Monday, February 25, 2008

learning to do my job

As acting-manager I technically have more responsibility and I’m slowly realizing the reality of what that means. Last week I got agitated because I didn’t want to deal with something and it resulted in an argument with a coworker. Poor woman was just an innocent bystander and I sort of bit her head off. Not a proud moment for me, especially because Tanya and other people from the office were witness to me losing my cool for no real reason. After I regained composure I realized that as acting-manager, I can’t expect others to deal with issues – that’s my responsibility now. So that means no more blowing things off just because I’m a measly volunteer. I still don’t get paid, no raise came with the “promotion” but the expectations are slightly higher. I don’t mind at all but I just have to remember that more often than not, I can’t rely on other people to deal with issues; it’s now officially my job and I have to set a good example for the staff and future manager (which will most likely be one of the current staff members).

It’s not too much of a change in my day to day work – the whole reason why I’m officially given the title of acting-manager is because I’ve been unofficially doing the same thing for the past 9 months. With input from other volunteers and discussions with the board, it was decided that Phedišang needs someone who can manage on a full time basis (the supervisors are actual employees of World Vision and only provide spare time, which is not a lot, to managing the project). I’m excited about the change because I think it really will help the organization operate more efficiently and it contributes to the sustainability of the project.

Despite my lapse in judgment last week, I’ve had a few minor victories that help to motivate and keep me working hard. I finally balanced the cash book for one of the offices. As of this morning, we successfully are balanced from March 2006 through December 2007! I started this little project in October and then had to wait for missing bank statements, holidays and other things that kept getting in the way. So today, Motale, the bookkeeper, got her first lesson in how to reconcile the bank statement to the cash book this morning. It’s hard to believe she wouldn’t have already had this kind of training or experience since she was hired to be a bookkeeper but I’ve learned there are some things you just don’t ask questions about.

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