Category Archives: Work

A Few Days Of Working In Person With Others (or Helping To Train A Friend)

Posted on July 21, 2022 | Comments Off on A Few Days Of Working In Person With Others (or Helping To Train A Friend)

Recently, a friend of mine started to work for the same company as me. When she started, her job wasn’t directly connected to my work. But as she has been going through training and a few things have changed, she has started to work in the customer care department. Even though my new position with the company isn’t exactly in customer care, I still do a few hours each day covering that work until we have a few more team members. And since I have helped to train other employees, it made sense that I was asked to be a part of the team helping to train her.

The first part of the training was over Zoom because it was just going over a lot of the different spreadsheets and systems that the customer care team works with each day. I was a part of those Zoom sessions, but a lot of the time I was doing other work so I wasn’t fully able to participate in them. I tried to help however I could, but I know my focus was split and I wasn’t as involved as I would have liked to have been. But with the next stage of training, I knew there would be more opportunities to be a part of things.

After new team members are trained on the systems we work with and shadows while we work to see what it looks like to put everything together, the next phase of training is doing the work while you are supervised. So the new team member would be responding directly to our clients, but they would show their responses before they sent them so we could double-check everything. And I realized that even though this process has always happened over Zoom before since my friend only lives a few minutes from my house we could work together in person instead. So I made that offer to her, and she agreed it would be better to work side by side instead of over a screen. So for the past 2 days, I’ve been helping to train my friend while she has been over at my place.

I rarely get to work in person with another person. I’ve worked from home for so long and there’s no reason to work with any of my co-workers. Most of the days that I haven’t worked alone in the last several years have been when someone else happened to be in the same place as me, not because we were co-workers working in the same space. The last time I had a co-worker working next to me was when another friend of mine was observing my work so we could improve some of our systems. I do like working from home and I can’t imagine ever going into an office again for a day job (obviously, I can imagine going somewhere else for work if it was an acting job), but it can feel a bit lonely at times. I haven’t really felt that way too much, but during the worst of the pandemic, I was feeling very isolated and craved in-person connections. Now, I just celebrate these random times I work with someone else and they are something fun, rather than something that I have needed desperately in my life.

And getting to help to train my friend in person was really fun. She really had a good grasp on the work and the things I was pointing out or correcting were really tiny things that didn’t have to be changed. I know that this job has a lot of information to know about, but most of the work is only using a part of what we train on. But I totally get wanting to understand everything since I am the same way and I was happy to explain anything I could to help my friend feel more confident in her work. But I have no hesitation in my mind that when she’s working on her own, she’s going to do a great job.

I might work with my friend in person again in the next week or two when she’s starting to work alone. It can be easier to answer questions or help assist when you are in the same place and not doing it over text or Zoom. But even if we don’t work in the same space again, I’m glad we got to do this over the past few days because it really was something fun and different with my job.

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Having A Mid-Year Review (or Getting A New Job Title)

Posted on June 16, 2022 | Comments Off on Having A Mid-Year Review (or Getting A New Job Title)

Since I started at my social media job, I’ve pretty much had the same title and responsibilities. Things have changed a bit, but I’ve been focused on the same work for the most part and I have been focused on the customer care/customer service side. But for the past few months, I have been slowly transitioning into doing more of an administrative role, focusing on workflow and systems. This isn’t necessarily something I have a background in doing, but I have seen where things needed to be done and that there wasn’t a dedicated person in that role.

The transition to doing the admin role has been slow, and things have changed due to the needs of the company. I was supposed to be almost fully in the new work this month, but due to some changes in the company, I’m needed in customer care for a bit longer. But I’m only doing that work for a few hours a day, so I am able to start focusing more on my new work. Things haven’t officially transitioned, but I know things are in process.

So when I had my mid-year review with my manager, I knew we would be discussing my new role and the transition that will be coming. I still always fear that I’m going to hear bad news such as I’m going to be fired, and I don’t think I will ever get over that. But I also knew that would be extremely unlikely based on the communication I’ve had with my manager and the executive team.

And I’m glad I was right that it was all good news. There are things that I’m able to get done now that I’m not in the customer care role as much during the day. There are things that I’ve been working on that will make things for the entire company much better, and I will be taking over a few more things in the near future. There isn’t an exact timeline for when I will be doing only the new work because that is based on hiring a few more people. But I know things are in the works and that it will be coming up.

But even though I still do some customer care work, I was told that I got a promotion during my meeting. Instead of being a customer care specialist, I’m now going to be a senior growth administrator and be a member of the senior team at the company. And while most raises are discussed during the reviews in January for the start of the new year, I also did get a small raise which will be nice. Any additional money I bring in is so helpful for getting me back on track with my budget and working toward saving more and being able to spend money to do fun things. Also with my promotion, I will also be eligible for paid time off, which is something I haven’t had yet. It would be so nice to take a random weekday off to go to Disneyland, which I still haven’t done since they reopened. Or eventually, take a few days off and go on a trip. I’m not planning for time off just yet, but knowing that I will have that is something I am looking forward to.

I know I have talked a lot about my work and not that much about acting, so it might seem like I’m not focused on acting anymore. But that’s not accurate. I am focusing on acting still, but I have focused on other things for a bit and I need to get back into the acting world more. I want to get some new headshots and maybe get into class again, but I have focused so much on moving and getting things stabilized lately. And I do write about my work a lot because I feel pretty lucky to have a job that understands that I am focusing on another career as well and that I have the ability to be a bit flexible with my schedule. And with my promotion, I hopefully will have some more time and money to put toward the things I need to do for my acting career to get back into things in full swing again.

I have always been grateful when I have gotten day jobs that allow me to focus on what I love and don’t require me to only focus on that particular job. And I’m lucky that I have not only found a job that lets me do that but has allowed me to grow with the company and find the perfect role for me.

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Making Sure I Pay It Forward (Helping A Friend With A Job)

Posted on June 8, 2022 | Comments Off on Making Sure I Pay It Forward (Helping A Friend With A Job)

My last several jobs have all been through referrals through friends. I have been very lucky that when I have been out of work, my friends have always let me know of jobs that I might be right for. Sometimes it’s because I have the specific skill set that a job is requiring and sometimes it’s because I will be a good fit within the company. I know that so many people say that when you are looking for a job it’s all about networking. But for me, it’s more about being open and honest about looking for work and having some amazing friends.

Even getting my main current job, during a time when so many people were still out of work, was because of a friend thinking of me. My job has changed quite a bit in the year and a half that I’ve been working, but that’s because I am growing with this job and finding new and better ways that I can find the best fit for me within the company. It is still a day job, and I think everyone at the company understands that. But I want to make my work as interesting as I can and to use my skills to the best of my ability. Plus, I work with some amazing people and I want to help all of us benefit from the company succeeding.

So when I saw a job opening for a new position in the company, I immediately thought of a friend of mine who I knew was looking for work. I didn’t think of her just because she needed a new job, I knew she would be great for both the job and the company. So I let her know about it and once she finished sending in her application I let the hiring team know that she was a friend of mine. I know that doesn’t guarantee anything would happen, but I also know they like to know if an applicant is a referral from an employee. She did get an interview and I was so excited for her. And I heard back from some of the hiring team how much they loved her and how they agreed she’d be a great fit. Even though I knew it wasn’t a sure thing, I have to say I wasn’t too surprised when she was offered the job! Because I knew the type of person they needed for the position and the type of worker my friend is, I felt really good that it would be a perfect fit. And I’m so glad that I was right!

My friend just started so she’s still training (and I know how overwhelming it can be starting a new job), but I’m still so happy she’s going to be working at the same company as me. And knowing that I was able to help a friend the same way that I was helped before felt great. I know how hard it is when you are applying for jobs and just not getting anywhere. And I know how much power there is behind a friend referring you for a job. I wouldn’t have referred just anyone, I was careful making sure that I was certain she would be a good match. And knowing how hard I worked to make sure before I let my friend know about this job made me feel even more grateful to all my friends who have helped me get work.

And maybe my friend will stay with the company for a while and be able to refer a friend of hers in the future. You never know. But I do know that I’m lucky that I work with some great people at my job and now I have one more friend that I can also call a co-worker.

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Getting Ready For Some Job Changes (or Switching My Job Responsibilities)

Posted on March 25, 2022 | Comments Off on Getting Ready For Some Job Changes (or Switching My Job Responsibilities)

I’ve been at my customer care job for almost a year and a half. And in that time, there have been a lot of changes for me. I started part-time and doing 2 different types of jobs. That transitioned to just doing one of those jobs. And then that went from part-time to full-time. And while this isn’t a job change, I did also recently go from hourly to a salary which also came with a bit of a raise. All of these changes have been positive things and have been connected to me being better at my job and some increasing responsibilities.

And one of the good things about the company I work for is that it is growing very rapidly. When I started, we had a fraction of the clients we have now. And with more clients, there is a lot more work. But as I’ve been working, I’ve noticed a lot of things outside of working directly with clients that needed to be handled by someone and I couldn’t necessarily take on those tasks because of my regular work. So at the end of last year, I put together a job proposal for a new position at the company that would be more administrative focused and less work directly with customers. And I was told at the beginning of this year that I was going to start transitioning to that job.

Originally, the idea was that I would split my time up and do the administrative work for part of my day and my regular customer care work for the other part of the day. But I think the executives at the company have realized how much more work the administrative side would be if we wanted to be as efficient of a company as possible. So this week in a meeting, it was discussed that hopefully within a month or two, I would no longer be doing any direct customer care work and just the administrative tasks. That would still involve helping the clients, but it would be more of the back-end work setting up systems and less of directly answering their questions. Once I transition into the administrative role fully, I probably won’t have any direct interaction with clients other than possibly sending them some of our standard onboarding follow-up messages.

This will be a pretty drastic change, but I’m excited about it. While I have liked working the variety of customer service type jobs that I’ve had for a long time, it can also be a bit draining. It’s tough when a customer is upset with you over something that is outside of your control. Or have dozens of people ask the same thing and have to find new ways to say the same answer. I have this same issue at my box office job, but I’m only working that job a few hours a day compared to full-time work with this job. And I have been able to handle the stress, but I think it will be nice to have work that isn’t as time-sensitive and I can find the best workflow for me to get the work done instead of having to be extremely mindful of doing everything in an order that may not make sense to me.

And as I have said before in other aspects of my life, I like to feel helpful and that gives me a purpose. And the tasks I’ll be doing in the administrative role will be things to help the customer care team to be as successful as possible in responding to clients as they ask them questions directly. These are things that I wish had been set up for me to have available as I’ve been working. And I will also help in creating some new systems we are having made for the company to make things easier for us. I’ve never worked a lot in these behind-the-scenes types of positions, but I have always had ideas of how we could change things to make them better for us. And soon, I’ll have that exact opportunity and be able to be a voice for the rest of the customer care team to make sure they get what they need out of the sites we use for work every day.

I’m not fully doing the new job yet, but I’m only doing an hour or two a day right now of the old customer care work and then the rest of my day is starting to do the types of tasks I’ll be doing for the new job. Right now, it’s focused a lot on correcting and updating things that were never done before. And I had wanted these things to be fixed but I couldn’t step away from helping clients to do them. So I’m glad I have this time to do them now.

And once I’m fully in the new job, I do hope I’ll have a bit more flexibility with things. I haven’t needed that flexibility yet, but I do want to start planning to do things like go to Tahoe to see my family or maybe have a weekend away with friends. And I just haven’t felt that freedom yet (both from my work situation and being worried about the pandemic). But I hope that this new job responsibility will be the perfect thing to help me get set up for what will be my full post-pandemic life.

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Some Good Job News And Some Not Good Job News (or Still Grateful To Have Multiple Jobs)

Posted on January 20, 2022 | Comments Off on Some Good Job News And Some Not Good Job News (or Still Grateful To Have Multiple Jobs)

Even though I have been working the same 3 jobs pretty steadily for a while now, I’m always aware that things can change. Most of the time, the change is a good thing like getting more hours or a better contract with a job. But sometimes it’s not good news, like when my box office job shut down at the start of the pandemic. But with the exception of the pandemic when I was really working less than I could survive on, I’ve been very lucky that for quite a while I’ve been ok with my job situation between the different jobs I work. And for the beginning of this year, I had changes for 2 of my jobs.

My box office job is the one that had no changes. I’m still only working a few hours each day, and maybe that will change in the future but for now I’m ok with that. I have to work those hours around other job stuff, so I don’t know when that might change. And they have hired new people so it’s not as bad for my co-workers as it was before, so they aren’t as in need of me working more. So that job is only a portion of the hours and pay that I was getting before the pandemic, but that’s ok.

I did get some good news with my other customer service job. I recently submitted a job proposal to change my position a bit. This would move me away from customer service and more into administrative and systems work, although I would still do some customer service work. Because of the workflow we have at that job, someone to do this type of work is needed. My job proposal was considered and I will be transitioning into that new position over time. There isn’t an exact date that I will be fully splitting my time, but it will be a process. And I expected that because they will likely need to hire someone else to help out when I’m not doing the same things I have been doing.

But, with this new position I’m getting a raise. And because this will be a transition over time and not an exact start date, my boss decided that I would start at my new pay rate during this pay period! And I am going to be transitioning from hourly to salaried, which is also a change I wanted to see happen for a few different reasons. I wasn’t expecting the raise, but of course I am so grateful for it and making more money is always a good thing when you want to try to be able to save more.

And it turned out I might need that extra money more than I thought. My data entry job is a contract position and normally my contracts go from July until June. But for my most recent contract, it was only for July until the end of 2021. I’ve had this happen before and I just got a contract extension. So I wasn’t too worried about this when I signed my last contract. But as the year came to an end, I realized that I didn’t have a new contract yet and reached out to my boss to check in.

I had a meeting with my boss right after the start of the new year and got some not great news about my job. The job has been paid through grants with the state and county, and they have decided to outsource the job elsewhere. So essentially where I have been working was no longer the contractor for the job. I have a lot of thoughts about this and why I’m not happy about it, and it’s not just about my job. I’m not sure what I’m allowed to share and what is still not public, but the main point is that job is no longer one of my jobs and I don’t have another contract.

I am luckier than many of my co-workers at that job because I was part-time and many of them were full-time there. And maybe things will change and new contracts will be offered. But as far as things look now, I won’t be returning to that job since it’s being outsourced.

I’m glad that I had some good job news at the same time as some bad job news so it wasn’t as bad. And I do wish that I only had good news about my day jobs. But as I have learned over and over again, my job situation can always be changing and I just have to adjust with it.

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1 Year In (or I Didn’t Realize I Had A Job Anniversary)

Posted on December 9, 2021 | Comments Off on 1 Year In (or I Didn’t Realize I Had A Job Anniversary)

I’m usually pretty good about remembering important dates in my life or the lives of people I’m close with. I celebrate the anniversary of different medical milestones each year. I remember the anniversary of my blog starting. But for some reason, I don’t think I’ve really celebrated too many anniversaries when it comes to my jobs. I can probably figure out the start date of different jobs I’ve had because I save almost every email I get. But I just haven’t really celebrated these in the past.

I know when I was in my early 20s, I changed jobs a lot and I rarely got to any sort of work anniversary or milestone. But for the jobs I have now, they are mostly things I’ve worked for a while. My box office job has been my job for 7 years (or 6 years if you remove the year things were closed). I’ve been doing my data entry job for almost as long. And it turned out that this week was the 1 year anniversary of being at my customer service job!

I knew it would be around this time since my training was right before the holidays, but I don’t know if it’s clicked with me yet that it’s almost the end of the year. But when I was messaging with one of my managers about some scheduling ideas, she mentioned it being the 1 year anniversary of me working with them and that’s when I realized it had been a year!

And in this past year, there have been a lot of things that have happened. The job I originally was hired for has changed a bit and my responsibilities have grown and shifted as the company grows. And now there’s a discussion about me having a different job within the same department in the future. When I started, I was doing 2 different jobs and that became just one once things became a bit busier and I had more hours added in. And now I’m full-time and I’m working a lot between all of my jobs.

And because I am really lucky with this company and how well they treat me, they sent me a gift for my work anniversary. I guess it is a bit of an advantage to have one of my bosses as a friend who knows me well because I got an Amazon gift card with a note saying to use it to get some books I’ve been wanting to get for my Kindle. There aren’t any books I’ve been antsy to get, but I always have a book list of things I want so I’ll be picking out some things from my list to use the gift card for!

This is still a job and not necessarily a career, but I do take my work seriously and I do look for ways I can grow and expand my role with the company. I haven’t really had that chance before, and I’m taking advantage of having that now which is why I might be doing a slightly different role with the company soon. And I do intend on staying with this job as long as I can. I am someone who likes stability and long-term situations, and this job is no different.

Being with this job for 1 year is just the start for me with this company. I know that for sure.

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Excitement and Speaking Up (or My Last Monthly Challenge of 2021)

Posted on December 1, 2021 | Comments Off on Excitement and Speaking Up (or My Last Monthly Challenge of 2021)

It’s so crazy that it’s already December. This year feels like it didn’t happen, but I think part of that is similar to what happened last year with the pandemic. I didn’t get to fully live my life the way I’m used to, but in other ways I created new things within my life. But still, this year is almost done and that just seems bonkers!

And since it’s the beginning of the last month of the year, it’s also time for me to review last month’s challenge and plan out this month’s challenge. Last month, my monthly challenge was to be more excited in my life. I knew I needed this challenge because I was feeling like I focused more on negatives and preparing for the worst and it was really starting to affect my life. I know I did this partially as a coping or protection mechanism because of some things happening in my life, but I knew last month I needed to move on from that feeling.

And I think I did a pretty good job with this challenge. A lot of the things that were causing me to focus on the negative were out of my life. I also worked on trying to make plans or have more things in my life that make me happy. Things are still not perfect and I do still worry about things more than I probably should, but I think the balance is much more toward the positive and excitement than to the negative. And just like with so many of these types of challenges, the biggest progress has been in my ability to recognize when my thoughts are getting this way and being able to take action sooner than I did before.

And for my last challenge this year, I have decided to do something that I have struggled with for a while but I have taken steps toward progress recently. This month, I challenge myself to speak up more for myself. This isn’t about being bossy or not listening to others, but about being a better advocate for myself.

I struggle a lot with this because I feel like speaking up could make me seem difficult or unlikeable. But I need to get over that feeling because I shouldn’t have to tolerate something that I’m not ok with just to assume the other person is going to be upset with me if I say otherwise. And this is something I struggle with in both my personal life and my work life.

For my personal life, I see this being an issue most with dating. There is the idea of being the cool girl and not pushing for things or stating you might want something more than what a situation is at the moment. I don’t think I was ever fully like that, but I know I didn’t speak up a lot in the past when I could have done so. I shouldn’t have to fear asking for what I want. If me saying I want to find something serious scares someone off, then they never would have been right for me. There is a saying that you will never be too much for the right person. I have to remember that. It would be better to stay single than to tolerate multiple half relationships where I don’t say what I really am hoping to find. I’ve been getting better at this, but there’s still a lot of work to go and fear to get over.

And for work, I’ve gotten much better about this, especially recently. There are a lot of systems at my job that just don’t make sense or work for me. And for many of them, there doesn’t seem to be a reason why things are like that other than that’s how it was done before and how we were trained. But as the company grows, there’s no reason to avoid change. But unless someone speaks up and explains why a system isn’t working, there’s no way for those in charge to know and look into alternatives.

I feel like I do have an advantage with this since one of the executives at the company is a friend of mine. And when he was sitting in with me while I worked, I was able to be very blunt and honest about systems that just make work harder than it needs to be. I know that this really is a benefit with this job that I can keep in mind when discussing ideas like this with other jobs. But it’s still the same idea about not fearing I will be fired because I bring up a concern.

I hope that I find some good ways to speak up more for myself when I need to this month. I know that I am worth asking for what I want or expressing when things don’t seem right to me, but sometimes it’s hard to believe that in the moment.

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Having An In-Person Co-Worker For Once (or Work Plus A Friend Hangout)

Posted on November 24, 2021 | Comments Off on Having An In-Person Co-Worker For Once (or Work Plus A Friend Hangout)

I’ve worked from home for several years now. I honestly do prefer it because it allows me more free time when I don’t have to worry about a commute. And I know that some people think it’s lonely or that it’s hard to feel like you ever leave work, but I didn’t really have those issues (or at least didn’t until the pandemic). But because I work remote jobs, I really never work with others in the same space. For some of my jobs, I’ve never met my co-workers in person even though we’ve worked together for years!

With my customer service job, I do know some of my co-workers because I knew them socially before I started with this company. But I’ve never worked alongside anyone from that job until this week.

I do feel very lucky that one of the executives at my job (and in a way, one of my bosses) is a friend of mine. We’ve been friends for over a decade and we’ve worked together in union service for quite a while too. And we have joked on calls or in texts when we are talking as friends or as boss and employee, but we have a good way to keep things compartmentalized when needed. And I’m very open and honest with him about work stuff because I don’t have the same fear I’ve had with other bosses at other jobs. So when we were discussing work stuff over the summer, I told him he really needed to sit with me for a day at work because he didn’t understand why the issues I was running into were issues. It took a while to get this coordinated, but this week he was finally able to come over and sit with me for an entire shift.

It was interesting to have someone else sitting with me while I worked because I’m so used to being alone. And I did have to slow down some of my work so I could explain to him the systems and processes I use for different tasks. I also use different websites than what he has access to, so I went over those so we could brainstorm together on how we can make these things more efficient and streamlined.

It wasn’t that crazy or busy of a day, which made it hard to demonstrate what happens when things get very busy. But enough things were happening that he could see what it would be like if they were multiplied and why that may be an issue for us with managing it all. And he was able to see what processes could be automated so we didn’t have to be as hands-on when it didn’t require it.

A lot of the changes and ideas we went over are very big picture ideas, but at least someone higher up than me in the company has seen what I have been talking about and understands why we want things to be changed so we can focus more on what needs to have a priority over getting other things done. And there were some very simple fixes like setting a formula for automatically forwarding specific types of emails so we don’t have to manually do them every day.

Overall, I think it was a big win for work and what I will be able to do with the company moving forward. But equally as big of a win was getting to spend the day with my friend. Even though we have worked together for almost a year now and we text dozens of times a day, it had been almost 2 years since we had seen each other in person. Seeing each other in a Zoom or over text isn’t the same. And while we were focused on work and talking out ideas, we got to also have a little hangout time during the lunch break and before and after work. And just like I’ve said with a lot of other hangouts I’ve had, I don’t know if I knew how much I needed this until it happened. But I needed this social time and ability to connect with a friend in person, and I’m so grateful I got to do it.

I knew that having him sit with me while I work would be a very positive thing for my work, but I’m so glad I had a double win with it also being positive for my social life and mental health!

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Default ThumbnailAnother Time A Friend Found Me A Job (or It Really Is About Who Knows You) Default ThumbnailAnother Job Through A Friend (or Excited To Do Job Training) Default ThumbnailWorking To Find Work (or Maybe My Last Work Related Post Did Get Read) Default ThumbnailAn Overdue Friend Hangout (or A Medical Discussion Dinner) Default ThumbnailGoodbye To July (or Looking Forward To Having Steady Work In August) Default ThumbnailBar Food Hangout (or A Quick Friend Catch Up)

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Continuing With Positive Work Days (or Sometimes Speaking Up Is Necessary)

Posted on November 9, 2021 | Comments Off on Continuing With Positive Work Days (or Sometimes Speaking Up Is Necessary)

For several years, my day job situation was very stable and things rarely changed. Occasionally I had updates with my data entry job with new tasks, especially when I had to sign a new contract. But most of the work was very similar from year to year. And with my box office job, there have been very limited changes. There can’t be much changed since it’s a pretty basic job. I have gotten raises over the years, but my day-to-day work is the same it has been since I was hired.

But with my other customer service job, I feel like I’ve had the most changes. I’ve almost been working with this company for a year now. And while a majority of my daily work is still the same, I have taken on a lot of other little jobs as I have had time between helping clients. I’ve been working on how we can automate some of the work so that we can focus more on what we need to work on directly. I’ve been helping to design new systems that can make us more efficient. I’ve helped to gather information so we can present changes that we think need to be made. And for the most part, my ideas have been heard and considered.

I do think I have a slight advantage with this job because one of the executives at the company is a friend of mine. So I can speak up without too much fear of him being upset. We text each other about so much most days, so adding in a little bit of work isn’t that much. And I think that he appreciates that I can be this open and honest about work systems. I know for almost any job I’ve had, I have been terrified to speak up because I didn’t want to be seen as trouble and risk losing my job. And I know that I have to be careful with boundaries for this job. But having such an open line of communication where I know I can be very truthful has been great.

There have been some aspects of the job that really were taking up too much of my time and I wasn’t able to get most of my work done each day so it was left for others to complete. By automating some of this work, most of this issue has been eliminated. This could have been automated before, but I don’t think anyone has spoken up the same way that I did. I was honest and said that I felt like I was drowning in work because these things had to be done manually. It took time to change, but now things are so much better.

So I’ve been trying to take this idea of speaking up more to my data entry job, which is the only one where I can really have things change. And they are starting to change again. My job responsibilities continue to change as things are being done differently with this contract compared to past contracts. I hope that eventually, things will normalize again so I have a consistent job responsibility that I can plan ahead for. But right now, things change as I finish one task and move on to another. And I have to occasionally speak up when I’m done with one project because I don’t always have something new to work on. And if I don’t have something new to work on, I don’t have hours to work and I don’t make money. So I have to not be scared to ask what I should be doing when there is a gap between tasks.

I’ve been doing a lot of work with social media for that job, and that continues to grow. Now, I’m almost exclusively doing social media work. I’ve been doing a lot of content creation, which isn’t something I have done a lot of. But it’s a good challenge for me and I have been trying to get better at it. I finished a big project that is for social media through the end of the year, and because of how it turned out, I’m now starting to work on some content creation for the new year. I haven’t officially heard that I have had my contract extended, but those can often be last-minute updates and I know they want me to have a full contract.

It can be scary for me to speak up for myself a lot. But lately, it’s been resulting in a lot of positive things for me. I have made sure that I have work planned for myself and I have helped to make my work better when there are systems that I think need to be fixed. And hopefully, I will continue to have good outcomes when I do speak up for myself and I will continue to have good things happen for me with my day jobs.

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Default ThumbnailAnother Work Meeting (or Starting To Plan How Work Will Go For Me) Default ThumbnailPositive Thinking And Putting It Out There Worked (or Working For Another Old Boss) Default ThumbnailGearing Up For Another Temp Job (or At Least It’s More Work) Default ThumbnailWorking On Speaking Up For Myself (or Finding A Balance Between Confident and Bossy) Default ThumbnailSeeing How To Make My New Schedule Work (or I Have A Better Idea Of My Free Time Now) Default ThumbnailAt Least A Little More Work (or Getting My Contract Extended Again)

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Working In A Social Media Outage (or There Were Some Good Things That Happened)

Posted on October 7, 2021 | Comments Off on Working In A Social Media Outage (or There Were Some Good Things That Happened)

As probably everyone knows, Facebook and Instagram went down on Monday for a very long time. And considering I work with social media in my day job, it was a really tough day for me. Most of the questions clients had were only able to be answered by saying that we were sorry but we could not look that up at this time as Instagram is currently down. It was a very frustrating day, but I’m glad that the system was back up during my work day so I could get to my work before I was done. And by some miracle, I was able to prep things during the outage enough that I could push through and get almost all my work done by the end of the day. I didn’t get everything done, but everything that had to be done that day was completed.

I know that the issues I had with the outage weren’t as bad as what other people dealt with, but it was a lot of stress when I was already under a lot of stress for other reasons. And in a way, it was good because I figured out some new ways to organize my work. Hopefully I won’t need to use those ideas during an outage in the future, but it is nice that I was able to be creative in the middle of so much frustration.

While work was frustrating during the outage, the other issue I had was not being able to communicate with some of my friends. I have a Facebook message group with some of the women who are in Movie Club with me. We just message each other a lot of random things throughout the day. Sometimes it’s getting support for tough stuff and sometimes we are sending each other TikToks we like or things we find funny. But since it was done through Facebook, we couldn’t message during the outage.

So as soon as I was able to message my group again, I said we should find a way to get off of Facebook to make sure this doesn’t happen again. The only issue is that not everyone in the group lives in the United States. But fortunately, we are all Apple users, so we can use iMessage with no issues with international texting! So we got a regular text group set up and have been using that this week.

I have talked about Movie Club and the women in that group several times before, but I still find it so interesting that I have bonded with people that I have never met in person. But it also somehow makes so much sense. And I feel like where there are tough or negative things going on in the world, that’s when our group comes together. We really bonded at the start of the pandemic when we started Movie Club. That never would have happened without a pandemic. And Movie Club really helped to keep me sane during such a crazy time.

And even though it wasn’t bad messaging through Facebook, an outage got us to exchange real phone numbers so we can text and it’s a bit easier for all of us to do that instead of using Facebook. Somehow, texting makes the friendship that we’ve all created seem more real. And that made me happy during a really crazy day.

It’s nice to know that some good things came out of a social media outage and the frustration I was having that day. And the good things that happened put me in a much better mood when I was able to work again. And I guess I’m more prepared now with how to deal with this if it happens again. But I hope it doesn’t!

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Default ThumbnailAnother Union Holiday Celebration (or Being Social And Working Social Media) Default ThumbnailSocial Media Reminders (or Another Thing To Celebrate) Default ThumbnailFinding More Ways To Help Via Social Media (or Continuing To Share Good Things) Default ThumbnailA Social Media Monthly Challenge (or Wanting To Put Some Positivity Into The World) Default ThumbnailA Frustrating Morning At Work (or Working But Not Working) Default ThumbnailFinding A Social Life Where I Can (or Virtual Parties and Distance Hangouts)

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