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The Let's Bitch About Work Thread!


Iceheart
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23 hours ago, Destiny Skywalker said:

Is the issue that they have difficulty letting go or delegating tasks to you, or are they so disorganized that they can't hand off tasks to you?

Have you tried framing yourself as a Chief of Staff role, rather than an assistant? At my company, many of the executives have Chiefs of Staff and that is different than, let's say, an organizational assistant or administrator (which is really just the fancy new word for secretary). Chief of Staff is more strategic.

Both. The first agent I worked for just couldn't let go of anything, and when she did it caused her so much anxiety that she stopped doing her own job because she was so worried about me doing mine (for no reason mind you). This 2nd one really just jumped the gun; she wasn't ready to have help. Her "business" didn't support it, and she didn't know enough about running a business to know what to do with me or what she could (let alone should) delegate to me. 

I'm really vying for a director of operations sort of title. Many years ago Gary Keller, founder of Keller Williams, wrote a book called The Millionaire Real Estate Agent (MREA). The MREA is basically a how-to book for how to start, form, and grow your own business as a real estate agent. It's basically their bible, especially for KW agents which is who I've worked for because it's the most prominent down here since KW started in Austin. The MREA says that the first hire an agent should make should be a good assistant/executive assistant, and it really stresses that this person should be smart, driven, and talented enough to eventually grow into your director of operations or possibly even your CEO on day. It lays out a lot of specifics about how this is all supposed to work out.

So this is where I am. I'm looking for a level 2-5 team where this role is still referred to as the "executive assistant", so that's what they advertise for even though the job really is more of a DOO or chief of staff sorta position. The tricky thing is, some agents who have only a passing understanding of the MREA models just know that they're supposed to first hire an assistant, so we get crazy job ads like this one. I mean for real, I don't even do my own laundry and dishes! I'm definitely not doing yours for $19 an hour. Then there's also agents who have no intention of growing or expanding, they only want administrative help, but the job ads look nearly identical. 

 

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I got yelled at a lot today, cussed at, and someone mocked my stutter. Most people don’t pick up on the stuttering, and it only comes out when I’m dealing with generalized anxiety, which tends to happen when I’m not resting enough. Laura was up all last night puking, so that meant I didn’t sleep well. So I was anxious already and got shit on nonstop. Made for a rough day.

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Yeah, I don't know what's up but customer service in general is worse now than it was before because people won't hesitate to drop curse words, mock you or in general drop normal behavior for irrational high strung tempertantrums. My voice goes up in volume the more irritated I get on the phones and everyone at the second job knows when the sweet high pitched voice happens that I'm holding in a LOT and they should probably listen to that call for either some haha's or what interesting way I'm being cursed out. For instance an old man told me to stick up my ass with glass because I could trace his non-trackable bulk mail delivery and he always gets his mail in two days and there's not a goddamned covid pussy crisis my liberal snowflake....I think by the time I got done with that guy as a supervisor call dogs could hear my voice four miles away. I was like a Rick JAmes PLEASE with this dude.

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On 1/14/2022 at 9:56 AM, Sheep Murderer said:

I'm bouncing work accommodations for health-ralated crap to my employer, who has openly lied to me more than once. We'll see if they stick! Either they stick or I'm going to wind up fired. Take your pick. If I'm fired, I have friends who want to throw a party. (Its pretty toxic here.)

Good luck! My toxic workplace wouldn’t accommodate, talk to my lawyer, or fire me.  

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So its not work work, but my volunteer job. I am getting really burnt out and feeling unappreciated in my troop leader role. The parents are just looking for free babysitting and a place to dump their kids. The girls are completely reluctant to take on responsibility, which is only exacerbated by apathetic parents. I am tired of asking adults to adult and girls to grow up a little. And yet they all keep signing up and expect me to do it all for them. I have an awesome co-leader who makes it somewhat bearable most days but its just getting worse. I am about to dissolve the troop and find our 2 girls another troop where we don't have to do it all. I am told by other leaders that we have the most active and fun troop out there, but it seems like our own troop doesn't appreciate it.

The latest that has me steamed is one of our girls wanted to teach an Astronomy badge. I sent the 5 requirements as well as some suggested activities but also asked if she had any better ideas. She responded that she wanted to talk about something else that was related to space, but not astronomy, and she had basically envisioned it as a lecture, not an actual activity for the girls to do. I wanted to say tough crap that's not the requirement at all. Instead I wracked my brain for hours over the last few days and finally came up with a way that she could shoehorn it in to what she wants to teach. The response was no thanks I don't want to teach it at all now. I told her she had 3 months to prepare and she said she was suddenly overwhelmed with projects and couldn't do it and wasn't interested in the other part. There's a whole lot of other reasons why she wanted to do it this way, none of which are good. So while I'm kind of glad she isn't doing this because its denying her the bragging she wants to do, I'm annoyed that I spent all of this time finding a way to accomodate her showing off for nothing.

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16 hours ago, Destiny Skywalker said:

So its not work work, but my volunteer job. I am getting really burnt out and feeling unappreciated in my troop leader role. The parents are just looking for free babysitting and a place to dump their kids. The girls are completely reluctant to take on responsibility, which is only exacerbated by apathetic parents. I am tired of asking adults to adult and girls to grow up a little. And yet they all keep signing up and expect me to do it all for them. I have an awesome co-leader who makes it somewhat bearable most days but its just getting worse. I am about to dissolve the troop and find our 2 girls another troop where we don't have to do it all. I am told by other leaders that we have the most active and fun troop out there, but it seems like our own troop doesn't appreciate it.

The latest that has me steamed is one of our girls wanted to teach an Astronomy badge. I sent the 5 requirements as well as some suggested activities but also asked if she had any better ideas. She responded that she wanted to talk about something else that was related to space, but not astronomy, and she had basically envisioned it as a lecture, not an actual activity for the girls to do. I wanted to say tough crap that's not the requirement at all. Instead I wracked my brain for hours over the last few days and finally came up with a way that she could shoehorn it in to what she wants to teach. The response was no thanks I don't want to teach it at all now. I told her she had 3 months to prepare and she said she was suddenly overwhelmed with projects and couldn't do it and wasn't interested in the other part. There's a whole lot of other reasons why she wanted to do it this way, none of which are good. So while I'm kind of glad she isn't doing this because its denying her the bragging she wants to do, I'm annoyed that I spent all of this time finding a way to accomodate her showing off for nothing.

Could she teach a Karen badge?

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I think I've decided I am perfectly justified in stepping down at the end of the year and offering to find new troops for all of them, if they want to continue. Our troop is really spread out over several towns and schools and that is a big part of why its not working. My daughter will want to continue so I am going to find her and my co-leader's daughter a troop where they can thrive instead of being held back. I'm willing to continue as a volunteer in some manner, but not for this particular group. Cookie sales start today and half of the girls do not have their website set up and myself and my co-leader are the only ones who have filled out the proper form (its literally your name, address, and a signature) to actually even have permission to sell. Its not like most of these girls are even busy. This is their only activity for most of them except for my daughter who is juggling this, ski season, a new soccer team, and starting lacrosse this spring.

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Not gonna lie - when I student taught in some richer school district I got that attitude a lot from kids. They wanted to learn but not like how we did it. It was a bit like teaching wax on wax off to daniels son and he just paid some other dude to do it. Is this just a side affect of the digital age?

oh and we canceled school today but no ice or sleet has happened yet. It felt so good to think about sleeping in but then I had to get up at 4 and schlep Tina to dialysis. They had to redo our school calendar because of Covid. Hahahaha.  

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Honestly, most of my troop is not neurotypical and a lot of them have anxiety. They have a hard time adjusting when things don't go as expected. A lot of extra rigidity, so I try to be flexible and give a lot of credit for trying, even if you complain a lot about it (which they do). Mom texted me today and it seems like she felt bad about it, so maybe I shouldn't go scorched earth yet.

My BFF lives in Louisiana and she is so upset about their snow day tomorrow because they are doing virtual learning because their school calendar is also hosed. She's not used to it so its the end of the world, and she has a 3 year old who is pretty extra haha.

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A first grade student threatened to shoot his friends yesterday so I searched his backpack and found two NERF guns and this... He made it with his dad (he used to make them when he was in prison).  Dad said it was all my fault because in my email home I called it a shank and that is derogatory to prison culture.  Deflection much...  IMG_3450(1).jpg.9faf37107065b98d68ebf1dfa881a62f.jpg

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I teach in a inner city school but on a richer side and it's charter so we get kids from richer school districts that voucher their kids in but further south is a middle school where they find a gun at least once a week in a kids backpack and there's almost daily locker searches. It reminds me of my student teacher days back at Fox Tech High School in South Atlanta. Like "How you doin? Oh can you at least hide your knife and your gang colors while I'm in the room?"

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41 minutes ago, Zathras said:

Hi Mom.  I got shanked in first grade class today.

 

WTF is up with kids today?!

Kids have always done this.  As a society, we just have a greater awareness due to social media...media in general...etc...

5 minutes ago, Ms. Spam said:

I teach in a inner city school but on a richer side and it's charter so we get kids from richer school districts that voucher their kids in but further south is a middle school where they find a gun at least once a week in a kids backpack and there's almost daily locker searches. It reminds me of my student teacher days back at Fox Tech High School in South Atlanta. Like "How you doin? Oh can you at least hide your knife and your gang colors while I'm in the room?"

Wow...my last school had a gang problem (granted it was a K-8) and I didn't have an issue with guns...lots of kids with guns on social media.  My school has very few discipline issues. 

The frustrating thing for me was that this kid is on anti-psychotic medication.  Parents are divorced...and one of the WORST break-ups ever...I guess dad is super abusive.  I had to intervene earlier this year in a parent conference meeting because he started to get abusive towards his son during the meeting.  Oh, dad was also blaming it on mom for not searching his backpack before he went to school.

I actually like the kid a lot.  He is wicked smart and is likely gifted...but has huge ADHD and anger problems.  Dad fought meds and says he acts out because his mom lets him eat doughnuts or some shit.  I basically said to get the kid to a pediatrician (I can't say go on meds) or else...and guess what...the kid is WAY better.  I can always tell dads week because the kid comes unhinged a bit because I don't think he takes the meds regularly. 

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There's probably a fear in Dad's home of the reaction if he sees the meds being taken. Those are hard situations.

You have to kind of tap dance around some things. I was once pushed to the ground by a kid in a special needs classroom for kids with behavior issues that endanger the rest of the school. The school wanted me to press charges of assault. That was about the hardest thing I did when I was starting out as a teacher because the kid was actually funny and very smart he just really was a instigator and asshole because he was reflecting his parents weird home behaviors and manipulative ways of coping. He was hell on wheels though when all the kids were in the classroom that had to go to this special needs classroom. He talked other kids into stuff and would basically stir up the room so he could get all the teachers aids to focus on the meltdown of one kid so this one could log in on the school computer and play games instead of doing his homework. His parents absolutely refused medication and the school was like trying to get him out of the district because it was suspected he manipulated a kid into suicide. They were pushing me to press charges because the school would have grounds to expel him and force the parents to do something about some of his mental issues that definitely needed a clinical setting. Honestly he's probably a serial killer now. Because I feel like we were a part of the process that pushed him into maybe juvenile detention where he learned more deviousness. HIs parents just didn't care. It was on his teachers to teach him how to be and they're not interested in hearing how their behavior probably ratcheted that personality aspect up. He was arrested several more times in high school because they just moved to a different district after I pressed charges against him. Not one of my better school moments and stuff that kinda wakes me up at night going UGH I am a bad teacher. But this kid was way out of my depth. 

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My employer laid off a bunch of people. Basically the CEO did a meeting where he announced a reorganization and then they cut off all access for anyone being terminated. I’m safe, but I’m pissed. They handled it really poorly.

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Dang, that's pretty cutthroat. I am sure you will get the honor of tripling your work load.  That's how those things seem to play out.  Sorry about the bad news.

At my place they are laying people off for "reasons," but has more to do with not getting a vaccine.

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