Anyway, work is at its peak of difficulty, but not necessarily from the business sense. Just after I learned that I would, in fact, be taking over some of my previous colleague's captainships after he left the company, I learned that I would be getting a mentee. And switching departments. In about a weeks' time. Joy!
All told it's definitely not bad. I moved over to owned brand cards & party, which, while it's completely different from sporting goods, isn't a difficult area to manage. 90% of my vendors are now domestic import, and while I support roughly 2000 SKUs and $380 million dollars in business, this just means the importance on one single item is not as important as in my old area.
A random and minor pain point has been in my new manager. She is amazing, and super friendly. The problem arises because her background is in softlines, and often she believes I can pull reporting items or information based on a softlines model, which is vastly different from hardlines. On the other hand, she's extremely patient, and obviously concerned about my adjustment to the new area, which has been great. I just want to do well and ensure I can provide her the info she needs, and with the vendor conference coming up in April (I'm a captain for this, too) and trips to China shortly on their way, it's been a little hellish trying to pull everything together.
On the flip side my mentee, Blake, is fantastic. He's got 5 years' experience with another Fortune 500 company under his belt and has way more experience with reporting and analysis than me. This has proven useful in the new area, since he can now help me with assignments! So far his help on issues has been great, and he's going to make a great business analyst when he's graduated in May.
Finally, this past week on Thursday and Friday I found myself in New York, right smack dab in the middle of Chelsea, near Penn Station. I've never been to the city before, and beyond the insane cab rides and millions of people, I truly felt alive while there. I really could see myself there. It's just a matter of understanding what kinds of incentives I would have to make such a change, really.
Last night I watched Freakonomics on Netflix and was particularly drawn by the section on incentives. The fact that the incentive program for high school students in certain schools helped students with D's and above but didn't affect those with E's reinforces the grass is always greener idea for me. I can definitely always find something better (in the short term), but it's whether that "money" will last, and what it will do to my life in the meantime.
This has been the true topic of conversation between Chris and I for the past few weeks, since he found out he was not going to be offered a permanent position with Catalyst Studios. It's unfortunate, as he really did connect with his colleagues and saw them as friends. However, I think it's just a simple challenge in finding oneself. He's now got the opportunity to really sit down again and think, "What do I want?" I'm completely willing to work with him on this, obviously, which led to my trip.
I should know more specifics by the week of April 4th, and I'll tell those that would need to know immediately.
In the meantime, I'm trying to keep things pretty quiet and am enjoying the first signs of spring! We've got a few party-type things planned for the beginning of April and should be seeing all the friends then. Hopefully we'll get a chance to host more friends from Madison before too long, and my parents are coming the weekend of Easter! :) I'm truly excited to get to see everyone again, especially with the weather nicer!
My focus points for the coming weeks will be:
- Work - fully training Blake so he becomes more comfortable with the business. Ensure I meet expectations and capitalize on strengths. Showcase more project capabilities while managers out of office for vendor conference and China trips.
- Reading - I'm reading a lot more lately, and want to continue this habit. Twice a day, morning and night.
- Exercise - I need to get back into this. I've been good about crunches and planks at night, but as Chris points out, we should really be doing Just Dance again. Since he'll be at home starting this week, I say we start this week as well.
- Eating well - This really just includes better shopping/cooking. We are doing well on this, but I'm not always excited about leftovers for work, and if these potential big changes do occur, this will NEED to become a habit. Make larger portions for dinner and make them tasty! Also, potentially prep lunch the night before.
- Research - This has everything to do with the potential big changes. I just need to keep a level head about the entire thing and start asking people their opinions on information and technique. This will help ensure I don't go crazy without information!
- Gaming - Not as high a priority, but I did get The Sims Medieval and have downloaded a few shorter games that I can play quickly and win, for accomplishments' sake.
- Organization - Just to make things easier. Getting magazines and crafting stuff cleaned up, sifting through electronic items, and getting rid of the DVD player and 5-speaker system are top priority here, since it will save space and hassle when we inevitably have to move again
