Thinking Cap – /thing king kap/ (n)

1. An imaginary accessory that one “wears” during reflective thought, analytical reasoning, and/or problem solving to enhance cognitive abilities.

Sentence:

“OK, team – put on your thinking caps! We have a big problem to solve and only an  hour to do it.”

As promised 2 weeks ago – a handy dandy guide to a company culture that doesn’t suck:

1. Don’t hire @ssholes – If you’ve messed up and hired one (or two, or a couple hundred) don’t encourage their jerk behavior.  You know who I’m talking about – the people who are caught up in job titles… the ones that will do just about anything to get ahead.  Make sure they are treating others with respect before you do anything crazy like promote them.  Even if you speak out against mean behavior like that, all of that will fall on deaf ears if they see those people succeeding in the company.  They will believe that in order to succeed, you have to be a jerk, and that won’t help your company culture at all…
2. Think outside the “Mission Statement” – Let’s be real here – Just about all company mission statements are the same … maybe just worded differently.  You can harp on the wonderful and profound mission statement all you want, but don’t think having a nicely sounding mission statement automatically equals a wonderful culture that makes your employees enjoy being there.
3. Take Action – If you take the time & expense to do an employee survey, do something with the responses besides looking at them.  Do more than give flex days or letting the employees wear jeans on days other than Fridays – I speak from experience when I say those two things alone will not change your employee’s minds about wanting to get the hell out of your company.  It’s nice, but it doesn’t quite do anything to fix the problems that your people in the trenches deal with on a daily basis.  Listen to what your employees have to say and actively do something about it – there is nothing more frustrating that inaction.
4. Cultivate Your Talent – You spent so much time and effort recruiting them, and then a bunch of money to train them… why not make sure they want to stick around? Give them a clear career path and don’t limit that to your own functional area.  If they show interest in another functional area, put them in situations to learn more about it.
5. Be Open to New Ideas – Some older companies are hiring us crazy Millennial kids not because they want to, but out of necessity because their older Baby Boomer crowd is retiring.  Gen Y has a bad rep for being “know it alls” which I think is an unfair stereotype, but I do think we have a lot of great ideas because we see the whole world in a way that has never been seen before. Case in point: When I got my promotion at Former Company, I was the youngest person who ever had that job.  My peers were Gen X’ers (mostly on the older side of that generation!).  At that time, our boss’s boss was talking about problems our group was facing and instead of listening to some new ideas, they just kept doing it the same way.  Over. And over. And over again. Somehow, I guess they were expecting different results by doing the same thing?  I’m not even sure… but when I left, they still had the same, unresolved issues.  Nerds.

Life has been pretty nutty, but I was determined to get in a Friday Five this week!

This isn’t an all-inclusive list, but I’d say they are definitely the highlights –

• Company Culture – I don’t think I could possibly describe the differences in a couple of sentences.  I think it deserves it’s own post.  Stay tuned…. it will very likely be posted this weekend
• Cafeteria food – I’ve mentioned before that the café downstairs of my old office building was not great.  The sandwiches were crappy, bland, and cost almost $7.  I guess it’s because I’m working in a snazzy HQ building now that the food is really good.  The cafeteria has 5 or 6 different sections with different types of food and all of them are magically delicious.  On top of that, the cost is very reasonable (around $4-$5 per entree).  I don’t eat there everyday, but it makes those days that I forget my lunch all more bearable.  Better food & better prices? Yes, please!
• Stress level - In my old job, my stress level was always through the roof.  Every time I got that MS Outlook notification, my heart started pounding.  “Great… what now?!” was all I could think — especially when I saw those emails came from specific people.  The overall environment was a lot stressful too.  Everywhere you turned, people were walking a thousand miles per minute, and had this crazy cartoon look in their eyes.  I know right now I’m not too stressed out w/ the new job, but I know it will increase as I get more into it (which is why I gave it around 30%).  The stress the people in my group have isn’t anywhere near what the stress levels were at my old company… and it’s a much faster-paced environment.
• Challenge level - My old job was not that challenging -at all-.  I used to joke that I could probably teach a monkey how to do my job.  It was a little bit at first, but after the first 3 or so months, I could pretty much do it in my sleep.  My new job, is a teensy bit similar to my old one, but there are so many more layers to it and I’m in a whole different part of my field.  Additionally, there are so many more intricate processes that have to be executed across several dozen sites which makes it more complicated than what I was doing before.  I’m really excited.  My new boss promised to keep me challenged whereas I had to beg my old boss for more challenges.  Maybe that’s why I got canned?  I made it look too easy!
• Work life balance – My old job was pretty cozy.  The work-life balance was easy to acheieve, but then again, I didn’t work at the HQ level at my Former Company.  I have several friends at that HQ who said things aren’t as fun as they were out in the field.  My new company goes the extra mile in making sure their employees are taken care of.  They want to make sure everyone still has time to spend with their families, and they encourage their employees to step away from the desk during lunch.  It’s been a pretty amazing experience so far because I definitely did not expect that at the HQ level.

Every Monday at 12-noon, I have the pleasure of being on a 1.5 hour conference call.  I’ve found in the last couple of weeks that I don’t have the time to make the trip down to the cafeteria beforehand, and the cafeteria closes before the end of the call, so today I brought a Lean Cuisine to munch on while everyone went over their Powerpoint presentations.

It was precisely at 11:58 am when the break room microwave announced that my meal was done.  It was also then that I learned the break room on my side of the building was not equipped with plastic cutlery.

I didn’t know what to do.  I couldn’t eat my fettucinni alfredo with my hands!  In a split-second, I decided I had 2 choices:

1. Wait an hour an a half for the call to end, then make the trip all the way down to the cafeteria, get a plastic fork, then go to town on my Lean Cuisine
2. Find another way to eat the damn noodles!

I opted for Option 2 because I skipped breakfast and was starrrrrrving! All I had to do was find another way to eat them.  Without missing a beat, my eyes landed on the cup of coffee stirrers.  Surely these can work like chopsticks? Maybe?

It was tricky, but I made it work!

A little over a decade ago, I entered the workforce at the tender age of 16 as a cashier at a local fast food restaurant.  My allowance was great, but I just wanted some extra spending money for all the fun things that high school can bring.

Throughout high school and most of college, I held a couple of jobs that required me to be in a ‘customer service’ type position and as such, I wanted to make sure the people I was in contact with had a pleasant experience.  I always greeted them with a bright smile, even if their complaints of movie late fees made me want to punch them in the face, and I always ended our conversation by thanking them and wishing them a great day.

That practice followed me into my first Big Kid role at the corporate office of a major Fortune 500 company.  I was in constant contact with suppliers and they always seemed a little stressed out (to put it lightly).  I wanted them to know that I sincerely cared about our partnership and worked hard to create and maintain great relationships with them because I knew there would be times I would need their help.  I figured I am a lot nicer and more quick to respond to those who are nice to me, so I always ended emails and phone conversation with “Thanks & have a great day!”

It was a signature line… something only I did, and I took it with me everywhere I went.  Now that I’m 2.5 weeks into my awesome new role at Present Company, I’m beginning to think about changing it up.

There is a woman in my office that I’ll be working closely with in the transition and uses the “Thanks & Have a Great Day!” phrase.  She uses it so much that she has it in her Outlook signature.  (I always typed my out ) I guess I’m worried that if I use that line – even though I’ve used it for a little over a decade now – that she’ll be miffed by it.

She doesn’t have it trademarked or anything, but I don’t know if it would bother her.

I’ve mentioned before that I’m one of those people who has a million ‘tag lines’ and at Former Company, Cee-isms slowly infiltrated the office and they became everyday phrases by people who were constantly around me.  It didn’t bug me… “they” say that imitation is the highest form of flattery after all.

I can’t decide if I should spice it up and do something different (new job, new start!) or not worry about it and stick with Old Faithful.

Everyone in my office is doing mid-year reviews.  Since I’ve only been there a week, I figured I would do a mid-year review of my own.

A little over 6 months ago, I posted 5 goals for 2009.  Let’s see how we’re doing:

• I resolve not to give my boss too hard of a time in 2009…. unless he absolutely deserves it. - Success so far. My former boss kinda deserved the hard time I gave him several months ago.  My new boss is actually pretty awesome, and even just 1 week in, he treats me like a real person that has really good ideas so I don’t forsee any hard times in his future :p
• I resolve to spend more time volunteering to help others. - Success so far. I’m all lined up to partake in a local volunteer organization.  I’m so excited to get started.  I’ve already met several AMAZING women and I’m so excited to help others.  I am also getting involved with various groups at my new office to help out the community in numerous ways.
• I promise to save more money and finish off my 9-month safety net savings – Success! With all of that wonderful severance pay, vacation time paid out, bonus, and my last paychecks from my last employer,  I now have a 12-month safety net -and- I’ve started the house & Princess Mobile 2.0 down-payment fund.
• I resolve to no longer consider other people’s feelings when it is obvious they no longer consider mine. – Success so far! I am sooooooo tired of people making me feel like crap with things they do or situations that are created.  I know that sometimes in personal relationships, there are disagreements and things like that.  I think I need to continue to work on where the line is – what can be forgiven/forgotten and what is just so bad that I don’t think I can deal with them in my life anymore.  Lately, my life has been pretty drama free and I’m hoping to keep it that way.
• I will wake up at 5:30 every morning to work out. – FAIL! haha! I don’t think this is a surprise.  Anyone who knows me knows I loooooooooooove to sleep! I did work out during my funemployment, but not as much as I would have liked.  I just can’t wake up and work out.  I don’t know how people do it.  I tend to work out better in the evening… around 8 or 9ish.   I did just recently pick up working out at least 5 days per week.  I’m on a mad mission to lose 20 lbs.  Wish me luck!

When I first got hired into my position, I figured I’d have a nice cozy cubicle home as I always did before.

Several days prior to my start date, my new boss called me up and we briefly spoke about my schedule during the first couple of weeks. Somewhere in between everything he mentioned something about showing me to my “office”.

I thought my head was playing tricks on me. Did this guy seriously say I would have an OFFICE?!

Later that day, I checked my G-mail because he said he sent me some more brief information regarding my on-boarding process and there it was again: “They are preparing your office….” and “After your New Hire Orientation, we will briefly meet in my office and I’ll take you to your office”

AWESOME!

I was thinking, I’m 27, and I’m going to have an OFFICE at the Headquarters of a Fortune 500 company!!!!

I wasn’t really sure though, because I really didn’t think my position was office-worthy, but why would he keep saying “MY OFFICE”? People don’t refer to cubicles as offices do they? I’ve heard “cube” and “workspace” before but never “office”.

All day long Monday, I watched the clock on my cell phone get closer and closer to the end of Orientation. I wanted to meet with my new boss and see if my “office” was indeed an office. When it finally came time, it turned out my “office” was really a big cube

It was the first time I had ever heard someone refer to cubicles as “offices” and it definitely threw me for a loop for a couple of days!

Today was the first “real” day. I had meetings every hour on the hour with different people in the department to learn more about what they do and how that will relate to my new world.

My boss kindly scheduled some “move in” time to get all my office supplies together & organized and start making my new “office” home.  I took this time to try to figure out the desk phone, because the phone in every single office I’ve ever been in has been the most difficult to fully master.

I think I picked up complicated new systems before figuring out how to do things on my desk phone.

Now that I think about it, in my 3 years at Former Company, I never once figured out the whole “conferencing” feature and even at the end of my tenure there, I still accidentally hung up on people when trying to transfer them to others in our office.

The admin for our group even gave me a couple of pages of handy dandy phone references that were supposed to make the whole phone easier, however, I think it just complicated the process entirely.  These reference pages even included flow-charts and that didn’t make finding the right codes to punch in any easier.

I’ve come to the conclusion that the makers of company desk phones and the programs used for them all got together and made it as complicated as possible just to frustrate the heck out of otherwise intelligent people.

=====

Today was my first day at my new Present Company.  I’m so excited and had the perfect outfit for the occasion.

I admit I’m so exhausted and I’m about to fall over and pass out.  I have been waking up at 10 am everyday for the last 3 months (with a few exceptions).  I tried really hard to be good and wake up early last week to prepare myself for the new schedule, but as you might imagine, my last ditch efforts to go out and have a ridiculous good time with the girls has sort of messed with that a bit. (Special thank you going out to my mom for calling to make sure I was awake at 6 am, and for texting me at 6:30 to make sure I didn’t fall back asleep after my wake up call & 5 alarms that were set.  Also thanks to my good friend J who sent me a text at 7 am to make sure once again I didn’t fall back asleep!)

Overall, it was a great day.  It’s a little intimidating because it’s a whole new industry, whole new company and a whole new set of things to learn but I’m very excited.  The entire day was spent at New Hire Orientation.  There were 9 others starting today.  It was SO NICE to have this because at my Former Company, they just kind of showed me around to meet people, and showed me where to go to set up all my benefit stuff and after that I was on my own.

More on the first week in the next few days…

1. Use proper letter format.  If you have no idea what that is, Microsoft Office should have a letter template.
2. Salutation: Dear Mr./Ms. {Last Name}
3. Paragraph 1: General Thanks
   1. Thank them for taking time out of their schedule to speak with you and specifically mention the position title & Company
   2. Let them know that you are confident you possess the skills and abilities needed to exceed their expectations for this role.  DO NOT USE PASSIVE LANGUAGE. Yes, that was important enough to bold, underline, and italicize!  If you ever write phrases like “I think” in your Thank You, I’m going to track you down & hit you with my laptop.  Ok, I might not track you down, but you really should use language that shows you are confident in your abilities.  I’ll never forget the phrase my writing coach in 7th grade taught me:  I firmly believe.  Loooooves it! I would even be bold and tell them that you are a perfect match for the position.
   3. You can also express your interest in the opportunity
4. Paragraph 2 – I got what you want
   1. I like to briefly talk about the abilities & experiences I have that they directly said they were looking for.  This is just to remind them that you already have what they are looking for.  I like to keep this paragraph 1-3 sentences.
5. Paragraph 3 – I got what you NEED!
   1. In this paragraph, I like to talk about what makes me way more awesome than any other candidates they may have spoken to.  I typically start it with “In addition to my experiences with ——–, I also —-”.
   2. You can discuss attributes that you already possess that will help you be more than successful in the role.  Worked with cross-functional teams? Led company initiatives? Win some awards? Served as a chair for some relevant committee? TELL THEM ABOUT IT.  And tie it into how it will be relevant to the job.
   3. This is also a good time to mention other positive attributes that you may have inadvertently left out during the interview.
   4. I like to keep this one between 2-4 sentences.
6. Paragraph 4: Thanks & Have a Great Day!
   1. Reiterate your appreciation
   2. Did you enjoy learning more about the position & company? Tell them that too
   3. Give them a way to contact you.  “If you have any other questions, please feel free to contact me at {phone number}
   4. Tell them you are really looking forward to hearing from them soon
7. Closing – Sincerely, or Best Regards, work great
8. First & Last Name

TA-DA! You’ve just written a thank you letter!!

A few words of caution:

• Watch your sentence structure.  If you find yourself using a ton of commas, it might be a good idea to make one of them a period & start another sentence so that your thoughts are coherent.
• DO NOT copy thank-you templates off the Internet.  That’s so generic! You want your thank-you’s to be as specific as possible so that it applies to YOU.  The more specific it is, the more effective it will be… and wouldn’t it be soooooo embarrassing if you forgot to change a field in the template? 
• Don’t be afraid to bust out a thesaurus if you find yourself using the same word over and over

Good luck!