Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Charming Pet Products

Hi All!

I'm blogging from work (have a little down time at the moment) and wanted to give you all a little update on my new home away from home.

It's been great. I've been here for a few weeks (already got my second pay check! Woot!) and have settled in nicely. I love my hours (although Anthony HATES them because they are so much better than his!). I start every morning between 9am and 9:30am, and leave around 5pm. I get to go home for lunch every day because we live about 10 minutes away, and I bring Pup to work on a pretty regular basis. It's pretty sweet!

I've never had a 35 hour work week before (I'm used to 45-50 with most of my past jobs!) so this is a really nice (and in my opinion well deserved) change. Don't get me wrong - I may only work 7 hours a day, but this is the first job I've had in a LONG time where I work all 7 hours (minus 15 minutes every now and again for things like blogging!) My down time here is really limited. This fact makes the day go by SO fast. I love it. There is always something to do. I could finish 100% of my To Do List for the day, and it wouldn't matter - There is still a ton to get done.

They now have trained me enough to take over the customer service phone - always fun and interesting - plus I do half the orders on a daily basis and most of our in-house shipping. Plus I manage the office (Duh - I'm "Office Manager") so I'm in charge of all the filing and the phones, and the mail, and all that "stuff" that has to get done. No clue how my boss, Christine, was doing it all by herself. Literally, I took half of her job off of her plate and she is still up to her ears in work! Hence why there is so little down time around here.

The other half of my job is working with Christine's Husband, Nick. He is our Marketing Department, Design Guru, and all around "Idea Guy." I work with him on up-to-date marketing techniques to help the business grow. I've also helped out on a couple of toy designs and hope I'll get the chance to design my own toy one day! How cool would that be? And part of working with Nick means doing a lot of work for our trade shows (we start this coming weekend with 6 of them back-to back! It's going to be crazy!). I've been helping with our booths and designing an easier set for our out of state Reps so they are more likely to follow through on the look. I even hopped into AI (Adobe Illustrator for the readers not in the trade) and did some design work and had header boards made for all of our floor displays! It was cool to get the final product back knowing I designed them! I'm so used to taking other' people's ideas and making them realities, so it was a big step to start with a blank canvas and make something new. I know I'll get to do it again with this company, and that sparks a whole lot of motivation and imagination for me.

I'm starting to ramble on - thanks for getting to this point, if you are still reading! I'm really enjoying my job. It's keeping me busy and the versatility is keeping me challenged. I'm pleased about that. But the greatest piece of the pie is that they (my bosses) wholeheartedly believe in me. They know (as I continue to prove it) that they can ask for something, on top of everything I already have going, and know that it is still going to get done, and BEFORE they feel the need to ask for it again. I have no one breathing down my neck, or checking over my shoulder. And as the days go by, they feel less and less of a need to "check" my work for errors, as I'm making less and less of them as I go. It's a great feeling to be needed and to know that I was hired to do a job they know I can do. Things are looking good on the Pet Toy front! I promise to do a blog if I get the chance to design a toy!

-Jen

1 comment:

  1. Glad to hear that your finally found a job that you truly enjoy. It sure does make life so much easier when you enjoy what you do. Can't wait to hear about your designs.....

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