Ask a Manager!

My intention in 2016 was to write more often.  As you notice, the last time I wrote to you was in January 2016!    Not knowing where to start, why not start small and write what I know based on that last few months?  Maybe you might be interested.  If not, let me know!

It got extremely busy at my career job.  For those who don’t know, I do have a current career in supply chain and a high tech contract manufacturing firm.  I buy the raw materials to build circuit boards.  It can be a very stressful job and that’s what happened the first 8 month of this year.   I did take a break from Cindy Ho Designs for a few weeks to avoid the burn out.

The past few months, alot of my focus is working with people and co-worker relationships.  Anyone who works in an office understand that things that will affect yoour performace.   This year it has been tough and it wasn’t about the work.  It was about the people I worked with:

• chews snacks with mouth open
• prides to be an expert in everything
• oversharing information
• many hours of personal phone calls
• negative attitutes
• pawning off work to others
• bullies

My list is really much more extensive than this but it’s a range for minor annoyances to issues that affect my performance. 

So what can I do about it?

I consider myself a professional level headed office person.  (some of you might snicker if you know me personaly).  I often give advice and coaching myself who reach out to me. However, for some reason, I couldn’t follow my own advice.  I just kept my head down and worked.  This went on for weeks until I was so annoyed that I was unhappy.

There’s lots of ways to deal with these behaviours but I really didn’t want to since all of this isn’t serious enough for me to bring to HR or the boss.   At the same time, it doesn’t make sense to be  frustrated when you spend one third of your life at the office.

So here’s the thing, I really didn’t know what to do (I always knew what to do)  I was so overwhelmed with these people and I didn’t have a mentor or anyone in similar sition to confide in.  So what would anyone probably woudl do:

I googled it

It let me to this great blog of Alison Green whose experience where people ask their work related issues and she will respond.  Boy I’m so happy to find this blog.  Just reading the blog reminded me that of course these issues are common and put my problems into perspective.  The renewed perspective took the feeling of burden off my shoulders literally overnight.  I thought:

You know what, I can handle this.   I can do this.

I thought to start, at least share the blog that reset my thoughts on dealing with issue with the workplace for anyone who might be similar to my position.

www.askamanager.org

If you ever read this, thank you Alison!

Cindy Ho Designs – Year Two

Still a full time mom and still have my full time career but Cindy Ho Designs has gotten busier.   In order to keep organized, in the first quarter of this year my shop was split into three categories.

1. Foils and Artwork – www.cindyhodesigns.com
2. Decals and Stickers - cindyhodecals.etsy.com
3. Craft Supplies – cindyhosupplies.etsy.com

This also helped me service my customers better since each store offer very different things.  Also I’ve been freelancing making handmade greeting cards which developed my designing skills.

It’s been a great experience so far.   The profits from my shop has paid for all my tools without dipping into the family budget.  Back in October, I preordered a Glowforge laser cutter without hesitation.  This has been my largest investment yet and I didn’t few it as a ‘toy’.  I viewed the unit as opportunity to expand on my dream.  I’m a little nervous as it’s a whole new learning curve, but I know this is perfect stepping stone toward my goals.

For those who like my work or ordered my designs,

Thank You! 

Jewel – Husky Digital Cutting File

A couple of years ago,  Ana asked to make a custom family Christmas card for her.  She’s one of the most vibrant ladies I’ve ever met.  She had a sweet husky named Jewel.

I generally prefer designing my own cutting files, however, she didn’t give me a lot of time to design her and her son. So I purchased some ready made files from SVG Cutting Files and made some adjustments to suit so they represented her family well.  This site is a great for any owner of a desktop digital cutter.    Their files fully editable so you can customize your creations. 

Jewel, however, I wanted to make my own cutting file as I couldn’t find cutting file that matched the SVG ones purchased.  I took heavy reference to a cute husky drawing done by a talented artist with the handle Gingalengendamterasu on Deviantart.  It was a frustrating but wonderful challenge to recreate the husky as a paper cut project.  The project ended up wonderfully.