Work anxiety

[serenissima]

Eventful things have been happening at work this fall -- changes in management. So far they don't affect me much besides keeping me busy, but my boss got promoted yesterday, which I expect will mean I'll be even busier.

We still have an instructor position unfilled (a position for which I'm not qualified, nor do I want). They really need my help here at the office... and I'm spending more time at work, mostly because one of the people I carpool with works longer hours now, but sometimes because I have tasks that need doing that aren't finished by 5 PM.

Administrative assistance and I are not well suited for each other. My ease using MS Office is useful, but ideally they should have someone who is much better organized. I like things to be organized, but past a certain level, I'm not especially good at keeping things that way myself. My desk is covered with many different stacks of paper. I still have a box of class attendance records from 2005 that I never ended up entering into the computer, because they were last priority.

Actually, data entry isn't bad; filing isn't bad; typing isn't bad; making flyers and PowerPoint presentations is even kinda fun. But keeping up with a dozen different tasks that need to be followed up drives me crazy. I do not like multitasking. I'd rather stick to one thing all morning, without interruptions like phone calls or requests to look up something for someone. Also, our Excel spreadsheet system of record keeping has severe faults, and although we've been asking for years now for a better package, none has been forthcoming. Getting the data back out of the spreadsheet in a useful format is a pain I have come to dread.

I want so much to take time off, but that would mean more work would pile up while I was away, and I'd return having forgotten what to do with the stuff I was working on when I left.

Comments

[zeeth_kyrah]

Excel spreadsheet system of record keeping

Using a spreadsheet to do the job of a database is a common enough mistake. It's easy enough to get started, but once you have so much data accumulated, it can become progressively harder to maintain. Worse, once you have so much effort invested, people resist changing to something different, seeing the change as meaning that their effort to learn and use the old thing was wasted.

It wasn't wasted. It's just time to use a better tool.

[copperwolf.livejournal.com]

The only database system available is MS Access, which I don't really know how to use; the one time I tried playing with it, it seemed like it can't do what I need it to do anyway. We have asked upper management for a more appropriate computer package, but thus far their only offering -- giving us access to the HR/payroll system -- is not at all suited to the things I need to use it for.

[zeeth_kyrah]

I'm beginning to understand. I hope it's not prying too much to ask what type of work you need the tool to do?

Feature wish list

[copperwolf.livejournal.com]

My department handles staff training.

• I need to be able to retrieve a list of all the classes a particular employee has had during a specified period of time and how many training hours that comprises, or the same info for a given list of employees.
  
• I also want to be able to retrieve a list of who attended a particular class at a particular date and time: spit back to me the same attendance sheet I entered.
  
• I need to be able to get reports of what topics were taught each month by our own instructors and by staff from other departments or from outside our company, how many sessions of each topic, and how many people attended.
  
• A particular category of employee is required to have a certain number of training hours annually; I need to get reports on how many training hours staff in that category have had, grouped by department.
  
• I need to retrieve lists of which employees have had or have not had particular required classes -- identifying who has NOT met a requirement is something my spreadsheet inherently cannot do for me automatically.
  
• I need to make bar graphs to show what proportions of the different departments' staff are complying with requirements, such as the specific required classes or the number of training hours.
  
• It sure would be nice to have a program that emails compliance reports to various department heads, or at least prepares the information in one convenient, easy to read place such that I can easily copy and paste into emails.

I think that's about it. Currently, I use Excel's filter and subtotal features to help me, but I end up copying information into "helper" spreadsheets, which allows extra opportunities for errors on my part. Not to mention it's time consuming.

Re: Feature wish list

[zeeth_kyrah]

Access can do every bit of that except actually sending the emails (though I think there may be a plugin or external app which can), even though as a database it's not exactly the best product ever.

Access is a relational database, so you can have multiple tables: A list of employees drawn from the HR database; a list of instructors (perhaps including teaching status and quality ratings); a table of classes (Class name/ID, when they were, what they were about, who taught them [drawn from the list of instructors], how many hours); and a table relating employees to the classes they've had (and maybe grades if they got any).

Reports are then created using a layout editor (or the report wizards). These reports can be sorted and filtered by various criteria (it helps to know SQL if you get into anything complex, but the report wizards help greatly with that). They can even include charts and graphs, which are generated in a manner similar to Excel's charts.

Building the database and initial reports will take some effort, but once it's together and all the data entered, your task will be much easier. You might ask to have a database consultant (or someone in IT with database skills) help you design what you need.

Re: Feature wish list

[copperwolf.livejournal.com]

Sounds like Access deserves a second, more thorough look. I doubt that people in the MIS department will be able to design what I need -- when I had an Outlook question, they couldn't answer it, and I found the answer myself -- but it's worth asking.

[daisho.livejournal.com]

I can understand the frustration with being forced to do several different tasks at once -- my role requires it, and I do sometimes find myself struggling to devote enough attention to any one such task to get it done. Alas, I suspect that, as companies and organisations strive to cut their costs by trimming staff numbers, more and more jobs will end up requiring it of their incumbents.

It's also dreadful taking time off and knowing the work will be mounting up while you're away -- you have my sympathies there. At least when I'm off for a week, I just miss a week's production cycle and, on my return, can begin more or less afresh.

[copperwolf.livejournal.com]

Yeah... for the short time I worked in medical billing, I found the daily cycle (must finish the day's work that day) very stressful, but it did mean that work didn't generally pile up much over time.

Waitaminnit, I thought you were overseas? Are you checking LiveJournal while on vacation? Tsk.

[firenightingale.livejournal.com]

See, I can cope with the multi-tasking thing - but I'm no fan of huge backlogs of work either! At least, not if people actually expect you to be able to do it all!

You have my sympathies!

[copperwolf.livejournal.com]

thanks :)

[403.livejournal.com]

Somewhat off-topic, but I like your icon.

[copperwolf.livejournal.com]

It's new. :)