Blog Hop: My Cubicle

Most of us work for a living (wishing I didn't have to), some of us in way swankier places than others (right now thinking of all my friends who work at places like Google and Salesforce.. le jealous! all dem snacks!) Anyways I am curious for a pictorial tour of your office or cubicle. 

I am also late to the party because I was trying to decide if I wanted to share info about my office space but I decided that I'd just go for it.

I work for a small company that is experiencing rapid growth. I'm in HR which means that I have an office so that I can have meetings with employees. The new digs are awesome and I ended up with a rather large office. 

Can you tell I'm short? Nothing in the top shelf and no paper on the bulletin board above that first layer.

These little guys were made by my mom and they've kept me company at my last few jobs.

 

Flowers and pretty pens. It makes boring work so much less boring when you can write in bright colors and luckily this is an environment that appreciates that unlike my last one which certainly did not.

 

Owl business card holder.

All The Dramas

Thankfully I’ve not yet been involved in the barn drama partially, probably, because since I work in HR I’m pretty adept at conflict management/avoidance but also because I’ve been nothing but pleasant and complementary to the owners of the facility. Unfortunately it seems to be one of those cases where if you disagree you become the enemy and I’ve got very little tolerance for that.

 

If you remember I posted a while ago about how the owners and kicked a couple of people out and I was happy that they were being proactive about it. At that point I believe the grand total of people they had kicked out was three but I found out later that they’d kicked out two before I ever got there. Since I understood the reasoning and knew that two of the people were actually endangering other boarders and their horses I wasn’t concerned and as I said then, I was actually pleased that they were taking a tough stance on that sort of behavior. After that though they’ve kicked out two additional boarders through a whole host of drama including the hay debate.

 

Now I understand as well as anyone else that the barn needs to be operated like a business. They have to make sure that they know how much hay and grain is going out so they can account for that in their budget and if someone takes hay or grain without asking it’s stealing. However, in my mind if you work something out with the owners that while your horse is offsite at a show you can take the exact same amount of hay and grain that they would have been fed at the barn that should be ok! They are still probably saving bedding and labor of looking after your horse during that time so they should be ok with it. However, at this barn the owners got into a huge fight with a boarder that wanted to do just that and told her that she could purchase a bale of hay from them for $10 (our hay is normally between $5-$7 per bale). This wasn’t me, I wish I were showing but I’m not, but honestly I probably would have just bought the hay since in the grand scheme of things $10 isn’t that bad. It’s just left me with a really bad taste in my mouth that they treated someone who was asking for something so reasonable so badly. I can even see if to keep things neat they wanted her to buy a bale rather than take hay, which might be tough to keep track of, but charge a reduced rate since that horse would have eaten almost that much as part of regular board. Or charge reduced board that month since the horse isn’t staying at the facility for three days. Any of these things would make sense or at least having an adult conversation about it but instead everything just blew up and the boarder left over it. I honestly can’t say I blame her.

 

I’ve been waffling over a few things including the fact that other than two other people the barn is quickly becoming home to only western pleasure horses and the fact that the owners are adding all these rules that aren’t in the contract I signed. Just for an idea, because I think this type of thing is interesting, I live in an area that charges about $450-$1000 for stall board and $200-$350 for pasture board. At J’s place I paid $300 for pasture board which included hay overnight when horses were brought into a dry lot, grain twice per day, and someone who put on and took off Katai’s grazing muzzle every day (and the pastures were amazing and well-kept with almost no weeds). At this barn I pay $325 for pasture board with no hands on care, no grain, and hay just during the winter. I would be paying $650 for stall board which does include blanketing and grain twice per day as well as daily hand walking to semi private pens and full day turnout. However, it seems that amount does not pay for poop pick up on the way to and from the pastures. I’m the first one to clean up poop anywhere in the barn or arena both indoor and outdoor but when the walk from the pasture to the barn is almost a mile down a driveway and my horse poops in the grass half way there I just don’t know that I should feel like I should be required to go pick it up while she stands in cross ties. What are your opinions? Am I being a spoiled brat that it’s bothering me? Between that, the hay debate, some of the complaints I’ve heard from other boarders and the fact that I wouldn’t trust the barn manager to notice if my horse were injured (a pasture horse is currently in surgery that had a two inch diameter and four inch long branch lodged about three inches in right above his right eye. Another boarder noticed when she brought her horse in that it had happened and they could tell it had been several hours and they had to call the barn manager who lives on site and tell her) I’ve been seriously thinking about moving Katai again.

 

Trust me, it’s the last thing I wanted to be considering at this point :-( I hate moving barns anyway and rebuilding all these friendships and I’m sure Katai would really like to not have to move and adjust again. There are some great people at this barn it just seems like I only see them about once a month. I honestly was thinking I’d just stay where I am but then I heard from a friend that the manager of a nearby barn that is dearly loved by the local dressage community was opening up a second barn. This is new barn is actually a location I’d toured when I was going to leave J’s initially but I didn’t like that manager who did really odd things and was known locally for being flaky when it came to things like turning horses out. Now that this new woman is taking over that facility I’d jump at the chance to board there. 

 

When I went to tour the barn they were having a spa day and they welcomed me in with open arms and a glass of wine (seriously, I thought I’d died and gone to heaven) and I got a tour of the new and improved facility. There is still some work to do before it is ready but they’re aiming to have it ready in about two weeks and it already looks amazing. The arena has been completely redone and she’s been working on footing daily. The pens are semi private, full day turnout, nice large stalls, and trails on the property that aren’t overwhelmed with bicycles, joggers, rollerblades, and poorly behaved dogs. It sounds like L will be teaching there probably but even if not, there are a couple of other dressage instructors. Plus it will be a truly mixed barn with other people who ride various forms of English (hunter, jumper, dressage, eventing, etc.), some people who drive their horses, and some western people. Plus they have an area for dogs to hang out on the property so that I can actually bring my puppy while I ride and he wouldn’t have to go back into his kennel :-)

 

If you can’t tell from the above I’m already fairly convinced but what do all of you think? What would you do in this situation? The care at the current barn is far from bad and actually Katai has been doing well. I’ve got friends there and so far have been getting along great with the owners. Is it worth the risk to move again in your opinion even with some of the big concerns I have about the current barn or would you just go ahead and move to the new barn with the manager/owner that so many people have said great things about?

I promise there will be more Katai centered posts soon!

Updates!

So much has been going on in my life and I've been really bad about blogging so I think it's time to catch everyone up!

I think first and foremost that I need to talk about my job offer :-) I've been wanting to relocate to the twin cities for the last six years and I finally got not just any job there but the perfect job for me. I work in HR and this is an HR position working for a company smack in the middle of the twin cities that helps people with a specific health issue. I not only get to work for a wonderful company in the area I want but it's a company that helps people which is a really wonderful feeling.

         Me and one of my little sisters :)

My first day is the 13th which is only about a week away now. I just can't believe that I'm finally there! I will be relocating from northern WI but I have not found an apartment yet. Thankfully I can commute as needed but of course since I've wanted to be down there for so long I'm hoping to find something sooner rather than later. Of course between trying to close everything out at my current job, looking for apartment, trying to get a reasonable amount time at the barn, and spending time with my little puppy I've been a bit overwhelmed. It doesn't help that I don't know where home will be in a few months and that makes me feel on edge. I actually don't mind moving but I've moved enough in the last few years and I'm ready to settle in some place.

In other news Wedge is doing really well! He's been learning all kinds of useful doggy skills like walking nicely on a leash, how to go on a proper hike, what horses are (and that barking at them is very very bad), how to meet other dogs nicely, dog parks, etc. I think I've been wearing the little man out and because of that he's been the perfect dog :) I usually bring him with me to the barn as long as the weather is mild and he hangs out while I ride. I figure at least that way he's not still in his kennel at home. 

Then, back to the main topic of this blog, Katai has been great. She's been getting stronger and more athletic so when I don't ride consistently she's a handful but that's on me, not her, and she hasn't done anything really naughty. She just has lots of energy to burn off which means I've had to work with L to develop my skills on how to handle that. I've been back to about three rides per week and honestly that's just not enough for her. I really need to ride 4-5 times per week and hopefully this next week I can do just that. 

I'm continuing to adore my saddle especially as I get more used to it and it starts to break in a bit. The leather is so soft that it hasn't needed much breaking in but like any new saddle it's just not going to be completely comfy until it's been ridden in for awhile. I'm also still adjusting to how I need to sit and carry myself since it just seats me differently (read better). I think Katai is loving it as well but since she hasn't been getting supplements as regularily she has been a bit tight through the back and before I can determine that it's the saddle or not I need to get her back on her supplements and then if she's still a bit tight I'm going to have a saddle fitter out. To my eye, and everything I know about saddle fit, it's a WAY better fit than the previous saddle but ultimately it's up to Katai. 

The only other thing I can think of that could be bothering her is that my previous TSF girth doesn't reach the shorter billets on this saddle so I ordered a longer one (which will be here on Monday!) but it looks like my back up girth is maybe pulling this saddle forward onto her withers more. I LOVE my TSF and if anyone is looking for an 18" in brown I'm probably going to be rehoming my old one.

       My previous saddle also needs a new home.

The other big update is that I'm moving Katai to a stall! I've just been waiting for a little more income and then it's been my plan to get her in a stall :) I'm so, so thrilled that it's finally here. She'll be making the move in September and will get back to regular supplementation (I have to feed it to her now so she only gets her grain when I'm there). She'll also be on a diet that has less sugar and I'll be able to get rid of her mask. Even though it's pretty cute on her ;)

I'm going to try to be a better blogger and at least blog a couple times a week but no promises until I find a new place to live.

Bad Blogger

I have been an extremely bad blogger recently and it's not because of the weather or lack of horsie, pony, stuff to report. It's actually all because of work.

When I started at my new job I was warned that the other generalist (I was going to be one of two for a company of over 500 in an HR department that consists of manager, assistant and two generalists) was going out on maternity leave and when she got back she would be promoted to the education manager. This meant that it would be me and only me while we looked for a new generalist.

We actually found someone fairly quickly who was extremely qualified but fast forward two months and she had failed to learn even the basics of the job so was let go.

We are now on the hunt again and that means that since I started I've basically been running the generalist show. I'd had very little experience on a lot of the issues I'm currently facing when I started but I'm starting to feel like a pro. The problem is that I'm also getting burnt out, like really really burnt out.

Instead of having 10 managers and 240 employees relying on me like I should have, I've got 20+ managers and over 500 employees relying on me for every single thing that requires HR. I'm recruiting for over 20 positions at a time, dealing with employee relations, terminations, legal, paperwork, orientations, paperwork, trouble shooting, time cards, paperwork, complaints, many computer issues, complaints and paperwork.

Rant over....

Seriously, I love my job and all the people that I work with. I'm learning a ton from my boss and have been pretty positive and able to cope but this week I feel like I hit a wall. We NEED to get someone capable in that position ASAP so I can concentrate on stuff outside of work and not feel so tired and stressed all the time.

I did get moved into my new apartment last week and while it didn't help my stress levels at all I LOVE it here. It's great being on my own and not living with two huge dogs and four cats has made life way better :)

I've also been working with Katai who continues to adjust to her new home. She has been so relaxed and happy and I think she really likes her new buddy who is much less neurotic than her previous herd mates were. I rode her for the first time at the new place, if you count mounting and dismounting a bunch, lots of flexing and a couple of short walks a ride, and she was great. She is starting to relax and I could tell that she was feeling naughty today so I kept is short and ended positive.

I should have time to ride on Saturday and I hope that since I'll have a little more time that I'll be able to get more pictures.