Sunday, September 10, 2006

Catching up on my blog part II: On the job front!
Well, after Con, I returned home to discover that Octavia Butler had died. I think it a way it set me back to my sad winter blahs almost as if Con had never happened. I began looking for a way out of the blahs, a resolution as winter seemed never ending. I made a few decisions. I decided to focus on the controllables and work within them. My life needed an overhaul, not drastically, but my attitude and outlook. I decided that writing made me happy but I was rarely able to focus on it because I spent so much time at work and then when I got home I had my repsonsibilities to A. I felt that my whole day and outlook would be different if I could write on my lunch hours-a few stolen moments to not be present in my everyday life. My mom financed a lap top for me. I was not sure about it or if I should do it, etc. I did and while my life has since gotten so busy A uses it as much to play games as I use it for my writing, it made a critical difference for me and I believe it will in the future as well. I also got OU paid off so can finish my last class and graduate. I decided to focus on my writing and finishing my degree. I had already decided that my chances for advancement without going through sales were few, but as much as I wanted and needed out of my particular store and away from my direct manager, I did not want to leave the company until I was fully vested-which is September 22. So, I decided to go back to college, finish my degree-which the company would pay for, focus on moving to either to a different position or a different store and if nothing improves by September 22, to focus on looking for a position with another company. It was a scary prospect, but peaceful none the less. I needed to decide that my experience was coming to an end and make moves to make that happen.
You know how life is though, no sooner do you reach peace with what you have when all of your options change. Such was happily the case for me. I was at a mandatory wednesday morning meeting-on my day off, of course-with upper management-when my district managers boss announced that positions and head count were being added all across the district. Each large store which already had a store manager and an asst manager was adding a second asst manager and the smaller stores that only had one manager were getting asst managers. I looked at D (my asst manager) and she looked at me nodded. After the meeting she encouraged me to apply. I was not sure. I knew S would not back me in applying for asst manager-and it would be a long shot anyway since I would be skipping sales to go to management. The position was up for 10 days I think before I decided-on the very last day I could-to go ahead and apply. I had intended to apply to all of the stores close to me but in the end only applied to two. S (the store manager) was surprised to see I had applied and interviewed and declined me within 1 week. I was not too disappointed as I fully expected her to decline me and was in fact grateful for the practice interviewing. I had a successful interview at the other store only to find that the store manager was leaving, it was up in the air who would replace the store manager and the position was waiting to be filled. However, by that point I had gained confidence and decided to really pursue it whole heartedly. I can honestly say it was really, really rough. D saved my life. She helped me with my presentation and turned into a powerpoint which was impressive. She also gave me lots of advice and encouragement. I applied to every single store I could drive to-period. Then began the harrowing, intimidating and sometimes down right painful process of interviewing. I bought a sleek black Anne Klein business suit and set off. I took all of my declines with a good attitude and decided pretty much that I would try for CC supervisor-which is kind of a step between senior sales and asst manager. I had resolved myself to that when my DM took a personal interest in my desire to be manager. He let me know that he was turned down repeatedly for management and that he felt it was good of me to keep going and to take my feedback not personally but as suggestions for improvement. He also let me know that he wanted to keep me in his district and felt that I would do best in a smaller store. He gave two suggestions. One of the suggestions was far away but the manager was someone I knew and liked alot. The second was closer but in a not so good area with people I do not know and had not heard alot of positive things about. I took he closer one for many reasons, first I felt that I had the best chance of getting that position and second because I wanted to move closer to my family friends and that was better positioned for me to do that. The DM encouraged me and I did a phone interview with the manager and DM. I felt it was awful and that I stumbled alot and kept saying, "um, um, um". It was difficult to do because it was a conference call and the phone kept ringing, and sometimes I could not hear what they were asking me. I could not see facial expressions to get a feel for how the interview went, yikes. Well, the following weekend was our trip to Cedar Point. I will go into the Cedar Point trip in a later post, but let me say that we left for Cedar Point Monday and I was supposed to hear the final word about the position on Monday. Usually I leave my phone in my room or car but this time I draged that thing on every ride with me. D had told me that she was not supposed to say but it was 99% sure I was going to get the position. I was nervous and did not want to get my hopes up only to have them dashed with disappointment, so I was cautious but excited. After every ride, I would run to see if I had missed a call, it was harrowing. By 5 pm I figured I did not get it and was trying to resign myself to deal with the disappointment. We had taken the shuttle back to our rooms, gone to dinner and were preparing to return to the park when I got the call. A and J were making alot of kid noise and I think B had a movie on her laptop, so I indicated to my mom that this was "the" call and stepped into the hall. K (the manager at my new store) was kind of dry. I now know he is always like this and not to take it personally, but at the time I thought for sure it meant I was not getting the position. When he offered it to me I made the wise comment of which I am proud of to this day (satire) "No way!" He was so surprised by outburst he did not say anything, at which I explained that I did not think I would get it. He sounded generally surprised and ket me know that our district manager was heavily supporting me and that I never should have doubted that I would get the position. He explained that S (who knew the whole time and never said a word) refused to release me from my current position until July 31st. It pissed me off since I found out the last week in June and she could have been truly great and let me go July 1st-which would have been out of character for her. I figured she would be decent and let me go July 15th-but no, in true S fashion she held me until July 31st. Which meant that I did not get my raise or commission or anything until August 1st. It really irritated me, but at the same time gave me a chance to spend another month with the team at Sterling. I have to admit that as much as I love my team-and I do love them-I miss Sterling almost everyday.
~~~~Where ever you go, There you are!

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