Review

My review on Tuesday went very well. I got the maximum possible raise - it's only about half the increase I really need, but it beats nothing by a long shot. However, I was also advised that part of my review next year will be based on my marketing accomplishments, which is to say how many candidate referrals and job orders I generate.

See I work for a major provider of various kinds of contract labor all over the world. When most people here the name of the division that I work for, they immediately think of what this division is most famous for: temporary accounting staffers - you know, the folks you call when your payables clerk goes on vacation for two weeks. Which is fine, if that's all you need. The thing is, a regular temp is always looking for something better, because they only get paid for hours worked. Either that, or they're expecting the position where they're temping will turn into a permanent job with the client company.

On the other hand, I work as a different kind of contractor. I am a full time employee of my company, with vacations and benefits and everything else that goes with it; and I work long-term assignments with any given client. For example, my shortest assignment so far was 5 months. My current one will run well into 2008. It's good for me, because it gives me the stability of full-time employment, and the flexibility of contract work. It's good for the client because s/he knows that I will stay until the project is completed, instead of always looking for a better job.

Now here's the tricky part of marketing this service: it's currently operating as a subset of each of the company's other divisions (each of which provides a different type of temporary help); instead of being a separate division, providing this kind of staffing in all of the different categories. The result is that we're kind of a "stealth" service, and hardly anyone knows who we are or what we do. Unfortunately, until there are more of us doing more business, the parent company won't make us into a separate division (even though that would make effective marketing so much easier). Kind of a catch-22 situation.

So they encourage us to market for the service, by offering us bonuses for each new candidate or job order we generate, if it works out. Between the commissions and the boost it can give to one's year-end raise, the staffer who is also a good marketer can make a fair chunk of change. One of our people made $5,000 in 2006, just in referral bonuses!

Obviously, I need to sharpen up my marketing skills! I've asked my boss to give me whatever marketing tools have already been created (brochures, etc.), since my business card only has the name of the service in a small font - hardly visible next to the logo of the temp division I work for. Depending on what materials they give me, I may wind up either modifying it or creating something new that highlights the service and shows how we're "not your ordinary temp". I talk it up all the time, but without something tangible to leave with folks as a reminder, how much of it can stick, you know?

Anyway, I also filled my boss in about my current housing situation, and persuaded him to try to do something that this company almost never does - give me an advance to help alleviate the problem.


Well, this post has gotten quite long enough. Stay tuned!

And as if it weren't already depressing enough...

Today I got a letter from the landlord's lawyer (the same lawyer I called at the beginning of the month to ask for a modification of the stipulation, because my paychecks are being severely reduced by the state for back taxes) stating that because I didn't hold to the original stipulation, they are going to seek judgment against me in court on Wednesday afternoon. I don't know what I'm going to do; I barely have the fare to go to my review on Tuesday, I don't know if I have the fare to go to court the next day, too.

Merry Fucking Christmas. Maybe I'll get hit by a train.

What kind of holiday food are you?

You Are a Fruitcake

People pretend you're sweet and precious, but they know how weird you really are!

What Holiday Food Are You?

What's your holiday stress level?

Your Holiday Stress Level is High

Everything about the holidays stresses you out - from your freaky family to packed malls. Maybe this is the perfect time of year for you to take a solo vacation to Hawaii.

What's Your Holiday Stress Level?

Where I've been instead

I've been posting on my other blog, The Tactile Arts Play Group, about a variety of crafty stuff.

So if you want to read about what makes me feel better, come on over.

If you'd rather read my bitching about how much my life sucks, stick around. I'll be back now and then to do exactly that.

I keep meaning to start posting computer tips and such here, but I haven't gotten around to that...

I know I haven't posted very much here

That's because (as usual) I don't have a lot of time to spend online, and what time I do have, I'd rather spend in more cheerful ways than bitching about my life here. It's depressing enough to live it; lately bitching just means that I'm dwelling on it, which just brings me down more.

For example, here are a few highlights of my holiday season:

• Last Friday, I took Honey to see her pain doctor, and we both saw our GP.
  
• $200 for co-pays
• $300 for various medications
• $20 for gas for the friend who met us at the BART station and took us to the GP's office (so I didn't have to push Honey's wheelchair that mile), and then home again
• $35 for a new TV antenna (the old one had died)
• $50 for essential groceries
• The effect of the above is (among other things) that I've had to cancel the two-night hotel stay I'd planned for next week - the first chance I've had in nearly three years to take a couple of days completely off duty and let other people take care of me for a little while.
• This coming Tuesday, I have my annual review, so I figured I'd at least take the afternoon to be out of the house for a little bit, at least.
• Today, I had to take one of the cats to the vet. There went what little money I had, for gas money to the same friend, and a roll of cheap screening to fix one of the windows so we can ventilate the place a little better. So much for my afternoon off. I have enough for the fare to go to my review, and go to the bank later in the week to get the rent check cut (which will take all of my upcoming paycheck, plus advances from two different sources.)
  
• So we're going to be broke for the next three weeks, at least, and then it's time to do it again for the next month's rent. sigh
• We're having grilled cheese sandwiches for Christmas dinner, and probably for at least the next week.
• The guy upstairs has his stereo cranked way up. The good news is that it's some really good blues; the bad news is that listening to the blues is definitely not cheering me up.

So how are your holidays?

It's Almost Over

Tomorrow marks the end of the first whole week I've had entirely off (except for taking care of Honey, that is) in about two years. I had all kinds of ideas for things I wanted to do with the time, but I wound up doing nearly nothing at all. I slept late, I watched TV all day, ate too much of extra-rich food, I read...that's about it.

How have you spent the holiday week?