Day 3: Quarter machine bouncy balls in my brain and I went to work

I went to work yesterday and it was Friday, my day off. I get one day off a week and you would think I would take great care to avoid the office when I don't have to be there. For those of you who DON'T know what I do for a living. This may seem laughable.

She gets up, gets dressed, eats breakfast and has coffee. She gets in the car, drives ALL the way to work, sits down, turns on her computer to start her day. THEN she stares mouth agape at her computer screen realizing she could have slept in and avoided the whole work place thing. You had ONE job girl, to enjoy the day off and you flubbed it up. However that is nothing like how it actually went down.

Background! I work from home. I have done so for many, many years. I have a very small hallway from the bedroom to the office which encompasses about five steps or ten shuffles.  There is also access to the bathroom in said hallway and that is why I sometimes say "navigated the hallway traffic." Ya, that is supposed to be funny. Though, I think I have used that so often that I don't find it as hilarious as the first time I said it. (TINY digression there. Hehehe.) Any way, this is more of how it went:

I woke up, brushed my teeth, got dressed, made coffee, navigated the traffic in the hallway, sat down at my desk and started to get my workspace up and running. As I navigate my way to the support chat that I have to utilize, I announced to the fellow employees the following important message:

 

Morning..........DO YOU KNOW WHAT I DID? DO YOU KNOW WHAT I JUST DID? I AM SUPPOSED TO BE OFF TODAY!!! WTFLIP!  GOOD BYE! **Michele has left the support chat.

 

 

I was so mortified that I was at a loss for what to do next. So I wrote. All of my blogs got something yesterday. I know on one of them I already told this story and if it was this one, I apologize, however this is going somewhere I promise. I even had the intention to study and that would have been great had I actually did it but all that writing made me tired and I ended up sleeping the day away anyway. (Except for the part where Cal's best friend came home after five years and I was rudely awakened by him to get up and watch him hop like a rabbit down the driveway to greet his friend. I needed the air so I was ok with that. ACK! Digression again! You are all in for it today!) Now we turn down the road I wanted to talk about in the first place. You know me, back story and all.

 

The compulsion to write struck me in the head like a baseball bat. Every little thing I did was followed with a voice in my head going "Hey, that would be a great post! Whip out the phone and write it RIGHT NOW cuz you got time and its your day off!" That is all good but I usually stew on a post for a day or so because I have to think about exactly how to word it. Sometimes I will fork it out right there but it falls short of my own expectations and I am never satisfied. The ones that I think about for at least 24 hours are the best ones to me because I have had time to contemplate the course of action. Still, I only fork out my posts in one sitting because that is how I believe a blog should work. (Warning: I DO have a post coming that I have been a week working at. It is a serious post and nothing like this. Probably why it is taking so long.) I know, not everyone blogs like that but this is just me. So, yea, the voice.   While they were all great ideas, it made me tired. I never realized the creative process could whoop you azz like that. Of course, I never had an over burst of creativity like that either. No wonder artists and writers are sooo....different when they are about their craft. I have to learn to use this to my advantage. However, I do not do sleepy tired well. My Cal will tell you I can fall asleep within seconds of laying down. Once I am sleeping, that is it. TKO. Game Over.

 

I wish there were a way I could sit down, get it all out and NOT be tired when I am done. It makes me tired because when there is more than one story in there (and there always is, I am trying in vain to finish this book that's not on paper yet,) it feels like those quarter machine bouncy balls just recklessly bouncing around inside my brain cavity. It just turns everything in there to mush. I have to sleep that tired off and while I am asleep, I imagine my body is un mushing my brain and making it whole again. Once I am whole, I wake up. I must say that when I wake from that kind of sleep it is a deep, hard sleep. I assume its because it takes a lot of work to un-mush a brain huh?

 

Until then, when I have days like that, steer clear because I am having an 'artist' or 'writers' moment.

Horrible, horrible feeling.

 

What do YOU think?

Leadership Posting number 1

I write several blogs among other things. I like to think that I am right up there with my favorite author Stephen King, with the fifty or so pages every day. I am published and am currently working on book number 2. I write for here and WordPress. I write letters to my children (for their own stories) all the time and I have a paper due for Doctorate studies each week. I have social media as well. Finally, I have a blog for work that I have started over the past year.


The following is a new feature in my work blog. Leadership posts. It is based upon the idea that good leaders have specific traits and I want to share these traits with people. Even if the reader is not interested in being a leader and wants to remain amongst the sheeple, that is ok. This will still help make you a better human being. Certainly true if you deal with the public at all.


Here it is:


One of the most redeeming qualities I have found in the leaders that have the most effective teams is that the know how to listen and can listen well. This is something that can roll over into making a customer happy. Sometimes an angry customer just wants to vent and it is most effective at someone who will LISTEN.  While you do not have to agree with them, a  great deal of supervisor calls are resolved by just listening to the frustrations of the customer. Their issue may not get any further than what the agent has already done, but the listening part is key to get them to calm down most of the time. 

(Back story because I always have one....I came across the below information cleaning out my briefcase that I found in the attic last night. For those of you who don't know me, I was a paralegal and have a PhD in Law. Yes, I like to argue. That is why I had this paper in my briefcase because listening was something that was vital when it came to flushing out the real issues in the legal field.) While I scanned it and posted a pic of the document below, I will write it out for you so that you can read it clearly as some of it is fuzzy. Yes, there is a spill. Disregard that, stupid attic weather....

HOW TO BECOME A BETTER LISTENER

1. STOP TALKING: You can't listen while you are talking. 

2. ONE CONVERSATION AT A TIME: Don't try to engage in two conversations at once. You may hear two people at one time, but you can't effectively listen to two conversations at once. 

3. EMPATHIZE WITH THE PERSON SPEAKING: Try to put yourself in their place so that you can see what the speaker is trying to get at...YES, this is not as easy as it sounds but a restatement of what you've heard or an appropriate question will often uncover areas of miscommuncation.

4. ASK QUESTIONS:  That's right, we did just mention asking questions. But it's so important it bears restating. When you don't understand or when you need further clarification, ask questions. Don't ask questions that are a form of a statement about how smart you are on a subject. If you have information to offer, make a statement. 

5. DON'T INTERRUPT: Don't interrupt when someone else is speaking. Give the speaker time to say what they have to say. THEN, and not before, ask you questions or take issue with what the speaker has said. MIND HOW YOU TAKE ISSUE WITH SOMEONE ELSE'S STATEMENTS.

6. SHOW INTEREST: Look at the speaker - Their face, mouth, eyes, and hands. All these things will help the speaker communicate with you, and this effort will help you concentrate. Eye contact is significant. 

7. CONCENTRATE ON WHAT IS BEING SAID: Actively focus your attention on the speaker's words, ideas, and feelings related to the subject. If you are in doubt as to the subject, a question is in order.
 
8. DON'T JUMP TO CONCLUSIONS: When you do, you tune yourself out from the rest of what the speaker has to say. You may tend to think to yourself, "Hurry up and finish because I've got your point." or by rudely interrupting and saying, "Yes, yes. I know what you mean. What else is new?" By doing either, you run the risk of misunderstanding the entire conversation because of a premature conclusion you drew. Yes, there are some people who drone on and on. At the appropriate break or pause, ask if you've got the gist or point by summarizing what you've heard. This is a polite way to test the point. 

9. CONTROL YOUR ANGER: Try not to get angry with what they are saying. Your anger will most likely prevent you from understanding what is really being said. Plus, it is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO DEAL WITH YOUR FEELINGS!
10. REACT TO IDEAS, NOT TO THE SPEAKER: Don't allow your reactions to the speaker to influence your interpretation of what is being said. Their ideas may be good even if you don't like them as a person or like the way the look or speak or move. 

11. LISTEN FOR WHAT IS NOT SAID: Sometimes you can learn just as much by determining what the other person leaves out or avoids saying as you can by listening to what is actually being said. Pay attention to how it is being said, also. 

12. SHARE THE RESPONSIBILITY FOR COMMUNICATION: Only part of the responsibility for effective communication rest with the speaker. You as the listener, have an obligation to actively listen to what is being communicated and ask questions when you do not understand. 

If you make note of the above tips and put them into action, your are on your way to becoming an effective leader. Even if leadership is not in your future, it still goes a long way to use some of these to listen to our customers. After all. They ARE the reason we are here!

What do YOU think?

I give you my Awesomeness!

Alas, it is Mothers’ Day. That special day where we celebrate all that is mom and let her know that, even though we act like we hate everything you say, you are STILL Mom and we love you!


I had to work today. Of course, I  was up before everyone else in the house so no fabled breakfast in bed for me. I think that is why they keep you in the hospital at least overnight when you give birth. This way, you get at least one time in your life that, as a mother, you can have breakfast in bed! For me the best one out of our brood was the last one. I was lucky enough to find a channel that played “Castaway” with Tom Hanks about a million times before I left the hospital. I actually watched it while eating breakfast. Good times. Gooooood times! Ok, well maybe reflecting on giving birth is not the best “good time” that anyone can think of but it is a pretty awesome experience.  Ok, so on to my Mothers Day story for the post…


This morning, my lovely daughter came into my office to wish me a Happy Mothers Day. I asked her “What did you get me?”  Mind you, she IS a teenager and teenagers get up to some persnickety stuff sometimes. She just grinned really big at me, turned her back to me and then said:


“The only thing I got you was my AWESOMENESS.” As if that was well deserved.


Well, guess what? I accept that. She is Awesome. She has more talent in one fingernail than any kid I know for miles around! If Awesomeness is all she has to give me well then, I am going to BATHE in it! She has already been up (going against her character) and soaked the dishes and helped out with her brothers. All without asking and I have not had to mute my headset and scream like a banshee through the wall to get her to tell them to stop fighting.


All in all, good Mothers Day so far.  Now, because I don’t normally take a lunch on Sunday’s, lets see how hard it is for her to come and get the coffee and reheat it. It got cold while I was telling you my story. Ugh. I need a coffee warmer in my office.


/micaa yells….DAUGHTER!!!!!!!!!! I NEED MY COFFEEEEE HEATEDDDDD!!!!!!
Heard through the wall:  UGHHHH!!!!! **Stomp Stomp Stomp..(yes, they are womens 13s!) Typical Day in the Miles household.
What do YOU think?

Still in the crapper and it is a New Year

If you were to put me back to about 12 years ago and tell me I would be a wet blanket when it comes to holidays, I would have laughed in your face. I must tell you that 2013 put a bitter taste in my mouth when it comes to a lot of things. Holidays were the most affected by this crappy state our country has found itself in.  I imagine 2013 being the closest thing to the Depression of the 30's that we can get before rich people start plummeting to their deaths off the empire state building again. 

No, I do not believe the economic conditions of this country have met the demise of the pockets of the wealthy. Not yet.  They have been affected very little by the things that our current government is submitting the citizens of this country to.  It is the average citizen and certainly the poor that are in the proverbial rock and a hard place.

Working full time means that you simply have a job. Unless you are doubling what minimum wage has to offer, you are not even scraping the top of what you need to sustain your family and just survive.  On top of that, if you have children, that is even worse.  Children are in more danger in this world than they ever have been and latch key kids are nearly illegal anymore as well as the fact that there are a great many expenses when you have children on top of what you are already have.  To continue on this vein, the cost of utilities are going up, the taxes on purchases are increasing, and the cost of everything in general is skyrocketing. All the while, those that make the good money are being replaced by some worker who is so desperate for a job that they will be willing to do your job plus three others for half of what you are being paid. Companies will definitely replace you for that. That is less they have to pay for three times the work. I can see that makes sense for the pocket of the big corporation. Does it make sense for them in the long run? Probably not because they will go through twice as many workers before there is one that is willing to be their sheeple and beckon to their every call.

Us average citizens are now working for nothing to get nothing and are terribly miserable. Further, we are facing increasing expenses that we cannot afford and this is just to LIVE.  Once you get to the point that you are unable to maintain, you lose everything and are faced with homelessness then the rich people want to kick you around like a rock and treat you like you are beneath the dirt under their shoes.  Where does that get you?  Absolutely nowhere.  The owners of the companies making the products and services have to then increase the prices of what they offer just so they can maintain and it is still losing revenue because less people can afford their commodities.

While the affects of the poor are upward reaching and things are terribly hard, what the rich can do is not something that the rest of us can. They have a hoard they are sitting on and while there is still some sustenance to that hoard, they are ok. The rest of us are out of luck only to find the government forcing us to spend money we do not have on things we are too busy working our fingers to the bone to use.

Has it become a socialistic tendency in this country?  Maybe.

What do YOU think?

Back to Work Reality Check

I have been back to work about three weeks. I understand that it may not call for a reality check and no, I have not been out of work for years. It has only been about two months. I have finally found another WAH job that I love and it is certainly keeping me at 40 hours a week.

I fail to remember that working at a job you love does take up a great deal of your time and you no longer have the luxury of doing things like you did when you were not working. I feel that people should work at least a little bit. It keeps idle minds from getting up to no good and it keeps you focused and goal oriented. I remember when I was not working it was simply a chore to get up and actually clean the house! Yes! Now that I am working. I still have a momentum built up when I get off work and am able to at least straighten up and get dinner and laundry started.

Of course I sound like a career stay at home mom. I am!  Only that I have a forty hour a week (getting a paycheck) kind of job and that is just like getting out of the house and going to the office everyday. Only I do it in my fuzzy slippers!

Working from home is a lifestyle and not many people are prepared for it because it takes dedication and some changes in your current lifestyle to ensure that it is successful. Many people believe (erroneously) that they can work from home and still have the daily interruptions of the dog barking, their children constantly in their face, or even be able to get up and run to the door should someone ring the bell.  That could not be farther from the truth.  You have to have the gumption to sit at your desk your entire shift and work.  That is what they pay you to do. Especially these companies that pay you by the hour and they take out taxes like a regular paycheck.  They pay you to work and you need to be at your desk working.  Whether it be chat support, phones, or letter writing, you are paid for the time you are working and it is a real job.

Sure, there are draw backs.  Nobody wants to have the highlight of their day to be the point when they get out of the house to go to the store for a soda run.  That is no fun.  There is a delicate balance that needs to be considered and it takes some practice to put it all into play.  While the opportunity for more hours is endless, you do need to make time for yourself and your family similarly to how you would do at a traditional office job.  It just takes a bit more effort than normal.  Also, don't fall into the staying in your jammies all day either. That is a bad habit and not healthy!

So, while WAH is not for everyone, it is a great opportunity to do something that is beneficial to American society and it brings the much needed customer service jobs back home. Just don't mess it up or the great companies that provide this service for their clients and employees will go by the wayside much like traditional jobs have been sent to South America,  India, and the Phillipenes.  Keep these jobs at home.  Literally!

Yea, I cheat and vaccuum the linoleum.

My house is lived in. No, I don't mean lived in like there is stuff everywhere or anything like that. You can just tell we spend a lot of time at home and get our money's worth out of this mortgage. (Yess!!!!) Well, this means I can do cleaning projects at my perogative because I no longer have to worry about the landlord coming for a suprise inspection or there is some appointment for the fix it guy cus WE are the fix it guys. (Unless of course I flood the house, then THAT is something on a wholly different plane!) Yea, I'll clean it.

You all have seen my random 'Im so proud I got my spring cleaning done in the dead of winter' posts. I shampoo carpets on a regular basis, I pull my own teeth (not literally) and scrub the bathroom baseboards every now and again. I clean the blinds and the ceiling fans on a regular. Yes, I get 'er done. However, in the routine of things...I must admit...I cheat.

Every time I vaccuum, I notice things that need my attention. I need to dust the tredmill (when I don't use it much) or the teenage room needs a good sweep and mop. WAIT! I will vaccuum it and it won't look so bad! Woot! When I close the windows after a nice day of airing out the stale air from the house, I have (on occasion) wiped the dust from the sill with my fingers and wiped a lovely hand print across my jeans. These are my cleaning jeans so, it doesn't matter. Finally, while I like to dust the old fashioned way, I can attest to the truthfulness of a swiffer duster. I, too, have experienced the elation of finishing a dusting job a whole hella lot earlier than I expected and not knowing what to do with myself afterward. Heck, I took a nap, you KNOW that!

Yea, so sometimes I vaccuum the linoleum. The whole purpose of a vaccuum is to suck up loose dirt that is lighter than anything I can imagine and transport it to a recepticle that has the intent of being dumped into a larger wastebasket. Eventually this larger one goes to a dump somewhere and biodegrades only to end up as dirt in someone elses home years and years from now. (You guessed it! There is the digression!)

Dear readers, so long as you maintain your home and it is relatively clean. It does not have to be immaculate like my sisters homes have a tendency to be. (Some of us work very hard and have a half a football team to raise and not just one child to raise or are blissfully unemployed.) DISCLAIMER: Any relation to persons real or fake in regards to the last statement is purely unintentional and not meant to point the finger at anyone nor is sarcasm intended. END OF DISCLAIMER. But cleanliness is in the eye of the beholder and I can assure you, if it means anything to you, you are more discriminatory at your own cleaning skills than others are. Just keep the place picked up.

Somewhere there is a tree working tirelessly....

I was watching House, MD the other day and heard one of his brilliant witicisms (such a word?) and thought I would share. (While it may not be verbatim, you get the point:)
"Somewhere there is a tree, working tirelessly so that you can breathe. You owe that tree an apology."
BRILLIANT! I love the humor that comes from that sarcastic, pill junkie of a doctor. Even if he is only real in TV Land. I know many people who owe trees an apology simply for existing. I wonder how the world would be if we had to each take our own tree through life every day. Much like a shadow, it would be a permenant appendage to our being. What would people do if they knew that if they mistreat the priviledge, their tree would wither and die.
With that, I am sure we would be able to see what kind of people we would be dealing with in advance of actually meeting them, eh? Yea, lets skip the fact that humans are humans and some will have miracle grow or some such crap in their pockets to make their tree look better than what it really is. No, I mean that it is a true measure of the nature of the human that has to maintain it. I know many of you could even look out your front door and count how many would have a pitiful thing for a tree. What makes this proposal more intriguing is that, the worse you are as a person, the harder it will be for you to breathe. Therefore, you must treat people nice and respectfully or you will die with said tree.
Does this lead to less crime, betrayal, and quite possibly a utopian society? Not so sure because as mentioned earlier, miracle grow or similar will play a role as humans are highly intelligent individuals and will find some way to cheat that which is natural. I mean, we have already cloned ourselves, right?
All aside, just remember, trees are bringers of life and death. (Do you ever see something grow in the constant shadow of a tree? ONLY if there is one ray of sunshine there.) They do not discriminate nor do they wage war upon one another. They plant roots and have a constant presence and do not bounce around from place to place. They have communities and take care of this planet. They are not harbringers of destruction, chaos, and violence like it is in the nature of human.
Remember, the next time you choose to bring evil to someone by your actions or words. Make sure that there are no trees out there that you owe an apology to. Right now we are so busy apologizing to these trees for the acts of others we forget the one that our own shadow needs to get a break from the blazing sun sometimes. Don't let yours wither. Give it life and let it grow....

www.wefailed.dam

Two Sundays ago was my last day at work before I took my "vacation." The reason for the parenthesis is that it is not a vacation but it is not really a break in service either. My company is going through some major changes. Hell, the whole country is going through the same changes and it begins with their pockets. All during this year alone, I have watched business that have thrived in the same place for years close their doors. Some very abruptly. As I drive around, I imagine America becoming a ghost town. Yea, imagine something like that the next time you see your power company with a sign on the door saying "Closed, thanks for your business, you must now mail in your payment or go to http://www.wefailed.dam/. That sucks to see that.

I have fought tooth and nail to keep what you can call a job just so that I do not have to stand in the unemployment line and become a statistic like so many of my fellow Americans and coworkers. It makes me feel down to see my coworkers go away one at a time, some happy while others are anxoius about what their future holds. Still others are still arriving at the time clock every day until that fateful May 4, 2009. That is the day that the WARN Act will let nearly 60 or more of my co workers go. Many of whom are long time employees of a quarter of a century or more. I could not help but thinking as I left for the last Sunday that I would be working in a while, that things would be fundamentally different upon my return to work in May. In itself, the newspaper office will be a ghost town.

Just the other day, I checked my email from work so that I can stay up to date on any other major changes going on and they said goodbye to another forty sum people. Fundamentally, I will be returning to a ghost town. Everyone will be overworked and stressed. Big fun there. But on the bright side, I do have a job to go to. A lot of these people are going to be looking for months with nothing to show for it. Resume after resume sent off, application after application filled out to sit and watch the phone and pick it up every now and then to see if it is still working. Oh, it works, just nobody is calling. Very sad.

I was sitting in a circus tent tonight listening to a conversation going on behind me. This woman was talking about her ex-husband the millionaire and how she now has to work 2-3 jobs just to get by. What a pity. I am sorry she spent most of her time at home married to him worrying about what color her toenails were going to be and now she has an outdated college degree and has to work sixty hours a week at $8.50 an hour just to make ends meet! tsk. tsk. I say. She should live within her means and it would not be like that. Hurumph! The way I look at it, this economic downturn is only going to really hurt the rich people. All because they now have to live like us more simple folk and learn to make it from check to check. OOps! No more $10 lattes from starbucks or some fru fru shop!

As I sip my imported coffee from Canada: Yes dahlin!!!! Tim Hortons for me! My import only cost me what I do for a living and will happily return to in three weeks! A nicety on the telephone! Customers are great! Dont forget to read the Sun News!!!!!

And don't forget national Newspaper day 04-20!!!