The Review

I had been feeling sorta off all week, and yesterday three separate people asked me if I was okay. And yeah, I felt pretty bad, but couldn't figure out why until this morning- hooray for sleeping in (I swapped shifts with The Supervisor, because she told me I looked like hell and needed sleep). It was because I was stressed out! I can't believe it took me all week to figure that out. That's the difference between working at My Former Employer vs. where I work now. I still love my job, but there's just too much of it at the moment. So I'm looking at what I can delegate, and I'm trying to avoid doing other departments' work for them! All will be better soon, I'm sure.


So on to today... only the one meeting, thank goodness. And it's usually fun, even it it *is* at my expense (it's the weekly "make fun of Kathleen because she's from America" meeting- oh, how I'll get them back when we head to Arizona!). My Boss wants me to use my southern redneck voice for an entire meeting someday.

Anyway, the meeting is wrapping up, and My Boss says "can I have a word with you?" Now, in my previous job, that was NEVER a good sign. So that, combined with being stressed out, made me sweat a little. And then he says "I have to do your three-month review." Shit! a) I've been here three months already, and b) I knew I had to go through a three month review, but I didn't know it would be *today*. We find a corner and sit down. He explains that it's the informal one (I have a formal one at six months, then I'm off probation- all standard procedure). He asks me about any problems I might be having, and I raised an issue that had been ongoing, sort of, but that was about it. I'm then waiting for him to say what he thinks of my job performance (if you ask me what I'd grade myself, I'd do a solid C: not great, but not bad, either). My Boss had nothing but good things to say. I was shocked. He mentioned how he loved that I was integrating the Sales Office with the rest of the building, and not letting it turn into an island. Mentioned my operating with grace under pressure. That he liked the attitude in the box office- loose but able to crack on with things and get the job done. And that when I'm at work I work my ass off, but I also make sure I take time for myself, and I make sure others use their holiday time as well. He was amazed that I've adjusted so thoroughly and well to life in general... it was really strange to hear all of these good, positive things when I've been thinking less than perfect thoughts about my work performance.


After the whole what's going well/what's not segment, My Boss asked if I thought there was anything I needed training on, managerial-wise, because he'd make sure I got some if I thought I needed it. And he said "what do you need from me? How can I support you better, because I've been doing a poor job so far." And I laughed. Any of you who were around for my former job would know that a question like this would never even get asked! So we decided on weekly meetings would be fine- we've been saying for a long time that we need to do that, and never get around to scheduling them in. As we were getting up to leave, I said something about my 6 month review, and My Boss said "oh, don't worry about that, we won't let you go anywhere."

This is new territory for me- a job I really enjoy, people I enjoy working with, and a boss that is actually interested in training and support. I'm relishing it. And because things are good on the work front, it leaves me free to focus on how to improve upon the personal/social, which I'd put a lot of work into before I left Connecticut. Now if I didn't lack willpower/motivation to follow through!...