ugh, since when has putting together your cv and the cover letter in a certain way become so difficult? maybe i’m just tired but i can’t get my act together…
oh, and before you ask, yes, i am applying for another job but that’s a once a year thing. which is why a special format is required and i have to put a lot more stuff in than i have in my usually prepared cv.
i’m off to bed. the deadline is monday. still plenty of time 
franzi
Posted by http://lifestartsnow.wordpress.com on February 8, 2011
http://lifestartsnow.wordpress.com/2011/02/08/ugh/
my boss and boss-boss are currently reading “management 101″ pages 4 and 5. the current lessons are “how to create incentives for staff” and “make yourself available to staff” so that it seems like you actually care.
the incentive is a meeting with people from other international offices. sounds good, doesn’t it? well, let’s look a little closer at the offer. it’s a meeting a mere one hour from wiesbaden. so the train ride will not be long and certainly not expensive. the hotel is being covered by the german government. and the food is paid by me because “at home i would also pay my own food”. so yeah, it’s a really big investment.
let’s have a look at the “i care about you” part. my boss-boss came into the office today and wanted to know (of course without any preparation on our part) how we (my colleague and i) feel about the work we do. mh, ok. you want an honest answer? then give me time to prepare and do not ask me in front of my colleagues! don’t get me wrong, i like her. but i think it is totally wrong to ask these kind of questions when the environment is not right. and “listeners” is not ok if you expect honest answers.
regarding my feeling about work, i said that i have mixed feelings…and my boss-boss jaw dropped! hehe. go me. i explained myself and let’s just say that every critique i had was either talked down or blamed on someone else.
you know, when i ask someone about their opinion, i listen, i try to understand, i ask if i don’t get it. nope. like i expected anything different.
oh, and boss-boss was also dissing colleagues who were not present. nice. makes you wonder what she does when i am not present.
why all this? boss and boss-boss probably realized that my probation period is drawing to an end. and also that of my colleague i share the office with. this means that our contracts cannot be cancelled that easily and of course, it’s a planning issue.
so boss-boss wants to know if we intend to stay. of course, that question was never asked. and i would not have answered, especially because i have my interview in leipzig tomorrow.
do i care? i would have, really. but not when it is so darn obvious that, in reality, they do not care. so why bother?
unfortunately, i have the bad feeling that boss and boss-boss are thinking about firing my one colleague who has been wanting to leave for months now. by knowing we would stay (as if) they would have some sort of planning security. fake one, of course. and that might make him replaceable. though the idea behind hiring two new people was that there is so much work that it is necessary to have 3.5 people working there, not just 2.5.
oh well. i’ll keep you posted on these developments!
for tomorrow, i hope you are thinking of me. i’m very curious to see the offer!
best,
franzi
Posted by http://lifestartsnow.wordpress.com on January 22, 2009
http://lifestartsnow.wordpress.com/2009/01/22/thats-pathetic/
dear all,
merry christmas to you and your family! i hope you enjoy this time of *supposedly* peace with loved ones! thank you for your dear comments regarding the job thing. i’ll write more about it further down. keep on reading!
my christmas started quite shocking. on the 23rd my mom decided that she wasn’t already busy with all the preparations for christmas. no! she needed to save the world and went to donate blood. it was her 25th donation so she got a little something there (a bottle of sparkling wine, a lapel pin in gold with a cross and a ruby symbolizing a drop of blood in the middle of the cross, and a diploma.
all went well until she fainted. big time! they couldn’t get her blood pressure up again so they decided she needed to go to the ER. someone who was there to donate blood also stopped by at home and told me, kind of in between, that she was going to the ER. i was totally shocked, didn’t know what to do, and was mad at the docs for not calling me but having some stranger (apparently my mom knows him but i don’t) tell me.
after long 10 minutes in which i tried to find a ride to the hospital, the doc called me saying they are still waiting for the ambulance. it had to get there from another town and in total they waited about 25 minutes on it. honestly, if this was some life or death emergency….well, you know where i’m going.
so i managed to see my mom briefly at the blood donation site and then the ambulance people put her on their stretcher and into the ambulance. i was close to crying and making a scene right there. a day before christmas and my mom is on a stretcher on her way to the ER??? i mean, what a timing. and i saw myself as orphan, though, yes, it wasn’t as bad. but at that moment my mind didn’t know what to do, my knees were shaking, i was sweating, i was cold, i was just completely confused.
i called my sister also but she couldn’t really do much because of her daughter. so my uncle drove me to the ER where i had to wait for what seemed like forever. the ER was packed with people. moms with their toddlers, people in pain and desperate need for a doctor, a whole family with 3 kids because the dad had something (that family? oh boy… talking about a wife not worried at all about her husband and quite not interested in what her kids are doing – she read a gossip magazine instead), and me. clearly not sick but the longer i had to wait the more i was worried.
time passed and i have to tell you, it’s a good thing they have no clock there. i would go nuts if i had seen how many minutes and seconds i was already waiting!
that family guy made a stupid comment about how he didn’t get any treatment but the people who came in the ambulance did and i was close to talking back. like it’s fun to actually need to call an ambulance and not being able to show up in the ER yourself. i attributed his comment to the overall pain he was in -good for him- and the outright coldbloodedness of his wife.
i asked several nurses until i was finally allowed into the room where my mom was treated. she looked much better than when i saw her on that stretcher and we made jokes about riding in the ambulance. her blood pressure did take some time to stabilize though, so we left the ER at about 10pm (she went to donate blood at 5pm).
they say it all happened because she didn’t drink enough. i hope so. because that’s fixable. i’ll try to make sure she drinks enough. yet i can’t force her.
all of this really scared the poop out of me! i can’t imagine what i would do without my mom. i mean, she could have a car accident any day, or a stroke or something. but only when people actually are sick, you realize that life is fragile and that it should be appreciated every day. we take too much for granted. think about it and hug your parents and loved ones! it could be your last!
ok, from that gloomy-turned-happy ending to my job disaster. it’s interesting to see your opinions. it seems like people who know me from wiesbaden (work now) feel like i shouldn’t go (or at least think VERY carefully) whereas people not involved with wiesbaden or those who have known me a little longer seem to be on the “go for it” side.
i didn’t make up my mind yet. and to give you all a little more insight, here is more info.
the possible new job would be in leipzig. that is roughly 500km from wiesbaden, so it clearly is a move and it wouldn’t be easy to see my friends from wiesbaden for a night out in town *irish pub*
leipzig is closer to my hometown. that doesn’t matter to me, but it seems to matter to my family. both jobs are/would be at private universities which means demanding students, a customer oriented approach to work and less constraints yet more constraints. i guess different constraints – what am i trying to say again?!?!
because i have already signed the lease for my new place (starting in february) i would, if worse comes to worse, have to pay 1800 euro in rent for a place i am not using. add to this the deposit and i am almost unable to pay a similar deposit for a place in leipzig. let alone pay the move and all.
i have to admit that my current thoughts run around money mostly. all the technicalities need to be paid. i cannot sweet talk rent or deposits. i need money for that unless i want to sleep under the bridge. i guess some of this can be part of a new work contract (moving allowance or something) but i will be stuck with some of the cost for sure.
i sincerely appreciate your opinions! especially those of my silent readers *hey rebecca!* now is your time to shine! give me your thoughts folks, i promise to consider them. just don’t stalk me, will ya?!
enjoy the time with your family! more christmas updates coming up!
hug,
franzi
Posted by http://lifestartsnow.wordpress.com on December 25, 2008
http://lifestartsnow.wordpress.com/2008/12/25/merry-christmas/
