Appraisals

Another fiscal year ended May 31’st and I had to appraise my work and to receive appraisal from my superior. I am constantly appraising my work, not on a daily basis but quite often. But when you have to really put it on paper, that’s when you realize you’ve done a hell of a lot. And when you have the confirmation from someone who is monitoring your activity that, indeed, you’ve done a great job, that’s really rewarding.
My overall rating is Exceeds Expectations. Outstanding would be “too” perfect and there is no such thing, as it could imply a lot of other things, like salary raise or promotion. Besides, there is always room for improvement.

Leadership qualities

As I had to complete a survey regarding my team leader’s work behavior, I wanted to see what other people think the top ten qualities of a leader should be.

First, a leader must have a vision, if possible, a clear one. But a vision is not enough. Leader must share it and act upon it.
A leader must have the trust of followers and therefore must must display integrity.
A leader inspires dedication by example, doing whatever it takes to complete the next step toward the vision.
A magnanimous leader ensures that credit for successes is spread as widely as possible. To spread the fame and take the blame is a hallmark for effective leadership.
Leaders with humility recognize that they are no better or worse than other members of the team.
Openness builds mutual respect and trust between leaders and followers.
Creativity is the ability to think differently, to get outside of the box that constrains solutions.
Fairness means dealing with other consistently and justly.
Assertiveness is the ability to clearly state what one expects so that there will be no misunderstandings.
Finally, a sense of humor is vital to relieve tension and boredom, as well as to defuse hostility.

That’s a wrap… I hope

Final reports have been delivered. I hope there’s nothing more we should do. Figures are not that good as they were once, but given the circumstances, they are OK. That’s all for my part, I am calling this a wrap…

At last…

The promises had been kept. I received all the confirmations I needed, and more. I struggled until the very end but I did it again. I am proud, why not say it? I won’t be modest about it. I knew deep down that good things would happen to me, as always…

The worst Q end ever

Today is the last day, the day when all promises fail to accomplish. I don’t want to classify certain persons that promise everyday a response and when it comes the final hour, disappear. I’ve tried everything. It’s up to them now… Nevertheless I cannot escape a feeling of frustration… I hope it will soon pass…

Dinner out with the team

After a successful Q comes a dinner out with the colleagues. It turned out OK. Just OK.
We’ve been previously asked what we would like to order. I spent half of the day yesterday sending mails to the restaurant and they still mixed up some dishes. Anyway, we are used to this kind of “professionalism”. Then we wonder what’s wrong with this country. Well, the people, without any doubt…

Booking

I am no longer booking contracts but I book reservations to dinner. A lot of tasks today. No complaints. It only means I am capable. I hope I will be collecting the debts soon…

Overachived

Another successful quarter came to an end. The results speak for themselves. I am so glad it’s over…

Pretending to work

“Take every opportunity to complain the unreasonable demands that are being placed on you. Reinforce your message during every interaction with a co-worker or manager. Over time, these messages will work themselves into the subconscious of everybody around you and they will come to think of you as a hard worker without ever seeing a scrap of physical evidence to support the theory.”

I simply detest the persons matching the above description. I know a few. They make me sick.
I will never be able to act like that, nor I want to.

My message to them: enjoy your pitiful life, small creatures!

Envy or greed or something else?

A happening last week made me remember another one, so long forgotten. Both happenings involve Spanish people, but it’s only random.

As mentioned on a previous post, my job consists in interacting with both customers and colleagues from Spain. To make a long story short, we have an internal site with basic information about us, including picture, that any Oracle employee could access.

A Spanish colleague called me last week about an issue previously discussed via e-mail. At the end of the conversation he asked me about my picture on that site. He wanted to know where it was taken. I said Fort Lauderdale, USA. After some failed attempts to guess in which state it was located, I said Florida. Than, with a certain touch of envy he said: “pero como vives… yo nunca he estado en los EEUU”… as if I cared. I restrained myself from saying: who has stopped you? Anyway, as I’ve already said, this comment reminded me of another “small character”, the chancellor of Spanish embassy in Bucharest (my work place for 1 1/2 year). He once looked at my cell phone and said: what a phone, I am not affording one like this. Yeah right…

These two persons gain so much more money than me and they know it. They both afford to go to the States or buy a cell phone like that I used to have. So why making those unfortunate comments? I have a couple of theories. I guess you have yours, too. The fact is these two people are so much poor than many Romanians.

I am not a patriot but I am proud of who I am and this is not about Spanish people. There are some Spaniards that love Romania more than I love it myself.

There are so many aspects to be discussed here, but I’ll let you reflect on them.