05/09/2005 Posted @ 06:08 PM PD/ST: "Sometimes You Feel Like A Nut"

Today was new assignment day. I trucked up the highway and took a frontage road to an obscure side road to the cul-de-sac and parked. The buildings were your typical industrial park buildings. People are crammed into offices but let me tell you, there was laughter and people walking right up to me and introducing themselves. That's right, they proffered their hands to shake and told me their name. The bright and chipper receptionist spoke to me as if I was her long lost friend, "Welcome! I'm [name]. How was your weekend?" And then she actually listened when I responded with something inane, because people usually don't really mean for you to answer their question. They are just being polite.

My job for the next n weeks is to call customers and apprise them of the recent price increase, get their verbal approval for the increase and then enter the order into the system. The company, on order from the mother ship in MA, switched software and it is slower than the NHL's contract talks. No one I worked with today was happy about the new software but were all good spirited about it and laughed. They answered my questions repeatedly, sat with me while I fumbled my way through entering orders and encouraged me when I thought I had done something incredibly stupid.

Starting tomorrow, my hours are going to be brutal; 7 to 4. I can take it for a while, especially at the rate they are paying me. This job has better training and is much less difficult than the last job I had that required customer support. And at least my supervisor will sit with me at my desk and explain what I need to do instead of trying to do it through IM. I even have email and voicemail! (No, I'm not going to tell you what they are.)