![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Keeping my eyes open and my ears closed.
Dec. 11th, 2010 02:48 pmEyes open
Work could be worse, I'll give you that. Looks like my chances of promotion are still pretty much nil - I seem to have pissed off the wrong person and sabotaged myself in doing so, though in truth, I have no idea how I did it because I barely speak to the person in question. It's said that if you get on her bad side, you can kiss your opportunities goodbye, and now, well, she'll say hello to everyone in my row but won't even meet my eyes. I can only conclude that I did something wrong.
I've been advised by M, the quality manager who'se so much like me that it's eerie, that I shouldn't discount promotion so quickly, because for one thing, I have to be at the company for a certain length of time before they'll consider me for anything. But that doesn't tally with what happened to Kat, as she had an info session for an internal promotion that starts early in the new year, and she's been there as long as I have.
Also, the Keener has been granted floorwalking time, which particularly rankles me because she still asks me questions when I walk the floors. The times I do that aere fewer now, though. At first, my sup let me do it a lot. Then it seemed he was only letting me do it until Kat showed up, and then virtually ignored me, like I was a poor substitute for Kat and he'd only tolerate my help until she arrived. Now I'm still being passed over so that the Keener can floorwalk. I'm starting to feel seriously shat on, here.
My sup's likely going to be promoted soon, too, and he commented that he'd get to pick his replacement. It was the next day that the Keener started walking the floors, and I overheard the other sup talking with her about some of the behind-the-scenes stuff that supervisors do. I have no definitive proof, but I'm getting more sure that I'm going to stay an entry-level agent there until I quit, because I keep getting overlooked by those who can help me.
The people around me love my help. They ask me questions even when someone else is walking the floor. That's heartening. But it's ignored by the people who can help me advance, and I don't have enough conclusive proof of being overlooked to approach them about it. If I do, I'll look paranoid and self-centred, I know I will. It'll sound like I think I'm better than other people and want all the attention and accolades for myself.
But there are too many signs adding up to the strong suggestion that somebody doesn't want me advancing.
So I'm doing the only thing I can do. While I'm there, I do my work as well as I can, help people out where I can, and try to catch the eye of supervisors and managers who might help me rise on the corporate ladder. In the meantime, I'm putting resumes out there to other companies, too, who might be able to get me a better job than what I've got now.
For instance, today I managed to find two good-looking jobs on the job bank. One for a technical writer, which I knows pays decently although it's only a temp job. (If it's temporary and work-from-home and I'd get paid by the document rather than the hours I worked, I could technically work that job in addition to my current one, depending on the workload.) The other is a web design job, $16 an hour for 40 hours a week. I know I don't have the best web design skills in the world, but I've done web design before, and the ad did say that all experience levels will be considered. For all I know, I might be the person with the best skills willing to work at the price they're willing to pay.
Besides, I'd be a fool not to apply for those jobs. At worst, I won't get them, and then what was lost but the five minutes that it took to type out a cover letter and send off an email. At best, I'll get the job and I'm sure I'd enjoy it more than the one I have now, and I'd get better pay to boot! After taxes, the web design job would give me about $2000 a month, which is around $600 more than I'm getting right now. That could change my life dramatically. Right now, I can pay the bills and rent and whatnot and still have a little money left over for meds and maybe a treat every now and again. On $2000 a month, I'd have enough money to do all that plus save $500 a month for... I don't know, maybe going back to school, going on a vacation, retirement, anything I please!
But we'll see what happens. Maybe I'll get lucky and get the web design job, and maybe I won't and I'll stay where I am until something better comes along later. But either way, I'm trying.
Ears closed
My mother insists on calling me. Or on getting me to call her. Constantly. Annoyingly. For ridiculous things.
Earlier in the week, she left a message on my voicemail, then posted on my Facebook wall for me to call her. Thinking it was important (because why else would she do that so randomly when she could just email me), I called. Turns out she just wanted to repeat everything she'd already said to my voicemail. *facepalm*
The other night, I sent her a message on Facebook asking if she remembered whether my dad likes a certain kind of candy or not. her reply, half a minute later (showing that she easily had access to the Internet) was, "Call me." I replied no, I was a bit busy, and was there some reason she couldn't answer a simple yes or no question?
She replied, of course, but I imagine she was annoyed that I had the temerity not to call her.
She did the same thing today, only worse. I made a post on Facebook saying that I'd applied for a job. Her reply? "Call me, please."
So I call. All she wanted to know was whether I wanted to go to the mall with her, to keep her company while she shopped for winter boots.
I'd had enough. I asked her to stop doing that. I work on the phones for 42 hours a week, and she's known for years that I both don't like phones and also don't like pointless chitchat, so could she please stop getting me to call her for things that could be easily said through a simple message when she clearly knows I can receive it online.
She got a little huffy and said that she liked talking to me and that she didn't hear from me as much anymore, so it was nice to hear my voice. I bit back a retort about how she hasn't heard from me as much because now I have a job instead of being unemployed, but just repeated my request and told her that she knows I don't like phones.
She reluctantly agreed to stop harassing me.
Hopefully that'll give me a month of blessed silence before she forgets that I'm not at her beck and call every second and she starts calling constantly to chat about nothing once again.
Work could be worse, I'll give you that. Looks like my chances of promotion are still pretty much nil - I seem to have pissed off the wrong person and sabotaged myself in doing so, though in truth, I have no idea how I did it because I barely speak to the person in question. It's said that if you get on her bad side, you can kiss your opportunities goodbye, and now, well, she'll say hello to everyone in my row but won't even meet my eyes. I can only conclude that I did something wrong.
I've been advised by M, the quality manager who'se so much like me that it's eerie, that I shouldn't discount promotion so quickly, because for one thing, I have to be at the company for a certain length of time before they'll consider me for anything. But that doesn't tally with what happened to Kat, as she had an info session for an internal promotion that starts early in the new year, and she's been there as long as I have.
Also, the Keener has been granted floorwalking time, which particularly rankles me because she still asks me questions when I walk the floors. The times I do that aere fewer now, though. At first, my sup let me do it a lot. Then it seemed he was only letting me do it until Kat showed up, and then virtually ignored me, like I was a poor substitute for Kat and he'd only tolerate my help until she arrived. Now I'm still being passed over so that the Keener can floorwalk. I'm starting to feel seriously shat on, here.
My sup's likely going to be promoted soon, too, and he commented that he'd get to pick his replacement. It was the next day that the Keener started walking the floors, and I overheard the other sup talking with her about some of the behind-the-scenes stuff that supervisors do. I have no definitive proof, but I'm getting more sure that I'm going to stay an entry-level agent there until I quit, because I keep getting overlooked by those who can help me.
The people around me love my help. They ask me questions even when someone else is walking the floor. That's heartening. But it's ignored by the people who can help me advance, and I don't have enough conclusive proof of being overlooked to approach them about it. If I do, I'll look paranoid and self-centred, I know I will. It'll sound like I think I'm better than other people and want all the attention and accolades for myself.
But there are too many signs adding up to the strong suggestion that somebody doesn't want me advancing.
So I'm doing the only thing I can do. While I'm there, I do my work as well as I can, help people out where I can, and try to catch the eye of supervisors and managers who might help me rise on the corporate ladder. In the meantime, I'm putting resumes out there to other companies, too, who might be able to get me a better job than what I've got now.
For instance, today I managed to find two good-looking jobs on the job bank. One for a technical writer, which I knows pays decently although it's only a temp job. (If it's temporary and work-from-home and I'd get paid by the document rather than the hours I worked, I could technically work that job in addition to my current one, depending on the workload.) The other is a web design job, $16 an hour for 40 hours a week. I know I don't have the best web design skills in the world, but I've done web design before, and the ad did say that all experience levels will be considered. For all I know, I might be the person with the best skills willing to work at the price they're willing to pay.
Besides, I'd be a fool not to apply for those jobs. At worst, I won't get them, and then what was lost but the five minutes that it took to type out a cover letter and send off an email. At best, I'll get the job and I'm sure I'd enjoy it more than the one I have now, and I'd get better pay to boot! After taxes, the web design job would give me about $2000 a month, which is around $600 more than I'm getting right now. That could change my life dramatically. Right now, I can pay the bills and rent and whatnot and still have a little money left over for meds and maybe a treat every now and again. On $2000 a month, I'd have enough money to do all that plus save $500 a month for... I don't know, maybe going back to school, going on a vacation, retirement, anything I please!
But we'll see what happens. Maybe I'll get lucky and get the web design job, and maybe I won't and I'll stay where I am until something better comes along later. But either way, I'm trying.
Ears closed
My mother insists on calling me. Or on getting me to call her. Constantly. Annoyingly. For ridiculous things.
Earlier in the week, she left a message on my voicemail, then posted on my Facebook wall for me to call her. Thinking it was important (because why else would she do that so randomly when she could just email me), I called. Turns out she just wanted to repeat everything she'd already said to my voicemail. *facepalm*
The other night, I sent her a message on Facebook asking if she remembered whether my dad likes a certain kind of candy or not. her reply, half a minute later (showing that she easily had access to the Internet) was, "Call me." I replied no, I was a bit busy, and was there some reason she couldn't answer a simple yes or no question?
She replied, of course, but I imagine she was annoyed that I had the temerity not to call her.
She did the same thing today, only worse. I made a post on Facebook saying that I'd applied for a job. Her reply? "Call me, please."
So I call. All she wanted to know was whether I wanted to go to the mall with her, to keep her company while she shopped for winter boots.
I'd had enough. I asked her to stop doing that. I work on the phones for 42 hours a week, and she's known for years that I both don't like phones and also don't like pointless chitchat, so could she please stop getting me to call her for things that could be easily said through a simple message when she clearly knows I can receive it online.
She got a little huffy and said that she liked talking to me and that she didn't hear from me as much anymore, so it was nice to hear my voice. I bit back a retort about how she hasn't heard from me as much because now I have a job instead of being unemployed, but just repeated my request and told her that she knows I don't like phones.
She reluctantly agreed to stop harassing me.
Hopefully that'll give me a month of blessed silence before she forgets that I'm not at her beck and call every second and she starts calling constantly to chat about nothing once again.