One aspect of my job involves "meeting days". I book a bunch of meetings in Toronto, and then head in to the city for a day, have the meetings, and then usually stay for the weekend at my parents' house. It's always really nice to get out of the office, be in Toronto where you see more than 1 person when you're out walking, and keep things fresh! I really like it!
Usually these meetings are over coffee -- we meet at a Starbucks and chat about whatever it is we're chatting about. Loves it! BUT... if I'm meeting 5 different people, that's 5 different coffees. That's a lot of coffee! Combine that with the normal nerves of having business meetings, and you've got me performing on a more jittery level than I should be. There's no need for that!
So... something I've learned? Order tea on occasion.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Trust Thy Boss
As always, there are exceptions. You might have a total a**hole of a boss, and so ignore what I'm saying. However, I'm an optimist (or you might call me naïve) and I like to think that most people have good intentions. Anyway, these statements are leading to the point of this post, which is to "Trust Thy Boss".
So many times over the past 4 months, I've thought to myself... "Why aren't I getting more projects?" "Why don't they want me to put my knowledge and experience to use?" "I'm so bored... why aren't I doing more?" I've done my best to take initiative here and there, but there's only so much you can do sometimes. If you're not being given stuff to work on then your mind wanders... your hand wanders to the mouse... you type in www.facebook.com... and the rest is history.
But now I've just about hit the 5 month mark and things have changed completely. The other day I was working on about 3 things at once and getting extremely overwhelmed by the emails that kept coming into my inbox. Overwhelmed & stressed can be bad things to feel, but I can now say with certainty that after a slow start into my big girl job, being busy is ALWAYS better than being bored. I'll take stressed over twiddling my thumbs any day.
Anyway, the reason this has to do with trusting my boss is that now I can only think that maybe he was easing me into things; letting me get oriented, get to know my colleagues, etc. If I was handed 10 projects on day 1, wouldn't I be far too overwhelmed in addition to feeling nervous and new? However, as it was, right before this rush of work came upon me, I was finally feeling like part of the team. I understand the rhythms and schedules and dynamics of the office, so now that I've got lots to do, I know who to go to with questions, etc. It wouldn't have made sense for me to have tonnes of projects before, but now... it does!
So I'm glad I stuck it out. My boss definitely delivered on this one.
So many times over the past 4 months, I've thought to myself... "Why aren't I getting more projects?" "Why don't they want me to put my knowledge and experience to use?" "I'm so bored... why aren't I doing more?" I've done my best to take initiative here and there, but there's only so much you can do sometimes. If you're not being given stuff to work on then your mind wanders... your hand wanders to the mouse... you type in www.facebook.com... and the rest is history.
But now I've just about hit the 5 month mark and things have changed completely. The other day I was working on about 3 things at once and getting extremely overwhelmed by the emails that kept coming into my inbox. Overwhelmed & stressed can be bad things to feel, but I can now say with certainty that after a slow start into my big girl job, being busy is ALWAYS better than being bored. I'll take stressed over twiddling my thumbs any day.
Anyway, the reason this has to do with trusting my boss is that now I can only think that maybe he was easing me into things; letting me get oriented, get to know my colleagues, etc. If I was handed 10 projects on day 1, wouldn't I be far too overwhelmed in addition to feeling nervous and new? However, as it was, right before this rush of work came upon me, I was finally feeling like part of the team. I understand the rhythms and schedules and dynamics of the office, so now that I've got lots to do, I know who to go to with questions, etc. It wouldn't have made sense for me to have tonnes of projects before, but now... it does!
So I'm glad I stuck it out. My boss definitely delivered on this one.
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