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Careerchat II


Inigima

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22 hours ago, Iskaral Pust said:

@Datepalm the career path in academia and NGO/public service sounds Byzantine to me.  Perhaps we would all say that about any unfamiliar pursuit.  Best of luck.  Hopefully you're getting closer to your target destination.

The thought of pursuing a career in academia never ever occurred to me, and I'm certain that's great for everyone involved, most of all for students I would've been teaching. :lol: 

Oh, and the fact I wasn't that good of a student to qualify for that career path played a part in that, too.

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  • 2 months later...

I’ve been at this job for almost 16 months now. I mentioned back in March that I received a really great annual review, and a slightly higher than average annual increase. I’ve continued to learn new things (#1 being Business Objects/Web Intelligence – database-when I previously knew nothing about databases—and have been able to create some excellent reports that were much needed. No one else on the team was able to do this (the lady I replaced was the expert)), worked the deal that earned the company a pretty penny (so many pennies it was mentioned in the 2nd qtr earnings report), and just keep showing them that I was indeed the right person to hire.

 

I’ve done such a good job of convincing them of this that I have received an unheard of mid-year raise –4.6% which is even bigger than my bigger than average annual increase.

 

I am over the moon.  

 

I don’t think I have ever had a job where I always felt so valued and appreciated.

 

So once again, a huge thank you to all of you who put up with my anxieties when I turned down the other position I had been offered while waiting for this one to post the job opening, helped me with the interview process, and just offered luck and prayers.  I love you guys!

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1 hour ago, Lany Freelove Cassandra said:

I’ve been at this job for almost 16 months now. I mentioned back in March that I received a really great annual review, and a slightly higher than average annual increase. I’ve continued to learn new things (#1 being Business Objects/Web Intelligence – database-when I previously knew nothing about databases—and have been able to create some excellent reports that were much needed. No one else on the team was able to do this (the lady I replaced was the expert)), worked the deal that earned the company a pretty penny (so many pennies it was mentioned in the 2nd qtr earnings report), and just keep showing them that I was indeed the right person to hire.

 

I’ve done such a good job of convincing them of this that I have received an unheard of mid-year raise –4.6% which is even bigger than my bigger than average annual increase.

 

I am over the moon.  

 

I don’t think I have ever had a job where I always felt so valued and appreciated.

 

So once again, a huge thank you to all of you who put up with my anxieties when I turned down the other position I had been offered while waiting for this one to post the job opening, helped me with the interview process, and just offered luck and prayers.  I love you guys!

Lany - that is so awesome :):):) 

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Edit: I think most of this is extraneous. My team would like to work constructively with another team rather than having constant conflict, but the leadership of the other team is almost openly hostile and has raised hell when we've tried. Advice? Both teams are a form of support, so it's not like we're building a product.

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On 9/30/2017 at 7:31 AM, Inigima said:

Edit: I think most of this is extraneous. My team would like to work constructively with another team rather than having constant conflict, but the leadership of the other team is almost openly hostile and has raised hell when we've tried. Advice? Both teams are a form of support, so it's not like we're building a product.

I refer you to Michael Scott's conflict resolution training binder at Dunder Mifflin.  Aim for a win-win-win.  Telling Oscar to wear the cat T-shirt showed real leadership.

You already know the answer here, I'm sure:

(1) find the root of the hostility first (fear of loss of fief, some past inequity, style clash, whatever) -- and this may not be easy because people won't always admit even to themselves why they are hostile.  In particular, think about whether this collaboration is threatening to them.  You want collaboration but their hostility means they think some grievance should be redressed before they would collaborate.  Then decide if the collaboration is worth the cost of compromise/redress.  

(2) If it is not, your other options are to bring in an external senior referee (which can make you look ineffective unless you can demonstrate the other group are being unprofessional), win over the team members despite their hostile boss (is the hostile boss representing their team or just their own grievance?) or start documenting their intransigence and find the right forum for passive-aggressive status updates for the long-game of getting someone senior to notice the problem (not my preferred approach, but some corporate cultures work this way). 

I had a very similar situation just a few weeks ago and I went directly to the other team leader in a private setting and told him that his behavior in meetings suggests he's highly frustrated, what's wrong?  Then stay quiet and use an expectant silence to force them to talk.  You've taken the moral high ground by implying their behavior is too emotional and by being solicitous.  As they offer reasons/excuses, keep quiet and force them to say more until you think you're hearing the real root cause.  Once you've heard enough, then turn to "so what will we do about this?".  Sometimes just being challenged subtly on unprofessional behavior by a peer, in private, will improve things.  At a minimum, you know their price of cooperation and can decide how to proceed. 

Best of luck.  

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On 9/28/2017 at 9:57 AM, Lany Freelove Cassandra said:

 

I am over the moon.  

 

I don’t think I have ever had a job where I always felt so valued and appreciated.

 

Congrats Lany!  You should feel this way.  You are an amazing person.

Cheers

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Thanks guys.  For 5 years I felt pretty worthless dealing with periods of unemployment and temp jobs. I was sure I was going to have a horrible substandard job I hated the rest of my life.  My confidence had been shot, I was turned down for a 2 month job re-organizing a Target store at night. That was my lowest point (I had an interview for that job, so it was a true rejection).

My point in posting was not only to say thank you to my supporters, but to say to those struggling with the same problem to keep faith in yourself, don't give up.  

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my tenure at my current post may well be finite. i will hit 7 years in May. this is the longest i have ever worked at one place though i am in my third role. 

between simply a desire for something fresh and different and poor relations with the union i am working with a recruiter to find me a new chef job.

i have worked very hard at my current job and have done some great things for the place and and it will be heartbreaking to leave. i really love the place and have made some good friends. 

despite it all the union has decided to go full attack on me for disciplining employees and firing some. their tactic is 'chef is a racist.' tomorrow my staff all go into a meeting where the union intends to get to the bottom of the racist work camp i apparently run.

people do not like being held to standards and held accountable. go ahead and get together to say i am mean or overworking people. but, calling my character into question is painful. 

coming in each day since this all came to light is depressing. 

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On 10/5/2017 at 8:10 AM, MercurialCannibal said:

coming in each day since this all came to light is depressing. 

Sorry MC that you're going through a shitty time.   You'd like to think that your team members would stand up for you and would appreciate that you set high standards and removed the free-riders. 

There is a silver lining that the board didn't convulse in a knee-jerk reaction to lecture you that you probably were being racist and "help" you banish your white privilege self-delusion.  So there's something to be thankful for. 

If you are resigned to seeking a change -- I remember you were pretty excited a year or two ago when your new owners gave you a big chance to have more control and do new things -- then hopefully there will be some good options out there.  Sometimes it's good to make a change to feel reinvigorated.  

Best of luck. 

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On 10/5/2017 at 9:10 AM, MercurialCannibal said:

 

people do not like being held to standards and held accountable. go ahead and get together to say i am mean or overworking people. but, calling my character into question is painful. 

coming in each day since this all came to light is depressing. 

Dude - I am so sorry.  Hope the last few days have been ok.  :grouphug: (non-creepy internet variety)

 

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So in about 2 weeks there is going to be a vote on campus regarding graduate student unionization. I am not sure how I feel about it, and all the information I am getting from both sides seems to be heavily biased. I've only been here for like 2 weeks, so it is hard to have a clear opinion anyway, but I want to vote, because I will be bound by the results whether I vote or not.

(There is also a lack of any concrete details such as how much union dues would be, what benefits we would even be pushing for, etc.)

On the one hand, I support unions. There likely could be some tangible benefits in the form of better defined policies, and it would be nice to know that our community is represented and at the table for big decisions.

But on the other hand, I don't think that being a graduate student is a normal employee/employer relationship. This is basically the University's main argument against it, and I think it's a pretty compelling point. And on a practical level, I'm pretty happy with the current setup. I think my stipend is fair, the benefits seem good, and so far no one has been placing onerous duties on me and my department has been very supportive. So paying hundreds of dollars in a year in union fees doesn't sound appealing. This is also influenced by the fact that I am in the Physical Sciences Division, which is a pretty different experience than someone in, say, the Humanities Division. But the proposed bargaining unit includes all graduate students (which I think may have been a mistake on the pro-union organizers, as from what I can tell the majority of PSD leans against it).

But just because I don't stand to potentially benefit as much, perhaps morally I have an obligation to support my fellow graduate students in other fields.

Any thoughts? I've never been in a union before and am operating on very little information here.

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13 hours ago, Starkess said:

So in about 2 weeks there is going to be a vote on campus regarding graduate student unionization. I am not sure how I feel about it, and all the information I am getting from both sides seems to be heavily biased. I've only been here for like 2 weeks, so it is hard to have a clear opinion anyway, but I want to vote, because I will be bound by the results whether I vote or not.

(There is also a lack of any concrete details such as how much union dues would be, what benefits we would even be pushing for, etc.)

On the one hand, I support unions. There likely could be some tangible benefits in the form of better defined policies, and it would be nice to know that our community is represented and at the table for big decisions.

But on the other hand, I don't think that being a graduate student is a normal employee/employer relationship. This is basically the University's main argument against it, and I think it's a pretty compelling point. And on a practical level, I'm pretty happy with the current setup. I think my stipend is fair, the benefits seem good, and so far no one has been placing onerous duties on me and my department has been very supportive. So paying hundreds of dollars in a year in union fees doesn't sound appealing. This is also influenced by the fact that I am in the Physical Sciences Division, which is a pretty different experience than someone in, say, the Humanities Division. But the proposed bargaining unit includes all graduate students (which I think may have been a mistake on the pro-union organizers, as from what I can tell the majority of PSD leans against it).

But just because I don't stand to potentially benefit as much, perhaps morally I have an obligation to support my fellow graduate students in other fields.

Any thoughts? I've never been in a union before and am operating on very little information here.

The vote needs to measure what's good for each individual. So vote for yourself, and encourage everyone you know to do the same. That way the vote totals will reflect what's good for the majority.

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16 hours ago, Starkess said:

But on the other hand, I don't think that being a graduate student is a normal employee/employer relationship.

Why not? You're exchanging labor for a stipend. And just because you think the pay is fair now does not mean that it will always be so. 

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On 05/10/2017 at 2:10 PM, MercurialCannibal said:

despite it all the union has decided to go full attack on me for disciplining employees and firing some. their tactic is 'chef is a racist.' tomorrow my staff all go into a meeting where the union intends to get to the bottom of the racist work camp i apparently run.

people do not like being held to standards and held accountable. go ahead and get together to say i am mean or overworking people. but, calling my character into question is painful. 

coming in each day since this all came to light is depressing. 

Are you a member of this union? Or is it only your employees who are in the union? If you are not in a union then do you have a professional colleague you can use as a sounding board to discuss your situation?

I would like to have a manager who set clear boundaries and stuck to them, disciplining those who fail to follow the rules. My work scenario is the opposite. In a new twist the colleague who stuck up an abusive notice directed at me handed in their resignation yesterday. I still don't think that they were ever disciplined for their behaviour.

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On 05/10/2017 at 2:10 PM, MercurialCannibal said:

my tenure at my current post may well be finite. i will hit 7 years in May. this is the longest i have ever worked at one place though i am in my third role. 

between simply a desire for something fresh and different and poor relations with the union i am working with a recruiter to find me a new chef job.

i have worked very hard at my current job and have done some great things for the place and and it will be heartbreaking to leave. i really love the place and have made some good friends. 

despite it all the union has decided to go full attack on me for disciplining employees and firing some. their tactic is 'chef is a racist.' tomorrow my staff all go into a meeting where the union intends to get to the bottom of the racist work camp i apparently run.

people do not like being held to standards and held accountable. go ahead and get together to say i am mean or overworking people. but, calling my character into question is painful. 

coming in each day since this all came to light is depressing. 

I am so sick of people thinking that being held to account, to do the job they are paid for is 'bullying or victimisation'.  Its almost impossible now to manage anyone without them going in a massive fucking huff at best, or trying to do your legs at worst.  Fuck this entitled generation. 

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On 10/9/2017 at 0:47 PM, Xray the Enforcer said:

Why not? You're exchanging labor for a stipend. And just because you think the pay is fair now does not mean that it will always be so. 

I suppose I don't think it's quite that transactional. I'm receiving education and training and the labor I am providing is more in line with helping me to become a better teacher and researcher. Sort of like an apprenticeship type situation. Although I suppose in the trades apprentices also sometimes belong to the union. Definitely something to consider more, thanks.

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thanks for the well wishes, people. 

isis, i am not in the union. as a manager i am not. the relationship between management and staff is generally very good particularly in my department. the management and union relationship has always been antagonistic and combative. that is fine by me. that is how they work and i get it. they try to get their members to fear, mistrust  or hate their managers as acolytes of ownership and rally to the banner of the union who are the only thing keeping them from poverty. 

quality human interaction, respect for people and basic intelligence has helped break that down a great deal in my kitchen.  we all work together and face the same things. so that helps a lot.

as things have been dug deeper into, the racism angle seems manufactured entirely by a shop steward and the business agent to try to throw something against my disciplining of  staff mostly of only one race. 

my staff do have actual concerns and critiques of my management and methods. and those i am fully willing to own, address and adjust. the actual work and standards are not going to change though. i will continue to push us to be better.  and better only comes from hard work. 

still i am very sad and disheartened by it all. i have a true love for my restaurant. i love my chef team, they are like brothers. many of my cooks and stewards are wonderful people who have enriched my life by being with them 14 hours a day for these years. helping guide the place like i have over near seven years has been unbelievable. i don't want to walk away,  but i don't know if i can continue in an environment tainted and influenced so negatively by an outside force.

Friday i meet with a placement recruiter who thinks he has some good options for me. we will see.

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