Well, Irene has come and gone, and the good news is that we're still here. We don't have power or water, and in fact, it seems like the storm hit Connecticut much harder than it hit some of the other surrounding communities, but we survived in one piece and without damage to the house, so I suppose that's about all I can hope for.
Personally, I got called in to work on Sunday morning to start helping with storm recovery. Right now, I'm the municipal liaison from my company to the Town of Scarsdale, NY. That's kind of a normal thing for me in the aftermath of a big storm. Anyway, the town seems like it's in decent shape. I mean, they've got some power outages to be sure, but the damage doesn't seem to be nearly as bad here as it was last year during the big snow storm. And for that matter, Connecticut seems to have been hit a little harder than this area as well.
So anyway, that's where I am and what I'm doing.
4 comments:
Glad to hear you and the family are alright, and if I were in Scarsdale, NY I'd feel really good knowing that you were "on the case".
No you wouldn't. You'd be yelling at me just like everyone else in this town has been. They've been out for a few days now, and some folks are starting to lose their sense of humor about it.
Oh shit, sorry to hear that you've been bearing the brunt of their frustration. You're right though, I was just trying to be nice and trying to compliment you on your mad skills in your department. Now that I think of it though, I'd hardly peg you as a "customer service" type of person. So it makes sense that you aren't quite the right fit for handling those kinds of calls that I thought you were, my bad. Hope the situation gets better quickly for you and for your callers.
I do okay dealing with the public. Really. It's more challenging in the short run when you refuse to BS people, but then again, if you consistently under-promise but over-deliver, you will eventually make friends for life. So, bottom line, we had a rough week early, but by the end of the week, I can honestly say that the fine folks of Scarsdale were happy that I was there and satisfied with the way things came out. Certainly they weren't afraid to call later in the week after I'd gone back to the office.
That said, it's true that I tend to be really, really results-oriented, to the point that I think it's actually held back my career a bit. I mean, to me, as long as the job gets done and done right EVERYTHING else is basically irrelevant. And I know that that's not the way the world works. But I'm not at all good at schmoozing or any of that crap, and I don't enjoy it, and on top of that, I don't hang around the office when my work is basically always done in normal business hours, so... I can understand why folks would think that I don't put my work first or whatever. Because it's basically true. I don't, and I never have.
Unfortunately, I'm realizing that that's gonna put a definite ceiling on my career ambitions, however. And even with that realization, I'm STILL not willing to like really get wrapped around the axle about it.
I guess that I feel like we have enough just *stuff* and a fairly balanced life, too, and that's all that any reasonable person could want. God knows, there are many, many successful, professional people whose lives are wrecked personally. That we have a decent standard of living AND a strong home-and-family-life... I mean, you've got to know a good thing when you're lucky enough to have it.
Eh. That's more answer than question, but it's been on my mind lately.
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