There is my granddaughter ready for school pictures. I think it was last year that Jen forgot to fill out the slip for pictures and Sam wasn't allowed to take them. She was heartbroken and McKenny took a load of pictures in the backyard by their garden. This year the whole family was ready and Jennifer curled Sam's hair for the pictures. She is busy with Soccer and we will be there in about three weeks to cheer her on with Samson in tow as well. We will bring him to the soccer field which is dog friendly along with Maceo.
It was a tough week of work for me, or I should clarify, it was a bad Friday for me. My Personal Lines Underwriter, Linda, turned in her resignation and is going to work for a carrier for homeowners insurance. It is a job where she works at home and goes into the office a couple of times a month. I didn't see this one coming and I had her on a growth track at work whereby she would become the Personal Lines Manager in March. We had been meeting once a month and looking at her progress. Pete tells me that she had met with him a few times and was frustrated with her staff telling her "no" when she was asking them to do certain things. She didn't share that with me and I would have told her to have some repercussions for not following through on her demands. I would make those repercussions monetary based. She pays her staff out of her bonus and if they aren't following through on things, they should lose money. She wasn't cut out for management and I think this job offer that will pay her about what she is making now with bonus is an easy out for her. She has been negotiating with them since June and the job offer came in on Thursday.
I honestly think the number one strength for me in my office is my staff and, unfortunately, my biggest headache is my staff. It hit me hard and I had a rough day as Linda was one of my biggest successes of late. She took a disoriented unit and pulled them together and they have consistently been number one in new business in my office. I have a recent college graduate from Lehigh working as a Trainee in the unit and I will be fast tracking him for a production role. I will meet with the entire Personal Lines staff tomorrow with Linda out of the office and go over where they are and what needs to be done to keep the unit working at top speed.
It just feels like I've taken hit after hit and my bosses always ask me why I can't keep my best employees. The problem, frankly, is that we put so much emphasis on bonuses and our competition pays higher salaries. Our CEO is a multi millionaire and can't relate to someone who lives paycheck to paycheck and can't understand why someone would leave us for a 25% bump in salary when they would likely make more with us when the bonus is factored in. The answer is that the bonus is not guaranteed and more money in the paycheck every paycheck tends to trump pie in the sky. Until this company learns how to compensate Millenials in a better fashion, I will continue to be backfilling positions. It is a frustrating process.
I got out on Thursday and played golf with Ron Floyd and Robert in his office along with Pete in a charity event at Lincoln Hills Golf Club. We hammed around with 14 pars, three birdies and a bogey for a 70. The winners shot 57. I did win a $50 gift card for hitting a marshmallow closest to the pin on one of the par three holes. I used the gift card and bought Darla a replacement blender jar for her Osterizer. She broke it last week and is in the middle of a shake replacement diet, where she replaces lunch with a protein shake.
I have been suffering back pain for the past three weeks and will see Jane on Wednesday for a Bowen treatment. I decided to take the weekend off from golf and got my car waxed on Saturday. I did all of my yard work and pool maintenance and still had time to wax the car. I belong to a car wash program, where Darla and I both can have unlimited car washes. The wash tends to streak my dark colored car and it always looks much better after I wax the car. The water beads up and blows off better when the car is freshly waxed.
Darla and I had tickets to a Christian Comedy night at church on Saturday and we met Randy and Julie at the church and enjoyed the show. One of the comedians is a pastor in Southern California and he was funny, but not really polished. The other is a comedian who became a Christian and changed his show to a Christian show. He was very polished and really funny. He says that if you diet and exercise you lack faith because our earthly home is temporary and if you want to live longer, you are delaying moving to your Heavenly home. He also said that as a comedian he can say anything about anyone in the audience as long as he says, "God Bless You!". We had a lot of laughs and then went out for ice cream.
When I first met Julie and Rand, we had gone to a Christian concert and then went to ice cream afterward and I didn't have my wallet. Rand bought and I told him I'd get the ice cream the next time. That was about three years ago. I finally got the opportunity to host the ice cream. We went out to Red Robin and all had smoothies and ice cream shakes. We visited for about an hour and then came home to rescue the dog from his cage.
Today I watched football, taped the Tour Championship that I'm watching now and have the Raider game on tape. Tomorrow is the Cowboy game on Monday Night Football so I will be leaving the office early to enjoy the game.
I was supposed to play golf next weekend with Pamas, who lost his wife last week. I called to follow up on Thursday and he isn't doing well. He didn't want to commit to play and let me down. The problem is that everyone had already paired up for the 6-6-6 event where we play six holes of best ball, six of two man scramble and the final six alternate shot. I talked to 8 of my friends and they were all paired up. I asked Charlie, our Tournament bookkeeper to pair me up with a single and I'll play with Gary, who is a 20 handicap and a pretty good tournament player. I don't know him well, but I will by the end of that tournament. It will be fun.
I played poker with the guys on Friday night and I like to brag about taking money from my friends. I won early and was up about $25 before going completely cold and losing about $65 on the night. We play with quarters and I have a rack that holds $50. I lost all of that and about $15 more. It was a painful night, but overall I'm well up over the years with these guys. We played at Charlie's house. I think I mentioned that John was going to bring a rubber snake and freak out Charlie. He ended up not going and so no snake this time.
This is short, but there isn't much to report and dinner is just about ready. Darla is preparing Spanish rice and she has been gone today at an event at one of her friends' house. There were about 15 women that showed up and the sales were about $1300. I'd call that a good Sunday. I hope you are all well. Dad and Shirley, we hope that the weather wasn't too bad for you on the cruise and that you make it home safely. We will call you next weekend. Love you. Ciao.
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