney Spears to hire me and pay me $150,000 a year to be her big sister, I'm all set

Vernal Equinox

2009-03-20T12:20:00.004-04:00

Today is the last day of winter, the Vernal Equinox. To celebrate this, it snowed. Thankfully, it didn't last very long, or even stick to the ground. Still it was an annoyance though, I'd already had an outfit all planned out that included somewhat inappropriate sling back shoes. Instead, I had to pull out the trusty Australians:

holy moly, they really need to be taken care of....I've had these boots for 11 years and they should last me another few at least. Jay bought these for me when we lived in Toronto. It was my birthday, and while I'm sure he'd rather have bought me a pair of red patent leather stilleto's, he knew my affinity for butch footware.

Today, in celebration of the last day of winter, I'm thinking ahead. I'm going to plan next years winter landscape for our new home. There's a big backyard and I figure that I can leave out some very specific items to create a snowscape. I wonder if a rusty old lawnmower will make a lovely shape. I think it will.

House assesment for financing

2009-03-18T10:07:00.002-04:00

I had some crazy good news yesterday about the house situation yesterday. I'm still pinching myself.

We've been trying to close on our new Union City house for the last week, and the assesment has been holding things up a bit. Gone are the days when banks gave away mortgage money like mardi gras beads - now they are not only doing an assesment, they do a physical inspection. It just so happens that there aren't very many single family homes in UC (mostly multi family and condos), and there hasn't been a lot of home sales recently. So, that means that there isn't much to compare our property. In fact, there were only FOUR, as in 4, like quatro, over the last 12 month period. Isn't that insane? Four single family homes sold in this city in the last twelve months. That sounds too ridiculous, maybe it's four homes in same size/neighborhood? In any case, their is not a lot to compare to.

So the assesment happens, and I get a call from the real estate agent informing me that the value of the house was assesed at $260k. Uh, that's weird - we fiercely negotiated down from a starting point of $339k. In fact, our first offer on the property was $269k, and we recognized that it was a total low-ball offer. So low-ball that the sellers made a point of asking their agent to relay to us how insulted they were at our offer. So after weeks of back and forth, settling on a price of $305k, knowing it was more than we wanted to spend but we loved the house, the agents call about the assesment spun me into a panic. Does this mean the bank will only lend us funds based on a maxiumum of $260k and we have to find bridge financing for the extra $45k? That was my first reaction, and I instantly thought - we're done, we're not buying that house, we can't find another $45k. I was lamenting my aggressiveness in having already ordered 5 lilac bushes for delivery in April. BUT NO! The assesment means that we get the house for $260k instead of $305k. I don't know all the details yet but I think the sellers options were 1) take the assesed value and be done with it 2) take the property off the market and wait for economy to come out of the shitter.

I have to admit that I feel a certain vindication now for our initial "insult" low-ball offer. I'm also really happy to save some downpayment money. We're going to put in the swank new kitchen that we thought we'd have to put on hold. That will be a story for tomorrow.

House Buying

2009-03-17T16:44:00.003-04:00

Is it totally insane that we're about to close on a house exactly two months after being laid off? I think it is - but since I am the *most* risk averse person I know, I'm taking weird pleasure in this gigantic leap of faith.

The beautiful apartment we've had for two years (picture on home page) is slowly being emptied and boxed up and getting ready for a ride across the river to Union City, NJ.

Where's Union City? Fair question - I know from googling it that it's home to Prote'Ge', who made it three rounds on G to Gents.

I also know that it was formally called "West Hoboken" until sometime in the '50's when it became it's own city. I also know that they mayor is named Brian Stack, and I'm going to stalk him. I've written before about my plans to stalk Moby, right? I'm done with him, and I'm now moving on to city officials. Brian and I will be good friends soon, and when we start exchanging chili recipes, I'll be bragging about it here.

Here's the front door of our new place - exciting, right?

Ack! Has it really been this long?

2009-02-28T20:56:00.002-05:00

I think I got a bit freaked out about the potentially public nature of blogs....how do people do it? Just write what they want and consequences be damned? I think I may be too soft in the backbone for that. If I had more imagination (or a store of good drugs nearby) I'd probably be able to 'let it go' a bit easier. Geez, even reading back the last few sentences makes me quesy. How narcisstic I am - as IF anyone reads this but me, and moreover, as if anyone really cares. People post videos of themselves lighting their farts on fire, I don't know why I'm worried about what I may reveal.

So what's best - a catch up on the last few months or straight into what I want to talk about?

Straight into it. Shit! I just realized that I'm typing in Times New Roman. I hate this font. One moment, let's see what my options are. You have no idea how lucky you are, I almost went with Verdana.

Ok, here's what I wanted to post about.....I need a life coach for my work life. My company offers the services of this "Employee Assistance Program" which I was hopeful about - until I went to the website and saw what a joke it was. Basically, a drop down menu of life situations (work, health, finance, home life) with further drop down menus for each. Allrighty, I thought, a pretty good start. So I make my selection (finance ->mortgages) and see a list of linked news articles....not exactly the help I was looking for. Oh well. I guess I'll turn to my best friend, Google, and see what she says. Maybe she can recommend a work/life coach.

I just read a great book

2008-08-03T08:51:00.003-04:00

I just finished "Elling" by Ingvar Ambrjornsen. What a fantastic book. It's about a pair of roomates who have been released from a care facility and have to learn to navigate daily life. The book is set in modern day Norway, and I really feel like I learned a bit about the Norse pysche.

Very good funny read, I highly recommend it.

A very mauvaise Saturday

2008-05-03T09:45:00.003-04:00

It's almost 10am and I should be whizzing around the apartment putting things away (a pair of shoes from every day this week in hallway) and getting ready for my knitting club and my Saturday trip to library. Instead, I'm in my p.j.'s, drinking my second cup of coffee and reading work emails. It's grey and awful outside - like the sky won't commit to rain, and won't give you a break with showing a bit of sun.

I've been kind of loving having a non-mental period at work, and it's let me get caught up on things that have piled up over the last year. My slow-ish work period is officially over, I've been assigned three new clients, and that means three site launches in the next six weeks. From my end, I know I can do it. I just have to be organized enough that I don't end up putting one artists' bio on anothers site.

The part that worries me is that we have 2 designers, one of which is as lazy as the day is long. So I want to outsource production, and my favorite designer is a French guy living in Germany....thanks to the internet gods, communication isn't a problem, but relevance is. He just isn't as familiar with the artists as a local might be. So do I spend precious time finding a new designer who may be more in tune, or go with the designer that I know is great, and is fast? I think even typing this made the choice clear to me.

If I didn't think that I'd be exposed by someone from work googling said artist name for research, and having this blog come up and let them see into my secrets, I'd reveal, because I'm very proud of the work I do.

Oh what the hell - how about hints then?

Client #1 R&B singer, wardrobe issue, youngest of 9
Client #2 Comedian, gets r done, not a real redneck
Client #3...i'll have to figure a way to describe him, he's not easily tagged. R&B singer with biz smarts? I dunno.

her little efficiencies

2008-04-03T07:33:00.004-04:00

Many, many moons ago I worked for a catering company in Vancouver, BC called Copper Kettle. I was probably 18 or 19 at the time. We'd get sent out on small to medium gigs, and it usually meant going out in a crew of 2 or 3, sometimes more if it was a big event. We'd go to the restaurant, pack up the van with the food, the tablecloths, the cleaning supplies, etc. The motto of Copper Kettle catering was that we leave the space in better condition than we found it. Thank god they didn't advertise that, or we'd be hired to do cleaning with some food service on the side.

It was at Copper Kettle catering that I was first introduced to what I like to call 'little efficiencies'. For example, you're never empty handed - if you're going into the dining room, you either take a clean tablecloth, a tray to collect glasses, coffee for refills, etc. Coming back to the kitchen, same thing - you either pick up a dirty dish, remove salt and pepper shakers to re-pack into crate, etc. The captain would always be reminding us - don't go empty handed.

Something about that has stuck with me, and so I'm always on lookout for my own little efficiencies. For example, I am obsessed with having my metro card out of my pocket, and in my hand in the correct position so that when I get on the bus, it's one fluid motion to dip and authenticate. The idea of holding up anyone that might be behind me while I fumble through my wallet for my card? It's abhorrent to me. If I'm on the subway, and know that I'll need to transfer lines, I always walk to the place on the platform where it's most convenient to exit for the change.

My money must be in my wallet with the heads all the same way, and I must have cash on me at all times. Now that I'm a Canadian living in US and have gotten used to all the money being the same color it's a bit easier, but at the beginning, the obsession with smooth, organized cash was a bit stronger.

You'd think this weird quirk would manifest itself in an organized household....far from it. Thank goodness we're having a houseguest this weekend, it will provide the impetus to do a whirlwind clean on Saturday morning. Two adults, two hectic jobs, lack of storage space and months of not having use of our deck have made us fall into some bad housekeeping habits. Our landlord is supposed to be providing us with a storage spot in the basement which will be a big help, but for now we'll just have to be as efficient as possible in hiding things.

thanks for listening.

April Fools Day

2008-04-01T07:36:00.003-04:00

Have I mentioned my job? It's great. I'm so lucky. But the people that I work with are not the friendliest. My clients are decent for the most part, some of them even fun and the kind of people I like to hang out with. My co-workers? Not so much. There's not a lot of brainstorming or round table discussions or chats around the water cooler. Therefore, no real opportunities for a quick chat, or a 'how was your weekend'. Believe me, I don't want to hear someone's life story or stand around for hours while they blather on. I do however, like the social protocol of a greeting, a sincere acknowledgment, and then off to work.

Everyone (mostly everyone) knuckles down, does their work, and leaves. I used to be the type of person who'd say hello to everyone as I came into the office, and say "good night" as I was leaving. That nicety has been worn away, as I was usually talking to myself. Actually, there was one other guy, since fired, and he and I used to joke about the social experiments we'd do. We'd come in and say a pointed "good morning" to someone, almost trying to goad them into acknowledging us, and most would reluctantly reply with a half hearted mumbled 'good morning' back. I guess we were trying to show them that it wouldn't kill them to be civil, and that it was quite easy to just say hello, but we soon tired of our game and said good morning only to each other. Now that he's gone, I find myself wishing I had ONE SINGLE other person (beside my husband, we work in same office) that seemed pleased to see me in the morning as I walked into the office, and would say cheerily as I left "see you in the morning". Such a simple thing.

I keep trying things to see if people will follow - a month ago I announced that the G&T cart would be going around the office at Friday at 5pm. At 5pm, I started making drinks (buying everything on my own nickel) and passing them around. Lots of people seemed really appreciative, and to the few who said "we should do this more often" I would reply - great idea, why don't you do it next week? Let's start doing this weekly. What do you think happened?

Maybe I can give it another try - maybe I should have a tougher skin. Maybe I should tell my boss that if he didn't come in before everyone else, lock himself in his office, walk right out the door at the end of the day, he could lead by example. It always starts at the top, doesn't it? I don't think he needs to walk around the office asking about kids baseball games, but would it hurt to say hello to a few people as he waited for the microwave to ding?

Time to get going. Get ready to get into office where I will try again not to be part of the problem. It's tough going.

Feeling Blue on a beautiful spring day

2008-03-30T09:28:00.001-04:00

I'm feeling a bit blue today...

It's a gorgeous spring day - the sun has been up since 6am and so have I. I've done the normal Sunday things: made coffee, made a lovely breakfast, thought about going to church then procrastinated until it was too late, moved living room clutter from one room into the other, etc.

It's 9:30am now and I have the whole day ahead of me. Why should I be so blue? It's pathetic really. My husband is off on a job today, so he'll be gone the entire day. Normally I love a day alone, and do everything I can to help him get going so he can be out the door as fast as possible.

Today however, the fact that we've lived in this city for four flippin' years, and I don't have one single girlfriend that I can call to say come over, let's have gin and tonics and ready trashy magazines on the deck. Oh, I'm not so pathetic that I don't have any friends, I guess I have a few. One old friend who's moved here along the same path as me - Vancouver to Toronto, Toronto to New York - but she's newly pregnant and naturally in a nesting mode, and she's just not someone who is very spontaneous. We need to make plans weeks ahead and bless her, when we do get together we have a fantastic time. I have another friend (more of an acquaintance) that I met through a friend, but again, just not someone that I'm close enough to that I could issue a casual last minute invite too.

How do you go about making great friends in a new place when you're a 43 year old woman?

We don't have children, so meeting other people at kid-type events is out. We don't have pets, so making friends over the shared humiliation of picking up dog poo is out. We both work like crazy, and the people we work with just aren't very friendly. There used to be a few of us that would at least go for a drink on Friday's, but that seems to have faded away.

Some hope is on the horizon, fingers crossed. At a museum event a few weeks ago I met a very interesting man, and we've exchanged a few emails. I also met a pretty insane woman at a work event a few weeks ago, and she issued an instant invitation to join her and her 26 friends and family to see Bette Midler in Las Vegas in October. I may just go, I have to decide next week.

We (husband and I) have been talking about having a big old party in May or June. Maybe that's the way to make great friends. Invite over everyone you've ever met and kept a business card from in the last year, serve a pile of drinks, some beef satay and amuse bouche on little spoons, then hope for friend chemistry.

I'm going to start putting that party together now.

2008-02-27T19:29:00.002-05:00

This is a test post, just to see how all this biz works.