So as I sit here in my new shipping office watching the (already) torn 2005 wall chart quiver and wondering if it's my eyes, I try to understand how I came to be here and why I am so happy and suddenly feel cared for despite the lack of soft furnishings, trendy ochre paintwork and motivational statements. My office is a wooden box with scribbles on the wall, a broken window and a shipping assistant who has a tendency to be nearly naked in the summer (apparently). This is OK because it means I'll be able to get away with wearing my biking shorts all day sans complaint. My only comfort in this dirty hole is a purple fluffy dinosaur that came from the Alberta dinosaur museum in Calgary and my Millets coffee mug.
In amongst all this rough it comes down to the fact that the job is infinitely superior to any that I have ever held. People and companies depend on me to have my guys stay in a little late to load trucks, have enough plastic to wrap up the product and ensure it doesn't warp and make sure the saw dust bin is emptied before it shuts down the factory... Or maybe it's the fact that I'm valued enough to have everything I need at my fingertips - a printer, fax, phone, a new wheely mouse, my own filing cabinet. I no longer have to share, to walk across the office, to wait in the print queue, to borrow someone's phone, sort through someone else's filing system to find the file I need (only to realize it's part-complete). I have all the tools to do my job and if I still can't manage it, it's no-one else's fault.
I had my first encounter with one of our main suppliers today. He felt I needed a company "toque" (pronounced "tooke" or beanie / bobble hat to you English people). He tried to win the contract for steel and failed, at least I promised to "do the math" after he'd gone and he was still too expensive.
I interviewed today with a man who failed to graduate from high school (A'level equivalent). It would be a shame to reject him because who needs A'levels to stack wood? I checked that he can read so that he can understand safety notices and safety training courses so that we're not liable if he injures himself because he didn't "read the sign". He can read (in fact better than some A'level students I have met) so I think I'll hire him.
The house (on a separate note) is completely drywalled and mudding started today (filling in the joins). It will be a long wait before for the temporary floor that covers the living room vaulted ceiling comes down, giving us the full effect of what our house will look like.
Well, my life is really no more interesting than this and what I have to dream up about the weekend of ski fun...but all that requires more brain power than I have now so I'm off home to fill up the tummy-tank which is suddenly running on Empty. Eating lunch at 11am has really confused my digestive system.
