Monday, February 21, 2022

Weekly Round Up: Acronym Edition


A weekly round up: eats, workouts, watches, and reads.  In this week's edition I have a story of Costco ESP and I'm going to think out loud about a work situation and ask WWYD.

We really didn't do anything special on the food front this week, apart from me making a giant vat of fried rice (very loosely inspired by this recipe) for Sunday dinner, so let me jump right in to my amazing ESP skills.

A Tale of Costco ESP

This weekend my husband and stepsons went off to the woods for Boy Scout camp, and stepdog and I lived large.  I won't name names but one of us had ice cream for dinner one night and the other got to sleep in the bed instead of having to move down to her doggy bed at lights out.

My only adult responsibility this weekend was a trip to Costco.  I was reaching for a bag of normal beef jerky when the Korean BBQ jerky caught my eye.  I debated because I was interested in trying it, but it was a gamble since my jerky consumption is pretty low and there was no guarantee that the rest of my family would be in to it.  But in the end I decided to treat myself and found that it was very delicious.

The next day the fellas came back from camp and I found out what the adults really talk about when the kids are out of earshot.  My husband said that he and another one of the dads were talking about their favorite Costco products, and the dad said they had this amazing pork jerky.  I walked my husband in to the kitchen and handed him the package.  And sure enough the whole family loved it and it's going fast.  He texted the other dad to let him know that I was psychic.

WWYD

Aw yiss, it's the return of the "Bad Career Advice" tag because I have a work situation that I need to talk out.  If you're new here, my job is that I pay people.  I'm an accountant who specializes in payroll.

I've only been at my current job for six months.  There are some things about it that are really good, with #1 being a great boss and a great team.  But the company is smaller than I'm used to and I'm starting to get restless.  Also it's about 90% accounting and 10% payroll (translation: 90% boring and 10% fun).  My plan has been to appreciate the good, brush up on the bullet points that this job adds to my resume, stay for about a year to look respectable/become eligible for company stock, and then take my time in moving on to something else.  

Two weeks ago a recruiter contacted me on LinkedIn.  This was direct recruiter, and I don't get a lot of those, and the company is a legit player in the startup world.  I talked to the recruiter and told him that I really wasn't looking to move on but that I did like what I was hearing about his company.  He asked me what I was looking for money wise, and I named my dream number thinking that would be the end of the conversation.  Instead the response was "let me get your info to the hiring manager".

I was feeling a little bit bad for "cheating" but the next day I had an awful conversation with my current employer's HR.  No, no, not that kind of a conversation...it was a kickoff meeting for a project we're doing together.  When I asked the HR Bigwig for her input, she launched into a tirade about everything that she hates about the company.  It was quite spectacular and like nothing that I've ever seen before, and well, kind of a problem considering who she is.  Her meltdown completely flipped the switch from me not really being serious about the other job to being as serious as a heart attack.

I talked to New Job's supervisor and an HR Manager this week.

Pros:

  • The company size is more my speed and the company has the cool startup feel that I like
  • The job is 90% payroll and 10% accounting (90% fun and 10% boring)
  • Thanks to some LinkedIn snooping, I found out that I Know People who Know People who work there==>and they give it a thumbs up
  • The HR Manager was very pleasant, energetic, and did not seem the least disgruntled with the company, which was a breath of fresh air
  • $$$

Cons:

  • I didn't get a good sense of the supervisor's personality or what he would be like to work with.  I'll dig that out my upcoming interviews, but it could be a deal breaker.
  • The Disgruntled HR Bigwig at my current job is a problem, but she's really the only hard "con" of my current job. It's basically fine if boring.
  • If this new job doesn't work out, I'm going to be stuck there for a bit since it's going to be tough to make another job hop.  In the last year I've gone from the job that I was at forever, then my resume shows a two month break (hiding a bad job move), and then I started my current job.

I have more interviews next week and get to meet more people. While I think that the most likely outcome is that I won't get the job (if the recruiter found me he also probably found a million other people), but having this opportunity come out of nowhere has been a fun way to let off some steam. And having written this all out, the HR Bigwig's meltdown isn't relevant, but the fact that I'm bored is.

Workouts

Nothing special. I was able to get outside to run once this week and that's all that ask from the fitness universe right now.  In theory I've started half marathon training, but the "long run" for week one was only five miles so I hit the target.  I'm using this plan for my long run distances and doing whatever I feel like doing the rest of the week.

Watching

I took advantage of my single girl time this weekend to get caught up on Love Is Blind.  I'm on a clifhanger until the finale comes out next week.

My husband and I met online, so of course we had to see Tinder Swindler.

Reading

I finished The Maid.  My final verdict is yes, it's a fun book and I'd recommend it, but I can't shake the Eleanor Oliphant ripoff feeling (please hold the phone on that since I'm going to reread Eleanor soon to confirm).  I guess I was expecting an Ah-mazing knock your socks off book and I got a merely good book that's fading in my memory very quickly.

Next up: historical fiction about one of my favorite authors!  For those who don't know or who may have forgotten, in 1926 Agatha Christie went missing right after her husband told her that he wanted a divorce.  A national search was launched and her husband was a suspect in her disappearance.  Eleven days later she was found alive and well at a hotel registered under her husband's mistress's name.  Her story was that she'd had amnesia, no one could prove that she didn't, and no one really knows what really happened.  The Christie Affair recounts all of this, told from the viewpoint of the mistress.

Your turn - WWYD in my work situation?  Stay in the safe but boring job (with the Disgruntled HR) or move on to the bright shiny new thing?  Have you ever seen an HR Bigwig lose it?

16 comments:

  1. Oh, this is interesting, Birchie.
    You will regret the missed opportunity if you don't try to get this job. The risk is that you are not sure about your future supervisor.
    I hope you can get the full picture in upcoming interviews and also get a feeling for your future team. You already know some people there so you're in a good position to get some "real" information.

    All the best! I'm looking forward to your update!

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  2. Gah. Work decisions are so, so hard. If it were me (which it's not, so take this armchair advice with a giant grain of salt) I would follow this as far as it goes! Over the last few years we've had a few situations where we had spreadsheets of pro vs con of moving to Switzerland, for example, or last fall I had a job offer literally show up in my inbox and I was 100% convinced I should turn it down and then one phone call changed my mind (though, to be honest, there have been several times I wish I had turned it down, but it's all mostly good now!) and we put in SO much thought and energy into thinking through decisions and then at some point in the process it became very clear what the right way forward was...I think this, typically, is how these things pan out. You'll get a sixth-sense about the right move and/or a door will open/close that makes the decision very obvious (say another tirade from your HR supervisor, or a firm job offer from this company that literally feels too good to pass over).

    I also watched The Tinder Swindler over the weekend - so frustrating and sad that he's back living his 'best' life repeating the same behaviours. Also watched Downfall about the Boeing 737 Max 8/9 crashes (know what you don't want to receive after watching that documentary? A text from your husband showing his flight the next morning is on a Boeing 737 Max 8.)

    We also started the The Beatles: Get Back. It was clearly a weekend for documentaries.

    That fried rice looks amazing. And beef jerky is the best. I have this super long story about beef jerky (I'll spare you the full soliloquy but to make ends meet when we were first married my husband and I worked at a local university food lab being taste-testers and beef jerky was one of the texture guides for the chewiness scale; I have loved beef jerky ever since).

    http://elisabeth-frost.com

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    1. Yikes! For some reason I've gotten really scared of flying as I've gotten older. I'm going to have to skip Downfall for that reason.

      I think you're absolutely right about things getting clearer the further we go down the path. Everything is up in the air right now but we'll see how it plays out in the next few weeks.

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  3. Ooooh the work situation - I think I'd seriously look at moving on. The grass is always greener, but it kind of sounds like the grass IS greener. It just sounds like it might be a better fit for you.

    The Costco story is great! That's a huge gamble and it PAID OFF. I often want to try things at Costco, and sometimes they flop and I end up with a huge package of something or other that no one wants.

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    1. Yes, the grass is looking really green right now so we'll see!!!

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  4. I think the biggest issue is that you are bored. That's a real problem, unless you can find someway to shift your responsibilities in a non-boring way, but that's probably hard to do a) ever and b) especially when you haven't been there super long. So I would say keep digging for info on the new job, and keep looking for other opportunities.

    YAY for Costco ESP! That is awesome!

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    1. For sure. I didn't realize how much the boredom was a problem until I sat down and wrote this all out.

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  5. Yikes, that is an interesting situation you're in regarding the job outlook. I'd say to follow your gut instinct...which may (or not?) be obvious at the moment, but (like Elisabeth eluded), I would guess that something will trigger your gut to make an easy conclusion. I just finished season-2 of Emily in Paris, and now I have to find something else. The hubs and I did see the first season of Love is Blind (like two years ago?), so that may be a possibility.

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    1. I feel like one thing has gotten crystal clear, which is that my current job is SUPER boring. Love is Blind is trashy-great.

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  6. I don't think you've gathered enough info yet. I find that direct supervisors make a huge difference and I would be interested in knowing more about the personality of that before I would commit to any change of job. That being said, if it all seems pretty good, I'd make a switch to a job I found more fulfilling!

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  7. I always listen to my gut--it never lies! Go interview and see how it feels when you meet the people you will be working with and under. Because no matter how great a company is, it's really all about the people you see every day.

    Oh my goodness, The Tinder Swindler! That was eye opening. I wouldn't have fallen for it because ewww, he's so icky, but still... I loved the Maid, I've read Eleanor Oliphant, and I didn't make a connection. They are both really quirky characters but to me, that's where it ends.

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    1. I'm really interested to go back and reread Eleanor to see if I'm imagining things. Yes I can't imagine going beyond the first date with the Tinder Swindler or doing anything except run away at full speed when he suggested getting on his private jet. But that's just you and me!

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  8. Ooh! I recently finished The Christie Affair and have a few things to say about it. But I'll wait till you're done reading it.
    I'm a little later reading this (not sure how that happened) and I'll be interested to hear if there's anything new on the job front. I agree that the fact you're bored is a pretty big factor. Good luck with it all!

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    1. Eh...I was not expecting the story to go where it did and it lost me. It was a twist for sure.

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