No Casualties

It’s getting hot again. The good thing is that it’s been a little cooler at night, so it’s cooler in the morning when they open the bay door near our area. I actually didn’t feel like I was going to die from the heat.

As I was waking up this morning I was in pain. At first I thought it was my kidneys and that was scary to me. As I got up and moving though, I realized that it was my hips. And I decided they were sore from the way I had been bending while I made carton after carton. Fortunately the longer I worked today the more limber I became. So even though I ached and acquired quite a few new bruises, I wasn’t going to die from the pain.

Today was a very important audit at work. I had been assured that my packaging operation would not be part of the audit. This assurance didn’t just come once, but several times. Then, this morning, shortly after we started work, B came to me and informed me that the auditor would be stopping by to talk to me. What?! No way. I was assured. Now, remember B is the biggest kidder in the plant, so I wasn’t sure if I should believe him. A little later the tow motor guy, T, came from his first audit and repeated the dreaded warning that I was indeed going to be audited.

I had to do some serious self-talk. First, I was hired because I can do this job. Second, if they find something missing in my production process it doesn’t make me a failure, it means there’s room for improvement…and that’s okay. Then, they don’t want to see me fail. I actually must have been listening to myself—surprise, surprise.

The auditor arrived in our new area about 1:30. He asked a lot of questions. T had coached me to just answer the question he asks—not offer any extra information. I knew that routine, having appeared as an expert witness in court on behalf of kids and families. Anyway, I did well with all the questions. B and Ed gave me thumbs up. I survived the audit: I didn’t die.

At the end of the day I was tired, not dead tired, but very tired. When the shift started Dan informed me that S, one of the workers, had several concerns/complaints and wanted to have a meeting to work them through. Great. So we met. Oh, I had to bite my tongue. There were so many things I wanted to say. What about my concerns? It was time to pick my battles carefully. So I did. And neither of us died from the confrontation.

Before I left work, I called home to see what Nelson wanted for dinner. He requested chicken parmagiana. I make a cheater version: frozen chicken patties, spaghetti sauce, and grated mozzarella over spaghetti. And believe it or not, they ate my dinner…and nobody died.

I guess that makes this a good day.

Now, before I duck out of here a quick question…When you greet someone and ask how they’re doing and they say not bad, how do you respond? Is it good to be not bad? I’ve just been thinking about that recently. Several people have responded that they’re not bad, or just okay, or hanging in there. The first couple times I gave a automatic response of “good.” But is it good? Is it good enough? I’m going to have to pay more attention to this…and definitely more attention to my responses…

And now, I’m out of here! Sweet dreams.