Volunteering

It's been over a month since I last posted here. My 1-year anniversary at my workplace has come and gone and I had plans for a grand 1-year retrospective entry, but never got it together. Rather than procrastinating my next entry by failing at putting that entry together, I thought I'd just post now that I have something relevant on my mind. Maybe I'll do an 18-month retrospective later on instead. No matter, here's the entry.....

I've lived in a small town for over a year now. Actually 13 months and 1 day (not that I'm counting). I can't remember if I've named the town before, so I'll just leave it nameless. Anyway, this town doesn't offer a lot to me aside from a fantastic workplace. I love what I do, so I do it 40 hours out of every week, and then I spend weeknights willing away the time before bed, and weekends in Toronto, enjoying what a metropolis has to offer - friends, action, things to do.

However, all work and no fun (weekends excluded) make me a dull girl. More than that, after 13 months, it's really taken its toll. It's hard to see the joy in life when you go from 8 hours at work to 8 hours at home to 8 hours of sleep - rinse, repeat. It sounds pretty depressing, right? And I'm not depressed! I'm a positive, optimistic person, but that is deteriorating with this small town life. And it's not the small town's fault - it's mine!

Back at Laurier (this is Life After WLU after all), activity was easy to find. You could find it with your friends (who were everywhere), in your student house/apartment, in the pubs and bars, and most definitely on campus. There were dozens of opportunities to do stuff - whether it was being holed up in the library "studying" while actually catching up on mtv.ca, hanging out in the Terrace, working at your on-campus student job, or - my favourite pastime - volunteering. I can't remember what the exact statistic is, but isn't it true that Laurier has one of the highest student involvement rates out of Canada's universities? And isn't Laurier one of the only universities that actually interviews for its volunteer positions because they are in such high demand? I held 5+ volunteer positions while at WLU. In fact, I was doing volunteer work more than I was in class, I'm pretty sure. I loved it!!! It wasn't just to pad my resume, it was my social life and where I learned and experienced all sorts of new stuff.

I lived, worked, ate, hung out, volunteered, and went to class all on one city block. Now that I've transported to another city town, I realize that the plethora of easy-access volunteer opportunities doesn't exist here. They don't just jump out at you. It's not that they're not there, but you have to look. I took that for granted while at Laurier, but that doesn't mean that it's not worth looking for now that I'm here.

So - did I waste 13 months? Maybe in some ways, but not entirely. Plus, I can't look back and get frustrated with myself over what I haven't done. What I can do is look forward and see what I can do now. So - I'm going to volunteer! I've found my first opportunity and I'm dropping my application off today. I'll keep you posted!

MHD

It's been a while since I last checked in to this blog... over a month and a half, to be exact. It's been a busy 1.5 months though, so I'm glad I was focused on my work. Now, though, the summer is here and things have died down for a bit. In my field - at this institution, at least - summer is a time for catch up, cleaning, planning, and generally ramping up for the next "year" (September-June). However, before I could get planning and ramping and amping myself up, I needed a little downtime. I organized and cleaned, I did a few personal things, I got to some things I'd put off, and then..... I got bored..... and restless..... and annoyed that I had nothing to do..... and then I started to feel under the weather and sad and depressed.....

So you know what I did??? Yesterday I took a day off. It was a sick day because I wasn't feeling too well, but it was also a mental health day. We need those. Our mental health is as important as our physical health, but too easily and too often it gets neglected. If you need a day off for the sake of your mental and/or physical health and it's an okay week to do so (a.k.a. you'll be less stressed and not more stressed by a day off), then go and do it!

Thanks to my MHD, today I feel rested, happy, energetic, and ready to get back to work full-force. Today I've been productive, gotten some projects done, organized my office and inbox, and generally have contributed to my workplace. Now if that wasn't worth taking a day off, then what is?

Lessons Learned Part #1

You're not here to make friends.
Building friendships with colleagues, volunteers, etc. is a great perk of a good job and workplace. That said, it's not why I'm here. So, when it's a question of pleasing the group of people I'm with versus doing the right thing for my office/institution - I have to choose the latter. Being liked vs. being respected can be a tough situation to navigate, but I choose respect.

Sometimes you just have to move on.
You know that one topic in a meeting that causes a lot of debate/conversation whether it's positive or negative? The topic isn't always the same, but the situation is - people get excited, the conversation goes on and on, but in the end: nothing is decided. It's important to not let those discussions take too long when you know the outcome. Sometimes you just need to interrupt the debate and move on.

Just keep pushing.
If you have an idea that everyone agrees with and a colleague promises to execute but it never happens? Just keep pushing. 9/10 times it's just because he/she forgot, but don't let your timidity get the best of you. Bring the topic up again when you get the chance, and probably out of sheer embarrassment he/she will make it happen.

Pick your battles.
If you feel a tickle in your throat and want to stay home - stop and think: do I really need to stay home? Do I want to save this sick day for a sicker day? Did I work from home already this week and could therefore stand to spend another day in the office? If the answer is YES - pick your battles and head in to work.

Somewhat abitrary to do list.

Just a quickie post for y'all today.

Does this ever happen to you at your job?
You have an extremely long to do list (literal or in your head), growing longer by the second, but it's all related to the same project. This project has a time deadline that could potentially pass you by before you cross everything off the list, but it might not matter that you miss a few things. Either way, the project is going to be over, so you may have missed a few things, but it's over, so those items are going to disappear from your to do list either way.

I'm in the middle of a project like that right now. It's going to be over tomorrow evening at 6:30, so I'm scrambling to get all of this done, and I'm stressed like crazy, but I know there's a huge sigh of relief in my near future no matter what, so I know I'll be okay.

Maybe I should call it a "try to do" list.

Emails.

Sidenote: I now know the extreme pleasure and positive impact that having one of your colleagues making coffee for the office makes on your day, or even week. It's all about simple things... not just in the working world, but it certainly helps keep the Monday blahs at bay.

On to something else...

I have now tried 3-4 times (unsuccessfully) to write a blog post on emails. I think they were all unsuccessful because I was overwhelmed by all I had to say (and maybe my writing got interrupted by emails). However, I'm going to now forget about those posts and just try a new one on the same topic. I don't know exactly how I'm going to approach the topic, so bear with me as I try to put it on the screen.

Maybe I'll start by telling you why I want to talk about emails.

Why emails?

• I would venture to say they are the primary form of communication in the working world.
• Perhaps they are the primary form of communication everywhere.
  
• Last week I sent 132 emails in total. Emails are always on the brain - being sent, received, popping up while working on other stuff, etc.
• My main reason for writing about emails: I believe they're the primary form of communication, but not perhaps the most efficient form.

If I haven't said this before, I'll tell you now that I'm an introvert.

**EDIT: Got sidetracked... no wonder this post has taken a month to write.

Anyway, as I was saying... I'm an introvert, and I don't really like talking on the phone. I don't mean I don't like talking to my girlfriend, friends, or family, but colleagues or strangers? I hate it. I'd rather talk to those people in person than on the phone. There's something about the phone for me... it gives me anxiety. It's not just a casual act for me. Anyway, moving on... I dislike the phone, and you can't always meet in person, so I love emails. With emails, I can take my time to think about what it is I want to say, and then figure out the most efficient and concise way of communicating that in written words. It's a lovely form of communication, and I use it a lot, but the reason I want to talk about it isn't because I love email...

...it's because I think it may be flawed.
Or maybe that's not the right way of putting it. It's just that not everybody loves email as much as I do.
Or maybe that's still not the right way to put it... it's that it's maybe not the best way of getting in touch... yeah, that's it.

By the way - I recognize that it's ironic that I mentioned I love to find the most efficient and concise way of communicating with written words and yet I just wrote "Or maybe" twice in the past paragraph. However, this is a stream of consciousness-style blog post. Like I said, bear with me...

Continuing on...
My boss, for example... or your boss, it doesn't matter... busy people get lots of emails. On the "busy people" scale, I would rate myself as a "medium-low". I'm just starting out in my career, but I'm not in an entry-level position. I'd say I get about a quarter of the emails my boss gets... but that's just a blind assumption.
Anyway... my boss/your boss. She/he gets tonnes of emails... maybe 100/day. Here are some things I can say about this boss:

• She/he probably doesn't read every single email that comes in.
• She/he may read an email from me, but not see the need to reply.
• She/he may see the need to reply, but forget - because there's more important stuff to do, or because another email came in and distracted her/him, or the classic - "I'll get to that later", but never does. Not because of bad intentions, but just because she/he gets swamped with other work.

Lastly, and this is something that didn't occur to me until recently:

• Your emails are not emails that she/he looks out for.

I don't look out for emails. I get emails, and either reply to them right away, reply to them later, or don't reply at all. I didn't realize until somebody said to me recently "I'll have to remember to look out for your emails" that people have emails they look out for and emails that don't really catch their eye.

But imagine if you got 100 emails a day. Or if that doesn't seem like that much to you, then imagine... I don't know... 500 emails a day. If every day you got 500 emails, I'm guessing you'd have to strategize a bit on what to respond to, what's important, what can wait, what can't, etc.

Now, I don't really like the idea that my boss doesn't look out for my emails, and maybe that's not true, but I guess I'm still relatively new here (on month 10, I think), so I'm maybe not on his or everyone else's radar. That doesn't have to do with me personally, just the fact that I'm still working to make my presence known.

But anyway, that's not the point. So let's say I send my boss an important email, and for a variety of reasons I don't hear back. Maybe I send him an email again 1-7 days later (depending on importance/urgency) and I still don't hear back.

What do I do then? Do I send a 3rd email?
NO.

I better pick up the phone and speak to him.

Or better yet, I don't send the 2nd email. If I don't hear back after the 1st email, I call right away.
Or better still - I never send an email. I just call right away.

Now of course this very much depends on urgency, importance, time-sensitivity, content, etc., but I'm learning (at least with my boss) that the phone is the way to go. If you can chat with him instantly, he'll tell you what you need to know. I've been putting this discovery to practice, and it's made an amazing difference! I should've put it to work months ago, but you've gotta build up the confidence, right? It takes time, but the developments are wonderful as they happen.

(Oh by the way - I should mention that my boss isn't in my building. Otherwise obviously speaking in person would be ideal.)

Anyway, I think I've said all I wanted to say. Working is such an amazing and great learning experience. I'm loving every minute!



P.S. Check out "Millennials & the Workplace": a post I wrote on my other blog (Sugar & Gravy) about multi-generational workplaces and the changing expectations of Gen Y.

St. Patrick's Day Blues

St. Patrick's Day... a religious holiday to celebrate the Saint, Patrick, but taken over by green-clothed university students who need an excuse to skip classes, drink the day away, and make fools of themselves.

If you think I disagree with this behaviour, you're wrong... I straight-up miss it.

Don't get me wrong, I wasn't entirely miserable yesterday, but I did spend a bunch of the day reminiscing on the epic St. Patrick's Days I experienced throughout my 5-year stint at WLU. 1st year my roommate and I drove to London to party with our friends at Western, 2nd year we threw an enormous party at our student house..... Each and every one of them was so fun!

Yesterday I worked on investment reports, tidied my office, and typed up meeting minutes.

There's no question about it, my life has changed.

But it's not about questions like, has it changed for the better or worse? It's just about reflecting on the great days I had in university, and the different, but equally (if not more) great days I'm having now that I've graduated. Okay, so I didn't drink a drop of alcohol yesterday... bummer. But I also didn't wake up this morning and feel the stress/anxiety of upcoming exams, essay due dates, or any of that other stuff. I'm glad I had those experiences, that fun, that anxiety, that craziness... but I'm also glad it's over.

It's a transition period... and I'm figuring out a way to make it work. It's not always easy, but it's inevitable.

Philanthropy

I was just checking my Facebook newsfeed and saw the following link posted by one of my former colleagues at Laurier: http://www.wlu.ca/tagday

You can click the link for more info, but here's the gist of it: Tag Day aims to raise awareness among current students on how philanthropy impacts your Laurier experience. Impact isn't even a big enough word... Laurier wouldn't exist as it does without philanthropy. If alumni, parents, students, foundations, corporations, and friends of WLU weren't donating money to the school, the Laurier experience would be extremely different. You would likely still learn and get an education and a degree, but your experience wouldn't be enhanced beyond that. I'm sure that's okay with some of you, but for those of us who did the bulk of our learning outside the classroom, we should be darn grateful for the donors who improved our campus, activities, opportunities, and so on...

I have spent most of my time blogging about work since I started this blog, but there's more to Life After WLU than just work... there's perspective, for one thing. Graduating offers you a chance to look back at your experience, and (in my case) think: "Damn, that was a good time." Not just because of the parties and free-time and less responsibility (although that was great), but because of things like chilling in the concourse, going to a student service group meeting, engaging in a great discussion, applying to sit on a board, taking part in a campaign, etc. That was what made my university experience great.

Now, I have an advantage... I worked in the Development department when I was a student at WLU, and I've continued to work in fundraising since I graduated. I completely understand the need for and impact of philanthropy in educational institutions. I also recognize the importance of current students at those institutions understanding how philanthropy impacts them while they're there. Otherwise, students graduate, become alumni, and feel no obligation to give back.

It's important to give back. Think about what you've been given, and then when you have the resources to return the favour, do it. Even if it's a small amount, it makes a difference.

Yes, I'm preaching, but I really believe in this. Students will jump on an opportunity to criticize the way the university spends its money, and that's fine, but when you graduate - put your money where your mouth is.