Course Results
So I got initial feedback on the online course I took as a result of a lot of things (mostly not helpful) going on with my current position. It was a basic course on accounting principles. I want to do more along the line of data analysis but I suppose with more of a financial focus which is odd because math was never a strong point of mine. But since I sort of fell into a financial role after I lost my job because of the chaos in 2020, I have learned a lot of interesting things. Mainly how disorganized my current company is.
However, back to the course feedback. I apparently did really well except I got a profitability ratio wrong. I looked at another explanation and redid the two sections related to profitability. I'm waiting to see if it was done correctly. I think the first time I made it more complicated than it needed to be. But, I was surprised at the overall tone of the feedback and how much I actually understood and the fact that they were somewhat impressed by my examples and reasoning. I usually shy away from feedback because most of my past experiences have been harsh and negative.
Now I'm just waiting on the final course results so I can get reimbursed for what I paid and then I'll start looking at other learning options.
@Enthenia
Yay for doing well on the course. Online courses can be so helpful. It's always nice to receive some positive feedback. Since you want to do something like data analysis, do you think the next course would revolve around that? Best of luck on your final results by the way! 💜
@innateJoy9602 Thanks! I have a few options. I've done some free courses on blockchain technology and I think I really want to learn Tableau. It takes data and puts it into understandable graphs which would be an asset in a business setting. I think SQL would be a bit too technical for me but I can do a basic course like the one I just took. Even a little knowledge would help.
Also, I want to take some management classes. I want to know the best practices for managers because I don't believe the managers where I currently work are doing things in a sensible manner.
Oh and one thing I need to get is a certification for combating money laundering. It's expensive but I think it will help broaden my options and I've seen it listed on "strongly recommended" on a few job postings.
@Enthenia
Hey, really happy to hear that you did well on your course and probably found out something you are fond of. It is always nice to hear positive feedback and i think it really motivates you to keep going. What do you plan on doing next
@patientLake8712 I'm not quite sure. I'm still waiting for the final grade to be posted so I can submit the course for reimbursement. I still got one of the calculations wrong. I even looked at alternative examples so I don't know how I still got it wrong. Asked about it but I haven't heard anything back.
But, there are a few other things I want to look at. I want to get a certificate for data analysis but that's a little expensive in one go. I would get the money back but there never seems to be a good time to pay out that much. But there are less expensive courses every few weeks so I shall see what's available once I get my money back.
I do want to take some management courses so I will at least know what decent management looks like. It doesn't exist where I currently work.
So apparently the grades were posted yesterday. I passed. I added this notice to my reimbursement claim. The site we're supposed to use doesn't even show that the submission has been accepted or if it's even processed or anything. This is just an example of how things basically go at work. Lack of clarity, disorganization, etc.
As I said, there are more courses I want to take but I'd like to be sure that I'll get the money back before I start looking into my next class. With as high as everything is nowadays, I don't want to be throwing money away. I know I'd be gaining knowledge but the money spent on pursuing this knowledge could be used on other things.
To further illustrate the disorganization, today was when we switched over to the new timekeeping system which does not work. Managers can't see when we clocked in, when we clock out for meals and then clock back in, that time replaces our original start time. And nothing is mentioned about meals in the training guides. We also learned that we lose any vacation time over 40 hours. I lose over a week. That sort of thing should have been let known to people months in advance so people had the opportunity to use that time instead of the day the new system went into effect.
The girl I cover for when she's sick or on vacation loses her previously approved time next week because she doesn't have enough hours. Everyone starts with 40 hrs. of time off irregardless of hire date. And, everything comes from one bank. Instead of having separate slots for holidays and sick leave, it's all in one area. But right now, everyone has only 40 hrs. So if Christmas and New Year's Day came on a Friday or Monday instead of Sunday, we would have to forfeit some of our vacation time. But the company observes 8 holidays out of the year so we sort of have to take those days off because the office is closed.
I shall be relieved when I can finally move on from this company.
Sort of an update I guess. I spent most of Friday trying to track down the right person to talk to about my reimbursement. Of course, most people took the day off for the holiday and the people who were around didn't know anything. Never got a confirmation email or anything. I'm supposed to hear back from someone this week (maybe).
That's one of the more frustrating things about this situation. Actually it's a condensed version of my entire employment experience with the company I'm currently with. I'm supposed to communicate but not communicate yet no one else seems to be expected to communicate. I'm still waiting on a response from our customer service regarding customer information before I can file a report, waiting on a response from out IT department because I need some emails pulled from last year that I accidentally deleted (which I wouldn't have done if the files had been saved with some semblance of consistency to begin with), and today I tried to start a report on a customer with very little information and discovered that the lead who initially sent the email missed a lot of activity so now I will have to go back through the spreadsheet and check pretty much each day in November. I can't say anything because it's the person I apparently had a vendetta against in the past. At least that's how things were spun in the write-up narrative. Thought cliques only existed in high school and not the workplace.
I would sign up for another discounted class but my last paycheck was shorted because the company is going to a new timekeeping system (but they're not entirely sure if it will be compatible with the payroll system.) and I've got my rent coming up. I have to make sure I pay that.
It sounds like you have quite the plan. It also looks like there’s some type of option for reimbursement, which is amazing. Your happiness matters most and you control it so if you’re in a situation where your emotions are telling you something is not right, listen to them. I’ve wasted a lot of my time “toughing things out” when I should definitely always follow my heart, even when it doesn’t seem like the right thing to do.
@pioneeringStrawberries5097
I know. I've spent years in jobs before where I wasn't exactly happy because of various circumstances. I really don't like how things are being handled where I'm currently employed but at least I know what I want to work on. I think I want to shoot for a bank perhaps in a different area but for that I need a few certifications and WAY more money than what I currently have saved. I don't know if mismanagement is common to the region I'm currently in or if I just have the bad luck to get jobs with poor management or what.
I do know that I've wanted to relocate for quite a few years now but just have not had the option to do so. Maybe I can start focusing on that in the upcoming year, once I get the classes I want to take under my belt. Hopefully I can get some clarification on the reimbursement program. It was advertised as being an easy process but the advertising was quite different from the application.
Ooh yes, me too. Growing up I’ve always been led to believe that I should always last at least 3 years at a job. I sacrificed a lot doing that. Now I’m focusing on healing. I know now to never sacrifice my happiness for anything. If I don’t like the job I won’t hesitate to quit, no matter the financial cost to me. I know that bad companies don’t keep their employees happy so any amount of over exertion is pointless. I also know that unless I’m under contract, I will never hesitate to leave anymore because bad employers take advantage of their power against their employees. So unfortunately I haven’t gotten to read your replies to the other comments yet but I’m assuming this reimbursement program is tuition reimbursement at your job?
@pioneeringStrawberries5097 Yes. Also on certain courses we get a special rate on the classes. Like the accounting class I took. It only cost me a little over $200 because I'm a current employee. It would have been $900 without that discount. I have quite a few other courses I want to take with that discount. It's just that I don't exactly have spare cash to throw around not with commodities going up in cost so I was expecting to get the money back.
As for the job I'm currently at, I don't mind the work itself; I just don't like the lack of structure, how certain things are handled, etc. But this is the highest paying job I've had in quite a while and I can see other opportunities if I get the education. One good thing is that I've found a way to limit the complaints against me. I rarely talk to anyone in my own department and I try to be as vague and noncommittal as possible. And, I've taken it upon myself to clean up some files. I had 497 customers to start with and I'm almost done. I don't know how many thousands of files I saved and converted. The next step is to check that file location against another file location and make sure customers in Folder A are also in Folder B. There is supposedly a process people are expected to follow but no one goes back and checks on such things as I've found out when I was working my way through the 497 customers.
Lack of oversight is another annoyance but something I can't really mention because I've been told by management that I don't know anything in comparison to the leads. I'm past the point of having any feelings on that. I've adopted a more...transient mindset I guess. The company will be losing more when I go, not the other way around.
I definitely think people should be comfortable communicating with other people in the workplace. I’m sorry that you’re not able to feel comfortable communicating with others at your job. That’s bad management because nobody should ever be told they don’t know as much as someone else. I also think often times the leads don’t know as much as the employees because they’re job doesn’t require them to carry the same tasks as the employees. Remember that at the end of the day nothing you do will keep you from being let go or replaced. Holding your job is not something you have much control over so it’s Important to just go in, do your job, and leave. People get replaced all the time whether they’re good employees or not. It’s happened to me. I’ve worked at jobs where I’ve been able to immediately outperform the entire team naturally and have been replaced anyways. I spoke to someone who manages another business and that person told me it’s probably because they felt threatened by me, they felt threatened because they felt like I could take their job. I was a hard worker, gave it 110 percent every time because that’s all I knew how to do. When I quit one of my last jobs, and I want to emphasize that this was a corporate environment, when I quit I went back often to see how things were going and business went straight downhill. I notice that they don’t care though, but at least I know my potential and that I can be successful on my own without being employed by a company. Maybe you should look into self employment. The pros I see of it are being your own boss and in control of all decisions related to work.
@pioneeringStrawberries5097
Sorry for the late response. I totally missed this. I agree with the corporate environment. Or perhaps it's just the environment I'm currently working in. I had my year end review today and they (management) wanted to stress the fact that they really value me even though they were "forced" to give me a bad rating due to the write-up (which was based on third-person reports, heresay and events that happened at least four months prior so unless they were keeping track of my every movement for four months, the account would be biased and skewed). However they assured me that the comments in the management section did not reflect the rating that was given. From what I understand, the rating determines whether I get a raise or not. Management has essentially told me to stick it out and I'll be back to the point I was before the write-up happened.
Management claims I've undergone a change but I think it's more that their perception of me has changed. I haven't changed at all. Like they told me they want to do staff bi-weekly meetings which is something I mentioned to HR at the beginning of that incident. Again if things like that had been in place, much of what caused the incident could have been avoided. But hindsight is 20/20. And I will never get an acknowledgement from management that they handled the matter in a less than professional way.
But that's fine I'm currently waiting to hear back on an application with a university that has deferred payment plans. I'm still looking at something in IT and hopefully the funding will work with this program since I never got the money back on the course I took at a different university. Emailed the corporate team last week. Had an automated response stating that I'd hear back from someone within 48 hours. Never happened.
So, as it stands, I'll just deal with things until I can break away. As long as I leave noncommittal responses and do menial tasks that need to be done but no one else wants to do, I can't get in trouble. And, the department I'm in will be worse for wear when I finally leave but they won't realize that until it's too late. They didn't realize how disorganized things were until I started cleaning folders up.
I don't know if anyone is actually paying attention to this. My fault partially. I didn't see the last response until nearly a week later.
Anyways, I happened to check the education site for my work after I found that the HR site had my personal email address wrong. I did remember the admissions specialist I talked to at the university stated that my email address was odd so I gave them my work email which is something I don't like doing. I don't really like giving my personal email address out even though it's an encrypted address.
But back to the subject at hand. I went to check the education site because I couldn't remember if I had my personal email address on it or not and wanted to fix it (apparently when a lot of employees' information got transported over to the new system, things got messed up like my email address. For some reason my employee number is attached to it) and saw that the secondary university I was looking at was listed under "school". I had nothing when I did that one class back in Nov. I don't know if the reimbursement thing is actually going to work this time or not. I filled out a FAFSA form just to be safe. I may be eligible for a student loan which I'm hesitant to do but it that will help take the strain off of my paycheck since I can't be completely certain my company will reimburse me even though I'm eligible.
But no matter what happens, I shall be getting experience that I can use in order to secure a position with a properly run company instead of what I've been stuck with.