People Advisory Forum

Since getting involved in several internal initiatives at the firm I work for, I am meeting more of my coworkers and building a reputation for myself. I am becoming busier and more interested in growing our consulting practice in addition to my everyday client work. One of the internal group I was selected for is called the People Advisory Forum. Basically, certain people within our practice were selected to represent their peers and meeting are held to discuss "people" issues. By "people" issues, I mean things that people are upset or concerned about.

I was excited, thinking this would be the perfect way for me to voice the concerns of myself and other coworkers at my level. At our first meeting on Friday, I actually learned that a lot of people throughout the company feel the same way that I do. But then I also heard about issues that had never even crossed my mind, like losing my job.

One of the most common themes was recognition. When working at any company, you will find that there are some people who are top performers and go above and beyond what is asked of them and consistently exceed expectations. On the other hand, there are some people that do their job and just get by, hoping for a free ride when it comes to review time. The thing that makes people angry, is when there isn't enough of a distinction made between these different types of people. Obviously you don't want to publish compensation increases to the entire company, but it is important to a professional to know if they are a top performer, and if so, they should be treated like one. When someone tells me I am a top performer, yet I am stuck on an awful project, it really doesn't make me feel like the firm is looking out for their top performers. Yeah, a good raise is nice, but being given priority in other aspects of your career is sometimes even better.

The second thing, which pretty much blindsided me, was the fact that people seem to be worried about losing their job. Considering the current state of the economy and market expectations over the next 12 months, there may not be a great deal of consulting work out there. People in our practice want to know how we are adjusting our skill sets and our overall strategy to adapt to these conditions. And if there is no work, are we all still going to have jobs? We see firms on Wall Street laying employees off every other week, I certainly hope that doesn't happen to me. But the truth is, it really hadn't even crossed my mind. I figured I would always have a job unless I decided to leave, maybe I should think again.

Getting involved in a forum like this that allows me to work with upper management and will hopefully give me an advantage over others at my level.

Everyone Likes a Little Competition

I don't know about you, but I am a relatively (and by that I mean extremely) competitive person. I was competitive in college and just as much now that I've started working. You must keep in mind though, that you can't show your competitive side quite as much in the real world, because that might be looked down upon. So, people like myself have to find other ways to channel our competitiveness. Suprisingly, it can still be done in a work setting. Hence, the "investment club" that I just started with 14 other coworkers.

So, here's how it works, and the first thing I freaked out about....$2500 minimum. I've only been working for 6 months, do you think I'm made of money? Not quite yet, but hopefully finding good investments will make me one! Each person pays $50 which goes toward investment research. Only the best of course, Valueline and a few Motley Fool newsletters. I've already made 2.5% and that's just in two days...I'm obviously really excited. A small portion of the pool of money will go toward whomever makes the most return by June 30th. To be quite honest with you, I don't even care about the winnings, I'd rather just make money in general.

We have a google group for people to "trash talk" other people's investments and to give tips to other people in the group on anything you may have heard from friends or other investors. I get excited pretty easily, so making money on my stock picks AND outperforming my coworkers is enough to make me giddy. It sure beats actually competing with coworkers to get better reviews and higher pay raises, which is just tacky and really is not politically correct in the workplace (or at least where I work).

In case you were wondering, the three stocks I've bought so far are WDC, RIO and MSFT. Check out some of their stats at smartmoney.com. Buy low, sell high.

Ok, Is It Time for Retirement Yet?

So I have decided that I am ready to stop working already. I have only been in the real world for 6 months and I am ready to quit. That is, I don't like my job right now AT ALL. Sometimes not liking your job is just a phase (which I am hoping is what this is) or it's permanent and then you find a new job or do something else with your life.

Now there are several reasons why one may not like their job and I'm pretty sure the combination I've got going covers all of them.

1. I am working by myself with a client. Usually consulting firms don't like to do this for several reasons (work in groups to make more money, teaming with coworkers produces better client work), but of course I am the one exception since there is not a lot of client work out there right now.

2. The project that was supposed to be ending on December 31, 2007 has miraculously been extended JUST FOR ME until April 8, 2008. Do you know how long that is? I know a few months isn't an eternity, but trust me, it feels like it when you are miserable.

3. I am still doing administrative work and not dealing with any numbers at all. I was a finance and accounting major, clearly that is why I took a job as a FINANCIAL consultant.

4. My boss is not listening to me. I have had a good attitude about being stuck on this project but since voicing my concerns that I have reached a plateau in terms of learning, there hasn't been a strong push to get me off this project.

5. I get frustrated when I don't know how to do things and my boss just makes me feel like an idiot. As if I am supposed to know how to do everything as a first year staff. I know I was an accounting major but considering that I haven't used numbers once since I started working, I need to brush up on my skills.

I am sure there are more reasons that are contributing to what is making my life so unpleasant right now, but I can't think of them. I just signed up to take the CPA exam, so that will help to get my mind off of real work and on to trying to pass the four parts of the exam. Also, getting involved in internal initiatives helps. It takes my mind off of the meaningless work I am doing at the client site and on to helping to sell our services in the marketplace, recruiting top candidates and ensuring our practice strategies are aligned.

I am not really sure how long you are supposed to put up with not liking your job, but I am pretty sure I have a short fuse.