Maxim Enterprises

updates

As of late, I feel like there hasn't been much going on worth composing words for. Despite this, a blog awaits entries, so here is one. Ernie and Krishna are doing their best to encourage the contractors to produce better work, even if this means going to hang out in the field for a day. The processors are processing away until all their work is completed. We've even had a couple early days lately. The client leads are reorganizing who takes what work since some our clients have changed a bit. I suppose it's business as usual. Adapt and thus develop.

The exciting part of my week is that Kiel is creating a new website for Maxim, and I get to work with him a bit and put my PR and writing skills to use. Not that Kiel can't write, but it's something I actually enjoy. I've never created a website, so it's like taking everything I've liked or disliked about company websites and collaborating the best of those efforts. Kiel creates the design, I say yes or no, and we discuss how it would work best. It's gonna be awesome. Our website is, after all, the first and sometimes only contact people have with our company. We want to make it a positive experience for them by making it simple, easy to navigate, and yet informative enough for them to fully understand our company and the image we wish to portray. Seems simple enough, but yet it's not. The writing will prove to be most difficult I'm sure. Either way I'm having fun. I hope you all enjoy it when it's done.

new adventures

I figured I would read Kiel's blog before writing today's (as you should too in order to understand a couple references in here), and I liked what he had to say. I was planning on mentioning how Maxim is rearranging itself a bit, being flexible if you will. We're at a point where we are evaluating and finding what's best for not only our clients but also for our contractors so they can keep producing their best work. We recently acquired work from a new client, IMS, and I've heard of a couple more companies being added to our client list soon. With these new clients comes new expectations, new ways to put in work orders. I wouldn't say we're old dogs, but we're certainly learning new tricks all the time. As far as clients go, I feel like Steve tries to portray a very go forward attitude. We may have lost some work recently, but let's focus on what we have, focus on what we're getting. Those of us in the office are still working hard to do what we can to further the process.

We're also doing some rearranging of contractors and their territories, adding some and subtracting others. It's a constant balance to try to find just the right fit with the work we're getting from our clients and getting that work to the right people to get the job done well. Since I've been here there has been no such thing as staying the same, which is fine. If something works perfectly you keep it, but we're not quite to perfection yet. Instead, we're being flexible, adapting to change, moving forward, and numerous other positive phrases I could pull out. Ultimately, we're working on doing what's best despite our current setbacks. For in the words of Robert Browning, "My sun sets to rise again."

New Tricks

I just got done talking with Dave, who, when I asked him (jokingly) if he wanted to learn how to program to help Edwin and me.  His response was as expected "you can't teach an old dog new tricks".  It got me thinking about the necessity in the current market to be flexible.  This is incredibly important for the younger professional employees who have yet to establish themselves within a company.  Maxim is no exception; if you aren't willing to bend, you will break.  Each person is an integral part of the company, and everyone must be willing to move a little out of their comfort zone to better the company as a whole.
Dave's expertise may not be anywhere near a copy of Visual Studio pouring over a C# file, but he is a very flexible person who helps wherever he can. 

distractedly focused

It's 4:30, and I'm at the point in my day where I would have already been listening to my mp3 player for an hour, and I've still got another hour until quitting time. Unfortunately for me it died at 4:45 yesterday and I neglected to charge it last night. And also unfortunately for my diet I'm devouring a bag of gummy worms as a result of not having my music. I don't know what it is, but I kind of feel like I need that extra something else going on to motivate the last couple hours of work. Logically it would seem like silent focus would do the trick, but it doesn't. I'm not the only one around here who deliberately places distractions in their day I've noticed. Oftentimes I see some of the processors with headphones in or snacking on something. Of course there's the periodical water/coffee/tea breaks. And then there are designated smoke breaks for some. Maxim is the type of place where I feel like on our busy days, everyone could stay at their desks all day long working and still have work to do when 5:30 rolls around. But it's a very difficult thing to hold total focus for that long. I don't know if it's something that has developed over the past centuries or is inherently human to only be able to stay fully concentrated for so long. For me, I was thinking back to the fact that for the past 8 years at least I've never had to sit in a classroom for more than an hour and a half at a time. My brain got used to those short time periods I would actually have to pay attention. So having to sit here all morning and then all afternoon was a little tougher to get used to, but I'm adapting. As it seems, though, sometimes to do our best work, we need that distraction. By the end of the day, I need my music. 

why is all the coffee gone

Now that I've accepted successfully becoming an office-working coffee addict, I try not to jump right in to the caffeine wake-up call immediately when I get to work. I like to get my day started and get some work orders in before I streamline to the kitchen for my morning brew. Kind of gives me something to look forward to in the later morning hours. But I must admit it was difficult getting through that first hour today, as I also witnessed from my fellow co-workers who passed behind my desk for their daily dose of coffee or tea shortly after beginning the work day. Between that and the pile of leftover Halloween candy sitting in the bowl on my desk that slowly disappeared throughout the day, I'm pretty sure half of the Maxim employees were on a sugar high today. So I was kind of wondering, why is it so difficult for us to get started on Monday? Theoretically, the weekend should be relaxing right? So we're supposed to come in refreshed and ready for to seize the work week! Right? But as all of us sit at our desks all day, typing, answering the phone, making calls, typing and clicking, typing and clicking, I wonder which parts of our weeks are actually more relaxing. Which parts are helping us live longer, happy lives, and which parts are actually causing us more stress, more wear and tear on our minds and bodies than we realize. I'm not knowledgable enough to delve any deeper than to ask the questions and make my own assumptions, but when I walked into the kitchen today with my black coffee mug ready for my jump-start, I saw the pot and thought, "Why is all the coffee gone?"

line x line x line x line x line x line x line

What in the world is a line x line? No matter what exactly the specific definition of it is,  let's be honest they're confusing. Does Len get the whole thing or do I have to split the work order? Gotta make sure I split up the date, too. Oh but wait I have to watch in case it is one that I only assign to Len but there's extra work to be done, and then it gets split even if it's local. Unless it comes across with eviction information but no eviction dates and times, which means it's back to only being for Len. And of course the most recent discovery to my line x line entries: even if i manually put in Nardo as the Vendor, I have to make sure he's listed for both vendor spots (which doesn't automatically happen when I put him as the vendor), or someone isn't gonna be paid. SOOOO much to learn and remember. Good thing I have a solid supply of sticky notes and very patient coworkers. :) Happy Friday!

winter wonderland

Observation of the day: It snowed. November 4: first snow of the Canton, Ohio winter season. Boo snow.

Also, I went to Panera to grab lunch today and realized that two months ago I was sitting in Panera watching all the professionally dressed people coming in for lunch and being incredibly envious that they had real jobs, wondering how they were lucky enough to get hired by someone. And now on my lunch break, dressed in my big girl work clothes I got to go in and grab some food before heading back to my real job. Thank you Maxim Enterprises for providing jobs for those of us who consistently come in to this office every day. It puts a smile on my face, despite the cold snow.

we are the champions

It's been kind of a crazy couple of days. Yesterday the phones were ringing off the hook, and today was only a little better. Of course the main concern for our contractors expressed in their phone calls was the issues we've been having with Fieldcomm. Yesterday they had trouble logging in, and once Kiel got that taken care of the photos section was having some issues, and still is. I don't think I've ever seen him at his desk so much or the red light for his extension lit up so much as he was literally on the phone all day. I felt like a secretary taking appointments for him to talk to people.

So while one of the main concerns I've witnessed at Maxim yesterday and today has been the loss of First American work orders in Ohio because we had a lower "on time" percentage than other vendors, it's been overshadowed by having programming and photo issues so some of our contractors are saying they won't be able to get work orders in on time because of it. Awesome. Theoretically we run a very simple, straight-forward business, but it seems like complications arise every day to make the should-be smooth process delayed. I, along with Steve and all the processors and client leads I'm sure, am just wondering what it is that we can do to make this go smoother, to get work orders in on time and to keep our business. I know Krishna and Ernie have been working on rearranging some contractors' territories to get the good scores back up, and I'm sure quite a bit of brainstorming is taking place all over this office.  As "We are the champions" played in my mp3 player while I put in the last few work orders of the day, I just thought about what Steve said Monday morning at our positive focus. We may be having a couple setbacks, but stay the course because we can be better than this. It seems like property foreclosures aren't slowing down anytime soon, and neither is Maxim.

Countdown

It's 4:46 Friday afternoon. JK, 4:47. I'm doing what any normal person regardless of how much they like their job is doing...counting the minutes til the weekend. But since I still have 40 and some odd minutes of answering the phone (definitely still ringing) and data entry, I'll take a minute or two to reflect on Maxim.

I've noticed a lot of technological changes today that must have developed before my time and are still developing here. It's definitely an online world, and the way this business operates very much reflects that. With the development of a new FieldComm system in the past year and a half, the system of data entry and allowing contractors to communicate with us, all the way through processing (I'm assuming) has been made a lot easier. I found out today there's potential for an even better way of doing data entry in the works. Recently we've just about stopped printing work orders because really, what's the point when it can be stored in an e-mail folder. Also, Krishna is excited about a new technologically better way to do scorecards coming up. It'll be like Christmas for her. That's as far as I've gotten with the technology at Maxim today. My favorite quote of the day regarding technological advances, though, was from Kelly. After trying to make a phone call I heard this from her, "Seriously who has a busy signal in 2009?"

31 minutes and counting

User's manual

Steve came in today dressed as Ozzy Osbourne.

In other news, I keep thinking that every bit of order entry and Maxim business information I'm squeezing into my brain should be written down because let's be honest, I tend to forget things unless they're written down (which explains the decorative array of sticky notes surrounding my desk). And thus, it was revealed to me today the data entry procedures book! Last updated early in 2008 from what I can tell, you might think it's pretty up-to-date right? False. While I'm still the newbie, I've picked up that there has been quite a bit of change around here in that short time. This is a company that is growing, developing, changing, and improving in positive ways. And we're not looking to plateau anytime soon. Now that I'm 3 weeks into order entry, I feel like I have it mostly down pat (mostly..) but I'm pretty excited to go through this massive binder of information and update it. Just might make it a little easier for the next person like me.