Wierd Week

So this week started off simply enough.

I received a promotion to Inventory and Purchasing Manager at the Verizon Wireless Indirect Agent that I work for, including a pay raise, as part of a company-wide restructuring. Basically, I'll be responsible for ordering, receiving and distributing product and office supplies to the stores as well as coaching sales reps on selling accessories.

On Tuesday, we had what everyone is calling Snowmaggedon 2011, or the Snowpocalypse. 14"+ of snow fell on the Northern Illinois area. Our VZW stores closed down at 5, and UPS actually called us and told us to stay home. That's only the second time that has happened.

On Wednesday, almost everything was still buried in snow and most of our stores stayed closed once more. I received another text message from my boss at UPS telling us that the Night Sort had been canceled, the first time I've ever seen it closed back to back days due to weather.

I was just about to go to bed, at around 1030, when I received another text message from my UPS boss: we had to go in at 430 to run a bunch of Illinois volume through the hub. So I went to bed and got up at 3am, went to work and suffered through a terribly unorganized sort.

I went straight to VZW from UPS and got the store opened and started finally working on my new job, getting some product together for one of our busier stores and a new location that they are opening nearby.

In the early afternoon, she called the bank and found out that my credit had finally been dragged up enough that we were preapproved for a home loan. She has had her eye on a house near our apartment that started at over 120K but has slowly been sinking since then. She said that as soon as we got the pre-approval letter from the bank that we could get with our realtor and start looking at houses in our price range.

At around 3pm my phone started ringing as my wife called me. I was with a customer so I ignored it for the time being but she called several times and texted a couple of times as well. When I had the chance I took a look at the text message and saw that she needed me to call her right away because the Doctor's office had called.

I stepped away and called her and she informed me that because of certain high risk factors, the doctor's wanted to induce labor and we needed to be at the hospital by 5pm! I made sure everything was in line and rushed home to help pack a suitcase and get the wife to the hospital.

I sent out a mass text to the whole family to let them know what was going on and of course hit up Facebook.

I called my boss at UPS to tell him that I wasn't going to be at work and he informed me that one of the other supervisors in my area was also having a baby at the same hospital, funny how things work out that way.

We got to the hospital around 5 and found that we weren't the only ones that were going to have a baby. All of the hospital's labor and delivery rooms were occupied with mothers getting ready to have kids so we had to wait in the waiting room for about half an hour before we finally got into a "Stage 1" room, where the early stages of the process would be handled.

We were there for around 3 hours before we were moved to a "Final Stage" room where they would administer the medicine to induce labor and where the baby would be born. At around 1030 they started the medicine and it became a waiting game.

I caught some nap time for the next few hours waiting for the real fun to begin. At around 6am, my wife was finally at around 4cm dialated and her water broke, a sure sign that our son would be around shortly. In less than an hour she dialated another 6 cm to "Full" and was ready to push, all we were waiting on was the doctor.

Once the doctor got to the hospital and got scrubbed in, it only took less than half an hour for Jaydran Alexander to be born at 726am, 6.6 lbs and 19".

The hospital staff got him all cleaned up and let me be the first family member to hold the newest Johnson.

In short order everyone else that was at the hospital was allowed to hold the baby. Both Grandmas, my dad, my sister and my sister-in-law all got their chance to hold Baby Jaydran.

Cataclysm and Life

So I haven't posted in a little while because I've been really busy with both jobs, but I have a little bit of time so I thought I would throw one up.

First, I've been working on getting my VZW employees trained and relatively self-sufficient so my weekly concern about who I'm going to have close my store on Thursdays (when my usual keyholder is off). They all seem to be relatively competent and I think that all 3 of them will be keepers, even if I end up shipping one off to another location. My only concern is convincing my boss to give them enough of a salary to keep them onboard. One of them has some management potential, but they all need a lot more work on their actual sales pitch and interaction with the customers.

Next, UPS is about to get fun. I found out last night that I did indeed get my V-Sort spot so next week and the week after I'll be looking at almost 100 hours between both jobs. Its worth it though, as each week of VSort is worth $100-150 extra after taxes. Fortunately, all of my employees seem to be working out rather well.

So, outside of work, the latest World of Warcraft expansion, Cataclysm, launched this week. Its the first time that I haven't gone out and picked up a copy for myself and its a little strange. My wife picked up a copy at midnight and has been playing while I'm at work. I haven't had a fully active account for almost a year now: I was burned out right before Peak hit at UPS and then I got my second job in February so I haven't really had time to play.

And I really doubt that I'm going to pick up a copy at all. Once the baby gets here its not like I'll be able to just up and quit either of my jobs. And if I do, it will be because I got promoted to the point where I don't need both of them and will be working additional hours anyways.

I played for almost 4 years straight, with some minor breaks, and it was a major part of my life for so long. But now, it just seems like a waste of time. So my characters will probably just sit and I'll pop onto the Wife's account every once in a while to play on one of her alts that she doesn't like to play anymore.

The Dreaded Interview...

So most people that I know hate going to interviews. You're thrown out all kinds of questions that don't really have good answers, are totally vague, have nothing to do with the job or any of the above and more.

While I'm not exactly thrilled at the rare occurrence that I have had to go to an interview (I know its under 10), they aren't the worst thing in the world.

Now, being on the other end of the sharp stick is a completely different matter. In my years working in various aspects of management for different kinds of companies, I have always hated being the interviewer. Having to come up with all of the obtuse questions and trying to make a snap judgement on someone over the course of 10-30 minutes.

And the only thing worse than a one-on-one interview is a group interview. Fortunately, I've only been in on 1 group interview though, so my experience there has been gratefully limited.

But I realize that as the Store Manager, its my job to interview people for job openings, and soon because Black Friday is only a few weeks away.

Now, as part of the interview process the application is typically going to be the first thing that I see about my potential employees. And the first thing that I'm going to notice is the handwriting. Now, I don't have the best handwriting in the world when I'm writing for myself, or my wife or at work. But when I fill out a job application, I am deliberate and precise with my handwriting. There is nothing worse than an application that is completely illegible.

In the event that people actually turn in their application directly to me, appearance is the next concern. If you come in in a t-shirt and jeans, I'm probably going to look less favorably on your application. Now, not to say that people have to come in wearing a 3-pc suit, but at least look like you're trying.

Once I get to the actual application, more concerns come to mind. I will admit that now we're in the digital age, where everyone has an email and there are more free-email services than I care to count, the first thing that I look at is a person's email. I was recently reinforced in my thoughts on this matter by an article that I read on Yahoo about things not to do when you are filling out applications. It really isn't that hard to hit up yahoo, hotmail, live or gmail and get a simple first initial, dot, last name @ email address. And it isn't like the people that you are going to be giving this email address to don't already have your name, so what does it matter? People who turn in applications with emails like "pixiprincess" "bigpapa" or the like are not very likely to be at the top of my list for people to hire.

Next, we have your employment history. Now, I will grant that most applications only have room for 3 jobs, but turning in a resume allows for much more expansive work history. Unless you have only had 3 jobs, putting that place you worked at for 2 weeks is probably not a good idea. I always look at length of employment when I'm skimming resumes and applications. I'm more receptive to a skimpy work history than one that has half a dozen jobs where you only worked a few weeks or a month or two.

The rule I have for my personal resume is simple: Less than 8 weeks doesn't count, unless it directly relates to the job I'm trying to get. So my 7 week stint as a barista, my 6 weeks working for Domino's after I left Papa John's and my 6 weeks as a Telemarketer get left off unless I'm applying for a job in one of those three fields (none of which I would ever want to work in again, I might add.)

The last pet peeve is for the previous work experience area. The label says "Reason for Leaving". By the very title, it implies that I realize you probably no longer work there. If you still work there, your "From-To" dates should read "Presently Employed", "Present" or "Current. The "Reason for Leaving", in this case, should be why you are looking to quit, or the simple fact that you intend to remain employed.

Putting "Quit" under "Reason for Leaving" is terrible. Considering the fact that there are only 3 options: Quit, Fired or Still Employed, I want to know why you Quit or why you were let go. The best applications I have ever seen explain why the person was no longer employed with that company, seasonal work, lay offs or quit for whatever reason. Now, if why you were let go is too lengthy for the box, "Will Explain" is sufficient. To be honest, I don't care half the time.

And that brings us to the interview. For a job like the ones at UPS, going to the interview with the HR person in casual attire, jeans and a jacket, is perfectly acceptable. You're going to be wearing those clothes more likely than not. However, for my work at VZW, showing up to the interview in jeans is a no-no, especially when I tell all of my interviewees to dress "professionally." Polo shirts are even reaching a bit for that line. A pair of dress pants, or a skirt if you must ladies, and a button-up shirt or nice blouse is all I'm asking. Again, no need to break out the 3-pc suit or tuxedo.

And finally, bear with me. We both realize that interviews suck, but they're a necessary evil.

Final Note: Calling once a week, or once every other week for a couple weeks after the interview is acceptable. Calling every day after you turn in your application is see if it has been reviewed yet is a sure fire way to get it filed in the circular cabinet.

Ah the irony

So for the last few months, basically since I took over as the Store Manager, my VZW Indirect Store has been slightly overstaffed. Not heavily overstaffed to the point where no one is making any money, but overstaffed to the point where we often had too many people working most of the time.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, my UPS area has been chronically understaffed (as I mentioned in my previous post) and I had been trying to convince my full-time supervisor to get me more people.

Now, coming back from vacation, I find the situations reversed. My UPS area has more people than I technically need (but I'm not telling anyone there that fact) and I just had 2 employees yanked from my VZW store so I'm down to me and 1 other person.

The reasons for the reversal: at UPS we're hiring hand over fist in preparation for Peak (a glorious 2-3 week period where our volume triples and we move everyone's Christmas goodies). On the other hand, the Indirect Agent I work for just took over 5 new stores in the surrounding area and now we need staff to handle those positions.

So while my 25hrs per week at UPS should prove relatively painless, at least through the end of November, I've got about 1 week to get some staff hired and another week or two to train them before Black Friday and the Christmas shopping season. The fact that most of the applicants I get aren't qualified to fight their way out of a wet paperbag is unfortunate, but I might just have to suck it up and deal.

Such is life I guess.