So Much More Than A Mom » Corporate America

Retirement

Cyndi — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 03:48:03 +0000

“Retirement is like a long vacation in Las Vegas. The goal is to enjoy it the fullest, but not so fully that you run out of money.” — Jonathan Clements

Today was my mother’s last day of work. Forever.

Wow. I’m sure she’s feeling it more than I am but I simply can’t wrap my brain around being completely done with work for the rest of your life.

No more alarm clocks. No more rush hour traffic. No more stressing out about pleasing management or getting laid off. No more meetings, TPS reports, memos or e-mails. No more annoying co-workers. No more dress code. No more corporate nonsense or politics. No more cubicles. No more micro-management. No more being a “team-player”, “proactive” or any other nonsense that some drone made up to impress management. No more. Ever.

How cool must that feel? Freedom. For the rest of her life.

She’s already planning a trip. She leaves Saturday morning to visit her mother. She’s not sure how long she’ll stay. It doesn’t matter because she will never again have to worry about running out of vacation time!

This quote is fitting because Vegas is her happy place. She can go whenever the hell she wants for as long as she wants, provided that she doesn’t run out of money of course.

I’m happy for her. Really happy for her. She so deserves this. I’m happy that she got the opportunity to do it and didn’t work herself into an early grave. She is was the hardest working person I know. She didn’t leave early, or even on time today! Yes, she stayed late on her very last day of work to finish up whatever she was working on. I imagine that if I ever get to retire that I’ll be literally throwing important papers around and telling off anyone that ever got on my nerves even once. She worked late.

Anyway, that’s all over now. I can delete her work number from my cell phone. I hope she takes the time to enjoy the little things in life that we so often miss out on rushing to and from work and spending such huge chunks of our lives there. I hope she can relax and just be. I hope she has fun. I hope she’s available for a lot more babysitting! :)

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Bourdain Is Back

Cyndi — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:46:27 +0000

“I’ll make fun of the French, thank you very much.” – Anthony Bourdain

My TV watching schedule is picking up fast. I try to limit the number of shows I watch and keep most on the DVR for a while before watching several at once. However, this week, there are two shows starting that I always have to watch the same night they are on. Entourage and Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations.

Last season after writing a blog post about how much I love Bourdain’s show, I was contacted by the PR firm for The Travel Channel and asked to post weekly promos that they sent out regarding the upcoming episodes. I agreed to do it for several reasons. One reason was that I already loved the show and didn’t mind posting the promos for it. Another reason was that I thought it was pretty cool that they contacted little old me to help promote their show. Finally, I was pretty new to the blogging world and naive about how things worked.

I was pretty harshly criticized by some other bloggers for agreeing to this. I was accused of shilling for The Travel Channel, not writing original content and even of claiming that the promo posts were my own original material. For the record, I never received any compensation for this or claimed that any of the promos were my own original material. I did receive an autographed picture as a thank you. I disclosed all of this on my blog.

I’m not so naive anymore. I still have no problem promoting this great show on my blog. However, I now know that bloggers are regularly paid for ad space on their blogs. I no longer “shill” for free. Especially when dealing with an organization as large as The Travel Channel, they can certainly afford to pay for ad space.

I’m not sure why they choose to ask bloggers to advertise the show. Obviously, the way they are going about it now is cost effective, since no one is getting paid. What I don’t understand is why they need to promote this show in this manner. I believe the show is already pretty well known and know that they run traditional advertising campaigns. You wouldn’t think that the promos bloggers agree to post would make a big difference in the ratings, but as long as it isn’t costing them anything I guess it can’t hurt.

Am I watching the show this season? Of course! Will I blog about the show again? Maybe, if I feel like discussing a particular episode for some reason. Will I be more than happy to receive compensation from The Travel Channel for being a sponsor on my blog? Absolutely.

Thanks for stopping by!

Experiencing Technical Difficulties

Cyndi — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 04:18:21 +0000

“A computer lets you make more mistakes faster then any other human invention in history…with the possible exception of handguns and tequila.” — Mitch Ratcliffe

Today was my first day working from home. I spent most of Monday and Tuesday night installing the necessary software. Of course it didn’t work the first time, hence the necessity for Tuesday night. I stayed up until 2am and finally all seemed to be running smoothly.

HA!

As of this writing, it’s around 11pm on Wednesday. I just stopped working about an hour ago. It took over 12 hours to get my work done.

Just in case you didn’t notice, that’s longer than a normal workday in the office. The whole idea of working from home is that you can allegedly get more accomplished without all the distractions, phone calls and other interruptions that naturally occur in the office.

HA!

Seriously though, almost everything is finally running smoothly. There is only one remaining issue and it’s up to IT to take care of that one. I hope it gets done tomorrow since I’m working from home again on Friday. If not, I may need to resort to a handgun and tequila.

After all of this nonsense, I’m pretty happy that I’m going into the office tomorrow, commute and all.

Thanks for stopping by!

One More Week

Cyndi — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 02:55:45 +0000

“Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw some and paint some and sing and dance and play and work everyday some.” – Robert Fulghum

Tomorrow marks the end of my third week at my new job. I really like it there. Everyone in the office is great. Once I got over the initial shock of not being home all day, I adjusted just fine. I’ve got a pretty good handle on the computer systems and policies. The one thing I have been unsure of is the manager’s opinion of my work. I’ve gotten no feedback whatsoever. Normally I would just think no news is good news. Since I’m a contract underwriter (basically a temp) though, there is always the chance that tomorrow could be my last day. I’m told they anticipate this assignment to last indefinitely but still, you just never know. Under those circumstances, it’s nice to know where you stand in management’s eyes.

The poor woman is just completely inundated and overwhelmed with work. Of course, being busy is a great problem to have. She just hadn’t had the time to sit down and chat with me. I finally found her alone in her office with the door open and she wasn’t on the phone. I asked. She said she is happy with my work and that after next week I can begin working from home a few days each week!

I’m so excited to have this opportunity! My hope is that it will provide some of the elusive work/life balance that working parents are always seeking.

Thanks for stopping by!

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Thank Heaven For 7-Eleven®

Cyndi — Fri, 22 May 2009 22:28:26 +0000

“The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions – the little, soon forgotten charities of a kiss or a smile, a kind look or heartfelt compliment.” — Samuel Taylor Coleridge

7-Eleven® stores are bringing back a customer favorite. Bananas foster cappuccino combines a rich, banana dessert flavor with a frothy coffee drink for a delicious warm beverage. Pour it over ice or make it a warm drink – just the way you want it. Try a bananas foster cappuccino next time you stop at a 7-Eleven store. – 7-Eleven®

Yeah, bananas and coffee together?! I’m sold. I’m sure true cappuccino snobs aficionados wouldn’t be caught dead drinking anything from a machine at 7-Eleven®. Me? I’m fairly easy to please when it comes to coffee. Add bananas or banana flavor to pretty much anything and I’m in.

But wait! There’s more. This particular store is right down the street from my new office. Yeah, that’s right, I have a job. It’s been a whole week now. I’m on a roll! Anyhoo….I stop at this 7-Eleven store each morning for a large cup of ice. Chewing on crushed ice is an annoying habit that I developed several months ago and they have some good, soft, crushed ice at 7-Eleven. At first I was irritated because they charge me for a full priced soft drink (most do not), but then I discovered the banana coffee and some seriously friendly customers.

Every day this week, some customer of the male persuasion, has flirted with me, paid me a compliment, gone out of their way to hold the door when their own hands are full, or just generally made my morning.

This morning, on my way out, a guy said he loved my shirt (because it was a Chicago Bears shirt) and that I was looking particularly sexy in it. Now, I am well aware that my feminist friends would find this behavior appalling and inappropriate. I disagree. He didn’t leer at, grope or otherwise harass me. He wasn’t creepy. He said it good-naturedly and with a smile, almost in a tongue-in-cheek way, as if he meant I looked sexy only because I was sporting a Bears logo.

Yesterday, another harmless guy asked me something over the coffee counter. I can’t even remember what it was. But then he said something funny after I responded (again, I can’t remember what that was either) and I smiled. He then said he only started the conversation to see me smile and that it was worth it.

I do realize these are cheesy and silly and possibly even lame pick-up lines. I doubt it. I think it’s just some harmless fun flirting. It’s not like we’re in some meat-market-type-club, drunk at 2am. It’s 7:30 in the morning. We’re all on our way to work. It’s fun and I’ve been enjoying it.

It is entirely possible that I’ve just spent way too much time alone in my own house for the past year, who knows. All I do know is that, for now, between the ice, the banana coffee and the male attention, I’m Thanking Heaven For 7-Eleven®.

Thanks for stopping by!

Unorganized Nicotine Deprived Thoughts On My Life

Cyndi — Tue, 19 May 2009 00:19:55 +0000

“It has always been my rule never to smoke when asleep, and never to refrain when awake.” ~ Mark Twain

I quit smoking this weekend, as I promised myself I would. It wasn’t too bad until yesterday. Today, it’s almost unbearable. At first I was told day 3 was the worst, then day 4, now I’m hearing day 6. I’ll probably go insane by then. Or hurt someone. I guess there’s no difference between the two.

I had a wonderful and relaxing weekend with Gina at The Hershey Hotel and Spa. The spa treatments were some of the best I’ve had. We were pampered in every way and it was a wonderful, fun, relaxing trip. Thanks again to Joanie Winberg and all the sponsors!

I started my new job today as a contract underwriter. It was one of the longest days of my life. It didn’t help that I didn’t get home until late last night from our trip so I didn’t get as much sleep as I would have liked. I’m so not used to the morning or afternoon commutes. I’m not a huge fan of being the new kid on the block. After over 15 years in this industry it’s somewhat demoralizing to have to read guidelines all day.

I could probably live with all that though, I know I’m lucky I have a job and a well-paying one at that. I’m appreciative to those that saw fit to hire me and hope I live up to their expectations. What has me so upset is the realization that I’m missing out on so much of my sons’ lives. I realized this right after my first son was born and I had to go back to work right away. I managed to stuff that incredible sadness down for the past 10 years. After a year off work and being home for them so much more, that overwhelming feeling of grief, regret and helplessness is back, just like when I first went back to work all those years ago.

I’m certainly not the only mom who has had to go through this. I’m just the only one, in my little corner of the world who has to go through this for a second time 10 years later AND who is currently having a pity-party based in no small part on lack of cigarettes. I know they aren’t really sedatives but we smokers have convinced ourselves that they calm our nerves and I could really use that right now.

There’s more to it. In the past year I’ve realized that working in this capacity is not exactly my dream. I once thought it was. It now feels like a stifling self-constructed tomb from which I’m afraid I won’t ever be able to escape.

How do you find that balance between making enough money to maintain a tolerable lifestyle and doing what you love plus having enough time with your family? Is it seriously even possible or just one more fairy tale?

If only I could have just ONE cigarette….

Thanks for stopping by!

Responsible Adult Behavior

Cyndi — Fri, 01 May 2009 16:41:24 +0000

“Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for – in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it.” – Ellen Goodman

I had a job interview this morning. It’s been quite some time since I’ve had any. This one was with a staffing agency for a contract underwriting position. It seems like a decent job with a major lender. The interview went well. We’ll see.

After all this time off work it felt strange to get into the shower, dressed in something other than jeans, do my hair and put on make-up, all before 8:30am! I love to drive and it was about 1/2 hour away so that was fun. It felt grown-up and responsible just to have gone on the interview.

I have a couple more interviews next week. Obviously, I have no idea if any of these will result in actual job offers, but the fact that I’m getting interviews lately seems to be a good sign and does give me some hope.

There is still so much turmoil and competition for every single job opening in the mortgage industry. Many of my friends who are lucky enough to already have jobs in this industry are being worked to death in what can only be considered a sweatshop environment. Sixty to seventy hour work weeks, including mandatory weekends seems to be the norm. I hope that isn’t the case with any of the companies with whom I have interviews.

Either way, it’s good that there are some jobs opening up and I am grateful that I am even being considered for some of them. For now, I need a nap. I’ve had a busy morning!

Thanks for stopping by!

Mortgage Fraud

Cyndi — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 15:34:07 +0000

“Although not all of our current economic ills are the result of criminal activity, the financial crisis has laid bare criminal activity … that may have otherwise gone undetected for years,” – Rita Glavin, acting Assistant Attorney General at the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division

I have to vehemently disagree with Ms. Glavin’s quote. I do agree that not all of our current economic ills are the result of criminal activity, although the vast majority of them are. Where I disagree is that it may have gone undetected for years. Bullshit. It was not undetected. It was blatantly and intentionally overlooked. It was swept under the rug in the interest of profit. It was the not-so-secret-dirty-little-secret in the mortgage industry for as long as I was in the business. In her defense, Ms. Glavin may not actually be aware of this.

In my over fifteen year career in the mortgage industry I worked in Underwriting, Quality Control and Operations Management. I worked for several different mortgage lenders (all now closed). In ALL cases, fraud was detected, confirmed, and very little, if anything was done about it. The penalty for being a whistle-blower or not going along with policies would be termination.

Some of the terms I heard from upper management in response to an employee detecting and attempting to report fraud were: “not a team player”, “digs too deep”, “not sales-oriented”, “looking to decline loans”, “not trying to make loans work”, “too conservative”, “deal-killer” and “uncooperative”.

In my role as a Quality Assurance Analyst, it was my job to verify the integrity of the data in the file. Having said that, even when I confirmed that fraud had been committed, there were no consequences for the perpetrators.

I wasn’t even allowed to use the word, “fraud”, when contacting a mortgage broker to explain my findings. I had to use the word, “misrepresentation”. How ridiculous is that euphemism, considering that the perpetrator had committed a criminal act? During a police investigation of a bank robbery, for example, are the investigating officers required to use similar euphemisms? Can you imagine a police officer telling a bank robber, “We have uncovered evidence indicating that ABC Bank was involuntarily relieved of $1,000,000.”? Of course not. They say it like it is, such as, “We have uncovered evidence indicating that you robbed ABC Bank of $1,000,000.”. Why would anyone be required to beat around the bush when confronting a criminal? Greed. They wanted more business from these folks, regardless of the quality. We couldn’t offend them by calling them on their criminal activity or they would take their business elsewhere.

Normally, the loan would be declined, the broker was put on a “watch list” and if no other misrepresentation was confirmed, taken off the watch list within a few months. That was it. Occasionally a broker would actually be cut off, but that was extremely rare, especially if the broker in question sent us a lot of business. We were window dressing so the investors buying our loans could package them as low-risk investments.

I came across this article this morning on Rain City Guide: Naughty Mortgage Fraud Mom Gets Life Sentence Instead of a Time Out. It’s about time that stringent penalties are enforced when mortgage fraud is confirmed. Unfortunately, it’s too late, the damage has already been done. However, continued accountability and enforcement are necessary for the future of the mortgage industry and our economy in general.

What I’m wondering is, when are the executives running the few lenders that are left going to be held accountable? It starts from the top down. Sure, the borrower and/or broker committed the fraud in the first place, but the lender is the one approving the loan anyway. The culture of production over quality is still very much prevalent, according to my former colleagues who are still working in the business. Underwriters’ decisions are still overruled by management for the sake of production. Yet the execs running the show and enforcing policies and procedures are still employed, being paid bonuses and not being prosecuted. It’s well past the time for the true perpetrators to be held accountable.

Thanks for stopping by!

Three Hours Of My Life That I'll Never Get Back

Cyndi — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 22:03:53 +0000

“Why are we so full of restraint? Why do we not give in all directions? Is it fear of losing ourselves? Until we do lose ourselves there is no hope of finding ourselves.” – Henry Miller

I certainly lost myself today, although not in the way Henry Miller is speaking of in his quote. No, I actually got physically lost. More than once. On my way to a job interview. Yes, unfortunately, you did read that correctly.

You see, I am seriously directionally challenged. I need a GPS to find my way to just about any location, no matter how far or near, unless I’ve been there a million times before. Hubby and I have a rule. If we are together and not sure which way to turn, he will turn in the opposite direction of what I feel is the correct way. It works every time. Sadly, I’m not joking.

I am a suburbanite. I grew up in the suburbs and have never lived downtown (Chicago). I visit downtown fairly frequently but almost never am the driver. In my defense, I have gone downtown on more than one occasion alone and have successfully found my way. Unfortunately, today was not one of those occasions.

Embarrassingly enough, today I had printed map-quest directions and my GPS. Still, no luck.

The map-quest directions and the GPS told me to turn left onto a side street. This seemed odd to me, as the address was on a major street. I just figured the building must be on the corner of the two streets. Nope. I still have no clue why the directions guided me down that street. It was nowhere near my destination.

Once I finally got back onto the major street, headed in the right direction, I was confronted with a detour due to road construction. I followed the detour, got a little turned around, but got back onto the right track pretty quickly.

I found the correct block that my destination should have been on, based on the addresses of the buildings there, but never did see the address I had been given. I figured I just missed it since I was also trying to navigate downtown traffic at the time and went looking for a parking garage.

There were none in the immediate vicinity and many unfamiliar one-way streets before I found one. It seemed like I was only a few blocks away so I pulled in and started walking. In the meantime, I had called and left two voice mails for my contact person but they had not been returned.

I was excited about this interview. I got to dress up in some of my fun professional clothes, take a nice long drive on the expressway with my iPod on, put on make-up, jewelry and do my hair. I was confident that the interview would go well as I am more than qualified for the job. I felt like I might almost regain the workforce and once again be a productive member of society.

I walked and walked and walked. I stopped to ask directions three times. By the time I was a half an hour late for my appointment and still hadn’t heard from my contact person, I figured I had just blown it and headed back to the parking garage.

I walked and walked and walked. I couldn’t find the freakin’ parking garage! By this point, my feet are killing me, because I was wearing my fabulous boots with fabulous heels and I’m freezing! I stopped to ask for directions to the garage and thank goodness, this time the person I asked actually knew what she was talking about.

I wanted to hug my car when I finally got there. I was just happy to be able to sit down and extatic that my car wasn’t forever lost.

About halfway home, my contact person returned my call. She hadn’t been in the office (?) but graciously agreed to have me do a phone interview instead. She was extremely understanding, given the circumstances. I felt like a complete moron. Oh, and the reason I didn’t see the address? It was under construction and there was a huge scaffolding covering the front of the building…good to know.

It turns out there are no jobs for me right now anyway. This was a staffing firm and the only position they have available right now is located about 40 miles away from my house and during rush hour traffic would be about an hour and a half drive each way. They’ll keep my resume on file for any future openings in my area. Right. Would you?

So, it was a complete waste of most of my day and not the productive interview and possible job opportunity that I thought it would be. I’m taking this all as a sign that I was headed in the wrong direction all along.

Thanks for stopping by!

Watchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis?

Cyndi — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 16:15:05 +0000

“Alex stood near Tiger Stadium. It was closed down now and abandoned, a ghost of itself. Alex loved baseball and lamented the new stadiums and their corporate sponsors. Who wanted to watch the almost spiritual game of baseball in a park named after a …damned financial institution?” – Gary Hardwick

I found this disturbing article early this morning:

End of an era: Sears Tower re-named to Willis Tower

Are you freakin’ kidding me??!! I’m all for keeping jobs in Chicago. But renaming the Sears Tower? Absurd and self-indulgent.

We stood by quietly when the World Music Center was first renamed Tweeter Center and then finally, the even more ridiculously corporate name; First Midwest Bank Amphitheatre. In fact, I had to look that up. I can never remember what it’s called. When I’m talking about seeing a concert there, I refer to it simply as, “Tinley Park”.

We barely blinked an eye when the Rosemont Horizon was renamed Allstate Arena.

We even accepted when Comiskey Park was renamed U.S. Cellular Field. We just refer to it now as, “The Cell”, but secretly still think of it as Comiskey Park.

This one, The Sears Tower, is the final corporate straw. Not that any of us ever visit there…that’s for tourists. But as the article indicates, it’s an iconic landmark. We’re proud of the fact that our city houses the tallest building in the world (technically now the 4th tallest but we don’t actually acknowledge that dubious fact).

Will we EVER refer to this building as Willis Tower? I don’t think so. I certainly hope not.

If you agree, please let Willis know HERE.

Thanks for stopping by!

So Much More Than A Mom » Corporate America

Retirement

“Retirement is like a long vacation in Las Vegas. The goal is to enjoy it the fullest, but not so fully that you run out of money.” — Jonathan Clements

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Bourdain Is Back

“I’ll make fun of the French, thank you very much.” – Anthony Bourdain

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Experiencing Technical Difficulties

“A computer lets you make more mistakes faster then any other human invention in history…with the possible exception of handguns and tequila.” — Mitch Ratcliffe

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One More Week

“Live a balanced life – learn some and think some and draw some and paint some and sing and dance and play and work everyday some.” – Robert Fulghum

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Thank Heaven For 7-Eleven®

“The happiness of life is made up of minute fractions – the little, soon forgotten charities of a kiss or a smile, a kind look or heartfelt compliment.” — Samuel Taylor Coleridge

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Unorganized Nicotine Deprived Thoughts On My Life

“It has always been my rule never to smoke when asleep, and never to refrain when awake.” ~ Mark Twain

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Responsible Adult Behavior

“Normal is getting dressed in clothes that you buy for work and driving through traffic in a car that you are still paying for – in order to get to the job you need to pay for the clothes and the car, and the house you leave vacant all day so you can afford to live in it.” – Ellen Goodman

Related Reading:

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Mortgage Fraud

“Although not all of our current economic ills are the result of criminal activity, the financial crisis has laid bare criminal activity … that may have otherwise gone undetected for years,” – Rita Glavin, acting Assistant Attorney General at the Department of Justice’s Criminal Division

Related Reading:

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Three Hours Of My Life That I'll Never Get Back

“Why are we so full of restraint? Why do we not give in all directions? Is it fear of losing ourselves? Until we do lose ourselves there is no hope of finding ourselves.” – Henry Miller

Related Reading:

Related posts

Watchoo talkin' 'bout, Willis?

End of an era: Sears Tower re-named to Willis Tower

Related Reading:

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