Tag: work flexibility

Valuing your time as a patient

I had an 8 am doctor’s appointment the other week, the office called to confirm and requested that I arrive at 7:45.  I have been a patient of this doctor for more than 20 years, in those 20 years my appointment has never been on time, I love this doctor and he usually runs late as he takes time with each patient and really listens so I don’t mind usually but as I am aware that he runs late I try to be his first appointment of the day, hence my 8am appointment. But even me being his first appointment I know he will be late as usual, this time he saw me at 8.25am.

I did not arrive at 7:45 as I am very aware he takes his time, I arrived at 7:58am and with me all the medical staff arrived as well. I was even there before the nurse arrived and felt like I should turn on all the lights in the office as well. I was not called in until 8:10am.

So why do these schedulers not value  our time? If I had actually been there early, that would have meant almost 40 minutes of just waiting there. Shouldn’t there be an appreciation for the patient’s valuable time as well as the doctor’s time? 
Sadly, this doctor’s appointment was actually one of the most efficient ones. I had another appointment with a different doctor lately that  had me waiting for 30 minutes in the waiting room and another 45 in the exam room, when I asked his medical assistant if he was running late today, she looked at me in wonder and goes no, he is on time, to which my reply was really, I have been waiting for an hour and half already. I have canceled all future appointments with this practioner as this was the second time in a row that I was left waiting for hours and will be shopping around for another doctor. It seems like some medical practitioners overbook and value their own time but not their patient’s time. Yes, if the doctor has had some emergency this is expected, but most cases this is not the reason for leaving us in a waiting room in a paper robe cold.

So who’s time is more valuable? CVS just announced that their pharmacies will have less hours and will close earlier in the day. Those who need to pick up their prescriptions will have to go get them in the middle of the day or during lunches or wait for  the weekend and delay taking them,again the focus is not on the patient. When did the medical field change from being patient focused to being corporate focused.

 Every one’s time is valuable, us waiting in a doctors office to be seen for hours or running to the pharmacy instead of eating lunch as well as the service providers,  there must be some middle ground and respect between everyone’s needs.

Finding time for taking time off

It is very easy to delay time off and  vacations, telling yourself you are very busy right now and postpone fun activities. God knows I have found many excuses before – I have deadlines at work, this is not the right time, it’s the end of the quarter or year and many more excuses. But when is the right time really? It seems like when we become adults with full time jobs there  is never really a right time to take  a vacation or sometimes even just a day or two off.

I know some people with unlimited PTO and  from what I hear these unlimited PTO people take the least time off. I have a limited amount of time off, it is not small at all but still limited and I get to transfer only a small amount of vacation days to the next calendar year.

Time off is important, we all need it. We need time to refresh, clear our heads and do things outside of our professional life for ourselves and our families. Weekend breaks are really not enough, at least not for me. 

Although my time off is limited to specific times during the year, times that are not flexible and do not always allow me to get the best rates for travel, I still choose to take my vacation days and have some fun. I even stopped taking my laptop with me as I learned to let go and trust my team to cover for me (this was a big issue for me as a recovering workaholic).

Something happened in the last couple of years that made clear what my priorities should be: family,  friends , health and time off for fun. Health I can’t really control but everything else I can.

I can not only make sure I take care of myself but take care of my work team as well.

And since no time off makes employees burn out, it is very important for us as not only to take care of ourselves but as leaders and managers to make sure our team gets time off as well.

I read somewhere that employees don’t quit jobs, they quit bosses. Not sure how true that is for everyone who quits, but having managers that truly care about their employees’ life balance , happiness and yes, their time off is, should be part of managing a great team.

Keeping meetings on track

Today is what I call meeting  Thursday day,  our first monthly all staff meeting of the new year.  I hate meetings.It’s not that I don’t like meeting, I really dislike big all hand meetings. They usually drag on forever or what seems like forever. There is always someone who likes to hear their voice more than actually listen and collaborate and quite frankly they are usually boring after the first 5 minutes.  If we are home on zoom at least we can do something when we lose focus but what can you do when forced to sit in an actual meeting where we can’t hide. Maybe there is something positive for zoom meetings after all.

Thankfully the meeting was on zoom, however I had to present and lead part of it which meant I actually had to  pay attention.  So when we planned this meeting to avoid all the issues  I hate about meetings we decided on parameters- we limited the meeting time to a max of one hour. This forced us to focus on the most important issues and not to wander off. We also decided on the topics ahead of time and put everything in clear bullet points on a shared screen so everyone can see and for us not to lose focus and if we did then one of the meeting leaders would steer everything back on the right track. And the most important for the meeting leaders, we did it just before lunch and made sure to be hungry so we will finish in a timely manner  and we were conscious of other people’s lunch time. I know this might seem weird when planning meetings, but we found that this  helps us with keeping meetings on point. I am not advocating for anyone to go to meetings hungry, I love food, but this is a method that works for us and I am sure everyone has their own guidelines for keeping meetings effective, that is unless they love meetings or the sound of their own voice.

The going back to work positivity

I really enjoyed my last two weeks off work, it was nice not to return emails or answer phone calls, no meetings, training sessions or work to do lists. I thought I would be bored but I wasn’t. 

I read a couple of books, binged shows on Netflix, and had meals with friends. 

But even though this was a great mental break for me, I am still happy to go back to the office today , not because I miss the work but because I miss the people I work with. I miss my team!

I have a great team. Some unfortunate weeks  we spend more time together at the office than with our families at home, so naturally we are close to each other.

Most of us are immigrants and have shared experiences as strangers in a strange land (yes, I love the book), moving to the USA  without our families and reinventing ourselves in a foreign country. We make sure we all have breaks, make sure that the workaholics among us stop to eat and cover for each other when an emergency happens. So yes, your work is not your family but there is something different about a group that really cares about each other. And no, we are not all women, we are a mix of men, women, younger and older who come from different backgrounds and are in different stages of family lives and careers.

Not everyone has this experience with their work colleagues, I believe I am quite lucky. I worked with teams and bosses before that were just terrible and Sunday night was filled with agony about going back to work on Monday. The question is why is this team different?

It is different because our supervisor built this team from scratch and when she chose team members  added people that are positive and can contribute to the team.  She surrounded herself with team players who are good at what they do and there was no fear of overshadowing herself. This  leadership played an excellent role in building a great team that most of us are happy to be part of. 

So yes, I am happy to go to work today and see my team.

Your Commitment to Yourself

It’s the last two days of the year and my feed and email is all flooded with New Year resolutions, ads for sport equipment and organization hacks. However, nothing about taking care of yourself and your mental health in the upcoming year.

Granted having an organized house or exercising does help you mentally but these are side effects and not a purpose. Not only that, what will happen when we stop going to the gym or when we realize our house is still messy and none of our goals, achievable or not, have been met?

Instead I propose we commit to take care of our mental health and put ourselves first. The disorganized closet can wait as can the resolution to go to the gym every day. But if for some reason orgnization is your mental health path, by all means commit to it, Marie Kondo your house!

Our goals need to be goals that will not only not set us up for failure but will help us grow and find our inner peace what ever works for you. You might need to take time to see figure out the path to your mental health, so commit to discovering it. Commit to doing something that will make you happy once a week, take an art class, read 10 books during the year, choose some fun activity outside the house, learn macrame or anything that brings you joy and find your purpose.

I am committing to myself to have lunch or dinner with my friends at least twice a month, I will read a book or two each month and yes, I will also continue going to the gym as for me exercising does help my mental state and yes I will have a date breakfast or date night with my spouse at least once a week.  

Trying New Things- Zumba Edition

Instead of waiting for next week, 2023, to start new things, I decided to start today. You hit the iron when it’s hot! So today I went with a friend to zumba. I have never done zumba before, didn’t want to try zumba before but my friend convinced me and I said fine, let’s see. 

I woke up this morning ready, muscles were warm from walking the dog already and my Shakira hips were ready to shake. To those who don’t know, zumba is like a school playground. There are favorite spots and locations, you have those who like to be in the front next to the instructor, there are those who like to hide in the back because they are uncoordinated. But being in the back means everyone that goes down the stairs or is on the other side of the glass sees you shaking your ass coordinated or not. So choosing a spot is tricky. If you go to the front and you are new you are bound to get stared down, front rows apparently are saved for the regulars. However if you have no clue of what you are doing  and you need to see the instructors movements you really need to be in the front, especially in busy crowded classes. 

Some wear elaborate zumba outfits with full hair and make up done, some wear the necessary sweatshirt around the waist so no one actually sees your ass shaking. I was in my regular yoga and t-shirt gym outfit and was guided by my friend who is a regular and saved me a spot in the second row, talk about pressure! She was asked if she knows me and if I am her friend. I have to say that zumba is not easy, it requires coordination and rhythm. Luckily I have rhythm, coordination not so much. But we had fun, burned some calories and tried a different skill , my body hurts all over and I see a Costco size pain killer container in my future. But I will go again as I have to admit, it really was fun.

Work quiet

The last couple of weeks before the year ends are usually quiet at work, this year it’s even quieter as a lot of people decided to use the short school time between Thanksgiving and Winter break to take an extended vacatation time with their families.

I stayed at work, I just came back from a 12 day Japan vacation and could not justify taking more time off, tempting as it may. Work is quiet. Quiet for me is not good. Quiet is the enemy and not because I am hearing impaired. Quiet means finding ways to keep yourself busy or as my husband says, quiet me is not a good sign, quiet me becomes antsy . Quiet me looks for things to do.

Looking for things to do requires planning, so I start planning, I do not only plan ahead at work, I plan ahead in life. Some people call it New Year’s resolutions. I don’t call them resolutions, I call them a benchmarks. Every couple of months I check my benchmark to see where I succeded, where I failed and where I need to pivot. Sometimes we just forge ahead because this is what we were taught, but occasionally we do need to re evaluate and change the course.

Pivoting is not easy, changing the course is not easy, but I digress. Being mentally bored or not challenged is not easy either, at least not for me.

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.

Gluten Free trip to Japan – Part 1

I am a Celiac who loves to travel, this is not always easy especially when I travel to countries that love wheat. I returned from a trip to Japan last week and yes, I was hungry. For me being a GF with a mostly vegetarian diet was not easy, I also avoided pork for religious reasons which made my trip a little harder.

This was part of an organized group tour so I did not have an option to cook for myself. Thankfully, all the hotels had a refrigerator so I had somewhere to keep yogurt and fresh produce that I bought at the convenience stores.

Japan loves gluten, gluten is in many products. The hotels we stayed at (3 star budget hotels) all had their breakfast clearly labeled with all allergens which helped immensely. As I mentioned before, Japan loves gluten, which is why I could not even eat the eggs at breakfast as they had gluten in them as well, still for the life of me I can’t figure that out.

I researched my food options before we left and knew what to expect mostly. There is an excellent group on Facebook called Gluten- Free Expats Japan. The group has many posts and tricks on how to figure out what and where is safe to eat and has a list of restaurants and recommendations that were extremely useful. I also carried a GF card and used google translate during the trips as many Japanese did not speak English.

In the suitcase I took bread with me, several GF brands like Schar and BFree have vacuum sealed smaller bread packaging and GF instant oatmeal, granola bars, GF soy sauce packets and my favorite chocolate covered rice cakes from Sprouts (trust me, they are so good it’s scary). Convenience stores are on every block in Japan, this is also excellent as they all have clean bathrooms and trash cans, there are no public trash cans anywhere on the streets and you need to carry the trash with you. 7-11, Lawson’s and Family mart are everywhere. In them I bought drinkable yogurt, rice snacks and onigiri. I did research beforehand what onigiri I can eat and went to our local Mitsuwa ahead of time to get familiarized. In Japan, packaging is labeled with all allergens, however not always in English and you need to recognize the Japanese symbol for wheat. Most of the 7- 11 rice and potato snacks had English wording and that made it easy for me and now I am addicted to the waffle potato ones, they are so good and not greasy.

The only reason I did not starve completely was the many Indian and Nepalese restaurants we found, we always found an English speaker in them so my allergies were easy to explain and for me this food is mostly safe and usually Halal so pork free. Using the restaurant lists we also found a great ramen place with gf ramen in Tokyo Station, Soranoiro Ramen. This was a complete joy for me as all my group could eat together and not look at my sad eyes while they ate dinner and I was stuck with plain rice and edamame.