That Time of the Month?

The morning had hardly began, when my manager looked over at me with a thumbs up and said, 'Well done?'. Not knowing what he was referring to, I did not have time to check my mail as he had asked. I was busy, trying to manually uninstall an old version of Cisco VPN from a colleagues Dell laptop. Then install the latest edition of our own home cooked brew VPN. It was clearly evident that what this laptop needed was a re-image, or better still sent to that small place way up above. Nevertheless I battled on against, the Symantec firewall, broken network port and crazy software installation, to get it eventually up and running. I had tried to quickly sneak a peek at my Outlook Inbox but couldn't see anything new. My desktop machine was playing up and as stubborn as I am, have refused to rebuild it. Even with three of my colleagues commanding me, pleading with me to do so. Then I saw the message from the Marketing Assistant. Perhaps this was the perfect way to end some thirteen months with the company. (I make it sound like I'm leaving next week, which of course, is not the case) For me personally, this is a great accolade as appreciation for my achievements and contribution, not only to the team but the company as a whole. Yet, I felt it unnecessary to make a big song and dance about it. The announcement would not be made public knowledge until perhaps early next week, so I had some time to reflect and choose my prize.

It may be an American import, but I think more and more companies are taking the time to recognise and reward their people. Long gone are the days when it was only the prepubescent teenager (yet to start shaving) working at a well known fast food establishment, with his cheesy grin in a photograph on the wall. Although looking at the funny side, you need to consider some of the dreadful employee evaluations (they are all true, honest!) and of course a fantastic collection of cartoons. Although I very much doubt I will be raised (physically) onto a pedestal, with the a member of management, coming around and throwing posies at me. Later this afternoon, I received congratulatory follow up e-mails from the Operations Director and then the Managing Director. Sure enough, as a Spurs fan, he couldn't resist dropping some Sol Campbell note as a post script. Tottenham fans, just don't know when to give it a rest. Taking stock of the day, as I left the building to go home, I realised that I am happy here. Unlike in my previous job in the city, when I was running to lifts to escape jail as quickly as possible. Sure enough, working in London was a great buzz, and a fantastic experience, but it was never going to be easy ride with an almost two hour commute (each way). Here I have made friends, learnt a few things (inbetween answering the phone), the luxury of a seven mile, fifteen minute journey and perhaps most importantly developed as a person. What does the future hold? I seriously do not know. Perhaps difficult for me to comprehend, for a person known to be such a control freak! Consider the picture from a year ago, when I was seriously looking for the exit. Just as my manager and colleague before me had done. How things change. No, let me re-evaluate that comment. How people change things for the better. Perhaps finally with this entry I have qualified the quote over on the top right.

And finally, in more important news, the call queue has hit the new record breaking barrier of 41 (as of 6pm tonight) and a few more closures will mean the treat of Subway for the whole support team. Even I never thought I would see the call queue so small, when it was at the dizzy heights of 450, in the middle of last year. Perhaps tomorrow a double celebration. Although of course, we are fully focused to not to let the impossible dream, become a grim reality.