Interesting week
It's been a heck of a week for me. Enough so that I'm actually posting here!
The biggest pain in the as has been the studying. Between the 2 classes I'm taking, and the advancement test for work, I've been hitting the books alot. And finding little excuses to avoid hitting the books alot. And stressing alot.
After 11 years of hiding in my current paygrade, where I've been happy as a clam doing what I do, I've decided that I'm tired of 12 hour shifts, tired of staying up all night, tired of being bored silly until that moment comes when you have to do everything in a perfectly timed, frantic frenzy. That frenzy has started to become an annoyance, rather than a rush. I think I'm ready for the good ol' fashioned 9-to-5, weekends-off kind of job. The fact that the next paygrade is technically management, and comes with a $400 a month minimum pay raise doesn't hurt either. But there's downsides to it. With management comes greater responsibility (right vianne_?) It also comes with a ticket out of New Orleans. But, I've gone as far as I can go where I am now, so I needed to take the test.
The test is a competition. Every person in my specialty and paygrade can take the test. Based on the score, and a few other factors, they come up with a promotion list. Easy. And, like I said, I know all there is to know where my job is concerned. Piece o' cake, right?
Except that they changed my job this year, and added a bunch of other jobs to it that I never knew anything about. So, I end up guessing on about 2/3 of the test. Who knows, even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes. I won't have the score until the end of June, at the earliest, so there's no use worrying about it now. Best case, I get promoted, and get one of the 4 or 5 jobs that I think are going to be open. Worst case, we'll get to stay here for another year. Either way, it'll work out.
Then there's school. And it's "finals" time. One class is still fun, still makes sense. The other has become boring. For the good class, the final was a 24-hr long test. So, I find out the question, then take several hours to come up with the 4 essays required for an answer. I log back into the website where I'm supposed to submit it, and it tells me that I already accessed it once (to get the question), and I can't log back in again. So, I can't even submit my work.
Well, OK, I can still pull out a C with a zero, but still this sucks. So I shoot off a quick e-mail to the instructor, putting on my best electronic pity-the-poor-idiot-who-can't-read-a-web-site spiel. I attach the test and hope for the best. She accepted that as my submission, so at least it'll be better than a zero.
So today, I check my school e-mail and find a note from the teacher. She wanted to let me know that she did something today that she's never done in her career. She gave out her first 100%.
Yep, I aced the damned test. Scary. On Leadership, of all things. Hmm, who woulda thunk it?
All I did was explain that there's only one true and real way to be a leader, and all it takes is to step into the light...
Yeah, right.
Actually, it was on the coaching and leadership philosophies of Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski (Gesundheit!), and was on his book. Pretty good book. If anyone wants to borrow it, lemme know. Helps if you like basketball, though.
The final for the other class is a 10-page Strategic Plan for improving an organization. Silly me picks the NOPD. If nothing else, I should be able to bluff some TA in Kansas about the NOPD, right? At least there's lots of websites with lots of ideas. All I have to do is organize them right.
Except time keeps running out. Can't do it at work, cuz these idiots keep going out and trying to (or succeeding in) killing themselves. A 65 yr old guy with a wooden leg that can't swim fell into the canal he was fishing in. A 70 yr old guy climbed up on top of a cannon at Ship Island, then slipped off and hit his head on a handrail. A guy fell off the GNO bridge. Just silly, stupid shit. The plan's due Monday, and will be done, but I know I ain't gonna ace this one. A cow pie with a fancy paint job is still a cow pie. It'll be enough though.
And Sunday, I get to see good friends, have good food, good wine, and some fun. Can't wait.
So, anyway, that was my week. How was yours? :)
The biggest pain in the as has been the studying. Between the 2 classes I'm taking, and the advancement test for work, I've been hitting the books alot. And finding little excuses to avoid hitting the books alot. And stressing alot.
After 11 years of hiding in my current paygrade, where I've been happy as a clam doing what I do, I've decided that I'm tired of 12 hour shifts, tired of staying up all night, tired of being bored silly until that moment comes when you have to do everything in a perfectly timed, frantic frenzy. That frenzy has started to become an annoyance, rather than a rush. I think I'm ready for the good ol' fashioned 9-to-5, weekends-off kind of job. The fact that the next paygrade is technically management, and comes with a $400 a month minimum pay raise doesn't hurt either. But there's downsides to it. With management comes greater responsibility (right vianne_?) It also comes with a ticket out of New Orleans. But, I've gone as far as I can go where I am now, so I needed to take the test.
The test is a competition. Every person in my specialty and paygrade can take the test. Based on the score, and a few other factors, they come up with a promotion list. Easy. And, like I said, I know all there is to know where my job is concerned. Piece o' cake, right?
Except that they changed my job this year, and added a bunch of other jobs to it that I never knew anything about. So, I end up guessing on about 2/3 of the test. Who knows, even a blind squirrel finds a nut sometimes. I won't have the score until the end of June, at the earliest, so there's no use worrying about it now. Best case, I get promoted, and get one of the 4 or 5 jobs that I think are going to be open. Worst case, we'll get to stay here for another year. Either way, it'll work out.
Then there's school. And it's "finals" time. One class is still fun, still makes sense. The other has become boring. For the good class, the final was a 24-hr long test. So, I find out the question, then take several hours to come up with the 4 essays required for an answer. I log back into the website where I'm supposed to submit it, and it tells me that I already accessed it once (to get the question), and I can't log back in again. So, I can't even submit my work.
Well, OK, I can still pull out a C with a zero, but still this sucks. So I shoot off a quick e-mail to the instructor, putting on my best electronic pity-the-poor-idiot-who-can't-read-a-web-site spiel. I attach the test and hope for the best. She accepted that as my submission, so at least it'll be better than a zero.
So today, I check my school e-mail and find a note from the teacher. She wanted to let me know that she did something today that she's never done in her career. She gave out her first 100%.
Yep, I aced the damned test. Scary. On Leadership, of all things. Hmm, who woulda thunk it?
All I did was explain that there's only one true and real way to be a leader, and all it takes is to step into the light...
Yeah, right.
Actually, it was on the coaching and leadership philosophies of Duke basketball coach Mike Krzyzewski (Gesundheit!), and was on his book. Pretty good book. If anyone wants to borrow it, lemme know. Helps if you like basketball, though.
The final for the other class is a 10-page Strategic Plan for improving an organization. Silly me picks the NOPD. If nothing else, I should be able to bluff some TA in Kansas about the NOPD, right? At least there's lots of websites with lots of ideas. All I have to do is organize them right.
Except time keeps running out. Can't do it at work, cuz these idiots keep going out and trying to (or succeeding in) killing themselves. A 65 yr old guy with a wooden leg that can't swim fell into the canal he was fishing in. A 70 yr old guy climbed up on top of a cannon at Ship Island, then slipped off and hit his head on a handrail. A guy fell off the GNO bridge. Just silly, stupid shit. The plan's due Monday, and will be done, but I know I ain't gonna ace this one. A cow pie with a fancy paint job is still a cow pie. It'll be enough though.
And Sunday, I get to see good friends, have good food, good wine, and some fun. Can't wait.
So, anyway, that was my week. How was yours? :)