Ashikaga
5/7/2007 3:51:00 PM
On 144khz Dalboz Dragon shrieked:
> erimess earned a wedgie by saying:
>
>>Been there, done that. Yeah, I worked for a guy once who thought
>>everyone was a robot and basically said they were lazy if they didn't
>>want to work overtime after having worked 10 12-hour days in a row.
>>Not that *he* ever worked that many hours. (Though he did actually
>>work, unlike my most recent boss. Funny how I say that when I have
>>two jobs, but for some reason never think of my bosses as my bosses.
>>Which might say something about them, or maybe cause I always think of
>>my "last job" as being the last actual accounting job I ever had.) I
>>would not blame you at all for wanting to get out of that situation.
>>BTW, I've found that "holding that power" doesn't always mean a whole
>>lot. Even if somewhere inside someone knows you're in that kind of
>>position, consciously they don't necessarily know it or deal with it,
>>and it can end up meaning nothing. They will notice more if you leave
>>and you can have a sort of post-satisfaction. :-)
>
> Oh, it would be. I'm the only one in the entire company who knows how
> to perform what has become a vital service. And everyone has too much
> work right. Letting anyone go is going to make the office collapse
> under its own weight. At least I could watch from a distance.
>
> The job used to be much better, and I felt about my boss the way you
> feel about your bosses. She didn't really feel like a boss, and was
> actually a close friend. I saw her through rough personal patch for
> her when she was originally getting together with her wife (yes, I
> said that right, trust me). After company was "merged," she has pretty
> much checked out, and the cult of personality is gone. People are
> dropping left and right, and they haven't been hiring anyone. So it
> just gets progressively worse.
The boss who doesn't feel like a boss is the best boss. It's what we
called "natural leader", but the book doesn't like to tell people what to
think, so they put it to compare with "inherited leader" the one who gets
their power with job title.
It seems your boss probably was coping with changes too. If the management
changed, she might not know her boss as well as before, so it's safer for
her to deal it "professionally" so it may be a reason why she became more
formal, and that can alienate some workers.
Though I hate to relate back to my work experience, but I think it's easier
to assess a situation by scenario. One of the ways my ex-job's boss to
ruin the company culture was to replace all those buddy-buddy sales coaches
with policy-following people. And that's who she was. Why would we want
another person of that persona? It is a diverse work place, and we need
all kind of management styles to keep everyone happy. And if one follows
the textbook, it's managers' job to "break the rule" but not following them
mindlessly. The reality check..., people fear losing their jobs, so they'd
do stuff not for the best interest of the company. I've mentioned to her
that a company needs different kinds of sales to cater different customers
(and that's what Gap was aiming for, if she has ever read our employee
coaching package), as a way to suggest that should be how management is
too, but I guess my messages are often too polite and cryptic for her. She
continues to fire people who are not "professional looking" which pissed me
off. Do we really want to cater only one type of customers? It's really
amazing one person can single-handedly changed so much company culture....
<snip>
>>That's a lot to do with the school. Not in Ohio so I don't know, but
>>there might even be state rules about it. It will also have a huge
>>affect on financial aide if you try to get it. Well, it will
>>definitely be a problem with like a Pell Grant or something like that.
>>State grants will depend on the state. Scholarships are an entirely
>>different matter, or anything coming directly from the school. But
>>it's something you need to think about.
>
> It's something I've been keeping in mind, which is why I'm going to
> start with a nice cheap community college to explore my options and
> get the prereqs out of the way. I'll have to figure out the rest when
> I fully decide on a course.
It's nice to explore.
>>> As for what I want to pursue, I'm not sure, and I'm thinking
>>>of taking a few basic courses in different subjects to figure it out.
>>
>>Not that I don't think you should try some different courses, but
>>taking a course doesn't have much to do with whether you want to
>>actually do that thing in real life. An unfortunate reality is that
>>you never really know until you get out there and do it. You're a
>>case in point -- obviously your first degree has not gotten you any
>>satisfaction. (I don't recall what your first degree is in.)
>
> Bachelor of Arts in Cinema and Television Arts, emphasis on Multimedia
> and Animation. Unfortunatly, I was in the first class to graduate from
> that emphasis, so we were the experimental class. I didn't have the
> necessary fully developed skills or a workable portfolio, and found it
> tough to get a job without having contacts or internship experience.
> However, I've been working out in the real world for several years no,
> so I know the difference between academia and real life.
Me in the same bin. Did not take any finance-related internship so I ended
up working in other areas that I never intended to be in (sales), just to
make a living, but totally hated the job and learned what's real life and
what's academic (actually I already had some taste of it while in school
project, so I pretty much knew what NOT to do when I was at the job I kept
complaining about).
<snip>
>>> I also don't know if anything from my old coursework
>>>would transfer or if I would still need to take my general education
>>>classes over again. I'll probably be starting at the local community
>>>college (which I live right next to; convenient) to save some money in
>>>the beginning.
>>
>>That again is entirely an issue based on the school itself. I would
>>*hope* that at least your GEs would transfer, unless you go to a
>>school with some seriously bizarre requirements. Probably some of the
>>other stuff would transfer, and if nothing else, anything should
>>transfer as electives, but that's just space fillers. They'll be a
>>lot concerned about residency. Which is why you might want to be
>>careful about doing the community college bit. Between transferring
>>credits and doing classes at a community college, you might find
>>yourself not having enough required courses left over to fulfill
>>residency. So I would at least check that.
>
> I've gotten some answers from a college counselor, but without knowing
> the specifics about what I want to do, she could only advise me so
> far. The only thing she could give me specifics on was the prereqs for
> med school since those are pretty standard.
Her advice is the same if I were in her role. The final decision rests
upon you.
Before I forget, keep in mind not all community college credits are
tranferable. I believe there is a 90 quarter units cap for lower division
and almost entirely of the upper division courses offered at a two-year
college will not be acredited, but for self-improvement only. It's quite
annoying but rather crucial information.
--
Ashikaga - a28 5/7/2007 8:02:41 AM