Career Ladder or: Looks Good on your CV!

Being the polar opposite of a planner I never planned my career strategically by any means. Up until my mid thirties, I was actually rather worried that I was destined (you might say "doomed") to remain in my first job at Coma HQ like some of my colleagues who are only a few years older than I am, actually have. It took me another decade to realise that my non-linear CV is my biggest asset along with the fact that I worked for the Firm for 10 years. A company that EVERYone knows, that is known to be extremely hard to get into and that is still at the top of the dream job list for many. Having that name on my CV was probably the biggest career boost and when I started at Household Name in the summer of 2017 I got asked by many new colleagues why in Earth I had decided to leave the Firm. Well, long story short, I loved the company culture and its perks, but there were limited opportunities to develop in the area I loved and was interested in, so I decided to leave. At Household Name, people assumed I could to things that I had never done before...and so I simply did. Proof that people placing trust in your abilities is really empowering. 

I also did not decide to do an MBA to climb up on the career ladder. I am happy in my expert role as an individual contributor and do not see becoming a people manager as the ultimate goal. If you work in a big corporate like my employer, it comes with a lot of administrative and operational stuff that does not excite me and also with a hefty dose of office politics, so thanks, but no thanks.

 

Time | Off

Thanks to my 4-day week with Fridays off I get to enjoy several 4-day weekends this month with either Thursdays or Monday (like today) being public holidays. In fact I deliberately chose May to start with my new schedule because of so many additional days off. With one exception last week when I needed (?) to do some work on the  Friday I now activate my out-of-office reply on my last work day and remain blissfully offline on my corporate devices until 7:30-ish on the next work day. I'm really loving this additional day of me-time and am planning to go on spontaneous trips and take the time for exhibitions and other cultural initiatives that I neglected in recent years. I actually already bought annual passes for two museums (each with several branches) and have already been to two locations in May.  Highflyer's schedule looks different each month anyway, but he is trying to align his time off with mine as best as he can. Even if there will be few occasions when he also gets Fri-Sun off and has no obligations, I definitely won't struggle to find things to do and could not be happier about my decision. 

 

Working Class Heroine

 

I used this past (long) weekend to try and become my normal chirpy self. It was in fact the third (!) weekend in a row that I tried to focus on that and we're hopefully getting there. I am just not used to being sick and this cold that segued into a lateral pharyngitis (never had that before, can not recommend) was something else and definitely felt worse than the three times I have had Covid, combined. As I didn't have a temperature at any point and otherwise didn't feel too sick or weak to work from home, either, I did just that. 10 days into unpleasant symptoms I went to see a doctor and he prescribed me antibiotics, along with other medication. The drugs immediately seemed to work, probably because the last time I got prescribed antibiotics was when I worked in Sydney in 2011 and my left foot got swollen and itchy from what must have been an insect bite. I was euphoric and even though I took it easy on the weekend, I otherwise did normal stuff and also ate ice-cream as my throat didn't hurt any more. Last Monday I felt like sh** again and my sore throat had come back with a vengeance. I really did not feel up to working, least of all facilitating a virtual workshop, but as always it was not a "good" time to be sick and I soldiered through. I did make a point of telling my manager that I should be on sick leave, not that she encouraged me to do so, rather telling me to try and do what I could get done under the circumstances. When my symptoms got a bit scary I vowed not to be so stupid again and take it easy even with what seemed like a common cold, because as I learnt the hard way, this could develop into something way nastier that I definitely didn't want to become chronic. Would the company go bankrupt if I took a sick day or two: nope. One more reason why I secretly admire Gen Z colleagues a bit, who mostly wouldn't think twice to put their physical and mental health first. Somehow, this weird work ethos is embedded in many people of our generation and it often takes a bit of a wake-up call to reconsider it.

Scammed!

This is a cautionary tale of how you might get scammed when buying an expensive electronic device at the popular online retailer that begins with A. ... and likely other places as well. After having to return a phone I bought refurbished, which would have been my sustainable preference, I decided to buy it new from said retailer as the price difference was negligible. I'll skip the rant about the first promised delivery that didn't happen even though I had waited at home for it all day and fast forward to the Monday two weeks ago when the second one actually did happen, only not of the phone I had ordered. I had been sent a one-time code that I was supposed to give to the delivery person so they could give the parcel to me. Delivery guy rang, I typed said code into his handheld device, gave him a tip and he returned to his car...while I touched the package that felt suspiciously...bendable. I ripped it open and it contained not a phone for over 600 EUR, but a paperback I had never ordered. I quickly looked at the address label, which indeed had my address on it and then waved at the driver who was already reversing out of our lane. He stopped and I told him that I had just signed for the wrong package as I was expecting a phone, not a book and had also paid for a phone. I told him I wanted to cancel my signature and return the parcel to him, but he said that he could not do that and would let his boss know. I just managed to quickly take a picture and off he went, with the paperback. 

Dumbstruck, I realised that I had officially received my phone, but in fact I had not and would have problems proving just that. I called the hotline and explained my dilemma to the lady that answered. When I mentioned that I had taken a picture she told me to mail it to a generic e-mail-address she gave me. When I did, I received an auto-reply telling me to fill in the attached return form and return the article...which of course I did not have. After several e-mails (half of them automated canned responses) and 3 days when I did not hear from them, I wrote again and was asked once more to send a photo. When I replied that I had already done just that, just to another e-mail address, attaching the image again as well as a screenshot of my earlier e-mail I got the reply that the photo unfortunately did not meet the required specifications. I then lost my patience and told them I had involved my (fictitious) lawyer and forwarded all correspondence to them. I got my refund the following day, thankfully, but it really was an awkward situation as the scammed recipient who has paid upfront has to prove that either some underpaid logistics worker on their end or the subcontractor who delivers for them had committed theft. 

I ended up buying my new phone offline, by the way.