Kansas Crimson

Let’s just say I’m fingerblasting my way up the corporate ladder.

ousdahl wrote: ↑Tue Nov 06, 2018 2:16 pm Got the raise!

And not a 6 months too late.

I’d say drinks are on me to celebrate tonight, but I’m sick. I guess if anyone wants to come over and chug cough syrup, hit me up!

Also, the GM pulled me aside last week and said the in the near future they’re creating some kind of fly fishing administrative position and it’s mine to loose (you know, since it’s an outfitter with 300+ employees and I’m the only one who knows or does a thing for fly fishing...)

Awesome! Congrats!
Might want to ask the GM if the position that's your's to lose is contingent on your publicly sharing the incriminating pics you have of him/her on the interwebs. Or maybe not.

LOL so I answer a call from a manager in another department. She wants to know the details of an upcoming event we’re hosting in 3 weeks.

I offer what few details I know, then try to confirm the rest with my manager, who doesn’t know much more, including details about the buffet for the event. My manager suggests contacting the food and bev director, and I suggest that to the other manager on the phone.

Then on the phone, the manager rips into me, a lowly staffer, directly and personally, “YOU NEVER ACTUALLY COMMUNICATE ANYTHING ABOUT ANYTHING! IT MAKES US LOOK LIKE IDIOTS IN FRONT OF THE GUESTS! IM SICK OF IT! THIS IS SO UNPROFESSIONAL! BUT FINE, ILL CALL THE FOOD AND BEV DIRECTOR!”

A few minutes later, the food and bev director walks in and asks me, “hey do you know anything about the upcoming event?”

Ugh!

One of my biggest pet peeves is shitty voice mailers.

I don’t know how many people fail to communicate their phone number in a voicemail. They race through it and don’t articulate, nor do they offer a courtesy repeat.

Often it’s so bad we won’t be able to understand it close enough to even return their call. Sometimes they fail to leave any call back number at all.

Then the worst part about it: sometime in the near future, somebody comes in and throws a tantrum about how we never returned their call.

ooooohhhhhhhhh!

ousdahl wrote: ↑Tue Nov 27, 2018 7:47 pmooooohhhhhhhhh!

^^^

#soghetto

soooooo


work is sending me to Missoula!

ousdahl wrote: ↑Tue Nov 27, 2018 9:11 pm soooooo


work is sending me to Missoula!

Permanently?

No i wish. Just for a long weekend. But on the company dime!

So our ranch just became endorsed by a big fly fishing brand, and one of the terms of the endorsement is we have to send representatives to their annual guide retreat. It’s always somewhere rad. This year it’s Missoula.

I asked who was gonna go, and they said, I dunno, prob just send the GM (who has no interest in fishing and couldn’t care less about listening to 3 days straight of presentations about guiding, but if we gotta spoil somebody it might as well be one of the only people at the ranch who could actually afford to pay their own way, and let any actual value to the retreat just sorta...trickle down, right?

I said, hey I don’t wanna prevent the GM from going and know I don’t have much say, but wouldn’t it make sense to send a guide to the guide retreat? Doesn’t it otherwise kinda defeat the whole purpose?

So then a couple days later the gm walks by and says, ousdahl we’re sending you to Missoula.

Oh! That’s another thing:

A couple weeks ago the GM walked through with a bunch of hot shot CEOs from other industries who were evaluating our ranch. The GM introduced me as “ousdahl, our Head Fly Fishing Guide.”

So apparently I got a title? Cuz the most professional way to handle these things is to mention it in passing, right?

Awesome man. I've never fly fished before, I'd like to try it sometime. Come to think about it, I haven't fished since I was probably a teen.

Enjoy Ousdahl. Pretty cool that your boss calls you Ousdahl.

Good job, HFFG!

Move to missoula and guide. Missouka is awesome. My goal is to live sonewhere between salmon idaho and the kootenai.

I love Missoula. Could totally see myself living there some day. Imagine Lawrence but in a mountain valley.

Being able to say I’m the head guide of a brand-endorsed lodge is kind of a big deal in the fly fishing industry. It should open some doors.

ousdahl wrote: ↑Wed Nov 28, 2018 2:04 pm I love Missoula. Could totally see myself living there some day. Imagine Lawrence but in a mountain valley.

Being able to say I’m the head guide of a brand-endorsed lodge is kind of a big deal in the fly fishing industry. It should open some doors.

Very happy for you!

^^^

ousdahl wrote: ↑Wed Nov 28, 2018 2:04 pm I love Missoula. Could totally see myself living there some day. Imagine Lawrence but in a mountain valley.

Being able to say I’m the head guide of a brand-endorsed lodge is kind of a big deal in the fly fishing industry. It should open some doors.

ugh you guys.

I was gonna post some long guttery rant about work and how my manager is incompetent and we're experiencing a staffing crisis, but I'll try to keep it brief.

So we had a bunch of staff quit, and have only hired 2 new people, when we need 6+. (It's been overwhelmingly my responsibility to train the new staff, but that's sort of another rant). Snow is our economic driver, and it's been a big snow year that projects to be even busier than last, yet we have a third of the staff we did this time last year, now just 2 weeks before Texas Week I mean Christmas.

The GM walked in the shop the other day and there were no employees there. Like no staff, no manager, nothin. So the GM is all upset now, and the whole operation seems to be coming around to the fact my manager is arguably incompetent. (Doesn't staff, doesn't recruit, doesn't train, doesn't plan, doesn't communicate, doesn't organize, doesn't execute...doesn't manage. Makes 40+ hours a week of sitting in the office "checking emails," and acting too busy to do anything else)

I've been stressing, and am considering whether I should just quit, go wait tables or tend bar for the rest of the winter, and just be a guide on call in the summer. But I also recognize a certain game of professional chicken: If I DO stick around, and if/when my manager gets canned, then I'm pretty much next in line.

So how much shit is worth putting up with in anticipation of a potential big opportunity?

sorry, that still got kinda long and guttery.

Good luck!

I always get nervous with the "next in line" mentality because too many times in my relatively short professional career I've watched the higher ups hire someone from the outside because they've got a fancy resume of credentials, but no actual company experience....you might end up having to train your new boss.