Decisions, Decisions…

Tags

advice, career, decisions, education, jobs, Life, Main, moving, Work

Those of you who know me whether through the blog or in person, know that I can’t stay content for long. This is where I meet most of my frustrations in life. It’s not an attention span issue or a problem focussing. It’s just that I have a need to keep moving forward. It reflects most in my professional life. Ask Rachel and she will testify to this need. If I am not moving ahead, either through promotions or on to something different, I get really impatient and irritated. Lately, my job at NovaRad is becoming very stale and stagnant. I recently found out that there is almost zero room for upward movement here. I will try to explain briefly what I mean.

When I was hired on this past March (8 months ago, today), I was told and the offer letter stated that I was hired as a Tech 2 agent. For three months, I would be performing as a Tech 1 agent. Then after a positive 90 day review, I would be promoted to function in a Tech 2 role. I was happy to know there was something resembling a career path here. Three months went by and I was told that I was doing great and I should shortly be “promoted” to a Tech 2. I add the quote marks because of the fact that it’s not really a promotion, since I was hired as a Tech 2 in the first place. I found there would also be no salary increase related to this “promotion”. Simply a title change and a slight change in duties. The only benefit, money-wise, would be that I would be placed on the on-call rotation. I would work 2-10 for a week and get roughly $500 on top of my regular pay. Bottom line… here it is eight months later, and I’m still a Tech 1.

I’ve had some good discussions with my supervisor about this incomplete structure and all I got were some vague statements and some shrugs. He was asking me what I would do. This is not a great way to run a help desk. I’ve been very tempted to go speak with his manager regarding all of this but fear the repercussions of going over my manager’s head.

I have made some good efforts to help improve the structure here. I designed and proposed a new role for the team. I thought a Team Lead position had worked very well in previous jobs so I brought it up here and it was pretty much filed away with not a second thought. There is an opportunity I get every couple weeks to be the rapid response monitor and help prompt the team to make sure to help each customer within 30 minutes. I have performed at my best in the past given these special assignments. I have proven my skills and excitement over and over. I’ve told my boss that I would gladly take that role every day. It charges me up and each day I do it, the team gets the highest scores out of the rest of the week.

Working at Intel really showed me what I want to do. I want to run a team. I want to be a manager. I love it! I’m really good at it. I keep getting my opportunities taken from me. Intel laid me off and so did Slash.

As far as the title of this post, I really have a few big decisions on my plate. As previously mentioned, I have a huge and seemingly no-brainer decision to start school again, for FREE!! I also would like to move back closer to home (Washington) very soon. I need to know what I should do in the meantime here at my current job.

I feel horrible for Rachel and Wyatt. I know they are more than willing to follow me wherever. But talk about never settling down. Rachel wrote a comment regarding this inability to sit still on my Facebook account, “So interesting to me…I grew up in the exact same house my whole life, and since I’ve been married to you, I’ve moved 5 times. No complaints though. I’m ready for whatever life throws at us.” I love her so much! I only moved once as a child, growing up. I don’t know where this all comes from. The bottom line is I need to be back in Washington. I feel like my Mom needs me. She’s all by herself for the most part. It’s really hard for me to be ok with that. Plus, in my opinion, there’s no place like home! I love Western Washington. It’s perfect! The weather, the landscape… it’s Heavenly!

Have any thoughts or advice for me? Let me know!

Thanks,

-Timmy

Marini Family Updates 10/28

Tags

Discipline, Election, Employment, fun, halloween, home, jobs, KXRT, Life, Main

Here’s some of what’s been going on lately in our family. I will try to be brief. Let’s do it bullet-point style!

• Wyatt: He is doing awesome in school! We recently had a parent/teacher conference where he displayed all that he had learned and what he was going to begin learning soon. His teacher, Mrs. Walker, was very impressed with his intellect and experience. Not so impressed with his behavior and listening “skills”. We feel the same way, as does his daycare provider, Sheryl. We’ve really been struggling with how to effectively discipline him. We’ve really gone a lot of different directions from stripping out his whole room of toys and posters, maps, everything. We’ve done the time-out thing ad-nauseam. We’ve done open handed spanking on his rear. We’ve yelled out our lungs. We’ve had many discussions with him on his behavior and how his choices affect others, not just him. We’ve even discussed spanking with a belt. You see the desperation we feel? This past Sunday was our church’s Primary Program. Primary is like Sunday School for kids under 12. We had rehearsal on Saturday and were very frustrated with his fidgeting and goofing off. He was really one of the only kids in any age group (even younger) that was acting out like this. We had a stern conversation with him saying that if he repeated this behavior on Sunday, there would be very dire consequences. He was a little better on Sunday, but still a little brat. Needless to say he was punished quite harshly. We’ll see what this new strategy of harsher punishments will do. (No, not with a belt!)
• Family: We’ve restarted our nightly Scripture study. It kind of vanished there for awhile. We are hoping this will increase the love and peace that resides in our home. We also hope Wyatt will feel it’s calming influence as well as see his parents being good examples of spirituality. We’ve also been going to the gym every other day or so. We’ve been doing some good walking on the treadmill and playing racquetball. Wyatt enjoys hanging at the onsite daycare facility with other kids, toys and movies. We’ve got the house decorated for Halloween. Next up is getting the Christmas decorations up and ready. We are also in the early stages of planning a family trip to Orlando for a Disney World vacation. We will finally use our time-share since we’ve already paid for it. It should be a lot of fun!
• Tim: I’m still trying to work out whether I should start school again. It seems like a no-brainer with free tuition, but it’s not so simple. I also am feeling the itch to move again. I love Utah and it’s beauty. There are so many great things to do and see here. I even enjoy the weather. I’ve begun to look for jobs in Washington and Oregon. I would need to have something already lined up before we actually move. This is perplexing and is taking a lot of my prayer time lately.
• Rachel: Still doing great at her job at BYU. However un-challenging the job may be, it is still a job. She’s recently started donating her plasma. Add the job, the plasma and her answering many questions on Cha Cha, she is doing what she can to help augment our income. I’m so grateful for her willingness to be creative financially. I love her so much!
• Other: This Friday is Halloween and then less than a week later is the US Presidential Election. For Halloween, I’m working on another edition of The Big Halloween Broadcast on the New KXRT. Scary stories, your call-ins, and at 8pm Mountain Time, the original broadcast of Orson Welles’ The War of the Worlds. Click HERE for more info! With the Presidential Election, there is a Facebook group and blog called Nationwide Fast Day. It is a non-denominational group that is planning a fast for this coming Sunday to pray and fast that the Election is directed by God (whoever that may be in your case). Click HERE for more info.

Everyone, please have a safe and fun Halloween! Study up on these candidates. This Election has been labeled The Election Of Our Time.

-Timmy

How’s It Goin’?

Tags

education, Employment, Health, jobs, kindergarten, Life, Main, Radio, Technology

It’s going pretty well, considering everything. As I’ve learned somewhat reluctantly over the past years, life is never without its challenges for very long. I don’t know what it is about my lovely wife, but she seems to be a magnet for trials and other difficult issues. I keep dismissing it as Heavenly Father just really wants her to be on her toes all the time. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not blaming stuff that happens on her. If you’ve known her any time before we were married, you know that this pattern of difficulty has not only been a recent addition to her life. Aside from all that, here’s what is going on…

Rachel, while doing better in general, is starting to feel pain in her elbows. There is also some odd bit of something on the back of her right hand. We initially thought it was some swelling, but it has some substance to it and it will move around a little. She is still on the hunt for a decent job. Rachel is definitely feeling more positive about things in spite of her difficulties. I love her so much!

Wyatt is learning to read and write!! His Auntie Ruth is a kindergarten teacher and has some great methods and materials to get him interested and in the learning mode. He’s been learning a lot of sight-words. These are small words that he can memorize by sight and not have to sound them out. He has 50 to do and already has about 20 mastered. He has, as we’ve always known, an incredible mind. (yeah, I can brag on my boy!) It’s always been very impressive to watch this child’s mind work things out and think logically to solve problems. We are working to get him to a place where he can test-out of kindergarten and go straight to first grade. We’ve discussed this and feel that if he’s not being stretched or challenged enough, his boredom quickly turns into misbehavior. Have mercy on his teacher… On top of all his smarts and intelligence, he is so freakin’ cute! If you ever meet him or if you already know him, I DARE YOU to not love him!

What about me? I’m good. I’m still struggling to grasp onto this new job. I am trying to fight off my inherent lazy streak. I am trying hard to learn these systems and methods. It’s not really difficult it’s just still foreign to the methods that I’ve picked up in my past jobs as a tech support agent. I’m getting there… I had a bit of a scare a few days ago when I checked my glucose levels for the first time in a month and it was an abominable 231! I had been continuing my meds as prescribed, but have really become careless in my diet. I had become very complacent and while knowing I am still diabetic, that I was under control enough to not have to pay much attention. I became somewhat aware there might be a problem when I started to have a bit of blurry vision that was all to familiar. I am now back to a healthy 95+/- level. I’ve also been working on XRT-FM 2.0 for a couple weeks. So far, it’s been challenging, but now it’s at a good point where I can break away from it to let more ideas flow in.

There you go! That’s how it’s goin’. We’re good. We still need your prayers, as always. We’re not at all immune from the evil influences in this world… heck, last night we watched Clerks for Heaven’s sake! (funny flick, by the way!) Love you guys! Be good!

-Timmy

Novarad, here I come!

Tags

Employment, Help Desk, IT, jobs, Life, recruiting

After numerous interviews with various important folks at Novarad, I’ve been offered a Tier 2 Technician position to begin Monday, 3/10. I really enjoyed the process, it was quick and efficient. Part of the beauty of this new opportunity is that it is literally blocks from my house in American Fork! I feel like I made a good impression on Lloyd, the help desk manager. I also need to thank Tina Escobar from the Smith Johnson Group. We worked together for a time at SlashSupport. Now she is a high-level recruiter and had this opportunity almost right out of the gate.

Ultimately, while I am still a bit miffed about the entire SlashSupport situation, I am grateful for the chance to have worked there, both for the friendships that were made and for the experience I gained.

Thanks all for your comments and prayers!

-Timmy

Happy New Year!

Tags

Health, jobs, LDS, Life, Main, Salt Lake City, SlashSupport, Spokane, Work

Right, so it’s been ages since I last posted. Allow me to ‘splain… As mentioned in my last post, I started a new job and it has literally taken over my life. Most of any of my spare time has gone bye-bye. I am sorry. Being a team supervisor is a lot of work and I’m getting stretched and twisted like I never imagined. I love it!

I work for SlashSupport. It’s an outsourced IT helpdesk company that has operated mainly in India. Due to customer surveys and market info, they realized that American customers really want American support. They decided to use the Salt Lake City area to do so and here we are.

In other news, Rachel and Wyatt are spending a couple weeks in Spokane with Pete and the fam to try and help her get back to good health. Yes, she relapsed into the same pain and swelling from when she originally broke her ankle last February. That’s been a real joy.

In yet other-er news, Chas and Mom are coming out on the 28th to send Him off on his LDS mission to Cleveland! Yay!!

I will try to make more postings here.. I apologize to my millions of readers.

-Timmy