I Won!

I have been sick off and on now for a little over a month, so I haven't had much mountain bike riding to write about.  But fun things still happen.

Yesterday we had our Christmas party at work.  It was a fun lunch with a lot of prizes/gifts to draw for.  There were digital keychains, digital frames, poinsettas, gps systems and three more expensive gifts.  A Wii, Xbox 360 and a 26 inch flat, lcd hd tv. 

The lunch started with good food, and visiting with friends at work, and then it was time to draw for the prizes/gifts.  One by one the gifts were given away.  Eventually someone won the Xbox 360, then a little while later someone won the Wii, and then finally the last prize was up--the tv.

I watched gift after gift go, and when the tv came up, I knew it was up, either I won the tv, or went home with nothing but a full stomach.  I sat and held the ticket tightly cupped in the palms of both hands, and waited for the number to be called.  It was called, and I looked at my number and then asked what the number was again.  Yes!  It was my number!!!

Our family could definitely use a tv downstairs.  Right now we have a little 21 inch tv, and although it is nice it will be great to have something a bit better.  And although I do not believe in having  a tv in the bedroom, it will be nice to have one I can put in our bedrooms when someone is sick.
Haven't taken it out of the box yet, I need to buy a mounting system.

A Day Full of Whiners

It's been a long time since I have posted. I was put in a new position at work and have been working long hours to learn my new position and to organize and research the places I need to go. There has been a lot of clean up of the position. My predecessor only gave me information on 5 clients. There have been more, as I have researched and looked, but it has taken me a little bit of time to find them, and sometimes I don't know until I get an email. Anyway, I like it and the reorganize and figuring things out has not been too bad. What has been bad has been all of the whiny people I work with.

There have been a lot of changes at work lately. We no longer print our paper, and have hired media one to do the printing. There have been a large number of people laid off and a few firings. There have been a streamlining of our weeklies, and needless to say a lot of people are concerned. Good & bad I am not. I understand the change and think it is smart others have seen the change as we are going under. I guess they will focus on whatever they want. I prefer to stay positive.

Anyway with all of those changes the latest has been pretty big. Our publisher had a sudden, major health issue and is now going to be away from the office anywhere from 4 to 6 weeks. Our CFO, marketing director and a manager from south county offices have taken over the position of ad director while we wait for our new ad director to come on the 23rd and while our publisher is recovering. They are doing a great job considering most of us are not selling much, and we have publishments coming out that are going to be empty which is honestly quite embarrassing. They have even tried to find different incentives to motivate us to get our ad spaces sold. However, instead of taking on the challenge all they do is complain about what they can't get and the advertisers don't get it, or the advertisers won't advertise.

Honestly it's hard for everyone. I am responsible for jobs, but right now there are so many unemployed employers are not looking to advertise, because they don't need to. That's okay though, because there are still some that need to and I will find them. The funny thing is I got a day to sell retail, and I did cold calls and I got sales, so I although it's hard I don't think you need to complain.

Well, today it went past the whining and complaining. It became being disrespectful and gossipy. Most of the sales staff was in a webinar today, and unfortunately most of us know the information and so instead of paying attention to the webinar people were talking. The talking turned to making rude remarks about our CFO and marketing director and then actually turned to being disrespectful of them. I was quite for part of the time, but after a bit I became ill listening to what was going on and couldn't keep quite any longer. So I called them out on what they were doing. I am glad I said something and yet at the same time I know I will now be talked about and the target for some sales people in the office. It wasn't an easy thing to do, because of the a strain I knew it would create with some people. But I couldn't have lived with being a silent contributor and not saying something. Sometimes doing what is right doesn't always make for the best situation, but at least I can live with myself.

Rumor Mill

It is amazing how things can spread around an office. On Tuesday the gal in charge of recruitment quit to take a job close to her home. My manager came and talked to me yesterday (Wednesday) about taking her position. Now I need to regress.

Just before Christmas my manager asked me if I would like to sell Internet Advertising there were not a lot of specifics, and he said we would talk when he got back, which was this week. While he was gone another manager came to me and is considering having me sell advertising for a web page on our web site.

So now that I have regressed let me go forward. My manager came and talked to me about the recruitment position and also about the Internet. We talked about the possibility of me doing both positions and then he asked me to keep it between us two until he talked to the publisher. He emailed the publisher right after we met and she said it looked like a good idea and she would get back to him. He let me know and since then it was supposedly just between the two of us.

Well, what wasn't between the two of us was the fact that she quit. Once she gave her notice she let everyone in our office know. Since she let everyone know, everyone realized there was going to be a vacancy. After that everyone decided who was going to get the position and it seems I was the logical choice. Anyway today I had a few people say they heard I was taking over her position, and one even knew about the Internet advertising. So much for secrets, I can't believe how quickly things get spread around.

Messes

I have not had much of a chance to be on the Internet lately, because I need to set up our wireless router. We changed to Comcast and the old modem/router apparently will not work with their technology. On Sunday I decided to set up the router, so I could get my lap top to work and wouldn't have to wait for an opportunity to get on the computer. I followed the instructions for the router set up and of course got an error message. No problem. I redid a couple of things and tried again, and again, and again. I finally called Linksys to see if they could help. Of course they could. William badge number 1224 said he would have me up an running in 20 minutes. Great! An hour and a half later it is determined that the router is defective.

I went back today and exchanged the router. I came home and attempted to install once again. Same problem. I didn't call Linksys yet, although I did everything we did last time, and it did not work. I don't think it is the router, but I am not sure what it could be. Any of you techno guys have any ideas?

I start my new job tomorrow, so I emptied out my office at my soon to be old job, and brought all of my stuff home. I will not have an office at my new job, instead I will have a cubicle. I have a lot of files, boxes, pictures and wall hangings sitting in my office at home. I started to rearrange my office and realized I have a good week of getting everything reorganized. I guess it's good it was cold today so I couldn't feel too bad about not riding.