The Best Part About Changing Jobs

Today was the first day in about two weeks that I had to buy my own lunch.  Ever since I gave my notice, it’s been a whirlwind of happy hours, lunches, breakfasts, coffee breaks, etc.  First with the old job, and then this week with my new colleagues.

There was the Adele-planned happy hour at the Union Grill.  Complete with champagne (and a margarita for me!), great apps, and really nice and thoughtful gifts.  Then there was a delicious lunch at Eleven, where I had the best burger I’ve had in awhile.  Both of these excursions were PC…they included some people I am less than fond of, so it started another wave of events for just people we like

On one of my last days, two of my most important and favorite internal customers took me to Lucca.  I hadn’t been there in awhile and never for lunch, so I wasn’t really sure what to expect.  I had the turkey club sandwich, and oh my God, was it good.  It was enormous and came with lots of chips and a really large side salad.  (Just a note, if you’re a club sandwich fan, check this cool new blog out:  http://clubsaretrump.blogspot.com/ – it’s really neat!)  I also had the tiramisu for desert, and well, that was just a disgrace to tiramisu everywhere.  Over all the lunch was excellent both in taste and company.

My very last day, two of my fav co-workers and I went to a restaurant off the beaten path so we could enjoy a few cocktails.  A couple of glasses of prosecco later, and I was feeling GREAT as I handed off my badge and everything to HR.

Then I started the new job.  Day one was a retreat, so even though it wasn’t all for me, I can pretend it was.  Breakfast, lunch, and ice cream sundaes!  Day two and three…more lunches with new, interesting and great people.  One place we went that I really liked was the cafe at Phipps.  I had a great chicken salad…it was a good size too.  Not overwhelmingly large, but I left full.

Today…a quick bagel at Einsteins.  Not that exciting, but filling.  It’s fun changing jobs

Mean People Suck

If you want something from someone, it’s so much easier to get it when you ask nicely.

Yesterday, a person I work with – who we’ll call Joey B. – went out of his way to be mean and power trippy over the smallest thing.

Joey B. needed web stats to give to his boss, our CEO. Instead of Joey B. looking them up himself like every other competent person we work with, he always asks me to do it for him. Fine, it takes all of 4 minutes and that’s fine.

Well, yesterday Joey B. decided that he wanted to receive the information in a new combined format with a fancy Excel chart. I have about a million other things to do that are actually important and my work – not someone else’s – and I’m not an Excel chart whiz, so I put all of the data in the spreadsheet (per usual) and NICELY explained that I didn’t know how to make that chart, but here’s all the data, if you make it, I can update it next month and so on.

Joey B. proceeded to email and call me yelling at me like I was a worthless human being. He then went on to nastily yell that I need to also put the information in a powerpoint slide for him so he can add it to his presentation. Um, ok…I don’t work for you, so no I don’t think I should be doing your job for you.

I told him I’d figure out how to make the cart (not part of my job – you want information about stats, that’s one thing – what you do with them is not my concern) and hung up b/c he was being so rude. I actually pretty easily figured out how to make the stupid chart, plopped it onto one of his slides and sent it off. I purposefully left off the title he asked me to include…just b/c he was so mean, and I wanted to see if he’d yell at me for that. He did. I got another angry email stating that I didn’t include the title and to please add it.

I don’t know where people get off. This guy has no right to a) tell me what to do or b) yell at me. For anything. I’m not his – or anyone else’s – assistant/bitch. It’s not my job to do his job.

Yet, the thing is, had he asked me nicely to put the information into a slide to help him out and acted like a decent person when I said I didn’t know how to make the complex chart, I’d happily have done it all for him.

Being nice will get you so much further in life. Being mean about stupid things is just well, stupid.

My degree is useless?

I graduated with a BA in political science in 2002. For the past six years, I have worked in marketing and pr. I’m a decent writer and pretty good at what I do – especially online marketing. I have also taken grad classes in writing and have a 4.0

Recently, my company announced a new job opening for a conference series writer. Since I already do the marketing for the conference series and understand how desperately they need someone who can write to market the conference (marketing copy v technical writing are very, very different and should not be intertwined!), I threw my name into the mix.

I talked to my boss, and she gave me really positive feedback by basically saying, “You’d be perfect for the job. In fact, people have already asked me if I thought you’d be interested.” Plus, I’d still report to the same boss, so it wouldn’t be that big of a change…just a better job, the chance to travel, and the opportunity to really help out this conference series.

HR scheduled the 5 rounds of interviews and added them to my corporate calendar. But, as it turns out, someone at my company really didn’t want me to get that job. Or even interview for it.

The job description states education requirements as: Bachelor’s degree in public relations, corporate communications, marketing communication, journalism, technical communication, English, or equivalent.

Well, my boss’s boss, for a reason I now believe to be he has someone in mind for the job, decided that since my degree is not in English or writing, I should be bullied out of even interviewing for the job. Apparently, he doesn’t understand the definition of “equivalent.”

How it went down was like this (I pieced this together after talking to several people who knew about the situation) – my boss’s boss, who we’ll call Fisher, called my boss into his office. He basically told her that she had to talk me out of interviewing for the job because I was not qualified since I only have a BA in political science. My boss didn’t want to do it, but did it anyway. And let me tell you how fun that was…to sit in a meeting with someone who you have liked and respected for the past 14 months and have her tell you these things about how unqualified I am to write since I was not formally educated in writing. (Funny how part of my job is writing, and they don’t seem to have a problem with that.)

I don’t know if Fisher understands what a political science degree entails, but all I did in college was write – papers, essays, arguments, etc. And to this day, through multiple job searches and interviews, no one else has ever questioned the legitimacy of my degree (which is from a pretty good school, I might add). In fact, it has mostly helped me in my career – successful political science majors are thought to have excellent communication skills and comprehensive and accurate research skills – among other things.

Besides, my degree isn’t the only thing I’ve ever done – but do you think Fisher ever asked me about my prior experience or accomplishments? No.

So, I backed out of interviewing for the job. It was quite the scandal at work for a week or so. The person doing the hiring wanted me for the job. So did the people who the “writer” will work very closely with.

Work can be so political sometimes.

Starbucks Doubleshot on Ice

I’m addicted to Starbucks. It’s not necessarily that they have the best coffee (Dunkin Donuts’ Hazelnut Coffee wins in my book), but Starbucks is right down the street from my office. It provides the perfect procrastination-caffeination combination.

My mornings at work usually start out sometime between 8:30 – 10am (gotta love flexible work hours). Then I find my favorite co-worker, Adele to see if she needs to go to Starbucks. Thankfully, her answer is always yes.

Our walks down the street are just as re-energizing as the coffee…we gossip, we vent, we make each other laugh. Adele is my sounding board at work. She understands work-related frustrations – as petty or small as some of them may be – because she is entwined in this institution, too. It’s also our tradition to read our daily horoscopes while we’re there…mine has been pretty bad lately.

Anyway, my usual Starbucks drink is a triple venti skinny caramel latte, extra hot. It costs me $4.95 a day. So, I’ve been looking for some more economical choices that were still yummy – plain coffee sometimes is a bit boring to me. This morning I tried the new Starbucks Doubleshot on Ice. It’s amazing (I did add four packs of splenda to it, just like I do to any coffee beverage)…and I think I found my new summer coffee drink. And, at less than $3, it makes financial sense, too!