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Job Highs and Woes


Couch Tomato

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Update on the new job front... they gave the job I interviewed for to someone else. :( But they have another position that they strongly encourage me to apply for. I get the feeling that the encouragement means that they don't have any other candidates and since the manager I interviewed with likes me and recommended me for this other position, I would most likely get it. The problem is: Do I want it? So I have some thinking to do tonight. I need to apply this week, the sooner the better, if I do want it.

I think part of the problem with the job I interviewed for last week is that it's a level below where I've been for a while and they don't like to do that. I could care less about a "level" if it's a job I could do well and would like.

[rhetorical whine] Why can't we all just find jobs we're good at, enjoy and pay enough for us to live decently and support our Clay habit? [/rw] :rolleyes:

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annabear, good luck with your thinking, and I hope everything works out best for you....

[rhetorical whine] Why can't we all just find jobs we're good at, enjoy and pay enough for us to live decently and support our Clay habit? [/rw] :rolleyes:

No kidding! I mean, really -- don't our bosses know that Clay depends on our money? [/snark]

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Update on the new job front... they gave the job I interviewed for to someone else. :( But they have another position that they strongly encourage me to apply for. I get the feeling that the encouragement means that they don't have any other candidates and since the manager I interviewed with likes me and recommended me for this other position, I would most likely get it. The problem is: Do I want it? So I have some thinking to do tonight. I need to apply this week, the sooner the better, if I do want it.

I think part of the problem with the job I interviewed for last week is that it's a level below where I've been for a while and they don't like to do that. I could care less about a "level" if it's a job I could do well and would like.

[rhetorical whine] Why can't we all just find jobs we're good at, enjoy and pay enough for us to live decently and support our Clay habit? [/rw] :rolleyes:

:preachit: Good luck with your decision. Too bad you couldn't get the job you wanted. :cry4:

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{{{annabear}}}

Sitting here trying to motivate myself to go into work this morning. No sign of the big boss yesterday in person, but she had her minions doing her dirty work while she was 'in transit'. Still no details on why the person got fired Friday. I think we may have a 'team meeting' this afternoon. That might not be pleasant. Oh well, another day, another dollar, hi ho hi ho, off to work we go, right? :cryingwlaughter::cry4:

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{{{annabear}}}

Sitting here trying to motivate myself to go into work this morning. No sign of the big boss yesterday in person, but she had her minions doing her dirty work while she was 'in transit'. Still no details on why the person got fired Friday. I think we may have a 'team meeting' this afternoon. That might not be pleasant. Oh well, another day, another dollar, hi ho hi ho, off to work we go, right? :cryingwlaughter::cry4:

eek Lucky...sorry you're going through all this... I gather you didn't see a pattern to the firing..do you think today is just mop up/explanations? How long have you been there again?

Annabear.... sorry you didn't get that one. Good luck with your decision...

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Thanks guys. I think I'm going to go for the other opening. A lot can be accomplished in 9 months - a baby, for example... heh - and I've been sitting here doing diddly squat. It's draining mentally and physically to constantly have to be searching for things to do, not to mention completely unfair for my skills to be wasted. Especially in the current job climate as they're letting other people go...

Good luck today, {{{luckiest}}}. I can completely relate to that feeling of not knowing what to expect in situations like that.

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I've been with the company 5 years, in my present position for 3.

So the big boss today is trying to undermine my current boss while she is away on vacation. Seems like she is trying to trip her up while she's gone...with our help, of course. I don't want any part of it. Ugh.

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I've been with the company 5 years, in my present position for 3.

So the big boss today is trying to undermine my current boss while she is away on vacation. Seems like she is trying to trip her up while she's gone...with our help, of course. I don't want any part of it. Ugh.

Oh crap. That sounds horrible...and it's actually something that's pretty much happening here at my place too. It sucks to be in the middle of it all, doesn't it?

{{{{luckiest1}}}}}

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soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo do you ever have one of those days when you dont get crap done? I got to work at 1PM ready to give 4 hours of high quality service heee...but first I had to deal with a customer begging me to send her product although she owes me 8000. couldn't do it. Then I had another one pissed because I wouldn't grant her a credit line and she basically told someone in sales that none of her other vendors treat her this way. Did you owe any of your other vendors 24K and take 2 years to pay it back? Alrightee then. But then came the absurd.

We got a new business phone service (everything..long distance, data lines, lots of phone lines, 800 numbers the works) but apparantly the two specialists - outside conultants - we had working on this big turnover forgot to alert the old company and I got a bill for 800. I'm like..why am I getting a bill for something that was turned off over a month ago. BWAH. So then the fun starts. I email the company cuz apparantly they don't want you calling. I put in a trouble ticket asking for an explanation of the bill. They answer back as that as far as they know we are still a customer and then they give me the website to order a disconnect.

I go to the website and there's this long ass form to fill out including techie type info. So I print it out and fill it out and get the other questions answered by the VP... go back to do it online..I answser the first question..YES... and it tells me to STOP heee you don't have to fill out this form. It tells me the new provider must contact them. New provider, New provider...ok don't have a bill yet...track down the contract..no phone number on the contract. Go online and look it up. On hold 30 minutes. People just don't believe in customer service anymore do they.

Finally get someone and guess what..they can't talk to me cuz I'm not on the contact list. Owner is on the contact list..OK That makes sense. But she's out of town. She's having me guess who is on the list cuz you know she can't tell me. So I say logically the VP's name...NOPE. She says a name..and I'm like SHE's on the list. She's in sales? Oh yeah..no she's not on the ok to talk to list. Finally she breaks and tells me the name on the list. I burst out laughing. The name she told me was the guy who had my job 3 years ago. I'm like..we've been with you for a month. I've been here 2 1/2 years ..why do you have HIS name? OK..she says another name. GONE. OK...she tells me...she can talk to me IF I send her an authorization on company letterhead. Mind you... the owner or somebody else on the contact list doesn't have to do it. I get to do it. I just had to have my ID, front and back on the letterhead. ok, WHATEVER.

So I do it. She told me it will take 45 minutes to make this change...ok that will give me 15 minutes to deal with it before 5. I call back and guess what..I'm still not on the list but the new girl I got told me to send it to her but she gets off in 2 minutes but she'll do it first thing tomorrow. Meanwhile, we're still paying for two phone companies.

This is as ridiculous as it sounds.

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Oh my word! Thank goodness you've got a sense of humor, eh couchie?

This is as ridiculous as it sounds.

ARAIS - I see LOTS o'possibilities for future use on a Clay Aiken message board... :whistling-1:

As I mentioned on main, my job got a little more interesting yesterday. My current boss stopped by to talk to me just before he left last night and said:

"Your application for the other job came through today. I had to run interference with someone who heard about this and started questioning your commitment to the project."

:rolleyes:

This is exactly the kind of thing I was concerned about in the first place and thought I had avoided by speaking with him about it before starting the process, but moreover I wanted to know who it was and how they heard about this because I've told NO ONE but him... Of course I didn't get a straight answer. <_< This was when he dropped the little bomb about possibly traveling out to SF for training towards the end of July, in between crapola about - again - my commitment to the project, my career direction, yada yada yada. I mainly feel that he was trying to BS me into wanting to stay in this job by dangling a rather large "I'll make sure you're more engaged in the process." carrot.

I asked about the company's/project's commitment to me by way of utilizing my skills rather than paying me to sit here and twiddle my thumbs. We've discussed this before, but I don't think I've ever been quite so blunt. Guess I'll see if that makes any impact. :shrug:

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Wow, better luck tomorrow couchie! :cryingwlaugher:

Want to hear something else ridiculous? We are being held to estimated times to get our work orders finished. So for something that was estimated at 6 hours, today, it only took me about 45 minutes. But I need to log it a lot closer to 6 hours. So I am saying 4 and I've been doing a lot of surfing. :huh:

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The sinking ship continues...

In two weeks, my library will lose a very good part-time librarian. She is one who has done a ton of good work for us in the past year, but really needed a full time job, and unfortunately, we couldn't guarantee anything right away. Today, I come in -- and our full time library clerk who oversees the spreadsheets for our book and materials budgets gave her two weeks notice. In a way, I'm not surprised on this one either -- my boss has given her bad performance reviews in the past, but I've had no problems with her, and she really knows her budgeting. Oh, and my boss has settled on a retirement date, September 30. With accumulated vacation days, her last working day will be the end of the first week of classes, mid August. There's also another full-time librarian (another fantastic one) who is planning to get out as soon as her husband finds another job in another area of the country. She thinks that will be soon.

This leaves a management team of me and one other librarian. Neither of us want to be managers; we want to do what we were hired to do in the first place. But my boss' boss is insistent that this management team thing "work." Instead, I think it's causing way more grief to all involved, and yet, she doesn't see it. I think the main thing that many of us still here are afraid of is that they will try to make the library totally "virtual" and get rid of all the librarians. I'm frankly at the point that I really just don't care anymore, and would leave this sinking ship too if I could. There's too much to do around here, and when I hit that point, I simply "shut down." My mental state is not good right now.

I really don't want to be hiring people; I really don't want to be working on salary scales; I want to be prepping for school in the fall by getting instruction sessions ready.

OK, maybe now I can try to get some work done around here.

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I would trade with you - my job got tranferred to India last December. Have found nothing in my field since. It would almost cost more in gas than to work at what small jobs I could get. I get calls all day for QA jobs - but there is always one little skill I lack - although I think it is really the age bias.

Last three weeks - got a call from the HR dept of large good company. Saw my resume on Monster. But I lacked automated testing experience. 20 minute conversation, no paperwork involved. a week later, an agency calls, he has a $46 an hour job I can do there (career high!) - but won't submit me since I talked to them about another job. Then another guy calls, he has a job slot at this same company, $40 hour, yowsa! - but says if I talked to them even about another job, no can do.

But I argued and he argued with them, and at least I got submitted, who knows what will happen, no word yet.

Another agency calls, she has a job slot open pretty close to my house, $34 an hour, would be fabuloso, I go in for a 1.5 hour great interview, they acted like I was already hired - then the big boss who was not there said no because I don't have much hands-on bankng software experience.

I will prolly have to downsize severely, but the housing market is pretty bad here.

And sometimes I get depressed and don't even look!

I am trying to craft a resume that doesn't make me seem old as dirt or over-qualified for other stuff. I'd be happy with half the money, but the Tampa job market just sucks.

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I don't know if it's that simple as wanting to trade. I still remember well being in a job I hated. It's just not good to be in a job or in a work atmosphere that is unhealthy. When I had the job I hated, the ethic there was that you work til you drop or you are not doing your job right. Every year someone in their 50s died. We're talking out of ~150 employees. Not good. Not normal. So I'm glad to be away from there, and I'm glad to be back home in NC, but I really was clueless about how difficult it was going to be to get another job. I've been unemployed now for two years, have applied for hundreds of jobs. The couple of times I've gotten interviews, I didn't even get the courtesy of a call back to tell me I didn't get the job. I think the fragility of the economy is affecting lots of people/companies in negative ways. It's a bad time to be looking for a job. So it's a conundrum.

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djs, I'm so sorry to hear about your job woes. I know there are others around here that simply don't HAVE good jobs, and I know that it is extremely good that I DO have a job, one with benefits and such. And yet, the mentality around this place is so much like what it is all across this land -- do more, do more, do more, with no raise in pay, and it makes me ill.

What sucks around here to me is that they are trying to run this community college as if it is a business, not a place of education. And again, I know that's something that seems to be happening at more and more places (my husband's college is going through the same thing). There's micromanagers all around, trying to figure out the most efficient ways to do things -- when most of us librarians have figured that out before and can do this with our eyes closed. But yet, non-librarians want to put in their two cents worth.

{{{{{{to everyone}}}}

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oh wow. Don't tell couchie but I didn't even know this thread existed! I SO sympathize with each of your job concerns--God knows I've been in all those places at one time or another. Right now I'm just hoping to hang on to my job---really like the work, commute is great, everybody but one flaming bitch is fun to work with, pay isn't gonna make me rich but it's necessary to keep paying for my mom's place in assisted living, and I get to travel now and then and have become quite adept at arranging some of the business travel to coincide with Clay concerts and whatnot... :whistling-1:

ldyj---are there other opportunities for you in a different library? I go to my library a lot and am fairly savvy about it, but I'm STILL glad there are real people there to get info from. I'd hate to think the powers that be would WANT to erase human librarians from the scene. The librarian is part of the experience, for God's sake!

Speaking of jobs...guess I'd better get going on my own...Hope things look up for those of you needing some good job news. :F_05BL17blowkiss:

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Big {{{{{hugs}}}}} for everyone dealing with job stress of one kind or another. Not having one sucks - been there, done that. Being in one with an unhealthy atmosphere sucks too. Currently there, doing that.

I have my 2nd interview tomorrow afternoon for the other job I applied for outside of my current project role. Found out that contrary to what I was led to believe, there are actually several external candidates and another internal candidate being interviewed as well. So much for the supposed hiring freeze we were told about after they let people go in May. This little tidbit came to me thanks to one of the interviewing managers who somehow included me on an email to one of the recruiters last Friday. She retracted it quickly, but my out of office auto-reply was quicker and therfore saved her little faux-pas in my sent folder...

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Ldyj, I saw this ad on Craig's list just now. Given your post this morning, it's kind of interesting in terms of how another institution is dealing with the same issues:

Private college in the Southeast is searching for a librarian to transform campus culture. This college is committed to making its library the center of campus life and equipping its graduates with the information/literacy and collaboration skills employers fervently desire.

The college is currently engaged in a multi-million dollar renovation and expansion project to modernize the current library. Additionally, the library staff will be merged with the IT staff. Information and information technology must seamless mesh in the service of education.

It will be the mission of the new librarian to reconnect students and faculty to the library and make it a proactive force in campus life. Students must come to see the library as a compelling resource in the development of their personal and professional lives.

Required skills:

1. A person who is comfortable with and schooled in the complete spectrum of library services.

2. An individual of exceptional technical expertise in the information technology arena.

3. One who possesses a dynamic, creative and entrepreneurial spirit and who wants to put a new heartbeat in a traditional institution.

4. The ability to lead, build consensus and develop supportive relationships with students, faculty, staff and administration.

Position Qualifications

• Masters Degree in Library Science

• Demonstrated experience at integrating information technology into a library and creating a learning culture.

• Ability to work harmoniously with various interest groups in creating a culture change.

Staff position (faculty status and rank negotiable for right person)

Non-teaching position

Compensation: $70,000 - $90,000 with full employee benefits package

This is at a non-profit organization.

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Don't tell Couchie..hrumph! I know all about you Muski and Your not clicking on view new posts self.

Annabear..ain't that a trip. Got them! What do you plan to do now?

LdyJ... :F_05BL17blowkiss: hope things work out.

any tips on when I should start looking for my job? I keep thinking if I start too early I'll find something and then be up you know what creek. My job ends Septmber 5th..at first I was thinking start August 1...but now I'm thinking hell, start mid July. Just not sure. Excited though.

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People will always ask when you are available, so you can just state up front that it's early September. Some people might not like that, but I haven't found anyone that seems to be in a hurry to hire these days. (Why hire new people when you can just overwork the old ones, eh ldyj?) Some of the jobs I'd applied for last year still haven't been filled. It won't hurt to get a little bit of a start in July, just to get a feel for where the market is right now, and how you're going to approach your search. It hasn't been that long since you were looking before, so you probably don't have a lot to learn, but if you're going to try new sources, positions, whatever, then the sooner the better.

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EEEEK! Big *HUGS* to those who are struggling with toxic work environments and problems finding jobs. Both of those situations suck, big time. I've been there, done that, and it really can take your state of mind down fast.

My job at the hospital has gone through LOTS of changes in the last 2 years. I still see patients and address the same issues with them, but the computer and insurance work is totally different. At one point my team was threatened with losing our jobs if we didn't agree to all of the changes. And the bad thing was that the changes were primarily made by a couple of new managers who didn't really understand the job! Fortunately I like computer work, so I've been able to adjust pretty well, and things seem to have turned out okay. But it sure was dicey there for awhile!

*sends up prayers to the job gods for new jobs for FCAers*

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Well, as I posted on main, I had my interview for the 2nd job this morning. I think it went well. But what the hell do I know? I always think interviews go well and yet I'm still interviewing... <_< They're supposed to make their decision "soon" - I just hope they're using Webster's definition and not Aiken's!

Since I was able to read the accidental email, I know who my competition is internally. I think our skill sets would overlap, her having more experience for one side of the job and me for the other. I don't know what, if any experience she has with non-profit work, so that *might* be a little advantage I have over her. Then there are the external candidates... :shrug:

I wasn't really sure I'd want this position, but after talking with them today, it does sound like it would be a great role to take on. It used to be part time, but with the growth of the department they've made it full time and it sounds like it could be a good opportunity.

I'm trying not to get my hopes up too high. I just have to leave it in God's hands. If it's not meant to be, then there's still something for me to learn where I am, no matter how much I may think I don't really want to learn it... I guess... :unsure:

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