Spazzing Out
I've been doing pretty good at this stuff lately. My boss says he's pleased with progress. HIS boss agrees. His bosses' peer agrees too.
Along with all this lovely agreement, I've been getting some new tasks at work. Shadowing the new people on the team and helping them to develop their skillz.
And my manager is out on vacation this month. I got the job of handling all the QA coaching. And most Sup calls. And shadowing/uptraining as needed.
WHEE!
On the one hand, this is easier than I thought. I can do it, I don't get push back. People actually accept me telling them stuff. ME. Apparently, I'm the only one with an issue with me giving advice. Huh.
On the other hand, I'm seeing my weaknesses pretty damn quickly.
I'm not even sure what you CALL it. I do it at home with Jason a lot when we schedule, and I don't know what to call it then either. Let alone how to work on it.
Scenario: I'm doing something. Anything. I'm focused on what I'm doing. Here come three little requests. Nothing major, nothing that really needs more than 'handle this later' noted down some where.
Now, what I should do, is schedule a time to do these, or put them in a holding bin somewhere to get to. I'm well aware of the proper way to handle it. And I do.
The PROBLEM is, at the same time, I start to feel flustered, and I start to panic, because I feel like things are piling up and I start turning into a stressball.
I recognize the reaction. I KNOW it's completely unwarranted. This is nothing major, it'll take like 5min to handle. I can handle it. But still, I panic. And the more it happens, the more stressed I get, and then I start having trouble being cheerful and helpful, and I just want to be left the F alone.
I haven't a clue how to FIX the problem. Right now, i'm taking the 'deep breath, file, refocus' steps and trying to ignore the panic.
I've got to get over this if I'm ever going to be an effective manager. I can see that. I just don't know HOW.