Thursday, June 06, 2013
Thursday Night...
I am so glad to be just vegging out on my couch. I wish I could just open up my bottle of wine and drink the night away, except my eczema is driving me nuts at the moment and I have to take care of not putting myself in a situation where my itching gets any worse.
My house too is in a crazy mess and I need my friend whom DL and I used to employ in our business to come clean my house, which she is only free next weekend. My skin is way too sensitive to be in contact with dust at the moment. Even water can be a pain to worsen my itch. Literally, I should stay away from all elements as much as possible. I am staying off any anti-histamines as the ones I have are way too strong and will knock me out and put me out for a good whole day. I have bottles of steroid tablets in various strengths sitting on my benchtop and I am determined not to go down that path and to seek more holistic methods to get my body back on track...
****
Today my alarm clock didn't ring because my phone was not properly charged and I literally jumped up from my bed and got dressed hastily in the cold to make it on time in 15 minutes to hop onto my last peak hour express bus for the morning.
I was greeted with a pile of work to be done as well as having to do peer training with a fellow colleague to assisting her in submitting a quotation for a government department. The task set by my brilliant boss was to teach my colleague on how to quote on a job and the formula that allows her to arrive at a price whilst cross referencing all the deeds and contracts we have with the client. Whilst Maths wasn't the forte of my young colleague, Fifi, combing through the details of contracts, deeds and standing orders isn't mine. I am all for quick, quick, quick solutions. Everyone in the office knows how demanding I can be when I need to get things done. I was profiled to be a big picture person with the strongest problem solving ability in the entire office of consultants. Patience is not a virtue I possess but a sense of urgency is which make me suited to the first paced profession I am in.
So my clever gay boss, the head honcho whom in his life has had a more diverse career than I do ranging from being a midwife to a lecturer to a principal in an international school to being a top billing recruiter and on top of living in 11 countries and speaking five languages and an extremely interesting and colourful life to match, knew exactly how to create a mutually beneficial arrangement for both my colleague and I to pick on on skills we both needed learning. I blocked out only 30 minutes on my outlook calendar, thinking that that would do it with our training session only to realise that our training session stretched out to more than an hour. Whilst looking through the figures, I realised that I needed to do more digging of the deed and ended up getting the help of our Risk Manager to review the contract I was working my figures off and if we were looking at the relevant award rates to pay the contractors on our books. My boss smiled knowing how I hated looking through lengthy contracts but acknowledged for once I was residing on the cautious side of double-checking the details before I launched into my calculations. By this stage, my young, airy fairy colleague was feeling like everything was doing her head in and needed to take short breaks.
Finally I developed a process and formula to help her understanding about the different components relating to the on-costs we charge and how we come up with different margins. Whilst I am relatively proficient in Maths, I am not the most organised person and so to facilitate the learning of the other party I am teaching and in order for her to benefit from the session and not waste her time (since I am a results driven person who hates to waste anybody's time including my own), I was compelled to make my formulas succinct and easy to understand. Then I wrote out every step of the working to show her how the numbers were derived.
Fifi was still not getting it and in her cute, child-like, airhead manner, she exclaimed, "It is all giving me a headache. I don't understand. I always have a rates calculator to help me come up with the figure. It is the first time I need to submit a quote based on the client's format." Rates calculator, on the contrary do my head in and just like my boss, I need to understand the why or process behind something to make sense to my learning. My boss laughed and said, "Yes P, you need to slow it down for Fifi. Do you know the scores of both your numerical reasoning and mine put together is much higher than the entire office?" I thought I had broken it down for her, detailing the components that made up each variable of the equation.
To cut the long story short, I kept assuring her we would get there (in my light-hearted and comical way which always amuses her to no end) and I made her reiterate the formula with me like a school teacher does to a pupil. Then I prompted her to punch the numbers into the calculator and tested her understanding based on the big, fat formula I wrote on the notebook. She started to get the underlying principles and her face was lighting up, although she needed a bit of time to do the thinking to arrive with the answers on her own. We finally derived on three probable quotation which she could run by our boss based on being compliant to our terms of business agreement, balancing our own margins and factoring some legislative changes to the award rates and superannuation laws as of the new financial year. It was a more satisfying experience than I thought (since I was abit hesitant about my ability to help her when the thick attachment files were emailed to me and I felt like I was in for a needle-in-a-haystack fact finding experience- oh just take me to the destination already!) teaching a man to fish and then catching the fish. Fifi was so happy that she picked something up from the session ("You should be a teacher!") and I suddenly recalled my youth as a tutor for a pair of primary school siblings. There was indeed a sense of satisfaction from knowing that I could contribute to one's learning and I too, felt less daunted about deriving at the answers of my quotation. I had blocked out the entire morning for private desk time to submit my quotation and put forward six candidates and by the time we were done with the session, it was close to lunch time. I still hadn't touched my own work. My deadline is close of business tomorrow.
I spent my lunch at my desk and had to move on to the next block of meeting I have with my colleague who will really be my right arm in time to come to work through culling some 50 CVs. We make a great team so far- our boss had deliberately hired us based on our profiles- whilst she is a strong administrator, I would be a great sales and account manager.
My entire day felt rather disjointed and I ended up being one of the last to go home. But before I do so, I waylaid my boss who was about to go home himself to look through my own figures for tomorrow's quotation. I still have shortlisted candidates to interview with my colleague-partner first thing tomorrow mornin before I could write up all six candidate reports and also ring all their referees. With the coming elections, jobs are getting more competitive and for me to win the jobs, I need to stay ahead of the game and distinct my competitive edge from my competitors. As an interesting exercise for myself, I will be putting forward a candidate who looks really good on paper and sounded not too bad over the phone. She had confessed that our competitors have put her forward for the role several times but she had never been granted an interview for the same role. So to prove to myself that I will be able to at least secure her an interview, I have come up with a strategy (and I LOVE strategies- the only thing that gets me excited about my line of work and of course, knowing what the fee size of each deal we bring in). Let's see how I go.
****
As usual, I ended up buying MacDonald's (everyone in the office knows I am such a food junkie although the truth is I don't even like it except for fries but it is cheap and quick and I much prefer my own cooking if I got time and if not the darn eczema on my fingers that seem to react to the touch of things!) for dinner at the bus interchange. I jumped onto my bus and ate my dinner on the way home to save time.
I suddenly remember that in my busy-ness, I forgot to let one of my temp staff know that I will be out on site to meet him and the client. I only just stepped into my house . Before I could send off my text to him, my phone rang. It was the property developer that I have been working closely with to market properties out in the Pacific Islands. He had got me some leads and as usual, love to discuss and brainstorm ideas about the developments we are marketing. It is always pleasant to speak and learn from a veteran like him. He was telling me about our investment forecasts and returns and lots of other interesting things for me to build up my knowledge of the industry and work we are doing.
So before I had time to sit on the couch to rest my feet and really my brain, I had to wear my real estate hat and go right into another lengthy work discussion.
But seems like we are ready to hit the ground running in a big way and I, too am gradually getting traction with my leads.
All seems to be going pretty well at the moment. I am glad to be learning under such great and interesting people who are not only good teachers but strong mentors who know where my strengths lie and give me the space but also guidance to grow.
I can't say I dislike my life at the moment...
Life is great and can only get better...:)
Alright time to relax and give my brain a break... a new set of challenge awaits me tomorrow and I think I better go into work early before the madness begins yet again...:)
My house too is in a crazy mess and I need my friend whom DL and I used to employ in our business to come clean my house, which she is only free next weekend. My skin is way too sensitive to be in contact with dust at the moment. Even water can be a pain to worsen my itch. Literally, I should stay away from all elements as much as possible. I am staying off any anti-histamines as the ones I have are way too strong and will knock me out and put me out for a good whole day. I have bottles of steroid tablets in various strengths sitting on my benchtop and I am determined not to go down that path and to seek more holistic methods to get my body back on track...
****
Today my alarm clock didn't ring because my phone was not properly charged and I literally jumped up from my bed and got dressed hastily in the cold to make it on time in 15 minutes to hop onto my last peak hour express bus for the morning.
I was greeted with a pile of work to be done as well as having to do peer training with a fellow colleague to assisting her in submitting a quotation for a government department. The task set by my brilliant boss was to teach my colleague on how to quote on a job and the formula that allows her to arrive at a price whilst cross referencing all the deeds and contracts we have with the client. Whilst Maths wasn't the forte of my young colleague, Fifi, combing through the details of contracts, deeds and standing orders isn't mine. I am all for quick, quick, quick solutions. Everyone in the office knows how demanding I can be when I need to get things done. I was profiled to be a big picture person with the strongest problem solving ability in the entire office of consultants. Patience is not a virtue I possess but a sense of urgency is which make me suited to the first paced profession I am in.
So my clever gay boss, the head honcho whom in his life has had a more diverse career than I do ranging from being a midwife to a lecturer to a principal in an international school to being a top billing recruiter and on top of living in 11 countries and speaking five languages and an extremely interesting and colourful life to match, knew exactly how to create a mutually beneficial arrangement for both my colleague and I to pick on on skills we both needed learning. I blocked out only 30 minutes on my outlook calendar, thinking that that would do it with our training session only to realise that our training session stretched out to more than an hour. Whilst looking through the figures, I realised that I needed to do more digging of the deed and ended up getting the help of our Risk Manager to review the contract I was working my figures off and if we were looking at the relevant award rates to pay the contractors on our books. My boss smiled knowing how I hated looking through lengthy contracts but acknowledged for once I was residing on the cautious side of double-checking the details before I launched into my calculations. By this stage, my young, airy fairy colleague was feeling like everything was doing her head in and needed to take short breaks.
Finally I developed a process and formula to help her understanding about the different components relating to the on-costs we charge and how we come up with different margins. Whilst I am relatively proficient in Maths, I am not the most organised person and so to facilitate the learning of the other party I am teaching and in order for her to benefit from the session and not waste her time (since I am a results driven person who hates to waste anybody's time including my own), I was compelled to make my formulas succinct and easy to understand. Then I wrote out every step of the working to show her how the numbers were derived.
Fifi was still not getting it and in her cute, child-like, airhead manner, she exclaimed, "It is all giving me a headache. I don't understand. I always have a rates calculator to help me come up with the figure. It is the first time I need to submit a quote based on the client's format." Rates calculator, on the contrary do my head in and just like my boss, I need to understand the why or process behind something to make sense to my learning. My boss laughed and said, "Yes P, you need to slow it down for Fifi. Do you know the scores of both your numerical reasoning and mine put together is much higher than the entire office?" I thought I had broken it down for her, detailing the components that made up each variable of the equation.
To cut the long story short, I kept assuring her we would get there (in my light-hearted and comical way which always amuses her to no end) and I made her reiterate the formula with me like a school teacher does to a pupil. Then I prompted her to punch the numbers into the calculator and tested her understanding based on the big, fat formula I wrote on the notebook. She started to get the underlying principles and her face was lighting up, although she needed a bit of time to do the thinking to arrive with the answers on her own. We finally derived on three probable quotation which she could run by our boss based on being compliant to our terms of business agreement, balancing our own margins and factoring some legislative changes to the award rates and superannuation laws as of the new financial year. It was a more satisfying experience than I thought (since I was abit hesitant about my ability to help her when the thick attachment files were emailed to me and I felt like I was in for a needle-in-a-haystack fact finding experience- oh just take me to the destination already!) teaching a man to fish and then catching the fish. Fifi was so happy that she picked something up from the session ("You should be a teacher!") and I suddenly recalled my youth as a tutor for a pair of primary school siblings. There was indeed a sense of satisfaction from knowing that I could contribute to one's learning and I too, felt less daunted about deriving at the answers of my quotation. I had blocked out the entire morning for private desk time to submit my quotation and put forward six candidates and by the time we were done with the session, it was close to lunch time. I still hadn't touched my own work. My deadline is close of business tomorrow.
I spent my lunch at my desk and had to move on to the next block of meeting I have with my colleague who will really be my right arm in time to come to work through culling some 50 CVs. We make a great team so far- our boss had deliberately hired us based on our profiles- whilst she is a strong administrator, I would be a great sales and account manager.
My entire day felt rather disjointed and I ended up being one of the last to go home. But before I do so, I waylaid my boss who was about to go home himself to look through my own figures for tomorrow's quotation. I still have shortlisted candidates to interview with my colleague-partner first thing tomorrow mornin before I could write up all six candidate reports and also ring all their referees. With the coming elections, jobs are getting more competitive and for me to win the jobs, I need to stay ahead of the game and distinct my competitive edge from my competitors. As an interesting exercise for myself, I will be putting forward a candidate who looks really good on paper and sounded not too bad over the phone. She had confessed that our competitors have put her forward for the role several times but she had never been granted an interview for the same role. So to prove to myself that I will be able to at least secure her an interview, I have come up with a strategy (and I LOVE strategies- the only thing that gets me excited about my line of work and of course, knowing what the fee size of each deal we bring in). Let's see how I go.
****
As usual, I ended up buying MacDonald's (everyone in the office knows I am such a food junkie although the truth is I don't even like it except for fries but it is cheap and quick and I much prefer my own cooking if I got time and if not the darn eczema on my fingers that seem to react to the touch of things!) for dinner at the bus interchange. I jumped onto my bus and ate my dinner on the way home to save time.
I suddenly remember that in my busy-ness, I forgot to let one of my temp staff know that I will be out on site to meet him and the client. I only just stepped into my house . Before I could send off my text to him, my phone rang. It was the property developer that I have been working closely with to market properties out in the Pacific Islands. He had got me some leads and as usual, love to discuss and brainstorm ideas about the developments we are marketing. It is always pleasant to speak and learn from a veteran like him. He was telling me about our investment forecasts and returns and lots of other interesting things for me to build up my knowledge of the industry and work we are doing.
So before I had time to sit on the couch to rest my feet and really my brain, I had to wear my real estate hat and go right into another lengthy work discussion.
But seems like we are ready to hit the ground running in a big way and I, too am gradually getting traction with my leads.
All seems to be going pretty well at the moment. I am glad to be learning under such great and interesting people who are not only good teachers but strong mentors who know where my strengths lie and give me the space but also guidance to grow.
I can't say I dislike my life at the moment...
Life is great and can only get better...:)
Alright time to relax and give my brain a break... a new set of challenge awaits me tomorrow and I think I better go into work early before the madness begins yet again...:)
