Packaging Specialist

I think I know how Joseph felt. You remember Joseph. His dad gave him that awesome coat and he was so excited he went to show his brothers and they were really ticked off!

Today they cleaned out the office that is going to be mine. They put a desk and file cabinet in it. Let me pick out desk stuff (stapler, tape dispenser, etc.). I was so excited. The ‘piesta resitance’ was that Ed put a sign on the door that says: My Name, Packaging Specialist. It was so cool. I wanted to celebrate. It took all of my self-control not to squeal with delight.

The reason I felt like Joseph is that like his jealous and upset brothers in the midst of my want to celebrate I sensed that my coworkers were extremely jealous and put off by my getting an office. The newbie isn’t supposed to get an office. The newbie needs to keep their place on the bottom of the totem pole. Otherwise they look uppity.

There was a lot of whispering going on with long and angry faces. I asked Ed (plant manager) if he thought that his action was going to result in hurt feelings. I hate hurting people’s feelings. One of my strengths is that I am sensitive about other people’s feeling. One of my weaknesses is that the opinions and feelings matter too much to me and often dictate my actions. (Sigh)

Ed had a really good response. He said that he had been thinking about that very thing and that I shouldn’t worry about it. He told me that he felt that my arrival there was totally timed by God. They had wanted to hire someone to oversee the packaging but when there was a possibility the work wasn’t there. When I started working not only was there someone the company felt could do the job, but the big contract the company had been waiting for came through. Ed showed me an email from Timken (who we have the packaging contract with) that said they were going to be sending us 20,000 parts in the rest of April and May. That’s significant. The team is going to be working. This is good news.

So the real question tonight has nothing to do with anyone else’s feelings. It has to do with Winnie the Pooh. I have quite a collection and now I have an office where I can display some. I feel pretty good about not obsessing over my coworkers and I’m pretty psyched about the joy of decorating.

I hope I’ll be able to sleep tonight.

PS: for Dreaming Again...As for my blogger name: Corner Chair
When I was growing up, I "inherited" my mom's old chair from the living room. I put it in the corner by the window. I had my stereo close by. I would sit in the chair to think, to daydream out the window, to croon all my favorite heartbreak tunes--it was a wonderful place and space to be. Many years later, when we moved into our current house, I created a safe space for reading and writing: my own little corner chair. That goes then with one of my favorite songs from Cinderella (Rogers and Hammerstein) where she sings about how big her world gets and how safe she feels in her corner chair...and that's how I picked my name.