Frozen Friday

It's Friday again. Yay! There's an off phenomenon that occurs every Friday at work...it's what I like to call "Frozen Friday." Time seems to freeze, as do the conversations in the office. Everyone is chugging away in their own private worlds to get home as soon as possible. Fridays also have a skeleton crew. Many people either work at home or they simply don't work on Fridays. The commute, however, suggests the opposite. Yet another frozen aspect of Friday...the roads. Everyone is jetting out early (my normal leaving time) to start the weekend and we all meet on the road. For long stretches of going 5mph.

Here are my tips for making it through a Frozen Friday.

• Work at home, if possible. Avoid the commute woes and not have that time-slowing feeling that you want to be home...because you will be home.
• Similarly, if you can leave early and/or finish the day at home, do so.
• Take breaks at work. Work consistently for awhile to get things done, but if you're running low on work, take it slow. There's nothing worse than sitting at your cube with 5 hours left without work. You feel like you've seen all of the internet already and time has stopped. Break up your work so it fills the day at a steady pace.
• Talk with your coworkers. Get some face-time in and pass particularly slow parts of the day (for everyone--don't interrupt someone if he or she is busy) with conversation.
• Do NOT take your lunch early. Try to eat a little later than usual, too, so that the time you have left after lunch until leaving is shorter.
• Sort through your email. Delete messages that you don't need, organize your inbox, and tidy up your folders. This is the stuff you are too busy to do during the week.
• If you use a time-tracking system, update your hours, etc. It's a tedious task, but it can really pass the time.
• Clean your cube. Dust, reorganize, rearrange (quietly), and anything else to improve your work space.
• Email old professors or friends to catch up with them.
• Try not to check the time frequently. I know it's hard since the clock is on your toolbar, but use some self-restraint!

Printers

You know that scene in Office Space? Yes, you do. Those guys are living the dream. Printers are evil. Technology has come so far for computers, phones, tvs, etc., yet printers are stuck in 1995. Printers are definitely the problem child of the communication family.

Luckily, there's usually one printer at work that functions as it should, yet due to the incredibly low standard of printer reliability, functioning as it should means it is the best thing you've ever had the pleasure of working with. You've learned how to delicately refill the paper tray without upsetting the balance of good and evil in the printer. With every successful print job, you love the printer more and more. UNTIL the toner runs out. Panic sets in and no one knows what to do because somehow there is never toner in the building and when there is, the printer rejects it like a transplanted organ. You consider sending your print job to another printer, but it feels unsafe. You think about what kind of a world we live in where the printer you know and love cannot be trusted and breaks your heart. You fear that another printer won't work and then you'll have two documents floating in the air, waiting to be printed (I guess it doesn't really work like that). Once fixed, you run around to the printers gathering up the shards of your broken trust in printers. You feel guilty for having wasted so much paper. And then you blame the printer. How dare it kill the rain forest and spew out forgotten or long-since printed (elsewhere) documents. Evil.

You just about never know when the printer is functioning again unless you sit right near it. This is dangerous. The printer will choose one of two times to stop working: when you have an important doc that must be printed immediately OR you printed something personal that you want to go unnoticed. You fear that your personal email, receipts, directions to a friend's house, or LOLcat that would look great in your cube will be picked up by someone else, like your boss, and you will be found out for using the printer for your personal things. In reality, this wouldn't be a big deal. But you can never trust printers and what spells they may cast.

Some companies have a privacy page printed over the document with your name on it so that you know whose doc it is and the first page is covered. This is wonderful UNLESS your printer prints that page first, in which case the last page of your document is exposed to judgmental eyes. (Yet again, a large exaggeration. Blame the printers.)

Go forth and print.

WAH (Working at home)

With gas prices always fluctuating and people having to drive farther to work, working at home is a lucky and awesome option.  The occasional work at home is great for avoiding traffic, not driving in bad conditions, and being able to go to appointments close to home (shorter commute = more work time).  However, there are some drawbacks.  There is a great comic about what happens when you work at home too much and in my chats with people, this isn't too far off, considering.

The awesome:

• More sleep
• Ability to listen to music without headphones
• Comfy chair or couch
• Hanging out with pet(s)
• Ability to do chores during little breaks (start laundry, empty dishwasher, etc)
• More food selection
• Saving on gas and tolls

The hidden dangers:

• Sleeping too late
• Spending too much time doing chores and less doing actual work
• Internet connection may fail
• Less face time with coworkers
• Feeling trapped in the house without anyone to interact with
• Making up for lost time by working longer hours

Tips:

• Don't wear your pajamas "to work."  If you're in jeans, you're more likely to be in the mindset of doing work and not lounging.
• Have an office.  If you don't have an extra room to devote to an office, designate part of one room to be your working area.  Ideally, you can have a door to shut and a desk with an extra monitor and mouse.  If you have an office, you're away from TV, bed, the door to the outside world!  You have less temptations and can trick yourself into thinking your at your cube...where you're productive.
• Be honest with yourself.  You know that you're going to do external things (chores, watch an episode, play with pets) so make a schedule and stick to it.  
• Don't work more than you have to.  You don't want to feel like you have to prove to people who are physically at your workplace that you do work by working longer and harder.  You don't want to burn out or mess up your work/relax/sleep schedule.
• Go into the office as much as you can.  You don't want to abuse your work at home privileges and you don't want to be associated with a voice on the phone or a name on IM.
• Don't do work on the couch unless you absolutely need to.  You're working, remember.

Otherwise, working at home is great.  It will take time to get used to how you handle your time and where you work best.

Student loans - bane of existence

Student loans are the plague. More of a parasite, really. You finally make good money and where does it all go? Well six months after graduation, it gets sucked away by a parasite weighing tens of thousands of dollars. Check out the amount of interest you're paying per payment. Sometimes the majority of what you're paying is interest...the stuff that didn't even pay for your degree! I started throwing down a bit of my check after my first payday....aka before the interest kicked in. It did help a bit, but what helps the most is staying on top of the loans. Even if you put an extra $50 bucks on each loan payment, you'll be tackling the beast much faster and pay less interest in the long run. Try not to set up auto-pay. That way, once a month, you have to evaluate how much you can really afford to put down...and hopefully that is more than the minimum payment. It'll suck for awhile, but then again, you're used to living like a poor college student. In the long run, you'll be incredibly glad you did it.

It's different for everyone. This is just what I found works for me.

Resumes

STOP (hammertime). But really, pause. When was the last time you updated your resume? When was the last time someone looked over your resume for editing purposes? When was the last time more than one person has?

I can't stress how important it is to have several people look over your resume before you send it out. Missing a period, shifty fonts, or a typo can cause you to lose a job opportunity. Some people won't even call you for an interview if you've submitted a less than perfect resume. You have one page to represent yourself and why you are the best candidate for a position. You are a writer and if they see that you've made a mistake on possibly the most important document you can write, they won't have much confidence in your ability to write or edit.

Do you have powerful and effective words? As a tutor, I frequently gave people the UMass Career Services pamphlet on resume writing and the list of great words to use. Seriously, review the list of words on the second page. It will definitely break up the monotony of "wrote, edited, organized."

Yet again....HAVE PEOPLE LOOK IT OVER! Send it to your professors, have your friends and family look it over. DO IT!!!!!!

Communication skills are vital

Outlook is open from the moment I sign into my computer until the moment I sign out. It is always on the right, smaller monitor. Gmail is always minimized. The majority of my communication with coworkers, family, and friends is done via email. As for coworkers, yes, it is possible and easy to simply walk to the other cube or talk across the cubes, but email gives the ever-important paper trail. Instead of saying to your boss "well I talked to so and so and they said this..." you have the actual email thread with all of the links and time stamps. This is especially important when you are waiting for feedback from a review and your reviewers haven't responded. Usually, you CC your boss so that he or she is aware of the time and content you sent your review. He or she can get the ball rolling if reviewers aren't responding.

Sometimes email is the only way to contact people. Sure, everyone has a phone, but the timing can be very off. On two products, I work with a team in India. Their night is our morning. When I come in on Thursday, their Thursday is just ending. It's vital to send emails that need responses on your tomorrow before you leave at night, otherwise, while you're sleeping, they will not be able to work on whatever it is you need.

Another major communication skill is one-on-one meetings. If you're lucky, you'll have regular check-ins with your boss about your progress, assignments, and updates. Even if you don't, you'll likely have in-person interactions. Unlike emails, you can't go and delete something you've said. You need to prepare for these interactions by listing out your assignments and progress, preparing questions, and having metrics ready.

Being a technical communicator, you shouldn't have any problems with this!

One year ago

Almost exactly a year ago, I had my first interview with Oracle. Nervous, I put on my new pants suit and ran different questions and scenarios through my head. Needless to say, the interview went very well. Time to reflect on the change a year can bring.

A year ago, I was sleeping on an ever-deflating mattress using my coat as a blanket and a couch pillow to rest my head by the sliding door at my friends' house. Sometimes it was the futon which was a bit warmer. I was living out of a bag of clothes and my backpack. I had extra clothes in my car. My roommates in my apartment were making things difficult to say the least. Until I got a new apartment, I was crashing with my best friends. It was bittersweet. As you can tell from my sleeping arrangements, I wasn't getting much sleep. Actually, I was exhausted.

Interestingly enough, one of the questions posed during the interview was about how I handle difficult situations. I was living one! I handled it professionally once I realized that the roommates would not respond to civil interactions. I sought the housing authority to make the change and until then, I stayed away. One of the interviewers had a similar experience while in school...score!

After the interview, I went to work dressed to the nines and then did a presentation for PWTC to the English major newbies. Then back to the house to do work with my best friends. They were more than welcoming and I will always think fondly of that horrible time because of the amazing friends that supported me.

Bright and early the next day, I had a meeting with Housing. While waiting in the office, I received an email from the people with whom I'd interviewed the day before. They wanted to see me two days later! Amazing news!

The two days before the interview were filled with hurried moving and shuffling all of my belongings to another building with the help of my friends between classes, work, and studies. Still sleeping at their house, I prepared for the interview. The night before the interview, I went home, as my parents' house is MUCH closer to where I was going to be interviewing (still a 45 minute drive).

I met with two different interviewers and then had lunch with the group. It was wonderful! They wanted me and I wanted them. I had the job, they just had to get the OK from way above.

After that interview, I managed to stay awake long enough to drive home and crawl into bed where I slept long and deep. When I woke up, I found it hard to comprehend all that had changed in one week. From feeling hopelessly trapped in an apartment with awful circumstances, to couch crashing, to interviewing, to a new apartment with great people, strengthened relationships with my best friends, and my future career in front of me, I was amazed and senioritis kicked in big time. My life as a working woman, the real world, was ready and spelled out. I had just under two months left in this dream world. It was a very odd and comforting place to be.

One year later...

I am at a different building (longer commute, but such is life) with the same company and the same coworkers.

I have learned a lot but am still learning.

I am preparing for a presentation to PWTC students...when under a year ago I was sitting in those seats.

I have a brand new car.

I am engaged.

I have changed more than I ever thought possible...in the best ways.

I miss college and my friends dearly, but we still keep in touch. With gchat and facebook, I talk to people from PWTC that I never really hung out with in college, and now consider them best friends.

I don't pull all-nighters.

I get sleep for the most part.

I commute 100 miles a day.

I still live for the weekends.

I still enjoy life and find new, calmer things just as fulfilling as the old wild adventures.

Time flew by, but it's worked out well. I will always love and miss my college days and have a soft spot in my heart for the two final months of college, but I was well prepared for the real world from PWTC.