Inheritance Arrives / Diane's Viewing / Jettisoning Account Management Role
My grandmother on my father's side died back in September and since then my uncle has been handling the estate. A month ago he was able to clean out the investment accounts and give shares to the survivors of my grandmother's children: My mother, my aunt, and my uncle himself. Unfortunately, as I mentioned in my last entry, my aunt barely lived long enough to enjoy the money, dying from a lung condition after having only enough time to buy a modest car with her share. My mother (Who gets my late father's share) decided to take a chunk of it and split it amongst my siblings and I. This small chunk will help with the down payment on a house Nicole and I hope to be shopping for in the coming months. It's heartbreaking that my aunt didn't live long enough to enjoy this money but her two adult offspring and their families should benefit. My uncle still has more of my late grandmother's estate to go through so there'll be more to come.
Speaking of my late aunt, her last wishes were to be cremated after a viewing (Which is unusual but whatever) so last month there was a modest viewing with close family. It was a meager Rose-family reunion of sorts. Short, too: Merely only a couple hours if that. It was a good chance to say goodbye and yet another difficult reminder that we all age and die and some of us do it faster than others and some families feel it more often than others. My aunt had another last request: That her ashes be split between her two children. My cousin mentioned not wanting to do that so I'm not sure where the ashes will end up. It makes me think about what I'd like to have happen with my remains one day. I'm pretty sure I'd want to be cremated and scattered somewhere (No fuss with a final resting place) but I haven't put any thought into it. Nicole and I have this funny daydream about our ashes being formed into jewelry or something macabre that no one will want in their homes anyway. Hopefully I don't have to think about such things with any seriousness for decades yet to come.
Right as January was ending, I was pretty damn stressed out at my job. Since October, I've been in a new role where I assist a small team of designers and programmers in making data entry websites for the manufacturing work done at my workplace. Some of it's great and right up my alley but a side role my boss gave me left me sleepless and beside myself. Aside from making these websites, my team also manages the accounts on large equipment purchases that various managers desire to make for the company. It involves interfacing with upper management, researching the projects, filling out lots of paperwork, pursuing the purchases themselves, and all the other formal action involved with making large purchases at a company that needs documentation and communication every step of the way. Someone has to do it and I drew the short straw in October.
I hated it. I loathed it. It kept me awake at night. I daydreamed about quitting even on the weekends. It was a job role so alien to my skillset and ability that I couldn't even relax most evenings knowing I had to go back to it early the next morning. There was no training, no assistance, and no documentation on how to even perform the role. The only perk was that I was allowed to call myself an "Account Manager". It took up more than half my time and was simply frustrating. After one particularly bad meeting where us Account Managers were told that we'd be taking on even more responsibility, I'd had enough and immediately sat down with my boss to say I couldn't do it any longer. I was sure he'd either fire me or tell me to put up with it and find the success or whatever, but he understood that I was drowning and he agreed to let me out of that role. I hate failing at things and I hate being a quitter, but if I didn't offload that job duty, I'd have left the entire job altogether. My boss only gave me the role in October because everyone else was so busy and as I was just coming onto the team, he felt I needed the work. Thankfully, I picked the exact right moment to do it, because one of my other teammates had a major project dissolve and he needed something to do, so now he's our Account Manager. It's right up his alley, too, as he has stronger connections with management plus he's been a leader with the company so he actually has experience going in. It all worked out and I felt such an incredible relief. Now I can focus on building websites for the factory and continue working on those skills.
Speaking of my late aunt, her last wishes were to be cremated after a viewing (Which is unusual but whatever) so last month there was a modest viewing with close family. It was a meager Rose-family reunion of sorts. Short, too: Merely only a couple hours if that. It was a good chance to say goodbye and yet another difficult reminder that we all age and die and some of us do it faster than others and some families feel it more often than others. My aunt had another last request: That her ashes be split between her two children. My cousin mentioned not wanting to do that so I'm not sure where the ashes will end up. It makes me think about what I'd like to have happen with my remains one day. I'm pretty sure I'd want to be cremated and scattered somewhere (No fuss with a final resting place) but I haven't put any thought into it. Nicole and I have this funny daydream about our ashes being formed into jewelry or something macabre that no one will want in their homes anyway. Hopefully I don't have to think about such things with any seriousness for decades yet to come.
Right as January was ending, I was pretty damn stressed out at my job. Since October, I've been in a new role where I assist a small team of designers and programmers in making data entry websites for the manufacturing work done at my workplace. Some of it's great and right up my alley but a side role my boss gave me left me sleepless and beside myself. Aside from making these websites, my team also manages the accounts on large equipment purchases that various managers desire to make for the company. It involves interfacing with upper management, researching the projects, filling out lots of paperwork, pursuing the purchases themselves, and all the other formal action involved with making large purchases at a company that needs documentation and communication every step of the way. Someone has to do it and I drew the short straw in October.
I hated it. I loathed it. It kept me awake at night. I daydreamed about quitting even on the weekends. It was a job role so alien to my skillset and ability that I couldn't even relax most evenings knowing I had to go back to it early the next morning. There was no training, no assistance, and no documentation on how to even perform the role. The only perk was that I was allowed to call myself an "Account Manager". It took up more than half my time and was simply frustrating. After one particularly bad meeting where us Account Managers were told that we'd be taking on even more responsibility, I'd had enough and immediately sat down with my boss to say I couldn't do it any longer. I was sure he'd either fire me or tell me to put up with it and find the success or whatever, but he understood that I was drowning and he agreed to let me out of that role. I hate failing at things and I hate being a quitter, but if I didn't offload that job duty, I'd have left the entire job altogether. My boss only gave me the role in October because everyone else was so busy and as I was just coming onto the team, he felt I needed the work. Thankfully, I picked the exact right moment to do it, because one of my other teammates had a major project dissolve and he needed something to do, so now he's our Account Manager. It's right up his alley, too, as he has stronger connections with management plus he's been a leader with the company so he actually has experience going in. It all worked out and I felt such an incredible relief. Now I can focus on building websites for the factory and continue working on those skills.