Wednesday, March 5, 2008

I'll show you Efficiency

Yesterday, I sat down with my boss for my annual review. She handed me two pages to read and said we could discuss it further if I had questions after I finished reading.
The review started with my accomplishments,then moved on to "Areas for Improvement/Professional Development". In the past 4 years, this section has always said the same thing. Keep abreast of constantly changing HR Laws. I've come to expect it. Bosslady continues to put it there because as she said one year "I have to put in something so that it doesn't look like you're perfect."
But this year there was an extra sentence in the "Areas for Improvement" section.

It read "Strive for efficiency while maintaining quality".

Just what the hell did that mean?

I stewed on that for a bit, while my boss finished up a call. I was tempted to ask her to clarify but as I thought about my performance over the last year I realized one very important thing had changed.

I'd started a blog and very quickly become obssessed with posting to it and reading the blogs of others.

And well maybe it had taken its toll on my level of efficiency.

Hmm...shall I stop blogging? No, that's too extreme.

Should I set a specific time to write and read blogs outside of business hours ? No, what else will I do on lunch or if somebody hands me a task I'm trying to avoid.

What to do ?

And in a true lightbulb moment it came to me.

I do need to be more efficient. Bosslady wasn't totally off the mark. I need to be more efficient in managing my blog writing and reading so I can still pull off this work thing I'm paid a salary to do.

So from hence forward, I must request of you:

1) Please do not post every day. Thus lessening the amount of time required of me to be on the internet doing non work related things

2) When you do post, please email your posts directly to my work email address so that I may in the midst of addressing work emails multi-task and read about your fabulousness too

3) Only comment on my blog from 12:00 p.m. - 1:00 p.m. PST or thereabouts. That way I can enjoy all of your wisdom during my lunch hour thus not taking away from the 8 hours I'm actually,like, supposed to be doing work.

Ha! Who am I kidding? Do whatever floats your boat. Don't worry about little old me. I'll be fine.

Hell, if that's the worst thing on my review (and it was)then I'm not changing a thing until someone actually puts down on paper "Get your arse off the internet and get some work done"

26 comments:

Ann(ie) said...

"Get your arse off the internet and get some work done"

hehe. Welcome to my motto.

Life As I Know It said...

Don't you hate it when blogging gets in the way of, um, Life?

I think your ideas are genius!
I'll do my part by not posting every day, or sometimes even every other day ;)

Queen of the Mayhem said...

Just as long as you do quit.....I just couldn't take it!

The first time my principal observed me, she told me all these great things and then added that I needed to "lower my voice"....(IE...you talk WAY too loudly) At first I was devastated...but now it is a running joke. Something along the lines of...I must have swallowed a megaphone as a child! :)

Biddy said...

2 words: google reader.

i keep mine open at all times and it's pretty much like having blogs delivered directly to my email

i hate it when work gets in the way of blogging

Maureen said...

Har!!! I am constantly afraid I'll be caught reading blogs between jobs. Luckily, my office has a door that is always locked.

Gen said...

Well, blogging whenever I feel like it is one of the perks of my job. Of course, the pay sucks! ;-)

Renaissance Woman said...

My blog is designed to help your situation. I'm lucky if I can write something a couple times a week! I need to spend more time blogging and less time working!

Stacey said...

If only I could keep my office door locked all day. Life would be perfect.

Sugar Kane said...

Done! Anything for you!

Sornie said...

Ha ha. I am breaking your "time of comment" rule. Just TRY and punish me...

Claire said...

Sorry, your interests are directly in conflict with mine; as you know, I'd like for everyone to post at LEAST 3 times per day. We'll have to negotiate a compromise.

Anonymous said...

I waited until 12:24 to post a comment. I'm figuring if you get a raise, you might lend me some - so I'll help you out :)

Stacey said...

Do you think I would stay here if I hadn't gotten a raise. Pull-eze!

Ok, yeah, I probably would have...but rest assured I did get some monetary love.

tricki_nicki said...

Ha! That was hilarious! I don't have to worry about bosses and such, but I do have people that eat soap and pull things off of high shelves when I'm blogging.

I love your blog, it's way cute!

Anonymous said...

Teehee. And I have to agree with biddy: Google Reader rocks.

Stacey said...

I may have to take the plunge...although I'd still be on the internet . But my worst fear is I'll be so stressed out by all those unread posts in my Google reader that I don't have time to get to . I know , I know..my life is so hard, right.

Whiskeymarie said...

No problem. My life is FAR too boring to blog about daily anymore anyways.

I'll try and write more about HR laws and "issues", if that helps the situation. How does your department feel about swearing and talk of coochies?

Just asking...

sam {temptingmama} said...

Hahahahahahaha! You're so bad.

And hilarious.

And I write this as I should be working.

LOL!!

thordora said...

I'm surprised my review didn't say this...it sticks to "lacks organization skills", which really does mean "on internet all day" if I'm honest. :)

I can't help but wonder how people pooch screwed before the internet. Talked to coworkers maybe?

Heather said...

I'm one step ahead of you. I've stopped posting every day. I'll secretly admit that the freedom is fun.

CC said...

I love your blog. And I definitely agree with you....internet...yum.

Sai Hijara - Ferraris said...

Blogging keeps my sanity and I read blogs at work, and I don't bother closing the window when somebody gets near me...why?

Because we're not production workers that our efficiency is measured by per second turn of whatever machine we handle! We give output - and it requires mental exercise, that is hard to measure. ;) As long as we do what we ought to deliver...do some initiatives once in awhile...we're fine!

Also, I try to get ahead...so I get to relax while they try to settle down and catch up with my processes. :)

Alex Elliot said...

Ha ha ha! Clearly work should be accommodating your blogging. Perhaps you should speak to HR about that.

Anonymous said...

Oh, how I'd love it if people would post less frequently - I just can't keep up! And if I could stop finding all these great new blogs, that would help out immensely in maintaining my bloggy sanity.

MommasWorld said...

Yes, they do need to put something in that space. I have an idea to make it more efficient. Copy and paste the blogs you read to a word file. Then close the internet. This way you can read them at your leisure. Also copy down to the �# comments� so you can go directly to that area and post a comment.(in Word hold mouse over hyper link (# comments), press "Crtl" and click on hyper link) This makes lunch time fun and you can post comments quickly too, thus significantly downsizing the amount of minutes spent on the internet.

Butrfly Garden said...

1) Done and DONE.

2) I do. It's called a feed. ::rolls eyes:: I post, it comes up on your google reader...that thing we were all telling you to get MONTHS ago?? :)

3) I try to! But then there is the time-zone thing and that messes us all up.

hahaha. I so know the feeling. I actually HAVE been told to get my arse off the net and STILL got a good review. How the hell does that happen? I don't know! :) We'll see how it affects me come raise time, though.