Much Ado About Conclusions

Well, classmates, this is the fifth week of the course and the final week for required posting on this blog. In a sense, it is an ending of sorts, but I have another class coming up for the next five weeks so I continue on. Likely I will convert this blog into a more personal one after some time as I have found the writing to be something theraputic. We shall see.


The idea of conclusions has abounded in other areas of life. I mentioned before a relationship that was failing and really, at this point, it has failed. I ceased to try and keep communication efforts going. I am saddened by this, but it is necessary for my own health and well being. There has been a little bit of effort from his side of things, but it is not enough. On to better and happier times!


Another conclusion is that of my former household. My last roommate moved and I believed, in error, that he was leaving on good terms. He waited just long enough to get his tax return, buy a new truck and move out-but he failed to pay up on his utilities! He was behind by a month, the current month is now behind and today I paid out over $500 for his past due bills and over $400 for the other roommate's past due bills. I am highly, but HIGHLY ticked off about this. I gave him almost a week to respond to phone calls, emails, text messages and facebook messages and he has chosen to ignore it all. So today I posted a detailed list of everything on his Facebook (hoping a little public humiliation would spur him to respond) then formed and mailed a certified letter of demand requesting he pay back the funds wasted on him. I sent the same letter to the other roommate, too, figuring might as well get her portion paid back and I am giving them 10 days to respond with an acceptable resolution. If they don't respond and attempt to resolve the matter, I have prepared the filing paperwork for small claims court.


I am not looking forward to this process, but I am eagerly anticipating the conclusion of the issue.

Much Ado about Cupcakes

The 5 week long Communications Capstone class rolls forward through week 4, in which myself and my classmates are working on reviewing and critiquing each other's blogs. 


I was a little bit apprehensive about posting reviews of my classmates' blogs as I do not feel I am in the position to be judging someone else's work or design choices being a beginner myself! 


The suggestions made for my blog were: 


1. More personal entries. 
2. More color.
3. Bigger/more readable font.


I can do all these things, with ease! With the personal entries...I hesitate, because my humor is quite off color and I tend to lose all filters when I am interacting online but I can integrate some personal things in with my school posts and I think that will help break up the dryness of the posts. On the color...I get very lost (in a good way) in playing with changing the html code around to something very personalized and I just don't have the time to really deck out the blog in the way I normally would, but I did try out another template for now. It doesn't really address the "more" color aspect, but it is different than just the all brown on brown coloring. My font choices were not well thought out at all! It was not considered and should have been. I have a bigger font in the first postings, but switch to Times New Roman and shrink it down in the last post-consistancy would be far better and more readable. 


As I work on this post I am watching Cupcake Wars on the Food Network, it is very distracting...no matter who wins this show (I've seen a handful of them) I always end up wanting a cupcake at the end. The theme for this show is "I Love Lucy" and the winner gets to provide the treats for a celebration of the "I Love Lucy" show or of Lucille Ball (didn't catch the whole beginning). There is one judge that I simply cannot understand, his accent is so very thick! 


Earlier today I spent some very needed time with my best friend from high school (I swear the thick accent judge said someone's cupcake tasted "retarded"...what?!) at the movies. We chose to see a double feature, which we do often. This time we saw "This Means War" followed with "Safe House". Both movies were very good and enjoyable. They were entertaining, which is what we expected of them, nothing grand or award winning. I must say, Chris Pine in the first movie followed up by Ryan Reynolds in the second movie-yummy double feature right there. ;)


This weekend will end up being a very long weekend. The house efforts still continue. We needed my mother to get a high credit score and she achieved that yesterday so it moves along. Unless something very odd and way out in left field flies out of nowhere then we pretty much have this house. My realtor expects that we are going to be getting the documents ordered within the week and hopefully will be moving during the weekend of 24th. Hopefully!

Much Ado About Conflict

The following is my Week 3 Assignment, as required, posted on my blog: 

Confronting an Employee with Bad News

Doraliza Longoria

February 27, 2012

COM480: Communication studies Capstone

Instructor: Kathleen Serra

 It is never easy or comfortable having to confront someone about a lack of performance in any situation or setting. When there are requirements that haven’t been met, not only does the customer suffer for it, but also the company. It can lead to increased workloads on coworkers and further frustrations that could escalate the root cause of the issue rather than helping. I think a very important point is that there are requirements not being met and this employee has been there for two years. This tells me that it is more likely that the employee is running into a new issue or temporary problem that is causing them grief and affecting their performance. There are a few steps that would need to be taken to assure that this meeting, distasteful as it is to all involved, will be quiet and contained as well as reaching the goals set by the company.
Because of the sensitive nature and possible confrontation ahead, as the manager I would request that another member of management or a union steward, if available, accompany myself and the employee to the meeting. It should be held away from the rest of the group, even so far as removing to another floor of the building or using a room away from the main foot traffic areas or where other employees may be expecting to congregate. Care should be taken to close the door as well, so as to prevent not only eavesdroppers but to contain the conversation should it become confrontational. Once the employee is there, I would invite all to sit if not already seated and open the discussion by introducing the reason for the meeting. By focusing on the issue and not the employee, the meeting avoids the appearance of laying blame or of picking on them. The conflict needs s to be indentified apart from the individual (Gregory Smith, 1999). 
With the conflict identified, the next step would be to establish guidelines for all parties to follow. Obviously there needs to be some sort of give and take, as I would be looking for an explanation from the employee as to why their performance is suffering. I would let them know what the issue was and ask them to be open to discussing possible solutions and allowing the company to help them find a better path. I would let them know that the goal was to bring to light whatever was the root cause and work together to solve it. Hopefully this would bring the employee some comfort and ease and allow them to discuss things without getting all sorts of upset.
Once the issue is out in the open, it is the company’s turn to discuss the hostile working environment and go over what performance is being missed or failed. With this, it is a good idea to let the employee know what they are facing and go over the disciplinary steps as well as their current standing. To provide goodwill, the situation causing the issue should be taken into consideration as well, because sometimes life really does interfere and can cause people further hardship. With the employee sharing and talking, it would be of extreme importance to be accommodating to them (Walsh, 2011). Some corporations use a method to give the employee a little bit of breathing room. They can be given some time off, paid or unpaid and without punishment, to determine if they were going to choose to continue with the company and turn their poor performance around or decide to continue on the path they were on with the understanding of the possible consequences.
Concluding the meeting I would ask the employee if there were questions that they needed addressed and have everyone sign paperwork stating what was discussed and the path of action that the employee was going to take to show improvement. 


References
Flannery, Blake. (na). Conflict can be Good. Hubpages. Retrieved on February 27, 2012 from http://blakeflannery.hubpages.com/hub/Conflict-Management-Insight-and-Skills
N.A. (na). Conflict Resolution: Resolving conflict rationally and effectively. Mind Tools. Retrieved February 27, 2012 from http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newLDR_81.htm
N.A. (October 2006). Methods for Resolving Conflicts and Disputes. Retrieved on February 23, 2012 from http://www.okbar.org/public/brochures/confbroc.htm
Smith, Gregory. (1999). Management and Human Resources: How to Resolve Workplace Conflict. Retrieved on February 27, 2012 from http://www.businessknowhow.com/manage/resolveconflict.htm
Walsh, Michael. (2011). Five Strategies for Resolving Conflict in the Workplace. Retrieved February 27, 2012 from http://business-growth.com/2008/07/07/five-strategies-for-resolving-conflict-in-the-workplace/

Much Ado About Homework

The four media technologies I will be going over are social networking, podcasts, websites and ezines.


Social networking has blown up ever since MySpace first opened up it’s servers for use by the public in creating a page that people could design and manage on their own. The idea behind social networking is that the internet can be used to keep people connected, either creating bonds between familial groups or people who have some sort of common interest. Each person has the ability to befriend or connect with the friends of the original or mutual connection. This can create a large network of people who all communicate and share things like interests and opinions. Businesses were slower to jump into social networking, but soon saw the advantage and the potential reach for marketing using this free service.


Podcasts are digital files of programs, seminars or meetings that are downloaded and generally listened to on a media player, such as the iPod. Podcasts were named as a combimation of iPod, which was the popular media player to use at the time and the word broadcast. Usually a podcast is a series of something, be that sermons, classes or seminars. Generally, podcasts can be set up to be automatically downloaded and your media player would alert you to a new file once it arrived.


Websites are a dime a dozen now. Just about anyone can set up a website, be that to promote businesses, products or share one’s arts and talents. Most businesses have their own website now, with many of them integrating ways to interact further with their customers. One such example is AT&T Mobility’s website, in where customers can register their account online and log in to manage their services. Most companies also have feedback forums or forms on their website so that customers can contact the company directly.


Ezines are similar to online magazines in that they are much the same format and also close to the style of blogs, but they are usually distributed through email. Generally these are smaller newsletters and can sometimes be referred to as digital magazines. Most ezines are available free of charge, but they can also be set up on a subscription basis. Close to the way social networking provides a low cost method of marketing, ezines do the same, but to a more targeted audience.


References:


Betts, Mitch. (August 19, 2002). The Story So Far: History of Web sites. Retrieved on February 15, 2012 from http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/73525/The_Story_So_Far


Nelms, Dan. (June 16, 2011). Social Networking Growth Stats and Patterns. Retrieved on February 15, 2012 from http://socialmediatoday.com/amzini/306252/social-networking-growth-stats-and-patterns


www.e-zinez.com


www.myspace.com

Much Ado About Patience

Tomorrow I have to attend a first time homebuyer's seminar. It is going to last five hours and to be honest, I am a little peeved that I have to do it. The original intent was to help my Mother and I qualify for a zero down home loan, but because of other elements we are not able to make that move and will be doing a 3.5% down payment instead. So I canceled the registration for the first seminar. A week later, the loan company let me know that they expected us to take the class as another qualifier anyhow.

This is the home we are trying to purchase. Isn't she cute? :)

My experience with my first home purchase has been varied. I've yet to feel any extreme amounts of joy or excitement about it because I am being slowly consumed by the weight of being responsible for the costs and the stress of trying to lock down the house we loved on first site so that we can get the loan-and then there is the loan process. I'd love to say don't get me started on the loan process, but truly, it is a giant pain in the ass! What I don't understand the most, is how the information can get turned around, the numbers get pumped higher and all the redundant paperwork. 

The information getting messed up I know is due to a team of people working on my file rather than just one person. I try to copy everyone on the team with all responses to emails, but they don't do that and I think it just encourages more work for everyone who misses one or two details. It has gotten to the point where I email the head of the team first with CC's to everyone else and then watch as he forwards that same message to them, too.


And the numbers! Oh the numbers! The house was listed for 200k. To me, this seems astronomical, but I have only ever purchased two trucks in my life, one for 10k (at a horrible interest rate) and the new truck for 22k. This home is going to cost more than a quarter of a million dollars after all the payments have been made. And it's not in a great area, it's not some giant home, but a simple and somewhat modest home in an area that is experiencing an upsurge in real estate. Even so, the loan was pumped up to include the closing costs and there are all sorts of fees and whatnot that have to be taken care of.

Ok, so the price is totally justified as it's beautiful inside and out.

Worst of the lot has been the paperwork. Two weeks ago I was asked to send in the most extensive list of paperwork for the file. I was asked for tax returns and W2 forms from 2008 forward, 60 days of paystubs, copies of my divorce/parenting plan/child support order and decree of desolution, 60 days of all bank account statements, copies of driver's license and/or passport and a complete explanation of any credit inquiries within the past year. I have since heard that I have to keep updating them with paystubs and bank statements so long as the qualifying procedure is in the works. Also, a friend is loaning me a large portion of the down payment and he is being required to sign paperwork stating that this is a gift as well as submitting front and back copies of the check from him to my account, the deposit slip I get when I deposit the funds and a bank statement showing they register on my list of transactions. 

We are hoping to close on the purchase and move at the end of this month, but it is looking like it will be more towards late March. I can be patient, I can. It's not easy, but I will do it. Patience is just finding something else to do while you are waiting.