Life Update!

It has been almost one month exactly since I last blogged so I figure I better get with the program! Someone asked me a few weeks ago why I had not updated the blog - and I believe my response was, "I've just not had many positive things to say..." This is not wholly true, so I am going to try and do better!

We are still here - hanging out in Tulsa, OK. Our house officially went back on the market one week ago today. We are excited and hopeful that it will sell quickly because honestly, I'm just not great at keeping all of the yarn and sewing stuff put away! I like to spread out and see what I'm working with - one of the reasons for the move - I need my own room.

Additional to that tidbit of news we have also been doing some planning and decision making. I hate making decisions and I think I say this every time I am faced with any kind of 'real' decision... You know, something outside of what are we having for dinner? My job situation is still a bit shaky so we are planning for sudo unemployment. I am actually going to try working at the yarn shop part-time and sewing! RoseKnits has been doing well and doing fun hobby stuff seems, well, fun right now. This will allow me to stay home and raise our kiddos whenever they get here - and I am dreaming of thumbing through cookbooks and preparing excellent dishes for John!

I am quite petrified of these 'decisions' (and I know I can change my mind and always look for something corporate, right?)... What if I am a horrible SAHM? What if I am unemployable once my kids return to school? And the biggest concern, what if I hate sticking to a budget!!? I purchased my first book yesterday on staying home and how to return to work afterwards... ha! ha! And John says I'm not a planner...

This weekend I will be working at my first official fiber / craft show, Fiber Christmas! Tomorrow is my last sewing day - I should have around about 100 bags!!! Yay! And a few other goodies to take! I am uber excited!!! And will surely take pics and let you guys know how that one turns out!!

Until next time... Which will hopefully be tomorrow!

I Read It Somewhere...

I always make fun of my mom because her latest thing is reading magazines on how to live better, live longer, more healthy, increase brain function, etc. Most conversations with her begin with... "I read somewhere..." After awhile I become annoyed because if she read it somewhere then by gosh darnit, there must be some truth to it! Imagine the humor this morning when I was putting on make up (I never do this) and so the conversation goes...

John: What are you doing in here?
Annie: I'm putting on make up...
John: Make Up (obvious confusion going on)
Annie: Yes, well I read somewhere... if you put on make up you will feel better.

So, today I wear make-up because 1) I have a telephone interview at 10:00 AM with a local community college for an adjunct teaching position. I applied quite awhile ago - and I was annoyed at the fact that I did not even receive a phone... Their minimum requirements are a bachelor's degree - I have a master's... And while I only have 4.5 years of HR experience, I have done some substantial things during that time - so I figure beginning HR class, right up my alley. I'm not sure that I am really interested anymore since I have been sewing so much, but I am glad that I finally received that phone call :-) 2) I have a grievance review meeting where we will be writing responses to some grievances... Work for me is a constant challenge - so I wanted to feel better about the meeting which is possible if I just feel better about myself...

Fake it 'til you make it, right? I am in the middle of 5 books right now... 1) Cane River - this one is moving rather quickly. I've completed 25% of it since yesterday at lunch time! 2) Dream of my Father by the lovely Barack Obama... Yahoo has an article today about his tax returns... He's made a bit of money on this book. Rightfully so, it's pretty good so far! 3) The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari - cross between self help and self actualization. I save this book for days when I need a pick me up... It always does the trick. 4) The Story of Edgar Sawtelle. This book is definitely on the back burner. It is moving a little slow for my taste. 5) The Fat Smash Diet. I will start this diet on Sunday. I've managed to escalate from my jeans being tight to plain 'ole not fitting. I have no desire to go up a pant size - so we'll see if we can smash enough fat in 3 weeks at least for the clothes to fit again. I understand it is a lot of veggies, rice, and limited meat. Will definitely let you know how it goes!

We owe all of this reading to the Kindle. God bless Kindle creators. And have a happy Thursday!

Everything Isn't Always What it Seems... I Guess.

I think I am going to take a few minutes to vent - then maybe we will have a "What I am Thankful Session" at the end. The two seem to compliment each other and I always try to end on a high note when possible.

I work in the 'field' - i.e. not at the corporate office. I work at the place that actually produces the product. I really do not know or remember what my expectation was when I went to college - "I'm going to work in human resources..." What exactly did that mean? Since I work at the field and my company seems to work steadily on centralizing as much as possible, the field turns you into a glorified paper pusher. When someone needs help I simply say, "please hold while I contact corporate," or "Aw, Mr. Doe, you would like to change your address, please complete this form and I will send to corporate..." Pension calculation - no problem, let me send that to corporate so that they may send to 3rd party.

It seems like every step of my job is elongated by 1 - person that is, at corporate, but of course! The longer I stay here the more my job becomes to talk to corporate. I think I will start to hand out corporates phone number and simply remove myself from the process, thus eliminating my own job. Doesn't seem to be helpful to myself, but maybe I can at least get a laugh out of the situation - because right now, my face is covered in a scowl.

Onto happier things... I've not knit up much lately. I think I've spent more time ripping than knitting. What the heck, it's good practice, right? I hope that you all have been making beautiful, colorful, crafty items!

Bad News Comes in Manila Envelopes

Today, the obedient HR staff that we are, were sent on a mission to distribute the last of the layoffs. This portion, however, was much more painful than the previous distribution. This round was for the salaried folks. Two on one. As a salaried individual one is not subject to such things as seniority. We do not have our years of loyalty and service to protect and shield us from the daggers thrown by the economy. You cannot 'bump' someone less senior - and are not as easily redistributed from one side of the tracks to the other. As salaried individuals, one is subject to such things as 'job necessity' and 'performance'.

I can honestly say that at age 26 I did not expect nor hope to be sitting across the table from someone watching as they are told that their position has been eliminated or their job duties consolidated. "We are really sorry, but after XXX years, your services are no longer needed." It is a brutal experience and heart wrenching to anyone with any sign of a conscience.

It's been a long day, and a day that I would much rather forget. Unfortunately, the administrative duties that stem from a layoff extend far beyond simply delivering the news. And this experience (while good experience --- I now have WARN, OWBPA, severance agreements, etc. to add to my resume of experience) is one that I will never forget. And I really hope to never need such experience ever again.

I don't know if issuing 'pink' slips would be any more dignified, but bad news is no longer delivered that way. It now comes in a manila envelope (Taryn) - with numerous papers to sign and information to be explained - all by your local HR staff and supervisor.

I am definitely retiring to the couch with a bottle of wine - yes, bottle - that was not a typo.

My Mistakes are Consistent... That's the Goal, Right?

For as long as I can remember, admit it or not, I am a perfectionist. And as much as I try to be perfect - I still manage to make mistakes. The one thing that is guaranteed when I make a recognizable mistake is that I will dwell on it and beat myself up far longer than the mistake is actually recognized by anyone else. My mistakes haunt me.

Something else about me that has been ever so constant is my mouth. I always have something to say, and it is not always the 'right' thing to say - and to make matters worse I may know this and I still say it - even when it is not my place - GASP! I know...

Well this time it was not my mouth per say, but more of my fingers tap, tap, tapping on my keyboard... Similar to right now. The only difference is here, you are choosing to read it. It took me all of 15 seconds to type my statement that I felt to be fully and entirely justified, "You are a sorry individual." I had actually forgotten that I sent this message to someone - at work no less - until my boss brought it up today. "Annie, the VPGM (<-- Ahem, Very important person) informed me of your e-mail that you sent to said individual. You need to watch what you send over e-mail." Yikes. No more than that and in my mind I have just received a one way ticket to the unemployment office because surely they fire people for saying such things? I have in a single statement managed to seal my own fate with the 15 seconds tap, tap, tapping of the keyboard. How will I ever tell my husband that our entire livelihood has fallen onto his shoulders because his wife cannot keep her editorial comments to herself??

I felt like a young child being scolded for fighting with a sibling. The kicker - companies do not have an obligation to tolerate my BS. Siblings and parents do.

After pestering my boss - touching on my impending termination - then back to layoffs (which are surely more important to deal with at the present time rather than my inability to control myself) - I think I am convinced that my one statement is not actually a terminable offense, just one that required notation by my boss.

I decided that what I said may have been a little off base - and unnecessary. Well, a lot off base, but I'm admitting it, aren't I? Consequently, I apologized to the individual to whom I said such nasty words.

I have managed to learn a few lessons from this... 1) I should probably mind my own business sometimes 2) I do not always have to say what I am thinking EXACTLY how I am thinking it... Tact can help both myself and the other person 3) Send e-mails cautiously - especially while at work from work e-mail. You never know when they may resurface to bite you square in the arse.

Open Enrollment is Finally Over!

Each year, for a human resources person, open enrollment is definitely a 'qualifying event.' We spend months preparing for the deployment of such a task and we hold our breath and wait anxiously as we help that first person to see if it really works.

I work at a steel mill, so I think our employee population in itself provides interesting challenges when completing ONLINE open enrollment. Our average age of employee is probably somewhere in the 40's, and seeing as though they are definite blue collar workers, I don't presume that many of them go home after 8 plus hours here to fidgit with a computer. Not to mention, I held 6 open enrollment meetings to explain the changes, and for those who chose to come, I don't think they listened to me - and all others are working off of here say.

Initially I thought it a novel idea to 'empower' our employees and talk them through the computer enrollment process. Joke. I think after the 15th person told me they had not touched a computer since last year's open enrollment I cried uncle and sat in for each person needing to make changes. So my process has been 1) send login and password to local IT to have it reset - check (it would make too much sense for these to be reset in the initial stages and a master list provided to HR. We'd rather go 1 by 1), 2) log employee onto benefit system - check, 3) Talk employee through current benefits and explain all of the differences that were explained in the open enrollment meeting - double check, 4) Then provide a final review of their enrollment as well as a print out that I offered for them to take home to their spouses to ensure the benefits were selected correctly - check, again!

Needless to say, I am thrilled that this period is coming to a close. This one man open enrollment team (with the help of local IT and sparse help from my boss) is packing up her bags until 2010 where I will pray that we make no changes. I promise the changes that we make are not cost efficient with all of the work that goes into explaining them and selecting them in the system.

Plantwide Emails

Often before I send out a plantwide e-mail I read it several times myself, and then pass on to my boss for review. I have a constant paranoia that I will misuse a word, forget a punctuation mark, or type something that could be misinterpreted by the reader on the other end.

Let's face it, I'm afraid people will find out that I am not really as smart as they may think I am, or I may just reconfirm to them how imcompetent I am. Either way, I loathe sending plantwide e-mails. And would like to keep my brains or lack thereof as private as possible.

Today was different. My boss was not there to reread my e-mail. And I had to deadline. Uggh! I confidently typed up my plantwide e-mail. Triple checked that what was communicated in the attachment was the same as what was communicated in the e-mail. I held my breath and pressed the send button.

Tonight when I checked my work e-mail I had already received two responses to my plantwide e-mail. The title of my attachment was "SOB Meeting" - short for State of the Business meeting... Well, it clearly was not interpreted this way! Ohwell, hopefully I gave people something to look forward to at the meeting, or something to say afterwards after they are provided a full on explanation of how the economy is impacting our business.

Son of a b*tch! Oh - and have a great weekend!

A Monumental Week

Monumental, yes, I am not over exaggerating! If you read my blog the other day than you know that I am the proud new owner of an independently operated light switch!

Well, temperature, I forfeit no more. I jokingly whined, yes whined, that now that I have a light switch, maintenance could move the thermostat for me. Yesterday morning I arrived at work around 7:15 a.m. and what do I find? Two maintenance men waiting to move the thermostat from the nurse’s office to a common area that we can all have access to! Yippee!

Who would have thought that my whining 72 hours ago would have turned into actual production with results!

I might add that the nurse was not overly excited about this move, as expressed to my boss.

Knitting news… 28Thirty is progressing rather nicely since I taken off the sleeves. I cast on this morning for the Felicity hat using yarn that Sheknitigans sent as a contribution to the wedding  It is going to be beautiful! I am going to spend 4-5 hours getting my hair done tomorrow so I figured I should take something easy... I was planning to post pics, but someone stole my work camera…

I think tonight I will go celebrate all of this progress with a drink, dueling pianos, and some girlfriends!

And the Lights Come On... Finally!

I have worked with my current employer for almost two years now. It’s funny because when I took this job my boss told me, “Now keep in mind, the offices are scheduled to be remodeled soon…” Well, I bet you guys can guess when the offices were remodeled?! How about, they weren’t. It was supposedly on the plans for 2010, but given our current business state, I will not hold my breath for fear that I would pass out or suffocate!

My office is situated next door to the nurse’s office. Guess what we share besides a common wall and door linking our offices? A light switch! Our nurse has very private information in his office – supposedly – therefore no one can have access but him. This leaves me without thermostat control or a light switch! If he does not come to work, to gain access to either of these novelties, I have to call the guard to come unlock his door. I cannot tell you how many times I have come to work early (well, I probably could tell you because it isn’t that often) BUT to come into a dark office and have to call a guard and wait until you can have light – it’s a pain in the arse and can completely put a damper on your day – especially when you are in a hurry! I mean have you ever been sitting in your office – mid optimum productivity – and have your light turned off~! I have, every time someone gets a piece of dust in their eye and the nurse has to take a looksee. And then when you tell people that your light is connected to the nurse’s switch and they all feel the need to ‘test’ it. Like my bitching isn’t enough to know this is a fact. The friggin’ lights are connected.

My compromise. Climate control – I can do without. I just have a space heater that I usually run twelve months of the year. I have been begging and pleading for months with our maintenance supervisors to please, please, please install a light switch in my office. Isn’t this something that we should be entitled to – dare I say – to be productive employees? So today, my begging and pleading has paid off. I’m having a light switch installed.

So as I sit in my dark office while the maintenance men do their duties, I’m pleased to know that persistence does pay off and I am spending my last few hours in dark state that I am unable to control. In a few hours, folks, I will have light! That I can turn on and off at my own leisure.