52 Letters: #4
Dear New Job,
It's been a year. A full 365 days. (Ish- I mean I took days off, celebrated Christmas and had an unexpected Friday free of office hours here and there.) Back when I wrote the post about New Job Monday, I was feeling hopeful and nervous. I'd kind of forgotten what a new job would feel like.
The truth is that new jobs are hard.
You have to find the copier, then know how to use it. You have to learn the culture and who thinks your jokes are funny. You have to figure out what most people wear on Fridays. You have to know when to bring treats, when to reserve the conference room and just what time your paycheck goes into your bank account on which days of the month. You have to understand a dashboard. You have to know exactly how to run an event based on bowling. You certainly weren't expecting a staff with at least one vacancy for 11 months or that you would need to know how to use a database that hasn't been accessed on your computer in years. You have to earn the trust of your employees, office mates and people who share the fridge with you. And all of that is super hard.
But in the last year, through all of the stress and the fear and the chaos and the successes, I've learned so much about who I want to be, what I want to accomplish, how a simple thank you makes an impact, what $1,000 truly means for a non profit and how to run a business. I don't claim to know it all, or love it all, or even to know exactly how to use the copier properly yet, but what I do know is that I made it and that I'm better for it.
And one more thing: that joke I made in my second week of work where I asked everyone to introduce themselves in a staff meeting and maybe say something about themselves in addition to that, for example "your favorite part about me so far"... that certainly did not go over as hilariously as I imagined it would. My sweet coworkers actually tried to say something nice about me even though they knew near nothing about me and I felt so so silly. But then, a full 10 months later, when they bring it up in a staff meeting and laugh, all together at me (I totally was laughing too), I felt more a part of a team that's working for something, working toward something collectively, than I have in years.
Cheers to new job challenges and next chapters.
Happy Semi-New Job Monday.
xo-LP