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julival2Amazingly enough, I do not have a pounding headache this morning. I woke up rather thirsty and hungry, but otherwise undamaged. I woke up earlier than I would have liked because some stupid bank called with an automated message for Jeff at 8:30 or so and I couldn't go back to sleep afterward.
I am mainly just posting now to clarify something I said last night in my altered state. I do not hate my job. I know I said I hate my job, but what I really meant was that I hate my employer. The job is not so bad. I work with nice people, including a very nice new manager. He's a bit of a penny pincher, but he's very laid back and easy to work for. He delegates much more than my previous manager does, and I appreciate the responsibilities he lets me have.
That being said, the real problem lies with the corporation that bought out our little store. They are short-sighted, like many big companies. They have decentralized and bureaucratized to the point of near lunacy. My compensation is in the hands of a vast right wing human resources department in the lone star state, controlled by people who know absolutely nothing about me beyond the facts on my job application. There is no one there who sees how I perform on a day to day basis. IF my manager had been with the company for years (instead of for 3 weeks less than I've been with the company), and IF he had been proven to be a good and reliable asset to his superior, and IF his superior had also been there for years and been proven good and reliable, and so forth up the chain of command, THEN I might have reasonable shot at being paid something more in line with the work I'm doing. BUT - my manager has about zero clout with the company right now, HIS manager just got assigned to deal with our store against his wishes, and HIS manager is so far removed from things that I've seen him exactly twice in three months. You get the picture.
When I asked them at the end of June (my manager and his manager - the first two layers in my pyramid of bureaucracy (of which I am quite firmly only a grain of sand underneath) about any possible increase in my current compensation in the near future, I was told that HR would have to be called. The next day I checked back in with them to see if they had any info from HR and was told that while there would be a performance review at the end of our first ninety days, it would only be for the purposes of seeing if they actually wanted to keep us on as employees, not to increase any pay. There would absolutely be no changes in compensation before next May. At that point, I told both managers (store and regional) that I would be looking for another job. I apologized that I was leaving them in such a mess (Just so we're totally clear here, I've been training the new manager on how to use the new computer system and I've been the 'go to girl' whenever anyone has a question or a crisis for the last two months. I've been the one making all the phone calls to find out how to do things none of us know how to do and I've been the one playing with all the function keys on the new system to figure out what else it will do.).
Here is what the regional manager said - "*Shrug* It doesn't really matter. The company has given this store six months grace for start up, so we have plenty of time to muddle through." Gee thanks. But I guess good clerical help is a dime a dozen, so whatever.
Now on the job search situation -
Naturally, being a goal oriented person, I immediately went home on the thirtieth of June and updated my resume. Over fourth of July weekend, I got registered on the monster of job search sites and started researching my options. I also bought a really stupid ms office tutorial to brush up on all the office applications (i already know how to use word and excel just fine, but i don't have much use for powerpoint and i only use outlook express email, not the big outlook package and no access or that other thing...
Anyway, by Tuesday the fifth, I had sent resumes by email and snail mail to five or six companies. Since then, I've averaged about one resume out per day, so that I have a total of 25 floating around out there. All but one have either been faxed to an anonymous fax number, emailed to a generic HR email account, or posted through the aforementioned monster site. I've combed the classifieds every Sunday, in addition to the daily searchbot listings. The one resume that I hand delivered only got me as far as the receptionist. 99% of the job listings I've come across in the past month have had no address or phone number information for direct contact. Most don't even have a person's name on them. You just have to fax or email or post your info to these random numbers and hope someone gets back to you. It's so frustrating!
I've had exactly on little tiny nibble as of this week. One third party staffing service emailed me back for an additional resume attachment that they could print out and give to the company they were trying to fill a position for. That was Thursday. I NEED TO TALK TO A HUMAN. It wasn't like this the last few times I looked for jobs. I just found information, walked into the business, handed them my resume, talked to the people I needed to talk to, filled out an app and got hired. This is the first time I've ever been really mad at the Internet and technology for the way it has changed practices.
I don't exactly know why I don't get follow up on my submissions. Jeff seems to think my resume looks good and that I have all the requisite skills and aptitudes (and more) for administrative assistant type positions (and I have the work experience! and I capitalize in my cover letters!). One pathetic theory that I have is that they look at the dates of my college info and realize that I'm over forty and put me on the bottom of the pile. Another is that I don't have 'stable' job history - I have had jobs with three companies (only two by choice) and a school in the last four years. I tried to make it very clear on the resume that I did not quit or get fired from my last employer - they just got bought out! But I think if the person only looks at the dates of employment, they see 6 months at a school, six months of staying home, 15 months at the IB store, 18 months at the good store, and 2 months or less at the corporate takeover store. bleh. maybe there are way more people qualified for these jobs than i can compete against. maybe i'm not patient enough. maybe i'm just used to setting a goal and meeting it in a timely fashion. maybe this is just the year from hell for me. no wait - that was the year i was teaching. or the year i was student teaching. or both. god, i'm a whiny bitch.
maybe i need to get off my ever fattening ass and clean the house now.
I am mainly just posting now to clarify something I said last night in my altered state. I do not hate my job. I know I said I hate my job, but what I really meant was that I hate my employer. The job is not so bad. I work with nice people, including a very nice new manager. He's a bit of a penny pincher, but he's very laid back and easy to work for. He delegates much more than my previous manager does, and I appreciate the responsibilities he lets me have.
That being said, the real problem lies with the corporation that bought out our little store. They are short-sighted, like many big companies. They have decentralized and bureaucratized to the point of near lunacy. My compensation is in the hands of a vast right wing human resources department in the lone star state, controlled by people who know absolutely nothing about me beyond the facts on my job application. There is no one there who sees how I perform on a day to day basis. IF my manager had been with the company for years (instead of for 3 weeks less than I've been with the company), and IF he had been proven to be a good and reliable asset to his superior, and IF his superior had also been there for years and been proven good and reliable, and so forth up the chain of command, THEN I might have reasonable shot at being paid something more in line with the work I'm doing. BUT - my manager has about zero clout with the company right now, HIS manager just got assigned to deal with our store against his wishes, and HIS manager is so far removed from things that I've seen him exactly twice in three months. You get the picture.
When I asked them at the end of June (my manager and his manager - the first two layers in my pyramid of bureaucracy (of which I am quite firmly only a grain of sand underneath) about any possible increase in my current compensation in the near future, I was told that HR would have to be called. The next day I checked back in with them to see if they had any info from HR and was told that while there would be a performance review at the end of our first ninety days, it would only be for the purposes of seeing if they actually wanted to keep us on as employees, not to increase any pay. There would absolutely be no changes in compensation before next May. At that point, I told both managers (store and regional) that I would be looking for another job. I apologized that I was leaving them in such a mess (Just so we're totally clear here, I've been training the new manager on how to use the new computer system and I've been the 'go to girl' whenever anyone has a question or a crisis for the last two months. I've been the one making all the phone calls to find out how to do things none of us know how to do and I've been the one playing with all the function keys on the new system to figure out what else it will do.).
Here is what the regional manager said - "*Shrug* It doesn't really matter. The company has given this store six months grace for start up, so we have plenty of time to muddle through." Gee thanks. But I guess good clerical help is a dime a dozen, so whatever.
Now on the job search situation -
Naturally, being a goal oriented person, I immediately went home on the thirtieth of June and updated my resume. Over fourth of July weekend, I got registered on the monster of job search sites and started researching my options. I also bought a really stupid ms office tutorial to brush up on all the office applications (i already know how to use word and excel just fine, but i don't have much use for powerpoint and i only use outlook express email, not the big outlook package and no access or that other thing...
Anyway, by Tuesday the fifth, I had sent resumes by email and snail mail to five or six companies. Since then, I've averaged about one resume out per day, so that I have a total of 25 floating around out there. All but one have either been faxed to an anonymous fax number, emailed to a generic HR email account, or posted through the aforementioned monster site. I've combed the classifieds every Sunday, in addition to the daily searchbot listings. The one resume that I hand delivered only got me as far as the receptionist. 99% of the job listings I've come across in the past month have had no address or phone number information for direct contact. Most don't even have a person's name on them. You just have to fax or email or post your info to these random numbers and hope someone gets back to you. It's so frustrating!
I've had exactly on little tiny nibble as of this week. One third party staffing service emailed me back for an additional resume attachment that they could print out and give to the company they were trying to fill a position for. That was Thursday. I NEED TO TALK TO A HUMAN. It wasn't like this the last few times I looked for jobs. I just found information, walked into the business, handed them my resume, talked to the people I needed to talk to, filled out an app and got hired. This is the first time I've ever been really mad at the Internet and technology for the way it has changed practices.
I don't exactly know why I don't get follow up on my submissions. Jeff seems to think my resume looks good and that I have all the requisite skills and aptitudes (and more) for administrative assistant type positions (and I have the work experience! and I capitalize in my cover letters!). One pathetic theory that I have is that they look at the dates of my college info and realize that I'm over forty and put me on the bottom of the pile. Another is that I don't have 'stable' job history - I have had jobs with three companies (only two by choice) and a school in the last four years. I tried to make it very clear on the resume that I did not quit or get fired from my last employer - they just got bought out! But I think if the person only looks at the dates of employment, they see 6 months at a school, six months of staying home, 15 months at the IB store, 18 months at the good store, and 2 months or less at the corporate takeover store. bleh. maybe there are way more people qualified for these jobs than i can compete against. maybe i'm not patient enough. maybe i'm just used to setting a goal and meeting it in a timely fashion. maybe this is just the year from hell for me. no wait - that was the year i was teaching. or the year i was student teaching. or both. god, i'm a whiny bitch.
maybe i need to get off my ever fattening ass and clean the house now.
