Category: The roaming admin

Decisions, decisions!

It’s the end of the year and we all have to start making decisions again, health plan for next year, 401k deductions, vacations and many more work decisions. However we can not forget our life outside work decisions as well.

Although the lines between our job and private life were a little blurry these last couple of years of work from home, it is time to put some barriers and allow for real work life balance. And that’s a decision I am willing to make. I wrote before on how I am trying to become a recovering workaholic, and I have to admit it is not an easy one. 

My last 6 months were trials and errors of me trying to disconnect and set some boundaries, some days I succeeded and some I did not, and that’s ok as teaching my brain is a work in progress. I discovered that long walks with my Sagey girl  while listening to podcasts has helped. In the beginning it was podcasts related to strategic thinking and business cycles and evolved to other topics that are the complete opposite of business.

So my decision to continue finding balance will continue in 2023 and possibly find a  hobby like macrame might be in order.

Job/ career cushioning – a new term for an old practice

I recently saw an article about Job Cushioning, it sounded interesting and I went to research further and discovered it’s a new term for an old concept. Lately they have been creating new terms for everything. I don’t know if they show up on my feed as I am interested in them more or just because what I follow has the latest trends.

The definition for Job Cushioning is looking for a new job while at your current job. Funny, in the old days we were always told that it is easier to find a new job when you still have a job as how else will you be able to explain the employment gap. Quitting or being fired not connected to company wide layoffs was considered bad on your resume and your prospect of finding a new job was not very good.

One of these articles mentioned that it is unethical to find a new job while still at a current place of employment, to this my response was Ha! As long as you don’t use current employment’s resources for finding a new job I believe it is perfectly ethical, especially if there are impending layoffs as most likely will happen according to all the analysts in the next couple of months.

Our main priority at the end of the day is to able to provide for ourselves and our families and to make sure we have back up plans for our future especially in an unstable market.

How flexible work destroyed work life balance

Once upon a time people would finish their work day, pack up their stuff and go home. There was separation between work and home at least for most of us. Lunch time at work was sacred and you got to eat in peace and when you went home you watched TV, ate dinner with your family or just did whatever worked for you on your off hours. Granted some jobs required you to be on call or have late evenings.

Then came the pandemic and most of us went home. A lot of companies discovered that now they can have meetings galore, there is no need for everyone to be physically in the same space anymore. We can have meetings with people in other countries any time needed. Online meetings were the new god! Don’t get me wrong, not dressing up was a blessing for me and I loved the fact that I could cook when a meeting was boring. I even took advantage of the online all hours format and finally finished my MBA from an international school waking up at 5am for class. 

But what happens when you work for an international company that has meetings all hours – with countries that have 10- 16 hours time differences. Some that I know have meetings scheduled for them at 7am and then again at 9pm or as my friend says, I know when China and India start working as the meets pinging starts. When do employees have a chance to decompress and relax? 

This is not the only problem, employees are expected to be available at all times. If you have small children and don’t mind the weird work hours that is not a problem for you. But what happens with everyone else, the meetings keep being scheduled as everyone is supposedly available, family life is pushed to the side and balance does not exist. 

Some employers are great and respect boundaries but what happens when there are no boundaries. Work life balance does not exist anymore and if anything work and those annoying meet pings on the phone become worse.

Nepotism and Family Business

The dictionary defines nepotism as the practice among those with power or influence of favoring relatives or friends, especially by giving them jobs. In some cultures it is expected as taking care of your family comes first. And in reality most of us would be happy to help a relative or to make sure our immediate family is well taken care of.

But what happens when your manager is not qualified to do their job as they were only hired because they are a family member? In big corporate type companies you can alway go to HR, but what happens if you work for a small private family company where you feel you have no options.

Some family members are groomed from a young age and go to college to get ready for a future  job in the family business, in other family businesses family members train from a young age and take beginner jobs so they will know all aspects of the business. These types of companies usually thrive as everyone has the goal of the company continuing being successful  after the founders retire. Many of these businesses really care about their employees and see them as vital to the success of the business. The general statistics of successful 2nd generation is 30% and third generation is around 13%. This means that the 2nd generation has a 70% failure rate.  So how does nepotism affect this success or failure? Putting people in managerial positions that they are not fit for just because they are family is probably part of the problem. Most of us know a person that you wonder how they tie their shoes in the morning has a c-suite position in the company. 

Now if a family member is just a plain idiot who is harmless that’s one issue, but what happens when this manger thinks they are above everything and behaves like they are untouchable. This manager can be toxic, abusive or just a bully. We as employees who are under these managers have a problem, I know for myself I would not trust HR. And even if I would dare to open a complaint with HR as being part of a small family business I would be very afraid of retaliation. 

In my opinion I believe part of the responsibility of the founder is to develop an exit strategy with planning a successor based on suitability for the future and in the present actually check before you give a leadership role to someone who is your child, niece or cousin. That is if you really care about your business. 

That dreaded training session

Today I had corporate training. Usually i get the notification that I have scheduled training I cringe, I hate training sessions, they are usually long, not efficient and not effective. I really do not enjoy them partially because they are on zoom and I need to be  in front of the computer for way too long for my cup of tea. However, today was a first for me.

I attended the training, complaining in my mind about it and then I was pleasantly surprised. Training was good and interesting and I actually enjoyed it, which brought me to think how was this training better? Especially since this was technical IT training that usually burns my brain to a crisp.

The difference was that this session was concise, effective and to the point with real tech examples and know-how. The trainer was not going on and on just to hear her own voice like some people I know. I left the training feeling that I gained knowledge and not wasted my time on another mandated session.

So why was this online training better, for starters it started on time and there was no wait for all the late attendees. Presentation was good and showed real examples that we encountered and solutions and not some theoretical mambo jambo that does not connect to us.The session was short, effective and efficient and I personally felt that the trainer valued my time and was not doing this training just to fulfill some corporate mandate. And lastly this trainer knew how to use the technology, in this case it was Zoom. I attended a training session last week with a trainer that wasted 20 minutes of our time not knowing how to share screens or look at the chat and frankly after the last 3 years of life in zoom if you have not mastered it yet get a moderator to help you. So all in all a good start for my work day!

Why I started blogging

I was asked recently why I am starting a blog, there are many reasons. One of my friends mother passed away recently and when they organized the house later they found notebooks filled with stories and poems that the mom never showed anyone and they decided to publish them after her death, I don’t want my kids to read my notebooks after I’m dead, I want them to see them now, I want the world to see them now,

The other reason was the pandemic, in a way the pandemic made me think about my priorities and what I would like to do in the remaining years that I have. I lost my hearing during the pandemic and that added to my introspection time, I started listening to podcasts while walking the dog and discovered Mike Rowe’s podcast (yes. The Dirty Jobs guy), on several episodes he had his mother Peggy Rowe, Peggy spoke about her road to becoming on the national bestseller list and how she fulfilled her dream and all the ups and downs that led to that and that inspired me to no end.

The other reason that might seem mundane is just a simple quote from Farrah Gray “Build your own dreams, or someone else will hire you to build theirs.” that was posted on Linkedin. This post made me stop for a second and  think hard as it  touched a nerve. I have worked for other people all my life, not always were my capabilities appreciated  and when they were I was expected to do more for the same pay while someone else reaped the rewards. Mind you I quit from that company after I saw that my hard work was not appreciated but that belongs to a different post about toxic management. 

All of these reasons plus several others that I did not mention made me think and think hard about how I would like my future to look like, i do not want to miss opportunities or reflect in years to come on how I missed them. I know many of us have the same feelings, especially after the last 3 years we had, at this point in my life I am choosing to forge ahead with a new view – I will not stop myself anymore, I will believe in my capabilities and if ever my bucket list if full  I will simply get a new bucket!

Is quiet firing really new?

This Labor day morning I was enjoying my morning coffee when an article caught my eye, the title of the article was “quiet firing”, we all heard about the great resignation & quiet quitting so naturally i had to read it as it intrigued my curiosity.

Quiet firing means that an employer will make your work life miserable by demoting, adding extra unpaid work and generally mistreating you  so you will quit, this way the employer does not have to pay you severance as they did not fire you. There is no need to prove that your performance was bad,  involving HR or paper work. 

The article spoke about this as a new trend, but as being employed for many years, I know it has always been there. We have all seen it in our professional life and sadly general life. Instead of quiet firing we all need to call it in its true name – a hostile work environment .

This is not caused by one person, the article kept talking about the work place’s behavior, but workplaces/ companies are not some anonymous entity, they are built with people who are not only demonstrating bad leadership but are also letting the rest of their employees know that they are condoning it. Should we stay and suffer? Look for a new job while being mistreated or just start speaking about it publicly? I have no answers as each person has their own decision to make.

Yes, I have an accent.

I have been recently told that i have an accent, frankly i wasn’t surprised as I assumed everyone has an accent. Having lived in several countries and being able to converse in several languages my accent situation, quite frankly, was a sure bet.

I am used to people asking me where I am from, they never like my initial answer as it is always the town I currently live in. Of course those who ask me are never satisfied as they always inquire further- but where are you originally from? I have been known to reply from earth and even ask back why you are asking me. This usually gets a reply – cause you have an accent, and yes I do have one.

When I do disclose my country of origin, I get – but you don’t look it, I’m never sure what they really mean when they say that. I do look human most days. My daughter was asked the same question recently, she replied with the California town she was born in and the person who asked persisted with a before that, her response was from my mother’s womb (she does get the snarkiness from me). When she asked why they were asking she was told she has an accent.

But I digress, the person who told me I have an accent had an accent themselves, a quite thick what I would describe as a foreign accent, or better yet an accent that is foreign to me, an accent that was very hard for me to understand with my very technological hearing aids. And no I didn’t reply back what about your own accent.

My workplace is multicultural, between all of us we have more than 15 languages spoken and we all have some form of accent, does it change our friendship and mutual respect, no! In fact it enriches us

But my main point is that we all have accents, whether we are from California, Louisiana or any place else in the world, why does it matter that we have an accent? My personal thought on this whole issue was , yes I have an accent because I am multilingual as so are most of the people who have accents, but the fact I have one does not reflect on my life, my work, my friends or anything about me besides the fact that I am fluent in several languages and frankly asking someone with an accent where they are from is rude, unnecessary and definitely not embracing diversity.