"Choosing trust over doubt gets me burned once in a while, but I'd rather be singed than hardened." -Victoria Monfort










Friday, May 02, 2008

Happy Endings...Not That Kind..

If I could use one word to describe my week, it would be. Meetings. I've done nothing but attend, and facilitate meetings. Every. Day. Several times. A day. Ugh. My boss is back, and while it is kinda annoying to have someone on me all the time, I have to admit I like it. I am able to get more hands-on direction with my position, with someone I feel comfortable telling everything to, unlike my temporary boss while she was gone. I still feel like something is changing. Yesterday she told me to test out of all of these word, and excel classes, so I can take the advanced and attain my certification. Her reason? "To move anywhere outside the department, you have to have those credentials, we know you know it, but you need that record". She also told me to tell my people this. Hm. Ok.

Add that to them not re-hiring any secretaries in the department. Taking away all the statistical reporting we do, and not adding it back even though there is a week we have nothing to do and I've begged for more work. Today's meeting with my new big boss, revealed 1) he's pretty awesome. 2) he wants to have succession plans in place, much like we do for our stores. He said he expects me to take my bosses position, and I'm to prime someone to take my position. Yea, like that could happen with who we've got. But, I like a challenge. He likes that I have been creating manuals for my, and the secreterial positions. Bonus points for me!

I found out that most of what we do, reporting, is going to be given to other departments. They want the secretaries to do nothing. Mail, phones, and uh, be happy I suppose. I guess it's fitting, since those girls (cus I was there) don't get paid squat for the skill level you are expected to have. Another thing changing is in the future we will have a web communications department. *angels sing* Of course, we have information going to the web, and the intranet, but this is going to be reporting to the web. I happen to love that sorta thing, and I made this known in said meeting. There was also mention of coordinatiors positions being available in the future as well. I've also heard for the bazillionth time, the company isn't doing bad, their being smart so we don't do bad. Which is good to hear.

New girl? Better. I've attached myself to her, so the times I'm not in meetings, I'm mostly sitting at her desk. I addressed the fact that she takes no responsibility for mistakes she makes. And, that telling me "I don't know" or "I have no idea" when I ask her why something happened is no longer acceptable. Yea, me, I said that! I had my boss sit in on the meeting, and we got to the bottom of what is going on. She's afraid to ask the same thing more than once, and sits in confusion for hours at her desk. She would tell me she got something, and didn't get it. So, I've asked her if she has it now, if she says yes, I make her show me. Usually she can't. But, we're working on it. I've answered her phone calls so she can focus on one thing at a time, and she's shown improvement after doing the same. Thing. Yay for me. I have hopes that with weekly meetings, and daily training and repetition, I'm gonna make this girl a superstar!

2 comments:

babylamb said...

I wish I had a boss like you. I'm lucky to get 2 mintues a day with him and when I do I better do it fast.

Rachel said...

Ever feel like you're in an episode of "the Office"?