That bright and shiny and possibly six figure number is inaccurate. If it is six figures, divide it in half. If less, somewhere between 30-45% is going to Uncle Sam, or the state, or somewhere else other than your pocket. The amount you are left with is your real income.
When I got my offer letter from my current employer, I grinned ear to ear at reading the salary. It was nice, very nice. But I only get about 45% of it as take home. It isn't so nice. Now, as I budget and scrimp, and seek to reclaim my lost dollars, I become much more familiar with the tax code, and realize the huge adveange of pre-tax deductions (and also become a deduction fiend!). This knowledge also frames how I view my financial future, future employment opportunities, and other important life choices.
Here is some advice I have picked up along the way, to help myself in my plight of being a relatively well paid but single employee who bears the brunt of much of the nations fiscal policies, and who Uncle Sam is seriously taking to the cleaners.
1. Pre-tax deductions are your friends! Seriously. 401K deductions lower your income that is taxable. Also, IRA payments are deducted from your taxable income. So it is a good idea to save. For me, a $680 a month 401K deduction equals about $300 less per month income. Now I just have to pray that tax rates don't keep climbing for when I hope to access this money.
2. Give money away. Being philanthropic is good for your soul, and good for your bottom line. Personally, I pick charities and organizations which I feel make a real difference and that I can be involved in. I also donate to political campaigns, and different charities my friends are a part of. You get to deduct the money at the end of the year. And you feel good all year long.
3. Live below your means. I have an aunt who is a prolific saver, because she says you never know what might happen to you. My aunt lives well below her means, and invests or holds on to her nest egg in other ways. When she out of the blue bought a house outright in Florida, everyone had to admit that she clearly knows what she is doing. I took this advice to heart when buying my first car. While I loved the idea of a BMW, the M3 to be exact, I knew that if I did that I would be at the very very tip-top of my car budget. I bought a Volkswagen instead. I am very glad I did, too, because I don't have to worry about making my budget each month, and I can concentrate on other things, like visiting and having fun with friends.
4. Plan for your financial future from day one. I met with some very zealous financial planners during my second month at work, and while I didn't buy any of their products, I did start thinking about where I want to be in 30 years, when or if I want to retire, and how I want my financial future to look. While doing what you love is a wonderful goal, and I embrace the idea of refusing to accept a job that you don't like, I do think that you also must be honest about your financial outlook, and plan accordingly. Nothing worth happening happens by happenstance. I know I have a lot of work to do, and law school debt is a huge priority, but I do have a roadmap to success, and I make decisions consistent with that map in my day to day acitivies.
Tuesday, May 27, 2008
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Why I am writing NPR a letter/email tomorrow (hopefully)
Yesterday, as I was traveling home, I listened to a readers leader (presumably read by the reader) about how she feels that people in Kentucky are misunderstood. Or was it West Virginia. I'm not really sure.
At any rate, the story came on at approximately 5:15 on station 90.7, the NPR station broadcast from UMSL (University of Missouri in St. Louis). I was, quite honestly, very disturbed. And here is why: the letter was dishonest, and ignorant. And from NPR, I expect better. It was totally CNN/FoxNews worthy.
Now before you google the story, and then take offense at my portrayal, let me give you the base of my argument: the reader/writer uses generalities to attack generalities, a horribly circular argument, and is offensive while doing it. She says, quite plainly, that she feels discriminated against by Black people she knows because she is white and southern, and that Black communities have more in common with her community than they realize. All I could say was wow. You don't want me to lump you in with other people from Kentucky/West Virginia, but you lump me in with every Black person in this country. Why, again, should I listen to you, and think that all Southern people aren't racist again (I do not feel this way, having lived in the South for about a year during my teenaged years).
And then, NPR commentators failed to give the "letter" any perspective. While, young college aged woman, I appreciate your opinion, I am offended by your logic, and fail to understand your perspective. You cannot refute a generalization with a generalization. I understand that people are justifiably angry at the way that their state is portrayed. I have felt such indignation being from Ohio, and hearing people say all kinds of things about it, and assuming that I grew up on a farm. However, I am not delusional, at least not enough to think that my own generalizations are as much to blame as theirs. For example, I still believe my friends from law school feel I grew up in some sort of rural community. I grew up in a small city, but it is very urban, and very much the kind of city discribed in countless novels which discuss factory cities. We have crime. And I grew up in a working-class Black urban community. I would argue that I saw more urban life than many of my friends who grew up on the east coast. But, I also acknowledge that I honestly believed, until I visited a friend in Queens, that houses in NYC had no grass, and quite frankly there were no houses, just apartments, townhomes, and brownstones, with a stamp sized browing patch of green seedlings at best. So, if I were to attack anyone else, it would be a pot calling the kettle black situation.
This is exactly what this "letter" was, and I felt sad listening to it, and hearing how NPR seemed to place some inheirent weight in her uninformed and generalized words. NPR, you should be ashamed. I am calling you out. But I doubt my email will ever make it on the air. And people who noddeed in their heads listening to the intense but wrong statements of the "letter" will never hear the other side.
At any rate, the story came on at approximately 5:15 on station 90.7, the NPR station broadcast from UMSL (University of Missouri in St. Louis). I was, quite honestly, very disturbed. And here is why: the letter was dishonest, and ignorant. And from NPR, I expect better. It was totally CNN/FoxNews worthy.
Now before you google the story, and then take offense at my portrayal, let me give you the base of my argument: the reader/writer uses generalities to attack generalities, a horribly circular argument, and is offensive while doing it. She says, quite plainly, that she feels discriminated against by Black people she knows because she is white and southern, and that Black communities have more in common with her community than they realize. All I could say was wow. You don't want me to lump you in with other people from Kentucky/West Virginia, but you lump me in with every Black person in this country. Why, again, should I listen to you, and think that all Southern people aren't racist again (I do not feel this way, having lived in the South for about a year during my teenaged years).
And then, NPR commentators failed to give the "letter" any perspective. While, young college aged woman, I appreciate your opinion, I am offended by your logic, and fail to understand your perspective. You cannot refute a generalization with a generalization. I understand that people are justifiably angry at the way that their state is portrayed. I have felt such indignation being from Ohio, and hearing people say all kinds of things about it, and assuming that I grew up on a farm. However, I am not delusional, at least not enough to think that my own generalizations are as much to blame as theirs. For example, I still believe my friends from law school feel I grew up in some sort of rural community. I grew up in a small city, but it is very urban, and very much the kind of city discribed in countless novels which discuss factory cities. We have crime. And I grew up in a working-class Black urban community. I would argue that I saw more urban life than many of my friends who grew up on the east coast. But, I also acknowledge that I honestly believed, until I visited a friend in Queens, that houses in NYC had no grass, and quite frankly there were no houses, just apartments, townhomes, and brownstones, with a stamp sized browing patch of green seedlings at best. So, if I were to attack anyone else, it would be a pot calling the kettle black situation.
This is exactly what this "letter" was, and I felt sad listening to it, and hearing how NPR seemed to place some inheirent weight in her uninformed and generalized words. NPR, you should be ashamed. I am calling you out. But I doubt my email will ever make it on the air. And people who noddeed in their heads listening to the intense but wrong statements of the "letter" will never hear the other side.
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Liberal/Democrat v. Conservative/Republican Dichotomy, and What to Do About It
Reading comments on CNN articles is a pasttime of mine. I don't ever write any, but I can't help but notice how it seems that overnight the world became black and white, and very clear. Wise legal writing advice applies to life as well: if you must say clearly, then it probably isn't that clear.
Comments make me laugh and make me wince. But I do enjoy the perspective. They clearly display the dichotomy that exists today in the United States: the liberal-democrat/conservative-republican problem. Now, I happen to be a centrist (according to facebook), and also feel that my personal political beliefs are none of your business. But I can't help but thing that both sides could learn from the other, and we could vastly improve communication by being more honest:
1. There is no real true liberal or conservative. If the democratic primaries have taught anything, it is that there is as much division in the liberals as there is in the conservatives (have you listened to NPR on the problems with McCain?). There are more liberal, and less liberal. But everyone is biased one way or another in an effort for self-preservation. If you like the war, well, why? If you like high taxes, well, why? I am quite sure that there is some kind of ultimate idea that is self-preservationist at its core. If this is our bottom line, things will move smoothly to the next point.
2. No one is right all the time. There is no black and white answer that applies forever. There are only shades of political gray. For example: abortion. This is a very sticky subject, and as a woman I understand both sides of the debate intimately. However, it is amazing to me how uninformed each side is. About even general anatomy and the physical realities of pregnancy (even women, I dare say) when it comes to this debate. It is an endless one too. People simply won't agree. But however, more information could prevent people from attacking one another and even killing one another. And allow people to agree to disagree. Which is a sign of being a grown-up, because...
3. Everyone has a right to their opinion. I have been following an article on CNN about a 57 year old woman who lives in her car with her two large dogs. I am not a dog person, or really an animal person, so I must admit I don't understand (too many allergies). There were also a lot of other parts of the article that troubled me. And, as a tax payer in the highest bracket my fiscal opinions are decidedly conservative. But I respect her choices, even if I disagree with them, and I sympathize with her situation (my family was in a very desperate situation when I was a child). But the comments on this article are simply amazing. From stating authoritatively that that women should give up her dogs because she can't afford them (no where in the article) to blaming her because she lived in a multi-million dollar beach front property (also no where in the article) to blaming the finance industry for forclosing her home and for her problems (no where in the article did it say she owned a home), people are all over the place. Much of this debate stems from self-projecting which leads to irrationality. People see what isn't there. Because what is there reveals that there isn't really much of an argument. Bare bone facts aren't very sexy. So people spice them up to prove a point. Which is a sign that...
4. The two sides aren't that different. While Republicans and Democrats duke it out over policies and spending money, it is clear that both sides love to spend money. And while they both duke it out over the size of the government, no one is really changing the size of the government. And while they both duke it out about personal responsiblity, both sides bail someone out (republicans the banks; democrats the borrowers). Both sides claim to be all about one group or another of "minorities" (democrats claim to pander to race, republicans to religion) but in the end, the only people who continue to benefit are the same people who have benefited all along. Everyone confirms the status quo.
My most vigorous arguments with people are always over issues where the differences are very small. I really think that this is an issue of people arguing over nuances. Unless you are a libertarian, or a crazy social conservative of the likes unseen, and really truly want to shoot yourself in the foot (don't get me started on radio announcers who espouse incredible views and then take the benefits that are afforded to them through government intervention), you fall into one of the two categories of similarly minded people who like to fight over nuances. Don't self-project! Rather, take time to learn about the other side, in a non-confrontational and less-partisan format, like wikipedia, and the BBC, (that is a joke) and maybe, just maybe, you will see that you aren't that different from your liberal/conservative brother. And, you really don't know everything.
Comments make me laugh and make me wince. But I do enjoy the perspective. They clearly display the dichotomy that exists today in the United States: the liberal-democrat/conservative-republican problem. Now, I happen to be a centrist (according to facebook), and also feel that my personal political beliefs are none of your business. But I can't help but thing that both sides could learn from the other, and we could vastly improve communication by being more honest:
1. There is no real true liberal or conservative. If the democratic primaries have taught anything, it is that there is as much division in the liberals as there is in the conservatives (have you listened to NPR on the problems with McCain?). There are more liberal, and less liberal. But everyone is biased one way or another in an effort for self-preservation. If you like the war, well, why? If you like high taxes, well, why? I am quite sure that there is some kind of ultimate idea that is self-preservationist at its core. If this is our bottom line, things will move smoothly to the next point.
2. No one is right all the time. There is no black and white answer that applies forever. There are only shades of political gray. For example: abortion. This is a very sticky subject, and as a woman I understand both sides of the debate intimately. However, it is amazing to me how uninformed each side is. About even general anatomy and the physical realities of pregnancy (even women, I dare say) when it comes to this debate. It is an endless one too. People simply won't agree. But however, more information could prevent people from attacking one another and even killing one another. And allow people to agree to disagree. Which is a sign of being a grown-up, because...
3. Everyone has a right to their opinion. I have been following an article on CNN about a 57 year old woman who lives in her car with her two large dogs. I am not a dog person, or really an animal person, so I must admit I don't understand (too many allergies). There were also a lot of other parts of the article that troubled me. And, as a tax payer in the highest bracket my fiscal opinions are decidedly conservative. But I respect her choices, even if I disagree with them, and I sympathize with her situation (my family was in a very desperate situation when I was a child). But the comments on this article are simply amazing. From stating authoritatively that that women should give up her dogs because she can't afford them (no where in the article) to blaming her because she lived in a multi-million dollar beach front property (also no where in the article) to blaming the finance industry for forclosing her home and for her problems (no where in the article did it say she owned a home), people are all over the place. Much of this debate stems from self-projecting which leads to irrationality. People see what isn't there. Because what is there reveals that there isn't really much of an argument. Bare bone facts aren't very sexy. So people spice them up to prove a point. Which is a sign that...
4. The two sides aren't that different. While Republicans and Democrats duke it out over policies and spending money, it is clear that both sides love to spend money. And while they both duke it out over the size of the government, no one is really changing the size of the government. And while they both duke it out about personal responsiblity, both sides bail someone out (republicans the banks; democrats the borrowers). Both sides claim to be all about one group or another of "minorities" (democrats claim to pander to race, republicans to religion) but in the end, the only people who continue to benefit are the same people who have benefited all along. Everyone confirms the status quo.
My most vigorous arguments with people are always over issues where the differences are very small. I really think that this is an issue of people arguing over nuances. Unless you are a libertarian, or a crazy social conservative of the likes unseen, and really truly want to shoot yourself in the foot (don't get me started on radio announcers who espouse incredible views and then take the benefits that are afforded to them through government intervention), you fall into one of the two categories of similarly minded people who like to fight over nuances. Don't self-project! Rather, take time to learn about the other side, in a non-confrontational and less-partisan format, like wikipedia, and the BBC, (that is a joke) and maybe, just maybe, you will see that you aren't that different from your liberal/conservative brother. And, you really don't know everything.
Your Personal Life Affects Your Work Life, So Proceed With Caution
Whether you realize it or not, your activities outside of work impact your performance for better or for worse. If you don't believe me, spend the night partying and see how productive you are the next day! And it isn't just your sleep pattern. Unhealthy relationships impact your performance too, negatively. As do personal addictions.
Other things have a positive impact. Like having a good support system, and friends to commiserate with. The jury is out on the impact of marriage for both genders, as single women are more productive, but men with small children are also very productive (maybe they don't want to go home?). But a healthy relationship works wonders. I have seen that it won't keep you from discovering the learning curve, and having to climb it, but it will allow you to do so with a smile, and keep your small blunders in perspective.
I have a friend at work who is invaluable. She has life experience. And she listens to my work conundrums and provides helpful advice. However, I only met her when I started working in September. I worked at my job over the summer, two summers ago, and she and I never even said hi. And she admitted that she wasn't sure she liked me during my summer internship.
I know why that was the case. I didn't meet a lot of people, and I only got to know one fellow associate very well then. I spent that summer in a stupor of stress, as my personal life sucked up all my energy, and forced me to use all my "extra" energy to meet my jobs requirements. Why? Because I was in a sucky relationship. We fought continually. And I was terribly unhappy. It impacted everything. While work was my release, I was always stressed out when I got there from the fight I had at home either that morning or the night before. Thankfully I woke up to my relationship dysfunction. And everything in my life improved.
It is also true that if you have a really bad job it negatively impacts other areas of your life. We are unable to successfully partition parts of ourselves from others, and isolate the unhappiness. So if you have a great significant other and friends, and wonder why life still seems to suck, either you are living with a curse, or some other area of your life, job or otherwise, needs to change. And if you take the necessary steps, even if those steps are painful, you will wake up and feel like the clouds rolled away, and it's spring all over again. Even if it's winter, and cold, and foggy. Like I did.
Monday, May 19, 2008
Reminiscing on the Past... School Daze Style!
More than anything in the world, on Monday mornings when my alarm sounds at 6:30AM I want to be back in school. I never got up at 6:30AM for anything. I always thought that the 8:30AM classes were simply too early. But now I do it on a daily basis. I miss school.
I also miss the blissful ignorance that existed in my life when it came to bills. Somehow I was able to survive in law school almost entirely within a seven or eight block radius. I walked everywhere, only using my car for trips to the grocery store and to church on the Sabbath. I would buy gas once a month. All I paid was rent, the phone bill, and my share of utilities split four ways. Now, I buy gas every other week, and cry at the pump. And I didn't know so many bills existed. Car insurance is a beast!
I miss the bliss of vacations. There is always a vacation at school. There is winter break, and fall break, and multiple days off for Thanksgiving, and a hefty break around Christmas. And there is spring break, the most wonderful of them all. Now I always worked during the summer; no real break there. In the working world there is a one day vacation. Yep, I got Thanksgiving off. I was working the next day. I worked through Christmas.
I received wise advice about enjoying my wonderful life as a student. And I did. I relished in my exceptionally long vacations, and in my wonderful bill-less-ness. I did work all through school, but I realize now that it was intermittent, in spurts of no longer than three hours, and nothing like the multiple 12 hour days I do now. I also know that I am nostalgic, and remember my days as a college student through the rose colored lenses that time creates.
But it would be nice, really nice, to go back, and appreciate the fact that I didn't have to set an alarm most days of the week.
Monday, May 12, 2008
A Personal Rant: How To Take Unwanted Personal Critique Gracefully (or not)
Learning to endure critique, even harsh critique that makes your blood boil, is part of being employed. People have bad days, and they take it out on you. People don't do things they need to do. And they take it out on you too. I don't mind critique at work, and at school it's like water off a duck's back (I think that's the right phrase, but maybe it's a fish?). But when it comes to my personal life, I am not quite so agile.
When I was a sophmore in college, I learned this. When I almost said something really unkind to a guy who kept picking on me for how I look. I really didn't understand it; I happen to think I am quite cute. But he kept making comments. And I was getting ready to tear into him. And my friend says to me: is it worth it. And it wasn't. And I didn't. I swallowed my comment, and learned to avoid this person.
Now I am a very particular person in my personal interactions. I have my views on things, and if I am comfortable with you I am not afriad to share them. I grew up in an environment where, even at age 4, I was treated like an expert on something, and I learned to defend how I felt. But I never ever had to defend things I couldn't control. And I learned, for the first time in my life, that certain things could be liabilities.
For example, I don't look my age. Not in the way that non-Black people claim all Black people don't look their age, but in a "I'm 25 and I got carded at the theatre last time I went" way. In law school I regularly got hit on by incoming freshman (into college) and highschool students on the bus. It was humiliating, but I got used to it. But I really can't help it. Sure I can cut my hair. And I can wear glasses. But that only adds a few months at best. I still get told I look like I am in highschool. And it's ok for me. However, if you keep bringing it up, that's annoying. People have even suggested that it will hamper my career. I did everything within my power to stop myself from a stinging comeback. I am actually really good at stinging comebacks. But I am nice. So I hardly use them.
Another thing that really really annoys me is when people comment about my voice. I have a high voice. Someone once called it fairy like. I don't know how fairies sound, but I think it sounds better than what I get from the annoying commentators (mouse-like) so I'll run with it. I happen to think it is soothing. If telemarketers call they ask for my mother. I once had a tow truck person refuse to come and tow my defunct car in college because he didn't think I was old enough. I was 21 at the time. I realize that it is a problem sometimes, like anything can be. But, it is also a benefit. I can talk people into things like you wouldn't believe. I cannot stand it, though, when people treat me like it is a complete liability. Or like I have never heard anyone comment on it before. Like all the jokes I got when I got accepted into law school, about how no one would take me seriously in court. By the third or fourth one, I was really really mad. By the tenth or eleventh, I actually ended friendships.
Personal critique is not my strong point. But then again, I don't think that it should be. In other areas of one's life, improvements can be made. You can become a better writer. You can become a better almost anything. But you can't make your voice deeper (no matter what Oprah tells you!). Or make yourself look older, not by that much. You can only learn to capatlize and learn from your distinguishing characteristics.
When I was a sophmore in college, I learned this. When I almost said something really unkind to a guy who kept picking on me for how I look. I really didn't understand it; I happen to think I am quite cute. But he kept making comments. And I was getting ready to tear into him. And my friend says to me: is it worth it. And it wasn't. And I didn't. I swallowed my comment, and learned to avoid this person.
Now I am a very particular person in my personal interactions. I have my views on things, and if I am comfortable with you I am not afriad to share them. I grew up in an environment where, even at age 4, I was treated like an expert on something, and I learned to defend how I felt. But I never ever had to defend things I couldn't control. And I learned, for the first time in my life, that certain things could be liabilities.
For example, I don't look my age. Not in the way that non-Black people claim all Black people don't look their age, but in a "I'm 25 and I got carded at the theatre last time I went" way. In law school I regularly got hit on by incoming freshman (into college) and highschool students on the bus. It was humiliating, but I got used to it. But I really can't help it. Sure I can cut my hair. And I can wear glasses. But that only adds a few months at best. I still get told I look like I am in highschool. And it's ok for me. However, if you keep bringing it up, that's annoying. People have even suggested that it will hamper my career. I did everything within my power to stop myself from a stinging comeback. I am actually really good at stinging comebacks. But I am nice. So I hardly use them.
Another thing that really really annoys me is when people comment about my voice. I have a high voice. Someone once called it fairy like. I don't know how fairies sound, but I think it sounds better than what I get from the annoying commentators (mouse-like) so I'll run with it. I happen to think it is soothing. If telemarketers call they ask for my mother. I once had a tow truck person refuse to come and tow my defunct car in college because he didn't think I was old enough. I was 21 at the time. I realize that it is a problem sometimes, like anything can be. But, it is also a benefit. I can talk people into things like you wouldn't believe. I cannot stand it, though, when people treat me like it is a complete liability. Or like I have never heard anyone comment on it before. Like all the jokes I got when I got accepted into law school, about how no one would take me seriously in court. By the third or fourth one, I was really really mad. By the tenth or eleventh, I actually ended friendships.
Personal critique is not my strong point. But then again, I don't think that it should be. In other areas of one's life, improvements can be made. You can become a better writer. You can become a better almost anything. But you can't make your voice deeper (no matter what Oprah tells you!). Or make yourself look older, not by that much. You can only learn to capatlize and learn from your distinguishing characteristics.
Sunday, May 11, 2008
What friends and family teach us, if we pay attention
I love my family. And I love my friends. But I must admit that mixing the two causes me a lot of grief. Mostly because I am not a planner, not when it comes to other people, and mostly because I don't take criticism of things I can't control well. But in the little adventures I have experienced as far back as I can remember, I have gained valuable self-perspective, and learned a lot about the inevitable.
I strongly believe we all must learn our limits. I learned mine through my family and friends, in a setting far removed from school or work. I learned when I was young, maybe 7, that I was not good with mixing people. Or with a lot of people in general, but that is for another time (what to do as an extroverted introvert, coming soon). My family is a very particular bunch, as are many families, and when it comes to mixing people I always have a lot of trepidation. Like when I did a play at school, and my mother commented on the quality of everything. To me, like it was my fault. I realized I have limits for accepting criticism. I was not the one who swept the gym floor and left a large pile of dust in the corner.
Or the time one of my best friends called my house, and no one told me. And she got mad at me, and said that the person hung up on her. She thought it was because she isn't black. I assured her that no one could tell over the phone. And I realized that I am totally not a go between.
Or when I learned, recently, that I cannot work around my family. They expect me to be entertaining them. I don't mind entertaining, but I have to be able to pay the rent. And, again, I am not a planner. I cannot predict things that people will like (I have friends who are really good at this, and I appreciate them all the more, and call them for suggestions). So often we end up looking at each other while they shoot down my ideas, and I can't leave anyone at home for fear of looking rude.
I have learned some good things too about myself. I am a really good helper. Thanks to a fastidiously clean mother, I am really really good at cleaning and have an eye for detail. And I enjoy using this to help others, be it sweeping a dorm room to help a friend who is moving out, or critiquing a boyfriend's thesis paper (I have done this for a lot of "boyfriends"). Thanks to a very close knit family, I am really good with one-on-one settings, and know very few people who I haven't been able to win over in that environment. This helps in any situation, including work, because I can find something to talk about with anyone. And thanks to the many many miniature disasters I endured in grade school and high school thanks to my inability to plan and inability to act as a go-between in social settings, I have learned that nothing is forever, people do forget, and if someone is really your friend, they will love you for your good points and not your bad. And learning your limits is a good thing, as well as the things you can't control.
This type of self-perspective is invaluable in the employment context, at least if you are honest with yourself about what your family and friends are showing you about yourself. It's the silver lining to the feedback your family endlessly provides.
Tuesday, May 6, 2008
Email is a Problem for an Email Packrat
This afternoon, I spent nearly an hour cleaning out my email inbox at work. After doing this, I realized that I will have to clean out another of my email folders, because now basically all the project related emails that I have are dumped in there. I also realized that email pack-ratting tendencies can become a huge problem of time management. Because, much like my desk during a work storm, I can't find anything when I want to.
I have always had an email problem. I admit that I have a problem, but I just can't help myself: I love email. I love reading emails and responding immediately. I love sending emails. I like email more than I like the phone. And I like the phone. Email is most often like a wonderful surprise, and I love surprises! The problem with email is, though, that I just get so much of them. On any given day, between all of my accounts, I probably get about 150 to 200 personal or work related emails. At least. Some days the amount is far higher.
The numbers add up fast, and in the past two weeks I haven't been really diligent about cleaning my inbox out at work. There are lots of reasons, none of them good. I am busy. I feel guilty deleting that joke, or that flirtatious banter, because hey, re-reading emails is half the fun. And when I go through old emails, I don't want to delete them, because what if I need them again? I like records of things. I keep receipts. So of course I keep emails! Yep, none of my reasons are very good.
So this afternoon, I did delete the email, and I did clean out my work inbox. I have a new streamlined inbox of about 100 emails, all of which are more or less relevant. Going forward, I vow to not let my love of email outweigh my common sense knowledge that an inbox of over 1000 emails is just plain unwieldy. But I do this every time. And that buzzing sound, that's my blackberry. I just got another email!
Keep Your Eye on the Bottom Line
When you are being courted by a company for a job, they show you the perks. They show you how the job will provide for you above and beyond your salary. They rave about your compensation package and the idea of "total compensation". Things like health insurance, 401K matching, and other wonderful add-ons are highlighted to show you just how people friendly your job is.
But don't be fooled. Your job, like any other job, is all about the bottom line. The most important thing to do is find out how productive you are supposed to be, and just how much you are supposed to be adding to the bottom line. No matter the structure, no matter the hierarchy, everyone is expected to add to that bottom line. And if you don't, your position will be eliminated or you will be replaced.
The best way to do this is to talk to someone who did what you do, or someone who does something similar. If they have been employed for more than a year, they probably have a good idea of how productive you are expected to do. Always pick the person to provide experience who is obviously good at their job, but not competitive and will purposefully offer you bad advice. I have been there; the best person might not be the best person to ask. It is also not presumptive, and makes you look good, if you ask about the value you provide to the company in a way that show you seek to exceed expectations.
There is also a chance that these expectations are unreasonable. In the current economy, companies have been scaling back for years and trying to find ways to have one person do the job of 3 or 4. Be aware of this, and see what support services, if any, are available. Does someone do all the word processing? Use this resource to make yourself more profitable. Does another department do the collating and put together the paper presentations you create in your head? Don't spend your afternoon sorting through papers.
And finally, be mindful of your atmosphere. Some companies have unrealistic expectations and it makes the employees crazy. They might give you unreliable advice because they themselves have never understood how things work, because the structure is bad or the information is not properly disseminated. To save yourself headache, use a pragmatic approach and talk to the support staff or supervisor, in a positive way that indicates you (a) understand and respect their position or (b) you wish to exceed expectation. With a little respect and drive, finding the information and resources to help you make your impact on the bottom line is very possible.
Now there will be times where a company simply has an unreasonable bottom line. You can find this several ways: (1) is your position a new position that eliminated two other positions? (2) does no one with your position "cut it" at the company? (3) are the employees who had your position single, lonely and bitter people? If this is the case, you just might have found yourself a horrible job. But don't despair, learn what you can learn, and look for a way out.
Corporations today are all about the bottom line, and if you want to keep your job, you must be about the bottom line too! You must add value, and be cognizant of all your responsibilities. You must also learn how to use the resources that your company provides to do your job efficiently. It is a learning curve. It took me a while to realize that I didn't need to type everything myself, and that it wasn't a good idea for me to do my own copying for large documents. But if you do these things, even if the company's expectations are far too high, you will learn valuable skills, learn to delegate tasks, develop contacts, and build your resume, all while adding value.
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