Survivor's Remorse

So, I've finished my 3rd week of being paid to not work. I can do this for a bunch of weeks to come. I worked at finding alternate work last week, but I didn't exactly bust my tail doing so. So, I'm feeling funny about the whole deal...frustrated that I'm not working, guilty that I'm not starving (to say the least) while I'm not working. As the title of the post says, I think this is some kind of survivor's remorse.

Things I'm hearing from the old place don't make it sound like all is beer and skittles there. Far from it. And here I sit, fat and sassy, money in the bank, pay coming in, and all the news around about how tough times are. And I'm comfortable, no pressure, no hurry to get new work. Guilty, guilty, guilty.

So, tomorrow I'll work a little harder, work a little more. I've set up a new Internet presence for myself. The idea is that if someone comes looking for me, they'll find out a lot of stuff that shows what I can do professionally:

http://jreilers.org/
http://jreilers.org/Resume/resume1.htm
http://jameseilersresume.blogspot.com/
http://www.linkedin.com/in/jameseilers

My next task is to apply www marketing to promoting these sites. The idea is to get attention in a way that separates me from the pack.

Wish me luck!

The middle of the night, once again

Woke up with an upset tummy. When this happens I can sit up for awhile and my stomach will settle down, or I can lie there and try to tough it out and not sleep worth a hoot. I chose the former tonight. Stomach is feeling better already and I'll be good until morning when I go back to bed shortly.

Enough of those pleasantries.

Thanks to those of you who were helping diagnose a technical problem I was having with my professional blog-in-development. For some folks, everything looks great, but others couldn't display properly. I have an operating theory about what is happening and will attempt repairs tomorrow.

I got an interesting email from a management recruiter today, interesting but not encouraging. Rather than contacting me to see if I was interested in a job or knew someone who might be, she was looking to see if I knew of anyone who had jobs that needed filling. I responded that she and I were on parallel courses and would she please clue me in if she found anybody?

There do continue to be some positions posted, but I'm sure the competition for them is fierce. That's why I am spending the time getting together my 'marketing plan.' I need to present myself in such a way that is not only professional and convincing, but also which separates me from all the other professional and convincing candidates that are in the market. I applied for a likely sounding job today; now to keep hunting until these guys decide to call me back.

Tomorrow I think I'll finish the taxes. It looks like the feds may owe us some money, so better to get papers filed now rather than later. Once that's done Sue has a workshop project she desires for the kitchen....just a knife rack, so it won't take a lot of time, but something to do besides desk work for a day or so.

Spring is springing here, but not quite enough so yet to generate much yard work. It won't be long though. We're surely glad this winter is behind us....probably no record breaker, but certainly more winter than we've seen here in Chicagoland for years.

OK, two weeks are up!

I've goofed off and done honey-do's for the last couple of weeks as planned. Taxes are largely calculated and ready to double-check. Rough ideas for job search strategy are coming together.

Tomorrow I get serious.

I plan to take full advantage of WWW technology to help. I've seen folks using Linked-In for quite some time, but ('cause I didn't need it) I never explored and found out how powerful a tool this could be. I also will expand on use of Facebook and Blogging. I'll take what I've learned messing around with these things, research people and sites that use these aps for commercial and marketing purposes and adapt the concepts to building a 'promote Jim' presence. Then combine all this with searching the ads and old fashioned applying for jobs.

Rob and Amanda were over for dinner last night. The girls went shopping for fabric to make curtains and other stuff for the nursery while Rob and I did manly stuff like watch the Last Samurai.

News from old Sara Lee indicates that I have lots of good company among those with former careers there. The Wednesday after I left, some 20 headquarters employees including several directors and VP's were released from duty. No slackers in the group. All high performers with tons of experience. Sad. In a year or so, when times have turned around, talent like was just disposed will be in high demand and very hard to come by.

And on an unrelated note, we had an interesting visitor to the back yard....see photo I've inserted of a juvenile Cooper's Hawk that was snacking on something in the spruce tree.

It's me again

I've been busy resting. Resting is good. It rejuvenates the soul and body.

Did some actual work (home improvement) today, though. The window over the kitchen sink was looking pretty tough, and needed trimming. So, I went to the shop, found a likely piece of lumber and milled a new window sill. That doesn't sound like a big job, but was actually rather involved. It involved the following tools: router table, table saw, planer, jointer, band saw, hand plane, chisels, and then elbow grease. Me and Norm Abram....we're bud's!

My mind is gradually coming around to career advancement mode. Still not making a tremendous efforts into finding my next way to make a living, but the thoughts are beginning to percolate. Stay tuned for details....too soon to divulge strategy just yet.

I have been playing online Scrabble with my niece and getting seriously clobbered! Rebecca, I will remember you in my will.

Transition, Day 2

I spent yesterday working a little on transition chores, and working a little on domestic chores. I filed for unemployment, which can now be done online and beats the dickens out of going to the office and waiting in lines for ages. The servers were painfully slow, but I was able to accomplish what I needed in the comfort of my home, with a cup of coffee, and while watching Bonanza to keep me occupied until the server advanced to the next screen.

I started getting the desk organized and set up the desktop PC to serve as my office during the day while still leaving it usable as "Sue's PC" for when she's home. I generally use my laptop from my recliner in the family room, but somehow don't find that to be conducive to a productive transition mindset. (Sue would argue that having Bonanza keeping me company in the background doesn't contribute much either. She's entitled to an opinion, I guess.)

Then I did some general cleaning, a little shopping, and I got supper ready for the girls when they got home. Today's plan is similar; I'll combine some home body stuff with some transition organization.

A little while back, I opined how Dad wouldn't understand today's job market. This morning I found a good web site which contained some wise words which I've quoted below. Specifics of the source and a link to the website are included at the end of this post.
*****

Work smart

The sole source of success in a highly competitive World is performance. It is the key to both decent compensation and genuine employment security. We have to be at the top of our game, and we have to play for winners. It’s our individual responsibility (not our employer’s) to ensure that:

• Our skills and knowledge are at the state-of-the-art in our profession, craft or trade. No less important, we must deliver those skills and that knowledge on-the-job every day. In short, we have to work as “A” level performers.

and

• Our work must be done for an employer and in an industry that have a future. We can be superior performers and still find ourselves without a job, if what we produce is no longer competitive in the world’s marketplace. In short, we have to work for “A” level employers and industries.

Be loyal to yourself If success were enough to guarantee happiness at work, then working smart would be all that’s required of us. Happiness in our workday, however, is built with both on-the-job success and from-the-heart accomplishment. It requires that we be the best we can be in a role that engages and fulfills us. In other words, we must not only do good at work, but we must do what we believe is good work. And the only way to achieve that goal is to be loyal to ourselves. Self loyalty means that:

• We are loyal to our employer by delivering the highest possible level of performance on-the-job. This loyalty to an organization, however, is also a form of loyalty to ourselves because it’s up to us to put ourselves in a position where we can do our best work. We have to stop accepting the wrong jobs and/or the wrong employers and complaining about them, and start finding the right jobs and the right employers and doing work that fulfills us.

and

• We regularly seek new opportunities to expand and express our capabilities. This unceasing quest for self-improvement is the way we compete and win in the new World of work. Sometimes it will mean a move within the same organization, and other times, it will dictate that we move on to another employer. In every case, we make the decision, and the goal is the same: to protect the American Dream for us and our families by outperforming those who want to enjoy the Indian or Chinese or Sri Lankan Dream.

Source: http://www.weddles.com

Peter Weddle is an HR consultant, recruiter and business CEO turned author and commentator

In the middle of the night

Fell asleep in my recliner about 10:00 and woke up about 3:30. So, here I sit awake at 0-dark-20. This is not a pattern I hope to perpetuate.

Finished up some trimming in the kitchen today. Finicky work, but well done in the end.

Rob was over to use my workshop this afternoon. (tripped over each other a lot.) He's building a mission style rocking chair for the nursery. It will be gorgeous. He needed my bandsaw to cut out the rockers.

Tomorrow I will begin milling a new windowsill for over the sink. To do so, I'll need to begin with cleaning up the shop. It always gets to be a mess when there's a big project. Once it's cleaned up, I will put some new wheels under my planer...I picked up some heavier ones awhile back...the wimpy ones I first used are not much good for the weight of the unit.

Starting to line up projects in my head for next week. I have church books to do, our taxes, window sill and trim, base boards and so on. I also got a lot of nice notes from former co-workers that I need to acknowledge.

It's the first of March. Thank the Lord! Winter is almost over.