Back to work

I went back to work when Pepper was 8 weeks old.  The first day was awful.  I could not think straight.  I did not want to be there.  I forgot words and made a mess of training the new office employee.  Things weren't much better at home with her dad.

I happened to have a follow up appointment at the birth clinic that day and I completely lost it as soon as the nurse (who was the attending nurse at Pepper's delivery) took me back to a room and asked me how I was doing.  Then the midwife came in and asked the same thing and I started bawling all over again.  I cried through most of the appointment.  Bless their hearts; they just hugged me and let me cry it out.

Pepper was at home with her dad while I was at work.  She was most determined to not eat from a bottle or take a pacifier, so when she wasn't sleeping she was crying and hungry except when my husband brought her to me at lunch to feed her.  He was pretty frazzled by the time I got home.  I was frazzled from holding back guilt tears from knowing she was hungry and upset all day.  Baby was frazzled from wondering why her routine was so jacked up when we'd had such a good thing going.

Thankfully, I am on a part time schedule, so I had the next day off where we were able to recover emotionally and physically.  The next two work days went much better.  Since my husband was in the middle of his last weeks of school, I took her with me to work those days so he could finish school projects.  Having her with me all day was wonderful.  She stayed happy and fed and I was way more productive knowing she was happy and fed.

The second week of work I had her with me half the time so my husband could take his finals.  She still wouldn't take a bottle so the time she did spend hanging out with Dad was still fraught with frustration, but we all managed to survive.

The next two weeks, school was finally over and his new internship hadn't started yet, so her daddy stayed with her all week but said heck with the bottle feeding attempts and brought her to me for every feeding.  Happiness reigned all around.  After that, his full time summer internship started and I took her to work every day.

Thankfully I work in a small office for an private employer who'd rather accommodate than lose me.  Everyone else is a parent too so they are understanding.  I've been back to work about three months now.  Pepper is getting bigger and more social so sometimes it's hard to give her the interaction she needs to stay content.  I'm learning to make myself step away from the paid work to give her my undivided attention when she starts acting out which helps her mood, and my coworkers will take her for me when she's fussy and I need to get on a phone call or finish an urgent email.  Or they take her just because.  Everyone likes to get in baby time with her every day.

I love having a part time schedule.  I don't choose to work for the sake of working, but since I do need to work for now it's lovely only working every other day.  Reduced hours, a smaller work load, and additional competent office employees have done wonders for bringing down my stress levels.  I'm not forgetting to eat and drink, I'm leaving on time at the end of the day, I'm getting in regular exercise on my off days, and overall I'm just feeling happier.

The tentative plan is to only work through the next semester when my husband can go back to full time work.  To that end, I'm busy training my replacements and teaching customers to do without me.  I've done good work at this job, but I'm ready to give all my attention to family life.

She likes to keep an eye on what's going on.

Improvising a way to keep baby sitting up while freeing both my hands to work

Tummy time is hard.

Office selfie

She found her thumbs.

Token injury post

This post is a bit delayed and outdated, but whatev. I smashed my thumb at work about two weeks ago.  The exterior bar of the office door sometimes detaches on the right side when I pull to shut the door, causing the bar to fall and swing from the side still attached.  That day I needed to make a quick trip to the restroom before I went downtown to take care of some of my daily duties. Instead of using my key to shut the office door behind me like a smart person, I just pulled it shut like the lazy woman I am.  Disastrous results.

Some of the flesh pinched off and seeped blood, but I could feel the inevitable swelling become the bigger problem.  I continued to the restroom (when you gotta go, you gotta go) and then stayed to run my phalange under the cold running water while I thought of my next move.  I finally went over to the coffee shop next door to ask for ice.  As the guy handed me some, he said "That looks really bad."  Yeah, thanks.

It swelled so much I couldn't bend it because the skin stetched too tight.  It doesn't look too bad in this picture. I'd been icing it a while and the swelling had reduced a lot.  I ended up with bruising on the back of the thumb all the way down to the base of the finger.  The bar hit just above the knuckle and below the nailbed, so the nail thankfully did not turn black though one little part has discoloring.  I hope it doesn't grow in weird later.

I contrived this to keep my thumb under ice to free up my other hand and fingers to get work done. 

It worked pretty well, actually.

It was either this or I had no use of either hand as I held ice against the thumb.

Couple things I've observed after the incident:

1. Not having the use of one opposable thumb made me feel half-prosimian (primates without an opposable thumb, like the lemur).  I can report from empirical knowledge that the opposable thumb is indeed an evolutionary advantage making grasping, typing, and answering a phone vastly easier.

2. Depsite the convienience of opposability, a primate may still function without it. It was interesting to observe how my other fingers took on the work of my thumb, especially when typing.

My thumb is almost fully recovered now.  It was touch-and-go a couple of days, but I was able to save the whole hand (name that movie!).  I've accidently bumped the thumb a few times and that makes it hurt like the dickens all over again.  It's still a bit bruised and I have a bump of calcium deposit at the point of impact, but it could be worse and overall I'm pleased with my body's ability to heal itself.

Idiot Encounters

Maybe it's just me, but it seems like I've dealt with more idiots than normal today and it inspired me to vent to this listening ear I call a blog. 

Much of my job involves customer service, and I'm pretty good at it if I can trust my customer's candid and unsolicited positive feedback.  But some people sure try my patience.

The following situations describe most of the idiot encounters at my job.  I attribute my positive service record to only thinking the following responses instead of saying them.  (Actually, I do say them, to myself.  It helps, a little.) 

Some context: my office is in a parking garage.  Like, literally inside the garage, in a little enclosed room.  I am not an attendant; I just happen to work by entry/exit gates which are fully automated and get a front row seat to the idiocy and sometimes get called upon to save people from themselves.

Situation #1:

Customer forgest to pay for monthly parking and uses the excuse "Life's been crazy".

What I don't say (but really want to):

And... how is that relevant to the situation?  "Crazy life" is not an excuse. It is the human condition. It will never change, so plan for it and pay on time like everyone else.  (The only person I authorized to use this excuse was the girl who missed a payment because she fell on glass and severed two tendons and an artery in her wrist.  Now THAT's an excuse.)

Situation #2:

Customer tells me he lost his parking ticket.  I tell him to push the lost ticket button on his way out and pay the daily max ($12).  He says he was only parked for 10 minutes.

 

What I don't say (but really want to):

Wow, then that means you are REALLY dumb for losing your little ticket in only 10 minutes, huh?  You shall be properly punished when you pay to leave.

Situation #3:

Monthly parker gets card turned off for non-payment and get's irritated that "it's only the 10th", like I'm asking for his money way before it's due.

What I don't say (but really want to):

Well, sir, payment was due on the 1st.  It has always been due on the 1st.  And it will always be due on the 1st.  You got your invoice on the 20th of last month.  I gave you 10 day grace period.  That means you have had 21 days to pay.  You work for a bank, have a personal assistant, drive a Jaguar, and you're apparently an idiot.  I fear for your clients.  Now pay for your parking and leave me alone.

Situation #4:

People drive cars into the concrete partition.

I don't have to say anything.  These idiots never complain to me because figure out they're idiots on their own. 

Of course, there are more idiot types than those listed above.  There are a lot of people who don't look at the signs showing them how to insert their tickets and credit cards properly (they always look sheepish  when I come turn the card over). 

Plenty who only carry an old credit card with barely any mag strip left and act annoyed when the card doesn't work. 

Those who don't read signs and enter after 4pm (when the rate is a flat $4) who think they're being overcharged when they only stay an hour and so try to get out free.  (It never works, btw).

A few who don't wait for the gate to lift before plowing into it.  (This is a primary reason we got security cameras.)

And then, like today, there are the people (TWO within seconds of each other this afternoon) who don't pay attention to the clearance height restriction and knock down the clearance bar-- and then act annoyed that it did damage to their cargo tub on top of the vehicle.  My reply for that: Nobody made you park here.   Actually, we'd rather you didn't park here which is why we put up a sign.  Now go away, please.

Glad to get that off my chest.  I feel better already.  It's amazing what a few italics can do for the soul. 

Anyone got a good idiot enounter to share with the class? 

Customer Satisfaction

I have a happy story.

One of our parking locations is full to capacity, so I only add new parkers from a waiting list when others cancel.  One woman had the foresight to call and get on the waiting list 2 months in advance of when she'd actually need to park.  She'd call peridically to see where she was on the list.  I told her she had a good chance of getting a parking pass by the time it was needed, but I guess she was still super stressed out about it.

Earlier this month when she called I told her she could park by the end of the month.  She was immediately ecstatic and gushed about how awesome I am.  I was surprised at her outpouring of emotion -- after all, I didn't do anything in particular to make it happen except my job-- but she was so relieved that I couldn't help but feel good that I made somebody's day a little easier.  Sometimes I get an excited person who is relieved she can stop paying for daily parking, but I've never had anyone like this woman.  She told me how grateful she was, and that I sound so nice and friendly and professional on the phone, and that she was excited-- excited, mind you-- to finally meet me in person.  Talk about flattery!  I almost suspected sarcasm but her tone was all sincerity. 

She came in today to deliver her application and finish the set-up process.  To my surprise, she also delivered these:



Nothing says customer satisfaction quite like a pelargonium x hortorum and puppies.



No, Rhonda, it's people like YOU that make this world a better place.  Thanks for saying thanks.

Business Trip

I took a trip to Oakland, CA, last week for my new job to train with the office people who have been doing my job so that I can now do my job. I work for DPW Parking, and offshoot of Douglas Parking headquartered in Oakland. My brother Luke is their Denver Regional manager, and I’m the Denver office manager/account manager/assistant [to the] regional manager. The girls in the Oakland office taught me how to use their system to do invoicing and billing for all the monthly parking accounts in Denver. (You don’t need to understand what that means.)


In case you didn’t know, parking management is big business. I didn’t know until I got this job. (In passing, I realize I have a habit of doing things with knowing exaclty what I'm getting into.  I think it makes life exciting.)  David Douglas, one of the company owners, picked me up after I flew in and took me on a mini-tour of downtown. He pointed out unique features and buildings of Oakland…and their associated parking facilities that Douglas Parking manages. It’s very interesting to be around people in parking. They always notice parking lots: who runs them, how full they are, rates. It’s similar to watching a sport with someone who plays the game. They will always notice technique and mistakes that the untrained spectator will not. A player doesn’t just see the touchdown; he sees the awesome block by the offensive line that opened the hole for the tight end to run through.

I have discovered that parking management is an exercise in predicting human behavior. And it’s kind of fascinating. Not the managing part, but observing the people who do the managing. They don’t just see a place to park. They see how full lots are, and if they aren’t full, why not? If some lot is usually full, why isn’t it full today?  Where are people parking instead?  How can we change that?  An empty lot is an anomaly, and anomalies can seem paralyzing. Where is the miscommunication? Do we need a sign? What kind of sign? Will people understand the sign? Initiate panic mode! (Not really…but sometimes.) They are trying to predict human behavior—predict where people will park and why they will park and for how long—and when their prediction is wrong they are in a flutter to rectify their worldview. 

I use this information to understand how to communicate effectively.  I have to evaluate what people tell me, why they tell me, and what they don't tell me (what they don't tell me is presumably what I should already know).  I do not have a parking manager's brain (and I don't really want one; don't take it personally, Luke) but I do want to understand the parking manager's brain.  Actually, I must if I want to keep my job.


For those of you who wonder when and where I will ever use my anthropology, the answer is I already do, all the time, everywhere.