Probational Period Reviews

How effective is your job when your boss doesn't think you've done a good job, but you think you have tried all you can to do what you think is success?

When I first got hired, I was told what certain job responsibilities I have. After a few months into working at my job, things have changed. I had to get certified from the Department of Health Services to market our health program, and I passed the exam in February of this year. My exam was delayed...and long story with that, so I won't get into it. But before my exam, I was doing a lot of training. I did many home visits with my coworkers, went to many outreach events and I'm glad I had a lot of training. But after my exam, my boss didn't want me to do home visits and enrollment. That's not what she said when she first hired me. Just a tip for anyone out there looking for jobs...make sure your job description is what you want before you get hired, and after you get hired, make sure those will be the same job description after your probation period. :)

So anyway...during probational reviews, what kinds of things should be said to your boss if you don't agree with it? I am not good with doing reviews. Like there's one thing my boss put on the review that I really did not agree with. She marked that I can't work with my coworkers effectively. I don't agree with that, nor does my coworkers. There's this thing I've examined about my boss that, I'm not sure if it's true or not, but she likes to keep everything strictly professional. She only says "HI" to you in the morning. Nothing like, "how are you?" or "how was your weekend?" or even "how's your day going?" She doesn't let people make friends in the office. I've been told by some people that she gets jealous when her team makes friends in the office. When I first heard about that, I seriously thought that was ridiculous and not true, but as I am working there longer, I can totally tell, she doesn't like it at all. Anyway...because my boss put "moderately effective" for my overall review, I didn't get a raise, obviously and I wasn't a part of the yearly bonus that the whole company gets. In all of my jobs, it's never happened to me where I never even gotten a bonus. Then of course, my review has never been that bad. I've been really disappointed. I even came to the meeting all prepared with 2 pages of "accomplishment" I typed out, and apparently she doesn't think any of my accomplishments on the 2 pages counted. Just a really disappointing day....

Friends and Family Matters

In June, I went back home to visit my family with my boyfriend. This is the first time since I moved out that I actually have a vacation that's more than just a weekend to be with my family. This time I was able to spend 5 days at home. Well, more like 4 full days. I used to live in beautiful, sunny, Huntington Beach, CA. Where the sun is always out no matter what season it was. I lived a little less than 2.5 miles from the beautiful beach. Seeing family was so wonderful. A lot has changed when I went home. I noticed my family being happier to see me when I am home, my parents are more relaxed and positive about life, it's just wonderful.

I've always been a family girl, and I don't think I'll ever let that part of me go. Many times I've been called "Mother or mom" from my friends because I care too much and sometimes I guess I do sound like a mother. I don't quite know if that's a good thing or not, but I only can lend a hand and heart out.

Also this trip made me realize how much I miss my friends. I wasn't able to see all of them because of different schedules and many things have changed and everyone's busy now. There was one really important friend I wasn't able to see and I was a little disappointed. I don't quite know how to express my feelings because I don't want to be all "sensitive" about things, but I do feel uncomfortable. This friend of mine, he's been the most wonderful, gentleman, biggest heart, person I've ever met. He's helped me with almost all obstacles in life after I met him. I truly treasure this friendship to my heart. I met 4 wonderful guy friends when I was in college, and he was one of them that became my best friend. Even though things are different now and because we are so busy with work, that still does not change in my heart. I also hope it doesn't change for him, but I can only speak for me and my feelings. He's opened up my mind with a lot of things, and he's very mature for his age with much knowledge. I see him as the older brother I've never had. Although I do have two older brothers, my best friend just have a different way of thinking and open mind thinking. My two older brothers are the best also, but they are a little traditional. Now that my brother's have their own kids, I think they just NOW started to think a little more with an open mind. :) Anyway...all in all, what I mean is this best friend of mine that I didn't get to see when I went home, I really miss talking to. I haven't told him, but if he reads this, he would know by now.

Now after my vacation back at home, I've been back for a month now. It made me miss my friends and family more. Just the other day, I felt lonely cause I don't have much friends here where I live. I'm constantly working and then doing errands on the weekends with my boyfriend, sometimes independent life isn't so good if your friends and family aren't around. When I lived at home, I felt lonely cause I didn't have someone to love me for me, and now that I have that, I don't have family and friends around. Silly me... :) Of course, we all can't have everything. I can't really complain about my life now because I am really happy, and after the this trip back home, I realized even more that there is a possibility my boyfriend wants to relocate to live in Orange County with me later. So probably another year or two (MAX.) we can move back home to southern California. My boyfriend is so much happier every time I have a trip back home. So I am extremely glad and happy about that.

Wish me luck with my job now, since things seem to be going a little bit better for me now... and I look forward to meeting new people as I am living independently now. :)

First time car buyers

So the past two weeks it's been crazy. I thought I would have a good relaxing weekend, but with work being so stressful, it was even worse. Two weeks ago, I went to purchase a car with some "new comers." To be honest, it was my first time also. I've always "heard" from my wonderful older siblings on how to negotiate and how buying a car from the dealer has it's pros and cons. Whether you're buying it used from someone or buying it new from the dealer, there's always going to be pros and cons. So anyway...lets give you the short version of the long story.

After testing out the car (not me), they decided to get the car. So we go into the office to negotiate the price. Without question, the Sales Manager punches out some numbers and gives us the cost and the monthly payment. The sales manager gives us the sticker price on the SUV. I started to giggle and said to the guy, "What if I don't want to pay the sticker price? I want to pay the invoice price and we are going to put $10K today what can you do?" What do you know...I guess it's so hard to sell cars now, the guy even took out the invoice for me to look at. Over all, I basically got what I asked for, for the car buyers I was with. I'm kinda proud of myself for the first time doing that. I'm sure I could have done better, but I was punching numbers and trying to calculate everything, and what do you know???? School does help...LOL...my calculations were practically correct, of course, not including the taxes. :) So we took the car home that day after spending about 5 hours at the dealer.

(drama starts.....)

Two days after we took the car home, I hear, "I think the car is too big for me." Oh my gosh, I was really upset. She was the one who choose the color of the car, she was the one who test drove it, and she was the one that said she wanted the car. Anyway...I explained to her, "Once a car is driven off the lot, you lose at lease $5K, AUTOMATICALLY." She said she still wanted to take it back to see what they will say. And what do you know? I was correct, and the worse part, is that you have to pay extra too, because we have to include the tax. So she's losing $7-$8K. That's all of her down payment. So, in the end, she decided to keep the car. Thank goodness. After a few weeks she'll get used to the car. :)

Economy is Tough

After working at my non-profit firm for about 8 months now, realizing it's a really stressful job and it's a "hard" job, unfortunately, I'm having to think about finding another job or not. :( I love what I do even though I don't have a lot of experience yet, I have the determination and persistence to perfect it as much as I can each and every day. But sometimes with a boss like mine, it's hard to have the determination and persistence for my job. My boss has a goal for each one of her employee's in our marketing department. It's her goal for us that she sets. And recently we've had to read a book called...SPIN Selling (you can take a look at the inside of this book online if you go to... http://www.amazon.com/gp/reader/0070511136/ref=sib_dp_pt#reader-link ). I'm not quite sure if the book is for our industry, but after reading half way through it, it's really difficult to put a "selling" perspective into a non-profit organization. I had wish we didn't spend our time to read this book. Or if we spent time on reading a book, at lease spend time reading a marketing/sales job for non-profit organizations. Anyway, I don't know what to do with gas prices going up the past month, and the economy not doing so well, our company is having low numbers also. I think I'm looking into jobs just to save myself from anything bad happening.

Two weeks ago I took a 5 day vacation back home to see my family and it felt so great seeing them. I tried seeing my friends as well. I was unable to see all of them, but I did get a chance to see most of them and I am thankful for that. I also was able to put together a family BBQ and everyone actually showed up. That was wonderful too. Seeing how happy my parents are when I go home makes me feel wonderful. But this time going home, I felt a little bit of pressure because my mom kept bringing up the subject of "marriage." Then I got asked to "remember to save up for a wedding." I don't quite know if I'm ready for marriage just yet, but I know that once that happens, I want to be living back home near my parents house. It makes my boyfriend very happy every time we make trips back home and I like that. A lot of the times I feel like Southern California makes him a lot happier than Northern California. I haven't had a chance to quite confirm if that's true or not with him, but I feel very strongly that it's true. I hope it's true. :) Also, the reason why I'm saying that I'm not quite sure if I'm ready for marriage is because I'm not sure if my boyfriend wants to or not. I think it's in his mind, but just not now. My wish and my "want" is for him to propose at the end of this year (2008) and then we would get married by the end of 2009. :) At lease thats the plan that I would like. We'll see what happens. :)