Week 11

My eleventh week working at the Bureau of Economic Analysis was taxing. I came in Monday to find that Laura did not complete any work last week. She did not even touch the Training map. I was livid. I could not believe that anyone would disrespect his or her partner in such a way. When I explained my frustration to Laura, she brushed it off. She said that she would get around to the map sometime later this week. I gave her the opportunity to begin working on Tuesday morning. She never took it. By Tuesday afternoon, I found that I was doing her work by myself. I spent the remainder of the week completing Laura’s work, which I found to be very disrespectful.
After completing the map on Thursday, I started to put together my fall schedule. It is looking like I will work three days a week rather than five. Meridel’s acceptance of that news lifted my spirits and made this a better week for me

Week 10

My tenth week working at the Bureau of Economic Analysis showed me what my future at the organization would look like. The only work that I had left to do was to complete and correct the process maps for Travel and Training. Laura and I decided to split this task between the two of us. Laura said that she would start making revisions to the Training Process while I mapped Travel. I spent the rest of the week creating the Travel map, guide, and overview by myself. There were two major breaks that took me away from my work. First, you popped up to my office to pay everyone a visit, which we all appreciated. Second, Brian hosted an ice cream social for all of the interns in the BEA. Brian brought ice cream cake as well as two buckets of vanilla ice cream. The ice cream social was a major success, giving me the opportunity to talk to my fellow interns from the other departments. Unfortunately, this was the last week for most of the interns before they left the District to start school in the Fall. After I returned from the social, I put the finishing touches on the Travel process map and its respective guide and overview.

Week 9: Day 4-5

On Thursday afternoon, my meeting with Margaret began. Laura and I sat at the table as time passed. I assumed that she must be an uncaring or unmotivated person because she missed our meeting last week and had the audacity to come late to this one. As it turns out, my assumptions were incorrect. She was actually quite pleasant, coming into the meeting with one of her teammates. She and her teammate, Alita, were very candid and helpful in our meeting. They laid out all of the information that Laura and I needed to make an effective process map. Towards the end of our meeting, Margaret made us promise to make the map as short as possiblee. She pulled out an older process map that Meridel made that was over 12 pages. Margaret explained to us that it was almost unreadable, alluding to this being her explanation for skipping our meeting. I did not like that explanation, but I certainly understand why an employee would consider process improvement to be a waste of time. Immediately after my meeting with Margaret, my meeting with Tarik began. One of the first differences that I noticed between Margaret and Tarik was that he was less helpful. He kept digressing from the points that I needed addressed, forcing me to break my choreographed routine. I tried my best to contain my frustration and he certainly noticed. It became clear to me, after hearing the details of what he does, that he was just stalling. He does not do any part of his job correctly. After an hour and a half of what felt like harsh interrogation, I lost my composure. I politely scolded him for missing our meeting last week and wasting our current meeting, forcing him to get back on task. It took Laura and I hours to make sense of the details that he gave us. It amazes me that anyone can be this incompetent and keep his or her job.

Week 9: Day 1-3

My ninth week working at the Bureau of Economic Analysis was devoted to conducting interviews for the Training and Travel Process maps. Unfortunately, the meetings for the maps were scheduled for Thursday, theoretically keeping my schedule open for Monday thru Wednesday. On Monday morning, when Meridel called me into her office for a meeting, my assumption was proved false. The purpose of our meeting was to discuss how I felt about my internship experience. During our meeting, Meridel and I talked about the maps that my teammates and I created so far. I was pleasantly surprised when she commended me on all of the progress that I had made. Statements as simple as “Good job” and “I’m proud” mean a lot when they come from your boss. I told her about how much I was enjoying my experience. Our discourse was going well until she asked me why my meeting with Margaret and Tarik was pushed back. I froze up at the question. I hesitated to answer because I do not like to talk bad about people when they are not in front of me to defend their actions. Meridel continued to pry for an answer until I gave her the information that she wanted: they did not come to the meeting. The expression on her face became unsettling. I struggled to keep my composure as she complained about how useless some members of her staff are. She referred to Tarik as “useless” and Margaret as “lazy” as I sat there awkwardly. When she started to calm down, I decided to come up with explanations to excuse their behavior. Big mistake. I posited the idea that they may have just been busy or forgot the meeting. Meridel interpreted my explanation for their inequities as excuses, making her angrier by the second. Meridel began her tirade from the beginning again, which taught me a critical lesson. I learned that it is best to allow your boss to vent when they are frustrated. Countering your boss, even if it is meant to be constructive, might only further enrage them. When that occurs, there is little more that you can say without further offending your boss. After Meridel finished venting, we went over two internship evaluations. The first evaluation pertained to this class, while the second is usually used to rate employee performance. The results of both evaluations were pleasing, fairly indicating my many accomplishments and strong work ethic. I spent remaining days of the week preparing for my big Thursday meeting with Margaret and Tarik. I wanted to have everything that I had to say choreographed and rehearsed so that I could better hide my displeasure with them. Honestly, I did not want to meet with them. I felt that they purposely disrespected me by deciding to miss our meeting last week. Thursday afternoon, which was the day of my second meeting attempt, would provide the perfect venue to test my strategy.

Week 8: Day 2-5

By Tuesday and Wednesday, both of our appointments were rescheduled for next week because both parties were unable to meet with us. How did we find out? When we went to our meetings and no one else was sitting across the table from us. That really angered me. All of my enthusiasm and energy were wasted this week because certain people within the organization are not as professional as they should be. Perhaps it is time that I changed my approach? I think that I will start setting up meetings by walking into people’s offices rather than relying on e-mail for correspondence. When I do use e-mail, I will definitely CC my supervisor and theirs to ensure an adequate response.

Week 8: Day 1

My teammates returned from their Program Management class on the eighth week. I was surprised by how happy I was to see them. We have grown tremendously close to each other because we work in such close proximity every day. After comparing notes with each other on how our week apart was, we combed through our task list in search of more work to do. We sat there for a couple of hours, contemplating what we would do for the remainder of the week. Almost on cue, Meridel appeared in our office. She is getting better at entering our office when we wonder what our weekly tasks will be. During our Monday meeting, she gave us four new tasks. I could barely contain my happiness once I discovered that they were all substantive. She told us that she spent the weekend reviewing all our maps. Two thoughts came to mind as she spoke to us. First, I would never want my workload to reach the level where I had to review my subordinates’ work on the weekend. I understand having to be in contact in case of emergency and/or having to communicate with an equal or higher level employee outside of work hours. I would never want to devote my weekend to work the way that she does. My second thought was that Meridel must be telepathic. She gave me a certain glance while she was talking to us, leading me to believe that she was aware of my displeasure at being assigned the Internet task. There is a good chance that she observed the displeasure on my face. For now on, I will work on controlling my facial expressions in order to better hide my thoughts. Meridel’s four tasks were our last remaining process maps. Apparently, we had even less remaining than I originally calculated. The first task was to redo the Training Procurement map. She told us that Tarik gave us the wrong information, which I do not find surprising. The second task was to meet with the Budget Group and add several more subprocesses to the Status of Funds map. The third task was to meet with the Physical Environment Group in order to determine how they reimburse employees for their travel expenses. I have the feeling that I will enjoy hearing about that one. It sounds interesting. The fourth task is to meet with the Customer Assistance Group (a.k.a. Mailroom Staff) to determine how they utilize and maintain their online database. My teammates and I were all surprised that the mailroom clerks have IT skills to begin with. After thinking about it for some time, I wonder if their IT skills were acquired while working with the BEA? If my assumptions are correct, then that reflects positively on Brian and Meridel’s leadership style. They truly believe in workforce development, educating and uplifting even their mailroom clerks. Ultimately, my teammates and I decided to pair up in order to tackle the projects more effectively. Jeff teamed up with Eric and I teamed up with Laura again. Laura and I decided to tackle the first and third tasks while Jeff & Eric handled the rest. By Close of Business Monday, Laura and I had set up appointments with Margaret (PEG) and Tarik (Training) for Tuesday and Wednesday respectively.

Week 7: Day 2-5

The next day, with two of our teammates gone, Eric and I brainstormed tasks that we could do for the remainder of the week. Our master plan was this: Eric would make detailed overviews for every map and I would write guides detailing how to read the maps. When Meridel came downstairs for our usual 9:30 meeting, she looked genuinely surprised by our idea. The look of shock on her face betrayed her thoughts. She seemed impressed that two unsupervised intern would come up with their own work. She was nearly speechless for the remainder of our meeting. After she left, Eric and I continued the painstaking task of going through and making a guide and overview for each and every map. The weight of the task took us the rest of the week to complete until our teammates returned.