A Student Again
Well I will be at the end of this month. It's not anything major, just a couple of courses related to finance. I want to do more but they aren't available until next month so I'll sign up for them then. One of the good things that came out of my work situation is access to discounted courses. Like the one I signed up for today. I got a 22% discount but technically it'll be entirely free since I will get reimbursed for the cost once I finish the course.
Well, there is one other thing I've gotten from my work situation and that's willful blindness from management. They see only what they want to see and interpret things the way they want to interpret them. I know not to give them fuel for their prejudices and bias. Like today I noticed while cleaning up some files (one of those things that should have been done all along if I had management who actually knew things) that the so-called expert (whom I got in trouble for stating my opinion about) was the main culprit in leaving correspondence out of client's folders. I've cleaned up roughly 20% of 500 folders (that have an unknown quantity of files within) and have had to track down email threads to save the missing correspondence then reformat forms saved as pictures which is a long and tedious process. I showed what I've been up against to one of the managers who reacted somewhat indifferently and then gave me "Well there was no set way of saving things back then".
Perhaps if I had managers who spent more time in application instead of chatting or listening to people shoot the breeze, the files wouldn't be the train wreck they are now. But, I'm not going to let it bother me. I haven't even begun to use my allowance for continuing education (the company has a cap for education expenses), I'm keeping busy, and the company will be worse off than me when I cut ties because the knowledge I will have gained from these courses will be taken with me.
@Enthenia
Mhhhh balancing student life and work-personal life can be a real struggle at times! It can also be a struggle when we feel that one aspect is lacking and therefore causing neative emotions to spill into the other aspects of our lives aswell.
Talking to someone about student life can really help! There are many wonderful and compassionate listeners that are ready to support and listen to you. You can browse the listener page here: https://www.7cups.com/BrowseListeners/
Best wishes <3
@professionalVision2624
Well in my case, I think it'll help me tolerate what I have to deal with at work. I've learned that they play favorites big time where I work and if you're not one of the "in-crowd" and you say something against the "in-crowd", they come after you. I got put on monitoring for a month over things that I never said the way they were reported. Now I know not to say anything to anyone in the office (lest if be twisted around to make me appear worse than what I am) and do my job. But, I want to add to my skill set so that I can locate a position where I'm actually appreciated and I want to gain a better understanding in other areas so that there is no repeat of this situation in whatever position I will end up in the future.
@Enthenia
Mhhh I see. It might be that your workplace has become a toxic enviorment since it should be allowed to participate freely without our actions and words being twisted around and make sure our skillset gets put to good use. <3 Do you belive your workplace is exhibiting toxic signs?
@professionalVision2624
I guess it depends on how you look at it. A couple of the office girls have resigned themselves to doing their work and not speaking out or up about things. They have learned like I did (but they didn't get into as much trouble as me) that it's better to stay quiet. I made things worse for myself by taking some advice and went to HR to explain my side of the story. I'm not doing that again.
However in my case, I know one of my manager was sort of "following" me around shortly after the HR incident. Whenever I came back from the restroom of lunch, one always "happened" to be nearby. I thought those things had ended since I'm no longer under surveillance and management claimed to be happy and satisfied but when I came back from the restroom today, that same manager just "happened" to come out of the ground floor restroom. I go to the second floor because there is less traffic up there.
I'm not going to dwell on it. It's just a temporary stage while I get more knowledge and relevant certifications. I mean, it's not like where I'm currently working is the only company in the world. Going back to my class plans, I want to take some basic management courses that way I know how incidents should be taken care of. I know the way my management handled things was not the correct way. Basing a report off of third party remarks, incidents and statements that were taken out of context, etc. and then telling me to be conscientious and professional whilst their behavior is unprofessional (like tracking me whenever I leave the office).
Sorry. I had a hanging sentence there. I didn't realize until I after I hit the "post" button. What I meant to say was something to the effect of "Whilst their behavior is clearly the opposite of what is expected from me.
But it doesn't matter anymore to me. I'm basically doing the same things as I did before. I just don't talk to anyone in that department and I agree to everything the leads say because they know much more than I do (and that is a myth but I don't really care anymore). The funny thing is, the expert (whom I allegedly said horrible things about) has missed the most things from the folders I've been fixing. But I can't mention that to anyone. Well, I mention it to the receptionist who had the same perception of this expert (whom I still believe got the position mainly because he cozied up to influential people in my department more than his expertise) but she doesn't exactly count.
@Enthenia
Yeah a bad workplace experience can be really draining and we can end up feeling unhappy and burned out. Make sure to practice a lot of self-care! ❤️🥰
@Enthenia
Mhhh I understand ❤️ I'm sorry that seems like a really tough situation to be in 🥺
@professionalVision2624 well it's stressful only if I allow it to be. Today, I cleaned up four years worth of a patron's folders. Documents were all over the place. Wrong files were in folders and when I moved them over to other locations, I found more things in the wrong place. Then I had to rename everything to where it made sense. I'm in the Ms now. I still have N-Z to get through and then save digests from our treasury department (which again should have been saved but weren't). I've only gotten up to May of this year on that.
And tomorrow I have to cover for the girl who does approvals for wires because she's got the rest of the week off for the holiday. Also, today I learned that we're supposed to retain old copies of documents even though we run reports every year. To me, there should be one location for all those files but they still get saved in at least three places and no one saves them the same way.
Sorry if this is all technical but at least it keeps me busy. It is tedious and boring but it's something that needs to be done. We had a federal agent go through the files that I've been working on and got frustrated when he couldn't find anything. This just shows you how disorganized things are.
I do shift gears at home. I do pictures (pastels, watercolors, colored pencils) and I work on some fiction pieces that I started eons ago when I had more time. I also pay attention to my cat (she doesn't like being ignored) and I've got that college course starting next week. I don't know how I'm going to manage all of that but at least I don't have the time to be mad at the things that go on at work. And I'm grateful that I can listen to my music at work because that helps a lot.