The Joys of Employment

I watched two supervisors today: one happily doing his job, even though he had more on his plate than he could handle. The other wore lines of stress and worry, his plate as full as the first supervisor I described. I do equal amounts of work for both supervisors. The first one, I set up and arranged deliveries, answered questions from the customers, wrote up orders, and helped - as well as received help - from other employees. The second one, I processed inventory changes in our main database and am working overtime to rename product storage locations as well as inventory amounts on a spreadsheet. Oh.. and did you know that you really SHOULD actually download and SAVE the excel sheet BEFORE pumping the information in? Yeah.. 3 hours down the drain. Oh well. It *is* overtime, after all. And I *am* working from home tomorrow to complete it.

Anyhow, the point here is it seems to be all in the perception of the job as to how the stress affects one. If you view it as a chore and unwelcome task, that burden will carry on to your employees. If you see the job as something you truly enjoy and have fun doing, your employees will follow your example.

The first supervisor has little to no issues with his employees. No gossip, no mongering, not combative attitudes towards him. They are all more than happy to bend over backwards to get the job done. He doesn't complain when the customer calls and yells about product. He decides to take it in stride, and solve the problem.

The second supervisor has issues with his employees. In fact, the issues are so large that the employees who work under the first supervisor have to step in and do part of the tasks the second supervisors employees are supposed to do. Twice the workload for them. Not twice the pay. And yet, you will not hear one word of contempt from the employees doing the extra workload. They work because that's simply what they are there for. The second supervisor suffers from extraordinarily high turnover - primarily due to the environment they are surrounded by. Who wants to work with a bunch of whining employees?

So there it is. Attitude is everything. If you truly believe in what you are doing and enjoy what you do, there is nothing that should ever hinder you from achieving your goals - from just simply being cheerful at work to making a difference in the lives of others. If you don't believe in or enjoy what you do, find out what you DO like, and pursue that.

I tell my supervisor (the first supervisor, by the way) that I really enjoy what I do, and I look forward to coming in to work. This is a very true statement as well. The second supervisor always thanks me for being positive and helping with his crew, and has said a few times that had it not been for my help, they would not be able to complete tasks set before them. My answer is always, " I do my job. I appreciate the gratitude, but this is what I enjoy doing. I'm always here to help."

Need

I read a blog tonight. One that made me feel not sad, more, appreciative of the spectrum of emotions people have. I tend to forget about people that have left my life, but this blog held onto the fond memories the author had. For good or for bad, the author thanked them for sharing moments in time with him. Such strength he illustrates, no, how truly strong he is to share such a tender place with us.

I could only strive to be so human to do this in my own life.

The author is very special to me, a very treasured soul. Before I met him, I carried around with me a type of hollowness, cold, stoicism. My days would drudge by, lifeless and devoid of much outside of the basic necessity of taking care of what I need to. Bare minimum contact with people outside of work associates - and they are due to necessary communication in order to complete tasks during the day.

I smile, I laugh. I talk with him daily. I am joyous to receive his communications. I felt something I had not felt in a long time when he said those words.

I felt my heart beat again.

I view his wonderful face in Skype. I long to touch it, to hold him, to kiss through the moustache and beard to his lips and feel the warmth of his mouth to mine. My soul craves it. I want to hold him, bring him as much joy as he brings to me.

When I read on his blog that he wept, my heart ached. I wish to be there to comfort him, kiss the tears away, encourage his emotions to pour forward in order to receive the relief offered from such a task. His tears were medicinal, healing, purifying. They ran down from his eyes in a succession of thankfulness and joy, as well as sorrow and saying goodbye to temporary life meetups.

In life, I have found many things about people to hold true. One common truth is people arrive in your life for a purpose. We never know what the purpose is until they depart. The are brought in to teach us something either about ourselves, our surroundings, or the people they are. We become better judges of character by allowing people to dance in and out of our existence. Sometimes, bad people come in. Blatant or not, we all manage to meet some. It's what we do with the lesson learned from meeting and experiencing them that matters.

He is a good person to have in my life, and I pray he stays in my life for a very long time. I have found over the course of the time I have known him that I need him because he brings to me things no other ever has. The other day, I asked him to be my best friend, my partner in life, my "kitty" (he likes that, even I'm allowed to be cute!) and live with me. He said yes, and asked me the same thing - though, I am not "kitty". I said yes. I feel human with him, loved, warm. I feel safe and sane, even when I am losing my mind over something, he is always there to help me and support me.

I love him. And I need him. I don't need much in life, but do I ever need him.