Almost enough to forgive him for leaving us in the lurch. He has, though, promised that this baby belongs to the Finance section...
Wednesday 18 June 2008
Our Little Accountant...
Before I forget, here's the reason why my Head Accountant was away for the last five weeks:
Budget Revisions, here I come!!
After the pity-fest yesterday, feeling a lot better. Work's still "how the fuck are we going to get this done by the end of the week" madness but at least it feels like it's finally moving in the right direction.
Got the second finance presentation out the way FINALLY so now can actually concentrate on "proper" work instead of arguing with people on what they should really be doing. At least this time, it was for the Country Management Team and the Admin staff so reception was a lot better and hugely more understanding. Unsurprisingly, I suppose. Still got a mite annoyed by our ACD systems flatly contradicting something that I'd only put in at the firm insistence of his loggy which basically made me look stupid and unprepared. Unfortunatley, I got defensive rather than just taking the high ground in response but there's presenting in French for you - my presentation skills have regressed to my teenage years. Or at least that's the argument I'm sticking to.
Otherwise, it went well. And what's even more fantastic is that I managed to upload about a third of our revised budgets into our system AND the templates that I then updated with this info worked just as I told! OK, this may sound rather sad to be so excited at a template or a system doing just what it's supposed to do but given my extremely frustrating to the point of surreal comedy experience to date with anything relating to software, did a little happy dance in my chair [don't worry, everyone else in the office had already left so haven't damaged what's left of my credibility]. Of course, it'll probably all go to pot tomorrow morning...
What was quite humbling today was to discover the dedication of my team. Due to stress and what I saw at pretty elementary and stupid errors on some of the work I gave them to do, I do forget how willing they are to be abused by me. I was pretty sharp with JF today and felt really bad when he stayed on until 7.30pm to finish the piece of work I gave him to do. And the others also stayed until 5pm or later today (offices normally closes at 3.30pm). God, I really don't deserve them.
Anyway, just wanted to reassure people that I'm not about to throw myself off a cliff just yet. Have a bit more work plus dinner to prepare and Cuba to start packing for so will end here.
Or here.
Got the second finance presentation out the way FINALLY so now can actually concentrate on "proper" work instead of arguing with people on what they should really be doing. At least this time, it was for the Country Management Team and the Admin staff so reception was a lot better and hugely more understanding. Unsurprisingly, I suppose. Still got a mite annoyed by our ACD systems flatly contradicting something that I'd only put in at the firm insistence of his loggy which basically made me look stupid and unprepared. Unfortunatley, I got defensive rather than just taking the high ground in response but there's presenting in French for you - my presentation skills have regressed to my teenage years. Or at least that's the argument I'm sticking to.
Otherwise, it went well. And what's even more fantastic is that I managed to upload about a third of our revised budgets into our system AND the templates that I then updated with this info worked just as I told! OK, this may sound rather sad to be so excited at a template or a system doing just what it's supposed to do but given my extremely frustrating to the point of surreal comedy experience to date with anything relating to software, did a little happy dance in my chair [don't worry, everyone else in the office had already left so haven't damaged what's left of my credibility]. Of course, it'll probably all go to pot tomorrow morning...
What was quite humbling today was to discover the dedication of my team. Due to stress and what I saw at pretty elementary and stupid errors on some of the work I gave them to do, I do forget how willing they are to be abused by me. I was pretty sharp with JF today and felt really bad when he stayed on until 7.30pm to finish the piece of work I gave him to do. And the others also stayed until 5pm or later today (offices normally closes at 3.30pm). God, I really don't deserve them.
Anyway, just wanted to reassure people that I'm not about to throw myself off a cliff just yet. Have a bit more work plus dinner to prepare and Cuba to start packing for so will end here.
Or here.
Monday 16 June 2008
Hanging by my fingertips...
There are so many things that I should be doing at the moment (moment being 6.30am Monday morning) rather than updating my beleagured blog: finishing a presentation on finance procedures for tomorrow, checking informal budget revisions that were done over the weekend, working on the mapping between Concern coding and donor codes for EU projects...
But fuck it. I was bloody working all of Saturday and most of Sunday so figure I deserve 30 mins personal time before work.
The reason why I hadn't been blogging recently is that this past month has been absolutely brutual. Went to Miami for 4 days the week after the poisoning at La Gonave. As soon as I got back, spent most of my time with our Regional Accountant who was over here for three weeks to help overhaul our procedures and generally review our financial management. As soon as she left, got plunged into getting my team to prepare for a finance workshop which took place on Friday on those pre-final procedures as well as budget revision activities ahead of the Offical Budget Revision.
Quite frankly, I'm basically holding on until the end of the week when I hit Cuba for almost 2 weeks. Part of me is glad but I've been too busy to really anticipate or prepare for it properly - just getting scared about the amount of stuff that needs to be done this week, and it's not good.
I know that I'm stressed and have probably lost perspective on this but part of the reason for my bad mood is not only the sheer amount of work that I and my team are under, but the huge criticism that we got during our finance workshop from project people who leave at 3.30pm every day, have large teams to do God Knows What, only manage a tiny budget of only $100k or so, and who have absolutely no clue or really care how much we have to do in finance.
Maybe I'm unfair but for them to criticize us for being inefficient and not catering to their needs... I was so fucking angry and still had to smile and say that yes, we have not been as efficient as we'd hoped and thank them for their patience, when all I wanted to do was yell at them. I don't know, maybe there was a better way of dealing with the situation, maybe if I had a bit more gravitas or presence or experience, I could have defended my team better. And maybe if my French was better...
Oh well, it's a learning experience. I'm just fed up of being in the same situation as I was at my first NGO where I was working all hours of the day but feeling a complete lack of simple appreciation - something that just makes me feel really petty as knowing that I'm doing the best I can should really be enough. I know that's not true here, but that's the way I'm feeling at the moment. And managing a team just makes it worse as I know they're unhappy but I have to put on a brave face for them. I was feeling just so fed up last night, started thinking for the first time when I could leave and go on to a programme which did not have 19 different projects and 17 different donors to manage.
Anyway, I'm just feeling down and needed a whinge. Things could be worse and I just need to regain some perspective somehow.
It's now 7.10am and need to get off my arse and face the music so to speak. Will blog later on today on less gloom and doom matters...
But fuck it. I was bloody working all of Saturday and most of Sunday so figure I deserve 30 mins personal time before work.
The reason why I hadn't been blogging recently is that this past month has been absolutely brutual. Went to Miami for 4 days the week after the poisoning at La Gonave. As soon as I got back, spent most of my time with our Regional Accountant who was over here for three weeks to help overhaul our procedures and generally review our financial management. As soon as she left, got plunged into getting my team to prepare for a finance workshop which took place on Friday on those pre-final procedures as well as budget revision activities ahead of the Offical Budget Revision.
Quite frankly, I'm basically holding on until the end of the week when I hit Cuba for almost 2 weeks. Part of me is glad but I've been too busy to really anticipate or prepare for it properly - just getting scared about the amount of stuff that needs to be done this week, and it's not good.
I know that I'm stressed and have probably lost perspective on this but part of the reason for my bad mood is not only the sheer amount of work that I and my team are under, but the huge criticism that we got during our finance workshop from project people who leave at 3.30pm every day, have large teams to do God Knows What, only manage a tiny budget of only $100k or so, and who have absolutely no clue or really care how much we have to do in finance.
Maybe I'm unfair but for them to criticize us for being inefficient and not catering to their needs... I was so fucking angry and still had to smile and say that yes, we have not been as efficient as we'd hoped and thank them for their patience, when all I wanted to do was yell at them. I don't know, maybe there was a better way of dealing with the situation, maybe if I had a bit more gravitas or presence or experience, I could have defended my team better. And maybe if my French was better...
Oh well, it's a learning experience. I'm just fed up of being in the same situation as I was at my first NGO where I was working all hours of the day but feeling a complete lack of simple appreciation - something that just makes me feel really petty as knowing that I'm doing the best I can should really be enough. I know that's not true here, but that's the way I'm feeling at the moment. And managing a team just makes it worse as I know they're unhappy but I have to put on a brave face for them. I was feeling just so fed up last night, started thinking for the first time when I could leave and go on to a programme which did not have 19 different projects and 17 different donors to manage.
Anyway, I'm just feeling down and needed a whinge. Things could be worse and I just need to regain some perspective somehow.
It's now 7.10am and need to get off my arse and face the music so to speak. Will blog later on today on less gloom and doom matters...
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