Working for a boss that challenges you and trying to live up to it

My last meeting with the Boss at HITEC (big Hospitality tradeshow), he asked me what I learned. I couldn't give him a succinct answer and blurted out something like "it's all about relationships and it's stupid." OMG...can I use the excuse that english is not my first language? He does this frequently and I'm always unprepared and need to come back to him later with my answer. Work faster, brain!

Coming up with snappy, high level observations and insights is definitely something I need to work on. I need to process information faster and I'm better at writing than talking. In a group environment, I like listening much more than talking because most people have good stories and I don't have or don't want to share them. The only thing I like to talk about is work. I worry that makes me a boring person but work means interesting and SOLVABLE problems. It makes me happy to think about instead of how much I miss my grandma and whether I should try to pursue a romantic relationship again.

I like that the Boss gives me an seemingly endless variety of things to do. Things that I never thought about doing or thought I'm not qualified to do... he just tells me to do it. Now I see myself as a leader of the project team and whatever I feel is beneficial and necessary for the project, from social marketing to educating how this market works, I am not going to beat myself up about "should or should not", I'm just going to do it and do it well so people believe in what I say.

The answer to another direct question from the Boss is: I am happy at my job.

Source: Mad Men S4E8 - The Suitcase

Don Draper, another challenging boss. 

My boss isn't as scary as Don in this scene, thankfully.

Diving back into Order Managment (OM)

I've been thinking a lot about how to approach the problem of the different in service level expectation from East Sales and West Sales director. I'm pretty confident that this is part of the reason OM rep left.

First, they are the ones that are actually bringing in PO's. So the Ops team recognize that their importance. However, it's also natural to compare their style.

East - has nothing but complaints of the Ops SLA. Announces sales with a tagline "may need Jun onsite". This means it's a rush. This means Ops need more info from you to process this request.
West - Says that it's always been good service. When she submits rush orders, she practically has the config form filled out already. And she actually checks with Ops to get a good confidence level and sets expectations with the customer.

Note that the same team is servicing both directors.

I think I'll email East and explicitly outline the differences in her interaction with Ops vs West, and tell her that it's not helping the team.

Order Management lady left

I've invested a lot of time trying to help the unsustainable situation but in the end, I'm not the one that has to do the dull data entry and check part numbers, meaning I can't actually help. Maybe I even hurt things, enabled some of the emotions to go from bad to worse. 

I'm really re-evaluating what I'm trying to do in OM and what my improvements should be. Maybe I should take a step back and ask myself, what value have I added?

I'm gonna miss her. T_T

"I've been fighting so many fires that it feels like Friday... and it's only Monday!"

Quote from VP of Ops. It's been one of those Mondays.

He told me that he was asked to process a business card order for the Canadian Sales Director and even all of the follow up such as the proofing (when the proof clearly did not match the request) and shipping. What a waste of a VP's time, particularly the VP I need for Hotel stuff!

I offered to take on stuff like that from him, but his point was no one from HR to the Sales guy took ownership and expected him to do all the work, when anyone with an education should have been able to look at the proof, see that it didn't match the order, and taken it up with the print vendor from there instead of running back to the VP. It shouldn't take that long or take a team of people.

We had to move on to something else, but next time I have opportunity I will make my point that taking ownership is exactly what I'm offering, because I would rather get his resource to help me with something I cannot do myself, then see him wasting time on a freaking business card order. What the hell, people, why is your boss paying you if not to take care of stuff so they can do the more important stuff, the stuff YOU can't do? I think Chinese people understand this very well, but in the politically-correct environment in US, you often hear "I'm not trying to say I'm more important than you", but the fact is, a VP's time is monetarily and hierarchically more important than mine! I'm ok with that, in fact as Don Draper says, I thank him or her for being in that position every day.

My working relationship contract is "I'll work on the shit from below, so you can deal with the shit from above."Such as reviewing Canadian tax laws with Legal to decide on how to handle CAN orders. You can't pay me to run away fast enough from that.

Source: Mad Men S4E07 "The Suitcase"

Don Draper: It’s your job. I give you money, you give me ideas.
Peggy Olson: And you never say thank you.
Don: That’s what the money is for!...You should be thanking me every day when you wake up, along with Jesus, for giving you another day.

Disclaimer: Unlike Peggy, I don't need thank you's from my bosses. Chinese people are uncomfortable with that... just keep reading my emails and making time to meet with me. And remember me when annual reviews come around and put in a good word for me for a raise. :)

On a pleasant note, had happy hour last Friday with the usual HF gang and also some additions. There was some major gossiping done, to my nosy delight.

I love Glee songs

Glee makes good songs great and great songs... AWESOME. It's almost enough to motivate me to buy an ipod and go on itunes.

You can listen to the song then search for the hot video of the performance. The videos are a bit hit and miss, I still have not found the full performance of the Britney video, while there are dozens of copies of other songs. Maybe the most popular songs are the most monitored and banned by Fox?

My entry songs were "Umbrella/Singing in the Rain" (I like Gwyneth Paltrow and Umbrella ever since I heard the Marie Digby cover), "Thriller/Off with Your Head", and lately I am listening/watching "Blame it on the Alcohol"

Zombie brides featuring my fave Britney as played by Heather Morris!

Source: EOnline

I'm so tired

Worked from 6:30AM to 1AM today (2 days). Is this really worthwhile in the scheme of things?

Bulls in Chicago

Watching Bulls games in Chicago made my business trip there one of my funnest trips ever. This pushed my Atlanta trip where I watched the Braves to #2.

The Bulls lost both nights but the sales director promised they'll win next year! It is tiring to be a sports fan, when Bulls spontaneously combusted in the 4th quarter of their do-or-die game, it was like a horror movie... I could barely watch through my fingers. It'll probably take me a year to recover from that.

Source: ESPN

In other news
- VC interop guy was fired and now we're scrambling to find a replacement... sigh
- The boss went back to HK for a while so I am left to wander the halls again looking for someone who actually cares about my product. Not to mention the random free food he would provide. Come back soon boss!