Thursday, April 13, 2006

Getting a New Job

I'm not leaving my company, just getting a new job. I love working at a small, growing company, like I do. There is so much flexibility to grow and change one's role to coincide with your own strengths. And that is what I am doing. Taking my strengths and moving into a role I will really excel at.

In the meantime, I am doing both jobs. The one I'm transitioning out of as well as the new one I'm moving into. As a result I have been working a lot of hours, leaving little, to no, time for blogging. I haven't disappeared, I just have a brain that looks like mush by the time I get home.

Today, for example, I started work at 4am. and I worked until 6:30pm. I've pulled all-nighters for this company, more all-nighters, I might add, than I ever did in college. And yet, I get excited to keep going back to work day in and day out. I guess that's how I know I've found a job and a company that I really like.

Yesterday, I had a meeting with a customer where I was wearing my new role hat. This particular customer was beligerent and pushy and downright rude. Anytime I tried to share the ways we would address their concerns, they would talk over me condescendingly and talk about all their wonderful traits. I had to repeat the same solution explanation 4 times because they wouldn't shut up long enough to hear what I had to say. During this 90-minute meeting, I ceased to have the 10 nicely grown out nails (and that is quite the accomplishment for me, believe me). After the meeting, I was down to 1. That's how stressed they made me. That meeting made me question if I was really moving into the right position in the company.

Today I got a voicemail from that customer's primary contact. She apologized for the behavior of her co-workers, and let me know that they have "handled" the problem, and we will never need to expect that sort of behavior from them. Apparently, during the call when they put us on hold, one of the managers came in and reprimanded the offenders for their behavior. Too bad that was about 80 minutes into the call, because they were much more civil afterwards. And then I remembered why I like my job so much. While I have the occasional asswipe to deal with, the vast majority of our customers are wonderful to work with. They are reasonable and sweet, and some of them even write poetry about us or send us cookies. They are good people.

And so, I won't be quitting after one bad call, no matter how bad. And I will keep doing two jobs for the next few weeks while everything works itself out for a transition. And I will keep working with good people. I love my job.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

congrats on the new job!

James Brush said...

Congratulations. It's great to have a job you love.