LEARN 9

I've LEARNed that I will be doing the job of two people, and assisting a third.

While I'm flattered that my manager seems to think I'm capable of doing so much more work (he wants to utilize my talents and strengths), I'm not real keen about that "assisting a third" person.  It's clerical work.  And if he wants to pay me my salary to be a clerk, that's fine, but then make me a clerk.  Don't say I'm the team lead, a team specialist, that my responsibilities are expanding because of my capabilities...  Just say I'm a clerk making a boatload of money for being a clerk.

The woman whose work I'm picking up quit after working here for I know know how long, maybe 15 years?  This new job, in its current incarnation, wasn't "what [she] signed up for."  Yea, well, is it ever?  We went through a reorg, which by definition means we're all going to be doing more, for less.  We're going to have to LEARN more on our own. We've had to go through some official sales training (the only previous training I had was being a buyer, and once I became a sales person, I decided not to do what other sales people had done that annoyed me as a buyer).  We have videos we have to watch, webinars we have to participate in, training we have to do, additional data entry we're required to fit into our daily workflow...  All in the same 7 hours a day, 5 days a week. 

Which means my 35-hour work week is now a 45-50-hour work week, with no additional compensation because I am, of course, salaried.  I don't take a lunch; I eat at my desk.  I used to do personal email and pay bills and things when I got in the office at 7:30am but now I'm right to work.  I forget to stop working when it's the end of the day and I'm almost always late going outside to catch my ride.

One of the points the training made is that you have to LEARN when your most productive times are AND when your customers' most available times are.  And they suggested that in many cases between 7am and 8am or between 4pm and 6pm are the best times to reach people at their desks.

I see long hours ahead of me - I guess I AM psychic...

I've taken it upon myself to order a book that ties in with the sales training they provided.  I'm going to read it and then suggest, if it's applicable, that everyone read it, or read from it, or that perhaps the author would be a great speaker at our next conference...  I'm LEARNing how to play the game...