Showing posts with label work. Show all posts
Showing posts with label work. Show all posts

Saturday, April 22, 2017

Working as a freelancer

These days, everyone wishes they could have the freedom to work from home. And there are several companies that are hiring remote employees. You go through training, set up your computer and phone, and for the most part, deal with clients in the comfort of your home office. There are some requirements to meet in order for this to work. After all, you are working. You are being paid for your services. You can’t slack off. You can’t have background noises distracting you and those you are on the phone with. You have to be professional. But it comes with a level of flexibility. And freedoms. You save money on gas since you don’t have to drive to work. You save money on meals since you have your own kitchen to use. These are great reasons to want to work from home.  
Since I lost my job, I have been trying to get into working freelance. Editing, proofreading, offering suggestions and even writing. I've done this as a side job here and there for friends as well as for free for even closer friends and family. I take great pride in what I do. The author I have done the most work for lately, turned my eye to fiverr.com. You create a profile, list a gig, and make bids to work for others. This sounds great. In theory. In reality, it can be difficult. For starters, their website works with Firefox best. So don't try to use other platforms (learned the hard way). Secondly, most job requests I have seen are sellers asking for work rather than buyers asking for editors. So the system is clogged with that. Out of 90+ requests, only 3 are actual buyers. And the list of available editors is huge! Far more supply than demand. The next problem you face is the fees. Say I sell something for $5, I get $4. A job I do for $25, I get $20. So discouraging for the ones just starting out. Upwork, bought out from Elance, charges a 20% fee for everything you make.

Not worth it when your starting price is $5. Plus, in order to transfer your earnings to your bank account, PayPal, or a card they provide you have to pay another $1 fee. My wallet feels raped. Then for Upwork, you can go with the free version and have to use a credit system to "buy" jobs. Or you can purchase the upgraded account that allows you more credits so you can "buy" more bids.
There are benefits to websites like these. Even if you consider sacrificing the money you made on a couple transactions. You can build rapport with buyers. Then take your clients outside the website. I had my author friend "purchase" and complete an order for some things I edited for him through the website. This way, he could leave me reviews. Then I can use those reviews as references for other clients. Especially since this friend is International Best Seller, Mark Villareal. It gives me a boost towards what I want to do long term.  
Working from home is noble. And something to strive for. But it isn't as easy as people think. A lot more effort is required to make a living and truly make a name for yourself. You have to truly want it. Which is why I have decided to put more effort into creating a website that is user friendly. That other prospective clients will want to check out. And hopefully, I can start doing more of what I enjoy. At home.

Sunday, February 12, 2017

Dysfunctional Demands

Today's society has gone down a very crooked and crazy path. Morals are thrown out the window while caution and care are things of the past. We rush through life. We blame others for the shortcomings we face.
In the business world, its all about money. Push until they collapse, is the business motto I think my own employer should embrace. Better yet, maybe companies should compile personnel requirements outside of work. Here's what I mean....
I work for a sales company. 8-5, Monday - Friday. Sales is all about money. The more, the merrier. For the owners at least. Doesn't matter how much I bring in to the company as I'm only an administrative assistant to one of their Million Dollar Producers.
That life doesn't compliment the personal side of my life. I have 4 kids. Oldest one is 8 years old. His school expects me to read to him every night, do several pages of homework every night, have him read to me, while also getting him to bed by 7:30 PM so he won't be too tired for school the next day. Normally, I get home a little before or right at 6 PM. I have an hour and a half to do the  following:
Reading (most nights my fiancé has their homework done before I get home)
Serve dinner (same as above, my fiancé tries to have dinner made by the time I get home)
Cleanup the dinner mess
Brush teeth and get everyone bathed
Make their lunches/snacks for school the next day (they have to tell me what they want)
And a final bedtime story.
This is not how it should be. And then I still get notes from the school that my oldest is failing first grade. That I'm not helping him enough. I need to read more and work harder with him at his homework. I'm sorry that the teacher isn't getting these done enough with him while she has him for 8 hours a day, but I also don't have enough time to cram more into him. Besides, by time I get home, he's dead tired and ready to eat and sleep. That's why its a fight to finish his homework.
I know I'm not the only parent out there with these issues. More studies are being done that show how this is a failing system. Kids aren't getting time with their parents. If they are like my kids, they probably watch their parents run errands or clean house on the weekends since they had no time during the week to. Studies also show that business people these days are burnt out from 8 hour days at work by the time they reach Wednesday. They also quit at an alarming rate because of the demands from their workplace. Taking time off is considered a hardship on the company and is frowned upon. My employer doesn't allow you to call in on the first, 15th, or last Friday of the month. My supervisor even told me that I needed to avoid taking off Mondays and Fridays. Understandable for business reasons, but it adds stress of trying to fit outside life into those guidelines. Job burn out causes people to stress more, have higher likeliness of illness, depression, and ultimately throwing in the towel. Some companies are seeing that lessening the workweek, say a 4 day workweek, has increased their productivity and overall happiness of their employees. Less vacation and sick days are taken. People have that day to take care of doctors appointments, take longer weekend trips, and spend time with loved ones. Amazon is one of those companies. I loved working my 10 hour days 4 days a week. If it weren't for my back problems, I'd still be there. The environment was great. They pushed everyone to care for themselves and well-being in order to, not care for the company, but to care for those they provide a paycheck for. Amazon leaders told their employees to watch themselves and do all they could to stay healthy. Not so that they would not miss work so much and cause hardship on the company. They did so while reminding everyone that if we missed time, we lose pay. We lose pay, we lose out on providing for our families. That is what companies are failing to do these days. Forget about telling your employees that they are a burden if they miss a day. Your employees don't care about that. Especially when you rake in millions-billions every year regardless. Remind me that my family is depending on me. Tell me that my paycheck is important to keep us afloat. That's what I need to hear to push myself. Give me one more day during the week to take care of those needs I otherwise have to avoid... and you have yourself a happier woman who is willing to drive herself to exhaustion to make it work.

So here is what I suggest. Companies should reevaluate the demands and amount of time they make people work each week. OR only hire single individuals, with no children, no outside life, and a love of money. Because people like me just don't fall into the guidelines of success they write otherwise.

Friday, March 25, 2016

Show your appreciation


When do you appreciate your Boss?

How many times have you had a supervisor or a manager that you appreciated whole-heartedly? Did you have one that you could trust to go to bat for you? Someone that you would work harder for, if for no other reason than because you had a deeper respect for them than anyone else?
Now did you show your appreciation? When it was their birthday or Christmas, did you get them a gift?
Give yourself a moment to consider this. A great leader is one who leads by example. It is one that you have high respect for, and that you will strive harder for. But how often do you let them know that you believe they are that better person? They deserve to know. Especially as they are few and far between. Managers and other leaders are mostly chosen by degrees, it seems, these days. So few of them have the knowledge or understanding – they lack the connection ability necessary to guide their employees with confidence. They won’t have people willing to go the extra mile on the job unless there is some kind of monetary bonus or kickback they want. This is sad. Leaders should be approachable by everyone. They should have a defined respect from everyone around them, that can be seen by those coming in from the outside.
I’m happy to say I work for one such guy. My manager, Mark or Mr. V. is a guy that connects with his employees. He has managers under him to supervise the departments, but that doesn’t stop him from offering his help or talking to those other employees one-on-one. He wants to see everyone succeed. He knows how to run a tight ship, but his sense of humor keeps the mood light. He is a bit of a prankster, and he can handle getting it dished back. So when his birthday came around this week, you better believe that we treated him with as much as we could muster.
My supervisor took the time and effort to decorate his office,
take a group picture that she had a poster made of,
and coordinate with everyone in the office to help in the celebration.
I baked him a cake in the theme of his favorite candy bar, Baby Ruth.
The surprise was a fantastic success.
He really did expect the room to be filled with balloons thanks to having the balloons crammed in his window.
You don't have to go all out, but take the time to show your appreciation. Those worthy of such are a rare treasure in the business world. They need to know how much they mean to others sometimes.

Sunday, March 1, 2015

Making Minion cupcakes

I really love baking. So much so, that I have to seriously start working out again. When I do bake, I try to bring and share at work. Really good way to make sure I'm not stuck eating it all myself. Today, we had cupcake wars.
Sadly, I'm the only one who brought in anything and won by default. Not cool! But getting a gift card was cool... I made these adorable Minion cupcakes along with multi flavored icing-topped cupcakes. 
What you need: 
Cupcakes, make any kind you like
Twinkies, each one makes 2 minions
Smarties candy or premade sugar eyes
Black detailing icing
Blue icing: you can use blue confetti icing and skip the confetti or buy white icing and blue food coloring

Ice the tops of your cupcakes. Then follow the video instructions below to make your minions. 

Friday, January 23, 2015

Ridiculous Ramblings in Retail: Executive Style

I know stupidity runs rampant.
No matter where you go, you will have at least one idiot who can ruin even the best of days. And that person is usually the one with the "boss" title. Mine is at Executive level. With boobs so big, she can't fit through a door with another person simultaneously and only enough knowledge to get her by, she runs the show haphazardly and makes us question how much she gets paid (or who she slept with) to get her position of authority. She's known throughout the lower levels of employees for running her mouth, being suggestive, and having plenty of bad ideas. Thanks to some of her ramblings, I've been nicknamed the Backroom Hooker.
The jokes that follow that line of thinking have been funny to downright my-face-feels-like-its-on-fire.
Conversations with her are avoided often. She is avoided as much as possible. Since she came on... the following things have made working at that store a near nightmare.


After being there maybe a week, she tried to question almost all of us in the back room about our relationship status. She wanted to know who was dating and who was married. She has been married at least twice and working on number three. Explains where she got the money for her manufactured breasts. Her conversation with me went along these lines....
Her: "Wow, you look so dressed up today. Got a hot date after work?"
Me: "I'm not all dressed up, its just a skirt. But no, Backroom is my date! I'm not divorced, yet after all."
Her: "Are you kidding? Dating while going through a divorce is the best! I've had my best dates then."
Me: "Um... wow."

After being our Executive Team Leader (ETL) of Logistics for a couple months, she began to teach us new lingo on the tools and terminology for the back room.  
She showed us the upper shelving and the way things should look in a perfect back room. Then she says, "Don't forget to use your back room hooker."
Now, this is a new term for us. Sure we know about the metal hooks we use to pull things from the back of the steel shelves to the front. It helps us keep a healthy zone while eliminating our need to actually climb onto the shelves and possibly hurt ourselves. Did we know it's called a "hooker"? No! So, she got incredulous looks as a reply.
"You know, those metal hooks? Those are hookers. Didn't you guys know that?"
No...
She starts up her talk again and ends with, "Now don't forget guys (looks at the guys), utilize your back room hooker (looks at me and winks)."
What the...?! The guys all look at me and a couple smile. I could feel my face turning red. I immediately went from Backroom wife (because I'd cook and bake and clean up for my team) to being a hooker. Let's just say the jokes haven't ended and won't. I've learned to just roll with it.
She's told us to go "topless". We needed an explanation and were told it's where everything on the top shelves are brought down.
She told an older male ETL he could "use" one of our younger guys for "whatever purposes he wanted". Poor guy is now picked on for being that ETL's "boy toy".
When we spoke about our hopes for the back room and getting it as close to perfect as we could, she told us "Hope is for the weak and dying."
While receiving a food truck, the driver was hitting on me pretty strong. Trying to get my number, ask about my Facebook page, and ask me out when his divorce was settled. Did she step in for me? Nope. Just laughed. But when our receiving guy who is old enough to be my grandfather and has been nothing but a sweetheart to me, gives me a hug... She asks if I felt sexually harassed. 😐 Are you kidding me?! Her ideas of harassment are way out of line. 
We have designated areas for certain large-container products that work well for our safety and ease of back stocking. Like pillows being on the top shelves along a wall. "We need to make this look pretty. Move them to the bedding aisle." Now we have to haul boxes as tall as ourselves up a ladder to the top shelves down an aisle. The one assigned to that task did so, only to then be told to move them to the back of the aisle since it still wasn't "pretty enough" if we could see it.
Appearances mean everything to her. Obviously. What others think of her and the back room, also matter. Whatever happened to "Don't let others' opinions of you, affect you. Be yourself and do good. It will all work out. Don't worry about what others think of you." Nope, it doesn't apply to you when you're an adult working in retail. Appearances are everything then.
All these months of dealing with her and listening to the things that come from her delusional mind have given two teams in our store something to hate as well as laugh at. Today, she really messed up. Will anyone notice? Probably not on the executive level.
We came in, and started our normal routine. We were already behind since the closer couldn't complete his part and back stock product was scattered everywhere. We had two trucks; general merchandise and a food truck. After pulling the morning stock, she had "projects" lined up to beautify the back room and present as close to perfection as possible to her special visitors today. Did she let us back stock? No. Did she let us start pulling down the pallets from the truck? No. "Make it pretty." We brought everything low and tight. This took a lot of time.

We get done with that and back stock starts rolling in with the pallets we have yet to finish from the truck. On top of this, food truck delivery was twice its normal size and coming up fast. So here's our team, struggling to keep up. What's her solution? "If you work faster, you'll finish faster."
Seriously?
We didn't stand much of a chance. They had their visitor and the higher ups didn't even bother to really give us a look over. They peeked in and moved on. Less than five minutes I'm guessing. All that work.... for nothing! Way to go! So much for prepping for the inspection. But what do you expect from an exec who has no idea how  to plan ahead? By the time I left (past my scheduled time again), the freezer looked like this:
And the best part? Look at us, being ever so safe!
You got it! The fire exit was blocked. To the left, our paper products which are edged by chemicals and lighter products. Now let's think about this a minute.... what happens if there is an accident? A single spark, turned blaze, and no exit. I see a future of deaths, lawsuits and plenty of finger pointing. Come on people! But what do I know? I'm just another loser working in retail.
Welcome to my crazy world!