Work

Lessons Learned Two Weeks In

“Today it’s important to be present, be relevant and add value.” – Nick Besbeas

The work I am doing now is challenging. There are no two ways about it. I work for a demanding company staffed with a lot of incredibly intelligent people and I either need to show I can muck in with the rest of them or get out of the way. Every day I’m asked to take on an assignment I’ve never done before or put together a workflow that’s totally new to me. I mostly relish this, but it comes with some dangers

As a marketing coordinator, I’m ranked above a marketing assistant and below a marketing manager. The trouble is, we don’t have anyone in either of those positions at the moment. Recruitment is underway for a manager, but in the meantime, the chain of command where I’m to report is divided between three people. Also, there are some executive decisions that need to be made that I’m simply not in the authoritative position to make, but I still have to work towards certain actions and results. I’m learning to be more authoritative (which is saying something, because on my worst day the way to describe me is bossy) and to find ways to step up and try to take responsibility, but it’s intimidating to do so when you know that means you’ll be jumping in out of your depth.

There is real value to being chucked into the thick of things. You either sink or swim. Most of the time I feel like I’ve been able to do the latter, but I’m constantly conscious of the fact that success isn’t something you do once and it’s done. You have to be able to recreate it over and over again. And since omniscience is impossible for anyone, to say nothing of a person who has only been on the job officially for two weeks (my two months of last year don’t count as I was only supposed to be interim help during a handover), I know that I am going to make mistakes and screw up no matter how good my intentions. My ignorance and inexperience in certain things are going to make themselves manifest. And in cases where they already have, I tend to beat myself up about it because I want so badly to do a good job.

I’m learning I have some tendencies that I need to drop. My desire to be acknowledged for good or hard work? Yeah, that needs to go. That’s just the baseline expectation, mellennial. My desire to make everyone happy? A recipe for disaster or burnout. Fear of failure? Get over it, kid.

None of these are groundbreaking revelations, but they are good to be reminded of nevertheless. Work is hard. Get to it.

Friday, Humor, Links, Weekend, Work

Friday Links (Managing Project Management Edition)

“A good half of the art of living is resilience.”
― Alain de Botton

Woof, this week. The training wheels are off, kittens. Development, project management, and construction planning is such an interesting industry because there are so many moving parts going on at any given moment. Our project managers conduct architects, artists, constructions workers, heritage societies, politicians, contractors, suppliers, and truly heroic amounts of paperwork. Though slightly less harrowing, working on marketing means that I don’t get to focus on just one project. I’m on all of them, all the time. It’s a lot of fun and the good kind of hard work, but there inevitably comes a moment each week where I feel like I’ve put together a really solid timeline or project and got all the moving pieces into a beautiful line…only to have one tiny thing that no one can control because it’s a provider or external system fall out of the row and take my meticulously laid plans down with it. I knew I’d “arrived” last week when a major timeline was pretty significantly impacted by months and my reaction was not to panic but to sigh, make a cup of tea, and just crack on with some solution options. Britishisation is almost complete.

 

Pictured: world domination plans for the week falling through. Dealing with it.
Pictured: world domination plans for the week falling slightly through. Dealing with it.

Here are your links, tell me what you’re up to this weekend in the comments!

Perhaps telling you that Katarina and i have legitimately speculated on turning a good portion of 15th century British history into a totally fictitious web series, set loosely in a modern day high school or some place correctly hormone charged and overly-dramatic…will explain why I found this hilarious. No?

And while we’re on Buzzfeed, apparently I’m “West London Posh.” Ha. I’m a quarter WASP, a quarter Slovak, and half who knows, thank you very much!

Very much behind all of these.

Tumblr find of the week.

Downton Abbey has little redeeming value anymore besides being a well-costumed soap opera. So here’s an interview with the costumer! I make no apologies for my continued plan on turning into the Dowager Countess in my old age.

There’s historical treasure everywhere. One of my favorite memories of the PD was being told to bin a ton of paperwork only to discover it was an unintentional archive of information about my alma mater from the perspective of its resident law enforcement office going straight back to the 50s.

Disney has it’s value, but I maintain it’s largely terrible at modeling life choices.

Interesting idea. I think I still have far too many bad American habits that likely set me back this side of the pond.

I have said it before, and I shall say it again. How do you lose something like this?!

This headline stands alone. Also, penguins.

A bit of a downer, but there’s this from the world of Mormon news. Whether you agree or disagree with the actions, this has been an interesting year for excommunications in the community and it’s worth having a conversation about why. You know, if you’re into that sort of conversation. If not, just ignore it.

Long live London.

Humor

Friday Links (My Checklist is Insane Edition)

“To achieve great things, two things are needed: a plan and not quite enough time.” 
― Leonard Bernstein

This week I have:

  • Helped spearhead an intense company recommendation. I’ve spent days on this phase (months on the total) and am currently unsure if it will even go out on schedule…
  • Scheduled a full quarter of freelance tasks for a 4 person team
  • Stress-baked on two separate occasions
  • Written and re-written a budget proposal until my eyes crossed
  •  Had a proposed year long timeframe for a major project get shortened down to just a few months and had to come up with a near immediate solution
  • Coordinated some political last minute advertising opportunities
  • Began coordinating a major launch for later this year

I’m tired. Here are your links, tell me what you’re getting up to in the comments!

First lines worth noting.

Oh, Tatler…

We are at that obnoxious time of year where it’s freezing cold and wet (it actually snowed briefly on my way from from an event the other night!) but the shops are all displaying shorts and silky tops and festival-wear. That being said, this dress is flirting with me shamelessly.

Words fail me.

Taming of the Shrew, apparently. Which I have opinions about, though Jeff laughed for a solid five minutes about it.

Headesk.

Opinion piece on the NHS vs. American health care. I admit to sharing the conclusion.

At the risk of getting too personal, I am never moving back to Utah.

Horrible cover image, relevant story on women in Silicon Valley.

There is a whole design team now just ten feet away from my desk…and yet the idea of decorating seems as unreachable as Mars to me. I don’t have the touch, which is why at nearly 30, we’re still living largely on IKEA furniture. This round up of house tours on The Everygirl isn’t helping matters by intimidating me as much as I find some people’s knack delightful.

WANT.

Freelance, Humor, London, Work

Finally Coming Up For Air

“All happiness depends on courage and work.”
― Honoré de Balzac

Hi, ducklings, I’m alive.

In October last year, I took stock of what I’d achieved with a year in London under my belt and what I wanted to do next. 2014 was my biggest freelance year to date, with my most notable bylines and highest amount earned thus far. But there are unique challenge to working for US clients while based in the UK (not least of which, the currency exchange), and so I decided to push hard to find some actual London based work.

I thought the process of finding opportunities would take a long time. It turned out to take less than a week. In late October I was interviewed for a temporary role as a Marketing and Sales Coordinator for a development firm here in London, and offered it less than 24 hours later. The 19th of December was supposed to be my last day, but they asked me to stick around through the new year, and last week, they officially hired me on in a long term capacity. I’m beyond thrilled to join the team I have, it’s an innovative, design-led company that’s in an exciting phase of expansion with some incredible projects and properties that make my nerdy little history heart flutter.

Nothing wrong with some Victorian chimneys and brickwork.
Nothing wrong with some Victorian chimneys and brickwork.

Some weeks I spend at my desk, organizing reports and spreadsheets, others I put on a hard had and boots and get to go through construction sites and protected historic buildings that we’re renovating and preserving (SO much better than tearing beautiful sites down), and yet others involve heels, LBDs, and events organizing. My baptism (by fire) into the company was throwing an event at Somerset House, a major venue in London, for nearly 80 VIP guests and two weeks to plan. The pace has largely kept up since.

And in the midst of this, I’ve maintained my freelancing. Meaning that after putting in at least nine hours in the main office, I’d come home to more work in the shape of freelance assignments.

Kittens, it’s been a bit brutal. When the most hard working and go-getter woman you’ve ever met says she’s worried about the pace you’re keeping, you know things are looking fairly grim. I literally worked myself sick at one point in January but with the new year (and its attendant rebrands, site overhauls, press releases, and projects) largely put to bed, I’ve been able to come up for air and have a look around. I know we’re a month into it, but consider this my glimpse ahead into the new year.

I’m on track to more than double our income.

We’ve paid off nearly half of our student loans.

We think we’ll be able to pay the other half off with one more year of hard work.

I’ve found the next step to take with my writing and marketing experience.

I finally have the space to work on my own writing projects for the first time in years.

Jeff’s nearly done with his exams.

Everything, as the kids say, is coming up Milhouse.

 

Humor

Friday Links

“The best way to predict your future is to create it”
― Peter F. Drucker

In between Monday and now I’ve helped put on two events, mostly completed newly revamped marketing strategies for two incredible development projects, received an amazing work opportunity to expand and grow in what I’ve been doing with the company, and spent 61 collective hours in high heels. Not for the faint of heart, but deeply rewarding. A busy week and now freelance calls over the weekend, plus finishing the first read of a friend’s new novel. And napping. I’m very much looking forward to it! Here are your links, short but interesting, and tell me what you’re getting up to in the comments!

photo 2015-01-08152001_zps5a12e093.jpg

I’ve been trying to repair the damages of the 90s to my eyebrows for years, so this is relevant to my interests.

A fascinating piece on poverty in America and what some people think we need to do to fix it. I find it compelling. Economist and like-minded minions weigh in.

From deep to shallow, words can’t express how much I long to own this Oscar de la Renta gown.

And back to deep with this interesting piece from Salon about writing, money, and partners. I may have to do a whole post on this myself. I don’t feel “sponsored” by my husband, in fact for the first five years of our marriage I was the primary wage earner and the work I’m currently doing means that I’m once again earning more than him in spite of his hefty two degrees and experience. But no question, there have been periods where if we relied on my income from writing alone, rather than his far more steady one, we’d have starved.

Settling somewhere nicely between medatative and glib, this piece from the Economist (of all places) on swearing.

There is now a gender imbalance in the world to the tune of 60 million more men than women, the cultural effects of which are fascinating (and often disturbing, especially in countries which have a history of preferring male children and practicing infanticide to achieve it). This map project tackles the issue, region by region, with tons of fascinating info. To quote a friend, what is UP with the Arabian Peninsula?

An interesting profile.

One of my friends and co-freelancers, Tara Zirker is woman on the rise. I’ve worked for and with her for two years now as she’s built her success with her freelance clients and helped me build my own on both sides of the pond. Simply put, the woman is good people. I’m beyond pleased she’s taking things to the next level and offering coaching, training, and workshops this year! Her first workshop of 2015 is happening tomorrow, and there’s a discount code for Small Dog Syndrome minions interested in participating: Cadence15.

Friends, Humor, Writing

Emails With Friends: Mystery and Method Acting

“Also, for your daily dose of Clueless Writing Inspiration, I literally knew nothing about diving when I started [nameless novel here], and now I have gone drinking with Olympians, have a chronic diving-related injury, and can pretty accurately score elite-level dives as well as describe any dive based on its numbers.”
“Are you saying I need to kill someone to write a good mystery? I question your methods.”
– Katarina and C.

really-wish-april-fools-day-ecard-someecards

Humor

Friday Links (It’s Definitely Not Friday, Edition)

“Be steady and well-ordered in your life so that you can be fierce and original in your work.”
― Gustave Flaubert

This week I edited a major property development sales brochure, organized a last minute PR and media strategy and launch, dealt with a breach of said strategy that appears to be a rather hamfisted attempt of an external team on the project to jump the gun, organized two major sales events taking place next week, developed project budgets that are several tens of times what I make in a year, and generally averaged about 16 work hours a day. So…let’s pretend it’s Friday and this is on time alright? Thanks, dears.

It’s been a rough first month of the year work-wise. Not in terms of the kind of work I’m doing–I consider myself the luckiest of lucky ducks to able to work on the projects I am and with the people that I do. Not only am I doing interesting and fun work, but it’s the kind I enjoy and want keep building experience in. But moving forward it’s clear I need to insist on balance and guard my free time and weekends much better than I currently do. I learned last year that it’s possible to literally work yourself sick and I have no desire to repeat that experience!

A history of the Lifetime Original Movie. Seriously.

I love every single thing about this story.

Interesting story about a great medical/cosmetic treatment that I never even thought of but, honestly, what a good idea!

Excellent and needed follow up to that 100 years of beauty vid that made the rounds late last year, here’s 100 year of Black beauty trends!

Yep. (Weeps silently to herself.)

Interested in reconstituted Babylonian song and poetry? Of course you are, ducklings!

These chairs. They distress me.

The captioned adventures of George Washington can move over, Napoleon has arrived.

Humor

Friday Links (Limping Through the Door Edition)

“I am somewhat exhausted; I wonder how a battery feels when it pours electricity into a non-conductor?”
― Arthur Conan Doyle, The Adventure of the Dying Detective

Another Friday, another week spent pulling 9-10 hour days in an office and 3-6 hours at home freelancing. I am WIPED, kittens. Here are your links, extra long to make up for my continued negligence. Forgive me?

Here's where I had a recent work meeting for you to look at as a peace offering?
Here’s where I had a recent work meeting for you to look at as a peace offering?

T&C has some It Girls for you to rank. Agree with the list, disagree, have your own list? Share away!

Downton Abbey has come and gone here in the UK for another year, but my American friends are just getting to dive into season…5?  Golly, they’re blending together. Anyway, if you don’t already, you should be reading Tom and Lorenzo’s recaps, this one of the first episode stateside is even more hilarious than typical. Although language warning for pearl-clutchers. “Fold this,” might be my new favorite put down.

Women’s issues to be aware of, and Charlize Theron making a point.

Building my new 100 books in a year reading list…

There has been a lot of uproar about the TLC feature, My Husband’s Not Gay, featuring Mormon gay men who have chosen to marry women. I have acres of opinions about the underlying cultural and doctrinal issues, but the best and most thoughtful piece I’ve seen written on the subject comes from the Atlantic. It’s genuinely worth examining why people make lots of the cultural and religious choices they do. TLC specials are beyond not the way to do it.

Gorgeous photos of tribal markings from the Karo People.

“I want to go to there.”

Heavens, we’ve gotten lazy as a society…

My parents got me some drinking chocolate for Christmas, apparently based off an 18th century recipe. I haven’t sampled it yet just due to lack of time to sit down and whip up a cup (how sad does that sound), but I’m making it a priority after reading this piece.

Historical mis-attribution.

A fun London-y instagram feed for you to follow.

Answer: not terribly well. But likely much better than the 15th century, when I would probably have managed to get burned at the stake.

Well dressed male stars are, I’m convinced, doing the lord’s work when it comes to ramping up sartorial expectations. But I do live in London, the world capital of men’s tailoring, where the bar is much higher than the States. Follow your British brethren, boys.

What your LBD said about you, throughout history.

 

 

Britain, Expat, Friends, Humor, Links, Linkstorm, London, Work

Friday Links (First of 2015 Edition)

“For last year’s words belong to last year’s language
And next year’s words await another voice.”
― T.S. Eliot, Four Quartets

Well, hey there, well-beloved-but-desperately-neglected minions! We’re back from the States, back at work, and back at the grindstone. Let’s catch up. Jeff has dived straight into studying for his next round of exams (we’re down to less than a year of this slog), and I’m back freelancing and in the world of London luxury development. The first couple of week of a new year are always a bit hectic, but we might be setting a new record for post-holiday self-destruction. Luckily, there a few things keeping us sane.

We finally coughed up the money for a shiny new laptop that is causing me to coo, “the precious…” every time I open its sleek lid. It’s long overdue. I’ve been using a refurbished laptop we bought for about $400 at least three years ago that’s been getting increasingly clunky and hard to manage over the last year. When I couldn’t have two windows open at the same time without the whole thing freezing, I knew it was time to let Marvin go to his rest. Let’s just hope all my image and music files transfer over alright.

The intrepid Caitlin Kelly is in town and crashing at our place this week as she journeys around the city, conducts research and interview for assignments, and generally puts us all to shame with her pace. Last weekend, completely backward due to jetlag, we all went out on the town and had some much needed adventuring. We ate good food, had great conversations, and did some truly impressive vintage shopping. Caitlin’s got the touch for spotting a deal, let me tell you!

Less immediately important, but still pretty vital, I finally got my local library card and might actually have made headway in getting a British bank account. Long story, will rant later. In the meantime, I’m putting together budget proposals of numbers so high as to give me a nosebleed, working with a grade-A creative team and a world class illustrator, and checking off new items from my list with satisfying ticks. Here are your links, catch me up on your holidays and tell me what you’re up to this weekend in the comments!

2015-01-08 15.20.01
Enjoy a shot from me on assignment in Notting Hill. Much as I whine, life’s pretty decent, kittens.

 

Some people have more…something…than sense. Not sure it’s money.

You lucky ducks, Caitlin is blogging her adventures (plus tips on renting flats in Paris).

Unsure about the background of Tolkien’s mythology? CPG Grey is here to help.

Jezebel gives a pretty good account of the “fluffication” of this history surrounding Empress Elisabeth of Austria.

Headline of the week, I feel.

I barely use my iPod for music anymore, it’s all podcasts through and through, so this list from Medium about interesting podcasts from 2014 (minus Serial, because obviously) hooked me.

Women’s issue news worth sharing and a cause worth supporting.

Since I’m still working in London housing, this is fascinating.

Ah, journalism.

Carmen Sandiego and Oregon Trail forever.

A response that moved me on the attack in Paris, a city where Caitlin is just visiting us from and returning to at the weekend. Thoughts for safety all around, please.

An 18th century time capsule opening.