Memory? What memory was that then?

Margaret_Skinner

Tuesday_Tenor wrote: »

If your new workplace doesn't have a culture of having written procedures, because everyone else has been there for ages and knows everything, it can be a nightmare for a new person learning lots of new things all at once.

Worth trying the following approach?:
Instead of being apologetic and relying on scribbled post-in notes, write down everything you need, in as much detail as you need, on A4 sheets. Start your own 'procedures' file. Say you always did this in previous posts. If appropriate (without implying too strongly that they're c**p managers/trainers) say it makes it so much easier for training the next person, or for someone having to cover for you.

So, rather than seeming forgetful, you give the impression of being methodical, professional, giving attention to detail. Probably just what you are, actually.

You never know, over time they might come in so useful, you might change the culture in the office and 'Procedures Files' will become the norm! ... But even if you don't, at least you'll have what YOU need.

HTH!

Exactly what I did myself after starting a part-time job with payroll and HR procedures none of which I was familiar with, having nobody to train me and finding no-one who could provide procedures to follow. Everything was done on a trial-and-error basis, learning as you go along - not ideal when you're responsible for folks' pay!

I also think I went hurtling into the menopause about 6 months into the job which completely zapped my confidence and made me feel as thick as mince!

Several things help:

Using the task list on Microsoft Outlook for one-off tasks with reminders so that they pop up regularly;
Using the reminder facility on Microsoft Outlook's Calendar for routine tasks;
Post-it notes (how did we manage without these??)
Getting folk to request things in e-mail if poss and replying to queries or tasks via e-mail so that you have a record of what you've done;
Using the task list & reminders on my mobile - that one has been invaluable and is in daily use!
Realising not all errors etc were my fault - if no-one gives me the information or the procedures to follow and I can't find them anywhere, it's hardly surprising it's going to go pear-shaped eventually .....

I'm now leaving that particular job in about a month (I have 2 part-time jobs for the same organisation in 2 different offices - I'm leaving one of them) but I'll make damn sure the person who replaces me gets some decent training (the administrator there before me walked out 2 months before I came so I was pretty much out on a limb) and that there are procedures typed up in a folder somewhere for her to refer to if necessary. The good (or bad) thing is I'll still be working in our local office 40 miles away so if it comes to the bit I can pop out to go over stuff if she feels the need.

It's a bummer this memory thing but there are things out there which can help - just a question of finding what works for you.

flossy_splodge

Margaret_Clark wrote: »

Exactly what I did myself after starting a part-time job with payroll and HR procedures none of which I was familiar with, having nobody to train me and finding no-one who could provide procedures to follow. Everything was done on a trial-and-error basis, learning as you go along - not ideal when you're responsible for folks' pay!

I also think I went hurtling into the menopause about 6 months into the job which completely zapped my confidence and made me feel as thick as mince!

Several things help:

Using the task list on Microsoft Outlook for one-off tasks with reminders so that they pop up regularly;
Using the reminder facility on Microsoft Outlook's Calendar for routine tasks;
Post-it notes (how did we manage without these??)
Getting folk to request things in e-mail if poss and replying to queries or tasks via e-mail so that you have a record of what you've done;
Using the task list & reminders on my mobile - that one has been invaluable and is in daily use!
Realising not all errors etc were my fault - if no-one gives me the information or the procedures to follow and I can't find them anywhere, it's hardly surprising it's going to go pear-shaped eventually .....

I'm now leaving that particular job in about a month (I have 2 part-time jobs for the same organisation in 2 different offices - I'm leaving one of them) but I'll make damn sure the person who replaces me gets some decent training (the administrator there before me walked out 2 months before I came so I was pretty much out on a limb) and that there are procedures typed up in a folder somewhere for her to refer to if necessary. The good (or bad) thing is I'll still be working in our local office 40 miles away so if it comes to the bit I can pop out to go over stuff if she feels the need.

It's a bummer this memory thing but there are things out there which can help - just a question of finding what works for you.

Great post - lots of excellent ideas. Thanks.
Now do you have any suggestions for improving a 'difficult' boss :rotfl:

Margaret_Skinner

flossy_splodge wrote: »

Great post - lots of excellent ideas. Thanks.
Now do you have any suggestions for improving a 'difficult' boss :rotfl:

Oh yeah I've had a few of those in my time! Depends on how 'difficult' ....... want to elaborate? I won't tell!

Actually that was another thing which helped tremendously - having 2 bosses and seeing the different management style of each. The one in the job I'm leaving, although nice, is much more devious, stressed (although with good reason), unsupportive and expects everyone to work at his pace (around 100 miles an hour!). The other one whom I've worked for for 5 years, is very supportive, caring, conscientious, efficient, informative and reliable.

During the awful time I was having at the second job I was due for my annual appraisal in my first job - I got an absolutely fantastic one which boosted my confidence no end when it badly needed it - and my boss is not the sort of person who would do that lightly - the appraisal forms we have go into things in quite a bit of depth and in fact I wanted to rate the different categories lower than she did but she was having none of it! Bless!

downshifter

Margaret_Clark wrote: »

Actually that was another thing which helped tremendously - having 2 bosses and seeing the different management style of each. The one in the job I'm leaving, although nice, is much more devious, stressed (although with good reason), unsupportive and expects everyone to work at his pace (around 100 miles an hour!). The other one whom I've worked for for 5 years, is very supportive, caring, conscientious, efficient, informative and reliable.

Sounds just like the 2 owners of the business where I am now working, both so different. With the first it's very difficult to avoid being infected by his stressness though I've started getting cheeky now and when he's stressing around the place I suggest that instead of all the hassle and never seeing his family, he could just pack it all in and sell up. I don't understand his motivation and from the high standpoint of being not far under 60 looking at an under 40 yr old, it seems black and white to me. He may make his millions and leave a rich widow and 2 little ones when he drops at 45 but for what? So he gets very little sympathy from me. The other owner is calmer and intelligent and explains things to me clearly and unpatronisingly. I also have a colleague who I rarely see who works from home most of the time, she issues me with instructions by email and is very patronising!

From day one I wrote out my own instructions and procedures, and have, again cheekily suggested some changes to how things are done. I am never without my notepad. I dig my own older-person grave though, by doing things like hoovering the office and getting rid of mouldy cups now and again, it's such a pigsty! So no wonder they see me as granny figure!

I'd like to use some of the computer diary and alerting systems but they don't use outlook or anything like it, just web-based systems, and we all use the same email login. I think though, that I'm beginning to crack it and although today again I made a mistake, it's one I won't make again.

thanks to everyone for the great ideas and the sympathy and empathy! But oh god, roll on that lottery win, I'm fed up with working and the knowledge that I'm going to have to do it until I too drop, even though I've downshifted and no longer work on the career bandwagon for 40 hrs a week, I still feel as though I have no time!

DS

wodgerdodger

It's comforting to know there are many others like myself who find as we get older, 60 in my case, that our memories aren't what they were.
I was worried that I was forgetting relatively simple things and was having trouble doing the telegraph crossword which I used to breeze through.
I mentioned it to my GP and surprisingly he advised me that there is a new clinic in our area which speciailises in memory loss and I have now heard from them and two of the team have arranged to visit in the next two weeks. They will apparently make some sort of assesment and presumably some recommendations following that.

I'm no way gaga but like many other posters have a concern that silly lapses could be an indication of something potetially worse.
I'll report after the meeting ...if I remember of course!!!!

downshifter

Right, if we haven't heard from you in 2 weeks I'll start nagging! With me it isn't consistent, for example at the moment/this week I seem to be ok, at other times I'm looking at, or hearing people tell me things for the first time - and if anyone says, 'I'm sure I told you this before' - one more time I'll deck 'em. Though of course that could be a cover up for the fact that they can't remember if they told me or not.

I'd be interested to hear how you get on and if there are any techniques we could try. I find I have to work really hard to save some things onto my harddrive brain so that they are near the front somehow to pull out. I've learnt though, that whereas previously I could rely on my memory I certainly can't now and that's distressing.

Now don't forget to let us know how you get on, wodgerdodger.

DS

flossy_splodge

Oh the joy of reading this thread!!
One thing that I find invaluable is that I have already found that I am primarily a visual learner with an element of kinaesthetic.
So I write detailed notes (when I'm allowed to :eek:) which means my eyes read the instructions and I've 'experienced' them as well. Merely being verbally 'told' them simply doesn't do it for me.
So identify your personal learning style and use that to adapt how to retain the information.
I am now so proficient in Sage payroll even the boss expressed surprise at how quickly I've picked it up. When I am unsure, I flip through the pages of my notes in my head until I find the right one. Works a treat.
Good luck all.
Oh and I reduced my stress level enormously by having a major hissy fit at being spoken to as if I were a 7 year old. Seems to have cleared the air....:D

Margaret_Skinner

downshifter wrote: »

I don't understand his motivation and from the high standpoint of being not far under 60 looking at an under 40 yr old, it seems black and white to me. He may make his millions and leave a rich widow and 2 little ones when he drops at 45 but for what? So he gets very little sympathy from me.

I think as you get older you begin to realise how much madness there is in working so much of the week and spending such a large proportion of your life somewhere you'd rather not be!

From day one I wrote out my own instructions and procedures, and have, again cheekily suggested some changes to how things are done. I am never without my notepad. I dig my own older-person grave though, by doing things like hoovering the office and getting rid of mouldy cups now and again, it's such a pigsty! So no wonder they see me as granny figure!

I was laughing at this -I'm paid extra to clean the offices we work in (only 3 small ones and a small toilet & kitchen) but there are supposed to be cleaners cleaning the communal areas and the stairs outside. We're 3 floors up and having moved a couple of weeks ago there was quite a mess with the shifting of all the office furniture so I just took the hoover out and gave it a quick clean myself thinking "What am I like - I just dig holes for myself all over the place!!" then I read this!

I'd like to use some of the computer diary and alerting systems but they don't use outlook or anything like it, just web-based systems, and we all use the same email login. I think though, that I'm beginning to crack it and although today again I made a mistake, it's one I won't make again.

You might be able to download Microsoft Outlook or some other reminder system from the Internet if they'd let you. Before we had Outlook I made up my own task list in Word and Excel - just lists of stuff I had to do with dates beside them that I would revisit 2 or 3 times a week to check stuff was done or if priorities had changed, alter the dates. That worked quite well.

thanks to everyone for the great ideas and the sympathy and empathy! But oh god, roll on that lottery win, I'm fed up with working and the knowledge that I'm going to have to do it until I too drop, even though I've downshifted and no longer work on the career bandwagon for 40 hrs a week, I still feel as though I have no time!

Too right - I've been left some shares as part of a family inheritance and I've decided to sell some of them to use as a supplement to the first job once I stop the second job for a few months so that I can take some time off for a break and also get my health issues sorted out. I was beating myself up for this thinking it was too self-indulgent until someone said "shares are an investment - all you're doing is investing in yourself - what's wrong with that?" She was right!

Margaret_Skinner

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]And now I'm laughing at this just come through e-mail at work:[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]"Strong passwords are the first line of defense against hack attacks, but how can you get users to create passwords that are complex and don't contain any dictionary words, without making the passwords so hard to remember that they end up writing them down?[/FONT]

[FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]A random combination of letters and numbers (such as rjfoo3B7p2) is ideal, but hard to remember. A handy trick is to have users create password phrases or sentences that include numbers and then reduce them to abbreviations. In other words, I love my two cats, Susie and Fluffy, becomes Ilm2cS&F, which looks like a random group of characters but is much easier to remember.[/FONT][FONT=Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]"[/FONT]

Can you just imagine the scenario??

"Oh yeah - what was it I used again? Was it the cats or the dog? Which order did I put them in? Maybe I didn't use any of the pets - was it DD's initial I chose - or the house number - or the names of the fish - or my birthday - hold on maybe I wrote it down ..........."

I'm not knocking the trick itself - it's a good one - but it would never work for me. I've picked a fairly obscure password which I use for absolutely EVERYTHING and that works really well - but I do have a fear of one day suddenly forgetting even that as well as everything else so my usernames; passwords; account numbers; pin numbers - the whole kit and caboodle - are all horrendously written down somewhere and filed away.

What's worse than that though is that - being an avid diary-keeper several years ago - at one point I decided to type up entries thinking that would be a faster way of doing them. I would print them out and paste the pages into an A5 book and the typed entries were kept on the hard drive of the computer - password protected of course in case of any prying eyes!

Knowing my family were well aware I use the same password for everything, I must have decided on a different one on this occasion just in case ......

Damned if I know what it was though. Have tried out various combinations over the years but they remain sitting there - very well protected and hidden for ever no doubt!

Savvy_Sue

When I set up email accounts for new staff, I give them all a password which is their first name, plus our company name, but some of the letters are changed to numbers, the number I think looks most like that letter.

It's strong, it looks random, and no-one forgets their name or who they work for! :rotfl: