Good Fit

I have just completed week five. I feel like an old timer both at United Way and 2-1-1 which is interesting. I feel I have just about been accepted as well. Not that my acceptance matters, since I am a short timer, I have always been a short timer, I am just passing through, the ship in the night. But it does matter to me how I appear top my peers here in the call center. I want to be sure to carry my load and not add to the load someone else has to carry. I want to be part of the Fast and Furious set of operators who sling phones during the Monday Slam when the phones are turned after a weekends silence. The crew has really opened up to me and made me part of their reality here at 2-1-1. I sense I have become part of the rhythm, the breaks, the lunch and the communication haiku which goes on between calls. I come in way early in the mornings just because I can and because I feel the early arrivals allows me to get a jump on my day—whether it’s blogging, playing with my lap top or just updating my Facebook. Many time I am the first in the first in the call center—not today the boss was coming in just before me. By the time I got to the floor and into the area she was at her desk and well on her way into her day—so, I stopped by and chatted. I had sent her an email earlier in the week about the Deaf question and I submitted my piece for the UW blog. As we talked she drilled on the importance of making sure calendars are filled out and the calendars are open to all those who need to know where and when you might be. Then she said that I had be sure I did this because now your phone calls count, we are including you—my efforts—into the group as a whole. We need to know when and if you are going to be here so others can plan their lives, work lives accordingly. She said we depend you—you being here, makes a difference and you know what that kinda makes me feel good. I know it sounds hokey and does not sound like me but it is— mean old cynical me, fitting difference on week five part of the crew.