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WebGoddessCathy |
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<-- my life, by webgoddesscathy --> :: Thursday, September 22, 2005 :: I'm now doing something I really hate: I'm reading one of those books about negotiation. Ugh. I see all those suits on the TTC reading those things and I think: LOSERS! Can't they find something INTERESTING to read? What about REAL literature? What about improving yourself by educating yourself about the earth and its people? You know, I can just think of so many other more intriguing books to read. I mean, I have a whole shelf of them that I can't seem to get to. And then there are the magazines: Explore, Travel Abroad, Outpost, Scientific American... I'm really quite shocked that I'm spending my precious reading time on this. But let me tell you, quite ashamedly, that it is totally worth it. I think, every once in a while, you need to read something like this. Especially when you get to the point when you start wondering if the entire world is insane you are the only intelligent being left. Or when you realize that you're probably going to throw your computer, your phone, or your client out the window if it so much as LOOKS at you the wrong way. This is when you know you've had too much. You need some perspective. So I had to figure out, even if I'm not doing anything wrong per se, what exactly I could be doing more right. Enter boring negotiation book. So I'm reading and thinking, "Ya, I make that mistake," and that, "Uh-huh, they TOTALLY react that way when I say that!" And basically just realizing that your life could be made a whole lot easier if you just manipulated people better. Once you get over the shame of this thought, you might actually open your mind up in the next situation and "look down from your balcony onto the problem" and "step to their side" and "reframe" so you can "build a golden bridge" and possibly even decide to "use power to educate" instead of escalate. I hate it. But maybe tomorrow I will make different decision about how upset I'll get over yet another proposal revision. :: Cathy 7:18 PM [+] :: 2 comments :: Wednesday, September 21, 2005 :: It's funny how performance reviews can bring you down. They're meant to improve performance. But when's the last time you actually thought: "Wow, I'm so glad I know how much everyone hates my work! I'm going to try so much harder NOW! Who cares about those recruiters who keep calling with offers of more money - I want to try to please THESE critics." Does anyone really need to hear anything bad about themselves or their work at their review? I mean, certainly, if you are clueless and you totally suck at your job, but they just can't fire you, then of course they should try to help you stop sucking. Usually, however, these slackers are really not interested in improving. They're just fine going on their merry sucking way. They have a job that they don't work hard at and they get paid. It's perfect. These are the people who read and live by SpreadtheSlack.com. Read it. You will be converted, I hope. The thing is, I am NOT a slacker. If someone actually told me that I could do something better when I was doing it, instead of saving everything up until the moment they could blind-side me with it, I would probably try to change what I was doing. And yet, if I were a slacker, perhaps I would not be expected to do everything in the entire universe and be perfect at it. Actually, come to think of it, I at least "meet expectations" in everything, am "better than expectations" on many other aspects and even "far exceed expectations" on some other, very special, occasions. So why wouldn't I be strongly rewarded for that? I could be a slacker and still be "rewarded" the same. This weekend I will likely spend a lot of time putting together a case for myself on why I deserve more than the generic "you're OK" reward package. Yes, I said it, I will do it on my precious weekend. And why? Because I just spent an 11.5-hour day at work and didn't have time to gather these facts, stats and write them up in a persuading manner, using all the right non-confrontation language. Sometimes I wonder if perhaps I wouldn't be better suited to running a hostel in some obscure corner of the country where I could read my books, update my website, go for bike rides in the sunshine and make yummy healthy dinners instead of eating a chocolate bar beside my designer's desk at 8pm. :: Cathy 7:36 PM [+] :: 4 comments :: Sunday, September 18, 2005 :: It was pick up soccer at Eglinton park today as I sat at a picnic table with my lemon mineral water and hair magazine. They were Spanish, it seemed, all of them. Oh, and did they like to talk! One, in the red shorts was quite good. Most of them were not. But it was nice to watch as I felt my eyes starting to droop. One can only keep an interest in a hair magazine for so long, you understand. The sun was past its zenith and a breeze had found its way to us there on the pitch. A lazy way to spend an sweet September afternoon, watching soccer at the park. My laundry done, my letters posted, my errands run. Just time to nurse yet another migraine. I swear it shall be the death of me... or someone else. :: Cathy 7:34 PM [+] :: 0 comments
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