Stress

I am glad I waited a couple days to write this.

I have been so overly stressed at work! The guy I work with is a really great guy. He is very nice and tries really hard to be stressful, but let's face it, he's still a guy and, as such, does not think things through completely. My appologies to any men who may be offended by my statement but just admit it. I'm right.

I really like to be busy and I really enjoy learning new things but lately it has been wearing on me. Oley, the guy I work for, has given me about a hundred thinngs to work on. I love that I can be of use and that I can learn to do these things for him like ordering new shirts, designing logos, calling vendors, shipping items to reps, updating contact information, preparing for seminars, creating reports. I really do love all of that. It keeps me busy. BUT my problem lies in that I have many many things to do, all of them are incredibly time consuming and I am forced to decide which takes priority. Sounds like a good plan, except every single one of the things I have is supposed to be my first priority!!

I finally had to make a list of everything I had to do. It came to 28 items. I took it to Oley and told him that I am happy to do everything on my list but I am not able to do everything at once.

It was bad. I came to tears a couple times.

Earlier this week, I learned that when I am stressed I become very sensitive and start taking things personally. One rep emailed me something that just told me what his color coding meant. That was great, except that he sent that to me last week and I had not had a chance to update his changes because I saw something else as priority. I wrote him back to tell him that and asked if it needed to be updated right away (I knew it didn't). After I sent it I saw that he had also sent me another email in which he made changes to his original changes and he was just aprising me of them. I felt very small so I had to appologize for being so sensitive. That's when I realized what stress does to me!

For the past couple days I have been trying to figure out how to create a price report through our new database system that we just switched over to. I know how to do it in the old system but it is not so easy in the new one. I have to first create the program through Crystal Reports. A few weeks ago I went to a training on Crystal Reports but it did not help too much. It was the first time I ever saw it so nothing was making sense to me. Oley is under the impression that it is easy to do but that is because he has not even looked at the program. He also thought (and still thinks) that it should be easy because I went to the training. What he is not understanding is I did not get Crystal Reports even installed on my computer until this past Monday, over 2 weeks after I went to the training. Plus, it is very confusing. I compare it to having one Spanish class and being expected to read and comprehend "Don Quixote".

I have spent all day yesterday and most of today reading books on Crystal Reports and the help features on the program. Honestly, I am still lost. But, I know I am not alone. Steph, the office manager and the girl to whom I answer, was also at the training and is just as lost and she saw the program before going to the training. That makes me feel better.

Since I am so lost reading the book (that, incedentally, does not have diagrams) I ordered "Crystal Reports for Dummies". Can't wait til that one comes in!

After I vented to Steph and my sister about my work situation I feel much better. Plus, it helped to realize how sensitive I was becoming! That is insane! No one was trying to hurt my feelings or tell me I was doing a bad job. I just took it that way.

It is always good to learn more about yourself.