Long Hours….

Just poppin’ in for a bit. The week has been long but there is progress. I’m getting the hang of the payroll part of the process via the baptism with fire method. I have made a couple of mistakes. Both were not the end of the world but what you don’t know – can indeed hurt or bite you. So the learning curve happens quickly in the case of payroll. But everyone was paid. As far as I know. lol

Yesterday I was able to get most of my office moved as the payroll process itself was finished. IT got my computer switched over. I had to rearrange some filing and take time to get settled a bit.

Now I am trying to get organized – to organize myself and the work so that it flows smoothly for me. It was already set up to work pretty smooth but you know each of us has a method that we like to use. I use check lists a lot b/c it produces standard work – every time.

It is a lot of work and I’ve added more to it so it will have long hours but as long as I can keep it reasonable, it’ll be ok. This week has not been reasonable but I’ve had to wear the HR hat some, move offices, and try to figure things out. I’m still in the learning curve but hanging in. So hoping for shorter hours next week. The week the new person starts will be rough trying to fit in training. It won’t happen the first part of the week b/c the payroll deadlines won’t allow it. Anyway, I love the job -just have to get it under control and get into a flow.

God has helped me through. But when things go wrong, I have asked Him where was He? I’ve struggled a bit with that. But I guess He doesn’t work that way. It’s about like asking that famous question about why God allows good people to be hurt, or bad things to happen. We just live in an imperfect world, we are human and not all-knowing, and there will be evil and there will be mistakes. I mean ONE wrong button push can make a difference in a sequence and cause a series of unplanned events. I feel like God has control over certain things as we make requests so maybe I should be more specific in my prayers. Or maybe He allowed certain things to occur to show me something. I’ve just struggled with that. The devil tries to shake your faith. I need to seek the answers in scripture though. Do you have some help for me on that issue?

George has been patient with my long hours. Often he has handed me a drink the moment I ascended from the basement (garage) and into the house, lol. Tonight we are going out to eat at his suggestion. Probably in an effort to get me out of there and home at a decent hour. So I can’t let myself stay late today. I’ve missed a nail appointment so will have to do that probably Sunday.

I’m missing my Global Celebration with Isagenix. I gave that up (vacation days) when I took this position. I will likely not work this as a side business for a while. Ironically, now that I am in this role, I feel happier. I no longer feel the need to reach “financial freedom” and take off in an RV and chase adventure. Not that I am opposed to it and I reserve the right to chase that dream at any time. It’s still VERY appealing to me to take off into the sunset on a long term journey. But I no longer HAVE to do this. I had no idea I was just trying to get away from my life. Well, I knew I had the desire to, I just didn’t realize it was the job that was so unfulfilling to me. I really have to feel like I can make a difference and I wasn’t feeling that. If I had, no one ever told me I did so it was non fulfilling. But now I have a job that even if I work long hours I’m still enjoying the work. And it is a lot more work really. But more my type of work. I have to be able to see something finished. I love paperwork and processing things through. I did not enjoy banging my head against a wall repeatedly over and over again. Recruiting is just not my bag of tricks. To be honest, I don’t think it is for many of us – it’s always been something you had to deal with as a part of HR though. A time suck that kept you from doing other parts of the job. A constant battle. I’m happy to have different kinds of battles now. It’s always a race against time. But I’m going to enjoy the adventure of taming this position along with the benefits. It’s going to be a very busy ride but one that I’m excited over. I hope one day we can be a bit more automated. It is needed so badly. Til then we will enjoy doing longer processing. However, no matter how long the process – at least you can get to an end result. And that is important to me.

So this weekend Aunt Martha and Uncle Ken are coming up from Jacksonville. I’ll be so happy to see them.

Soon I hope we can go to church again. We have had company or been somewhere every weekend since end of June. Maybe things will slow a bit. We will soon be planning for Christmas and our vacation in November. I have to see how that will work. Katy is only off that week. But we may have to only take a few days. I’m not sure I’ll want to travel that far for only 1/2 a week. So we’ll have to figure that out. I may have messed up our vacation by taking this position. But I can only do that if my back up is willing to cover that week.

I’m trying not to stress over that. But that is the way it goes. We didn’t get to go to Chicago when George changed jobs. You just gotta do what you can do.

Anyway, better go so I can get more coffee and get out the door.

What fun things are you up to this weekend?