There are times when I'm pretty fairly convinced that if I was fired at that very moment, I would jump up and down excitedly and clap my hands with glee.
However, for the most part, I really do like where I'm at right now. I want to write it down so I can come back to it in the future (when I'm having one of those earlier mentioned incidents) and remember that I do like my job. Maybe not strongly enough to believe that it 'my purpose' but that for some people, at the right moment, I am where I needed to be.
I like being where I'm at because when a person is having a really rough patch, I may have the ability to help them. The other day, I met a man who I imagined would like his job, because he could help people when they were having a truly bad day of it. In my head, I imagine the feeling would be like hands on the hips, chest out, wearing the tights and cape and singing the theme from 'Mighty Mouse', here I come to save the day! When I asked him about it, he said that was true the first year, but since then, not so much. How disappointing would that be? I have since taken to wondering, can that feeling of being a hero be preserved and made to last a long time.
Now, keep in mind, I have had many different kinds of jobs. The most helpful any of them have been was to remind a person they may have wanted a larger dose of fries with that. The last job I had before this one was helping people improve their credit. It was really hard for me to sort out the people who really wanted the help because they had made mistakes and turned things around and could use some help erasing things, from the clients that were the ones that hadn't learned anything from their 'mistakes' but that they could continue to do all kinds of damage and it would be taken care of by someone else. To me, that was like doing housework as an occupation. Of course, when I did housework for hire, I worked for slobs who made messes because it was somebody else's responsibility to clean up. These clients continually trashed their credit because they knew they could throw enough money at someone else to clean it up later. For me being that someone, I had a goal to fix the issues, but it could never get fixed because of this individual lack of personal responsibility. Now, the business owners probably thought that was a good thing, business-wise, but as the employee it was beyond aggravating. The cool thing about that job was that it was a constant mind bender to figure out, kept me motivated mentally, if for no other reason.
The mental motivation is seriously lacking here. Yep, I know that's a lot to expect of myself in the position of Self Storage Manager. I read everything I can find, which isn't much, about my industry, including online blogs and trade magazines. I have been especially focused on them during this economy mess, trying to find ways I can market my facility when my company doesn't seem anymore interested in doing it than in the upkeep of the facility, or the upkeep of me.
I really do like many aspects of this position. One of the biggest ones that attracted me when I first started here was that I was at home all day, because I live onsite. Of course, that is a big drawback when people are banging on my door or wailing on the doorbell on my time off. But I am home all day to get the laundry done, start a good dinner and pay attention to the dogs. I watch a lot of tv that wasn't available to me before, like 'Oprah'. (That was an exaggeration, I probably watch her once every couple of weeks, but I can see the attraction to watch it everyday.) My favorite thing to do is plug in a DVD and listen to a story without commercials. Usually, I watch the 'Dog Whisperer' program, follow news, but mostly listen to music all day, because the rest just seems to be a white static noise that irritates in a short time. The thing that I didn't used to do a lot of that I seem to be doing now is reading, knitting and taa-daa computer time, like blogging.
I'm really glad about the commute. I turn off the lights in one room and walk into another room and that's it, I'm home, just cannot compare. Seriously, driving myself home was near suicidal before. Of course, the jobs within walking distance were always way cool too, because the open air seemed to wash away the grit off my soul before I got home and could enjoy being home.
Another plus was in this job is that I would have benefits, like healthcare. What I did not know was that the benefits are so minimal that I cannot take care of myself or my diabetes. I guess with healthcare being so hot a topic, I should be grateful that if I was suddenly struck down, a catastrophic event, I would have some help.
I'm here to answer the phone for anybody that calls, I have the house line so my Mom and anybody else in the family can call me anytime of the day. I run away sometimes to the library, or just OUTSIDE INTO THE SUN, if it's convenient, often not, but it's those rare moments I cherish because not every job is like that. Packing apples in a dark and stinky warehouse for one. Clerical work was painfully asinine and I wish nobody had ever given me one of those jobs because the constant shuffling of the same paperwork really grates on my nerves from every direction like the cutting up a beautiful forest (for this crap?!?) to the manic need to keep documents of every nothing that never occurred.
So, color me happy, because here I am, now I'm off to take care of the filing. Wait, what?
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