I lost an agent from my team. He was the new guy and wasn’t able to handle the pressure. He was so close to getting over the bump and it would have been easier for him. There is a lot of knowledge to absorb. But once you get it, it’s easy. He will be missed.
I was very tired after my workday, so I took a nap when I arrived home. After dinner I played a game called Cheese Touch with the kids. It’s a pretty fun game.
🌦️ 50°F – 42°F 🥱 | Seattle
Today was a snapping point for me at work. External teams were not doing their workload and it was effecting my team for way too long. I have restructured everyone’s job duties and their time schedules. It was all over the place and it didn’t make sense on how the company operates today. I had a very long discussion with the director on specific issues and how I was going to resolve them. He gave me some pointers and also some angles that I didn’t see that can affect the metrics negatively. I went back to my desk with his input and put together a better plan. I executed it at the end of the day. Tomorrow we will see if it all works. At the end, everyone will be responsible for their workload. If I see any deviation, I will be contacting them for a report. They had too much leeway for almost two years. It ends today.
The picture below was from 4 am this morning.
🌦️ 53°F – 41°F 🙂 | Seattle
I think I have figured out most of the team’s issues at work. It is a schedule/duties issue. A lot of the scheduling is inherited from the previous manager. I talked to the director and the team to discuss the schedule. It looks like everyone can come in earlier. If this is the case, I can change the duties around to include first replies in the morning. This will help out the team immensely. We will start off at 30 minutes and see how it goes.
After work I worked on the kids passports. The post office was very helpful and got everything checked and mailed it off. Super convenient. On the way home I got my passport photo taken for my renewal. I just need to mail mine off. By the time we go home I had dinner then went to bed.
🌧️ 49°F – 43°F 🙂 | Seattle
I stayed home and just relaxed. We watched Tampa Bay lose to Detroit. For dinner we made Tacos and played games afterwards. I am rested and ready for this work week.
🌧️ 45°F – 41°F 🙂 | Seattle
Went shopping for clothes and picked up some items. I am going away from casual comfy to a classic more dressed up look. Slowly building up my wardrobe and pulling out my old cloths. For my workdays I and going for business casual and work from home will be a simple waffle Henley shirt and jeans. Luckily a lot of stores like Macy, JC Penney and Nordstrom’s are currently having clearance sales to get rid of all the winter clothes to make room for Spring and Summer. It was a long day but got what I needed.
I stayed up to watch Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. I enjoyed the movie. A bit long for me, I prefer movies in the two hour range.
☁️ 44°F – 38°F 🙂 | Seattle
Fast day at work. I worked with people and started to create spreadsheets so I can keep an eye on the progress of the team internationally.
I worked around the house and even started to exercise today. It wasn’t much but it was a start. I just need to make it a habit and I will be good. The weather warmed up so I don’t have run water every once and awhile, so my pipes don’t freeze. The kitchen did freeze over earlier last weekend and had to warm it up with a blow drier to get the water to flow.
I don’t have too much planned this weekend. Going clothes shopping to get a new white office shirt and a light sweater for the office. I have been removing my old clothes that I no longer wear.
☁️ 36°F – 32°F 😐 | Seattle
Crazy day at work. The director was hammering on every detail on why an agent and team is not performing as they should. I looked at the numbers and all my agents except for one isn’t doing well. To help the agent I am going to sit with him in his cube and watch his process of completing tickets. We are going to seriously be working with him throughout the week to push him to the next level. For as many years he has been with the company (more than I have), he should be outperforming everyone. He wants to improve; he isn’t lazy and works with clients very well. It’s just a lot of little things that need to be addressed. Time management is the biggest. Tomorrow we will go through his work and see if we can find things that are contributing to his low performance. I know he can do better. He hasn’t had a pay raise for a few years. I want him to get a substantial pay increase in this year’s assessment. We both have very similar disabilities like ADHD. I found a way to stay focused on my tasks and remove any distractions. For me it came down to discipline, planning, goals, and routine.
🌨️ 35°F – 32°F 😐 | Seattle
I started work at 6 am. Due to the winter storm the Office was closed by 8 am. So, it was just me the CEO, Director, and a hand full of techs. The office was pretty empty. I told the other techs to go home during their lunch. I stayed with management. I drove to CostCo for cake that we ordered for everyone that was born this month. I put it in the fridge for tomorrow if anyone comes to work. On the way home there were 3 accidents spread down the freeway. Luckily, I found out how bad it was from my phone and to a detour that saved me 20 minutes. After picking up the kids we ordered out for Japanese food. We didn’t feel like cooking on this cold wet snowy day.
🌨️ 37°F – 30°F 😐 | Seattle
Another cold morning. I pulled my right shoulder muscle while brushing my hair. Not sure what happened. I took some ibuprofen and headed to work. I get injured for the dumbest things. Grab an orange for the fridge, through my backout. It’s madness I tell you.
Work went well. I got everything done so tomorrow I just need to have a few meeting and keep an eye on everyone.
After work I picked up the kids from school and headed for a haircut. Me and my son needed one and so we look our best for our passport photos.
On the way home we went to the local library to pick up some videos to watch this week. I used to do this all the time with them when I didn’t make that much. I forgot how much fun we had walking around and going through the collection finding odd thing that made us laugh or intrigued. We must do this more often and it will also save us money on entertainment.
Once home I did the laundry and made dinner. We watch tv and then went to bed.
Seattle should receive snow tonight. Hopefully we do and I just need to work from home.
🌤️ 36°F – 20°F 🙂 | Seattle
On the drive to work was beautiful. Clear skies and you can see the city lights from a distance. Work went pretty well today. An agent came back from his PTO and happy to see him. We are fully staffed once again. The office was cold as usual. I layered up today. I am really using my standing desk now. This my 3rd day in a row using it. My slouch in my back is going away. I just sit in a chair for way too long. The hopes for snow has been dashed away. It looks like we will have sun tomorrow and then moderate rain on Wednesday.
At home I lifted some weights and walked on the treadmill for a bit. My legs are too weak. Once the soreness goes away I am going to add weight in a backpack to push my legs more. They should be able to carry me and 50 lbs backpack up a mountain. I want to bring the family up in the mountains this Summer.
☀️ 33°F – 16°F 🙂 | Seattle
Life in the Pacific NW 