The New Job

Day 1 on the new job went fairly well. It started with a staff meeting, I didn't have to say or do anything, just observe. Then I met with L, who is the general manager's mom. She mostly works out of her home and does a lot for the business. She's thrilled to have someone there at the office taking care of things and hopefully putting things in order. So she showed me some of the programs and did some explaining. Then decided I would go to this project meeting with her in Ferndale (over an hour away). It would give us more talking time and I may eventually end up taking this project over. Then somewhere in there it was decided we'd grab lunch before going. And "grabbing" lunch meant a sit down at a nearby cafe.

So I got the skinny on things... the other two top candidates who were qualified for the position were both really disturbed by the office dog (and if they are bothered by a calm dog, how will they deal with the chaos) and that L thought I was the right one from the start. Heard about J and his wife just leaving him (breaks my heart). How long L has been working with her son C. How great her grandkids are. How much they need me in the office, how happy she is to have me. That her dog isn't potty trained. Blah blah blah. Then we got in the car to head to our meeting, and next thing I know L is telling me about her divorce a year ago, how her husband of many years found a younger model, how heartbreaking it is... I really thought I left my "Please tell me your troubles" sign at home ... but apparently not. (Seriously, can everyone see that sign???)

Other than the deep personal sharing, we also talked about this project, the meeting, some struggles in the program, etc. It's intergovernmental stuff-- L was really excited to learn I understand how these types of things go and said I had some fantastic questions and could I please talk during the meeting. Uh okay. The meeting was fine and L tells me at the end that if I didn't understand every single thing that was said, she'd never know. I guess that's a good sign. We spend the next hour in the car again, more work talk, more personal sharing, some discussions of coffee preferences (we like the same coffee... how great is that?). By the end of the ride, we are pretty much BFF. We get back to the office and most of the guys are gone, so we go over the meeting with the two guys B and R who also work that project. It was good. I could tell that they were impressed at my understanding of a project I just got thrown in to.

It feels really great to be using my brain again. Not just my brain, but my thinking, problem solving, team working skillz. I love that. And the rest of the job will continue to unfold and I think I will be working a lot of hours to help them catch up and get things in good working order. It's good. I'm exhausted, but happy to have a good challenge in front of me, and apparently plenty of life coaching to do as well. God is good.