the Review

I had my review today- finally, third time's the charm- and was pretty surprised at the result. Leading up to the review I felt that I was a relatively aware and observant employee, who evaluates the office dynamics day to day and regularly assesses where she stands on the org chart. I felt that I was super prepared for the meeting, having filled out my sheet weeks ago, and also that I was armed with opinions, provoking thoughts, and suggestions about ways the company could improve.

“Well what do you want to be doing?”

I was not prepared for this- I hadn’t thought this one through at all! I had spent so much time thinking about what other people could be doing to help out and what else I could be doing to better do what I do now, that I didn’t even pause to think about what I wish I was doing! I stammered through a mediocre response about successfully working my way through all my assignments and having confidence that I was meeting expectations . . . and we agreed to meet later in the week to discuss what my new roles could be.

A titular change, very exciting- but when the company is skin and bones, and you take on new responsibilities, who is going to take over your responsibilities? No one, most likely, so we’ll just add to my list. Needless to say there are items to be worked out further.

When I got back to my computer I had fifty-two unread emails from that one hour meeting alone- a sign of why I need more than just a title change?

Monday tiff

It’s work week on the Entry Level Female this week. I have to get to bed relatively early because I’m heading into my annual review tomorrow morning, but I managed to start the week off on the wrong foot by engaging with one of my coworkers in what can only be described as an office fight of the worst kind: misunderstanding coupled with lack of ownership tangled with irresponsibility. In the end, probably neither of us were 100% at fault, though I’d like to think I was in the minority!

What I can learn from my Monday tiff is that part of my job is filling in for other people and making sure that, at the end of the day, that everything is taken care of. But while stepping into other people’s shoes my be part of my job description, certainly covering for someone while he refuses to do work on a project so clearly in his domain is not.

Where can we draw the line as lower level employees therefore at what we will and will not do? I know that we should be happy to have jobs, and eager to move up in the world, but how many dues should I be paying? I do think that when I stepped in to handle the remnants of the Monday tiff project and managed to get it back on track and out the door in time (of course to end up having its presentation postponed- imagine that!), that I was the only one who cared about the project at the end of the day, and the leader of the project should care too!

All this being said, tomorrow in my review there are certainly many things to discuss, not the least of which is what my true responsibilities are in my position and to what extent other people are allowed to take advantage of my responsibility and use it to compensate for their lack of exertion. Everyone at every level of every company should be working hard to make it through these tough times; leaving things to other people will only leave you out in the cold.

Commuting in the time of swine flu

A short post today as I actually have work to do tonight (good or bad?) and should get to it instead of unloading the dishwasher, making my lunch for tomorrow, hanging up the clothes on my floor, and opening all my spam mail . . . general procrastination.

Larry Brilliant, an epidemiologist and general visionary (aptly named!) from my hometown that I know both as a parent of a childhood classmate, as well as a contact for a high school project I did on small pox, wrote in the Huff Post this week about swine flu. “Love in the time of Swine Flue” is an introduction and assessment of the pandemic as well as his experience with the disease itself, having contracted it in the spring. It is a great piece, and the first in a three part series about the disease.

Living in a city that harbored one of the higher rates of swine flu the first go round, there are reasons to be nervous about swine flu in the coming months, and Dr. Brilliant confirms this completely. As a commuter, the T is probably an ideal harbor for an influenza-type virus which I subject myself to 30 minutes twice daily, not to mention the gym, which I’ve been deciding is probably the secondary but lethal cluster of germs that I pass through in my daily life. Add the total saturation of college students in Boston spreading in every direction, and I think that I better start to carry some disinfectant in my purse!

Keep you posted on Dr. Brilliant’s second and third pieces.

Peggy Olson and women since 1972

Women vs. men seemed to pop up in the last week across my media, so to speak. First on Mad Men, Peggy asks Don to pay her as much as her male co-worker, to which he says, “Now is not the time.” Peggy’s character sits awaiting the arrival of the Betty Friedan era- she’s the only non-secretarial female at Sterling Cooper, at least that we have met, and despite new laws that entitle her to a higher salary, the management isn’t ready for it.

In Arianna Huffington’s recent post on her eponymous site, "The Sad, Shocking Truth About How women Are Feeling," she introduces a new huff post contributor, Marcus Buckingham, who will examine over a series of pieces the sad and surprising truth about the declining happiness of women since the women's movement of the 60s and 70s.

If we compare Peggy to women today, one might imagine, and Buckingham suggests that even Betty Friedan herself, would imagine that women today must be happier because of all the advances we have made across employment, politics, education, etc. But in fact, according to the US General Social Survey evaluating the happiness of women beginning in 1972, women have assigned a generally decreasing value to their happiness over time.

While Buckingham’s first post presents mostly data, which I assume he will analyze and try to explain, and then hopefully hypothesize about today or the future in upcoming posts, you can’t help but wonder why it’s true that happiness is declining among women. Is it because we no longer wonder and wish for acknowledge of what we can do, but now wonder what we’re not doing and why?

While women’s rights and general equality was just starting to take shape in this season of Mad Men, in some ways though we women might be jealous of Peggy: brave enough to ask her boss for a raise, she has multiple opportunities, seemingly limitless ambitions, and nowhere to go but up. These days, when down seems to be the only direction, what I wouldn’t give for a little ambition and a healthy dose of naivete.

What is your job description?

I don’t remember how I stumbled across this post in the Small Business section of the NY Times, “What is the Boss’s Job Description,” but I’m glad I did. Not only am I now fantasizing about attending the MIT entrepreneur/CEO program, where for five days annually for three years 60 CEO's meet and learn about taking their businesses to the next level, but there are some good lessons to be had in the exercises described in the post as well.

The author of this post is a first year participant and CEO of an online backup service. Upon thinking about how someone would train for or take over her job, she realizes that she probably wastes time each time on tasks that others are better equipped, and better utilized, in executing. She proposes therefore that we all examine the roles in our company to study the distribution of employees across departments, the overlap of their responsibilities, and where we may be spread too thin or overindulging ourselves. While she’s likely proposing this exercise for those at the top level of management, I think anyone could utilize the same steps she describes to study their role in a company, community organization, or even a class workgroup, to illuminate areas of their job description that need further support, or even instances of success that could provide a model other departments or procedures.

I’m going to give it a try for my job and let you guys know how I do! Check back soon.

I still have my healthcare . . . until I don't have it

Perhaps it seems unnecessary to be fixated on my health insurance when I’m employed, but I don’t think it is. Especially in today’s economy, when any employee at any level of a given firm should fear the extensive and undiminished effects of the recession, healthcare should be at the forefront of people’s minds.

And it is, for the most part, but it’s hard to believe that after reading stories like that told in Nicholas Kristof’s op-ed of the weekend in the NYTimes, The Body Count at Home, that it isn’t a priority for everyone as well. The character in Kristof’s piece (see the Online Reading List, or click on this link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/13/opinion/13kristof.html?_r=1) eventually loses her life to Lupus- a manageable and treatable disease- because when she lost her job she could not get new care with a preexisting condition.

Now, I don’t have a preexisting condition, but Kristof’s protagonist reminds me how undependable healthcare can be when you are unemployed, and makes me think about the stability of health care in my life. What if I’m laid off? Will I be able to find and afford a new plan? Can I fill my prescriptions? Will I keep my doctors? And I take it a step further: does having employer based healthcare scare people into staying at their jobs? Does our system therefore inhibit entrepreneurship, innovation, and creativity? I believe it absolutely does. If you are someone who has gained great experience and insight from your first job, but may want to break out on your own, will you decline to go through with it because you need to keep going to the eye doctor to order contacts? Probably. You’ll at least think twice or three times about what new ideas are worth to you relative to the sensation of safety provided by a dependable healthcare plan.

First post

Welcome to The Entry Level Female! I have wanted to start this blog for awhile; two years out of college and two years in the workforce- but better late than never as they say. When I was searching for my first job, there were all kinds of sites focused on searching job listings, polishing your resume, prepping for the interview, etc etc. But where was the information about what your job would be like? Where were the stories about your first day in the office, your desk, your boss, your work friends? These are the anecdotes that I want to tell, and this is the place that I will document them. Hopefully you’ll tune in too! What is cathartic for me could be comforting for you- shocking how similar our experiences might be. Especially as women in the workforce, few and far between (maybe the subject of my second post?), let’s share our stories!