Favorite things (part 4 of 83)

In August if you would have told me I would call this one of my favorite things on Feb. 13 I would have probably slapped you in the face. Well, not really, even in my most negative times I am not that violent. :)
What a build up....anyway, it's my job! Crazy I know. If any of you were part of my life a few months ago you know that my job totally sucked. I was over qualified for what I was doing and under appreciated by patrons. Plus, when I would meet someone for the first time I was ashamed to tell them what I was doing. But now is totally different.
I can proudly say that I am the Manager of all the St. Louis vending and K-8 school accounts for my company. Dream job? No way. Do I still long for a job where I can use my public speaking and creative skills and be making twice my salary? Absolutely. But for this time in my life my job is pretty freakin sweet.
For one, I went to school for management. I even got a great job right out of college. I was making good money working for the 5th (or something like that) highest volume Red Lobster's in the world. I had over 100 people under me. I was losing weight, getting married soon, and living in a fabulous apartment. But I was totally miserable. I was so stressed that I would cry almost every night after work or sometimes in the bathroom at work. I could only think about my job on my days off and couldn't even put work behind me to enjoy a bridal shower.
About five weeks before my wedding I put in my notice. My boss was disappointed and told me I was doing a good job. He tried to convince me to stay 6 more months just to see if things got better. I said no, I was miserable. He then told me if I stuck around until right before the wedding I would get a decent quarterly bonus. But I just couldn't, I couldn't do that. All I did was sleep and work. In fact, that is why I lost so much weight, because I was too stressed to stop and eat. After explaining that I gave him 3 weeks notice. I left there having no idea what I would do after the wedding. I didn't care.
Three jobs later, here I am. Even though I have been with my current company almost two years, I am finally starting to really enjoy being there. They acknowledge a great potential in me and when my job came availiable they didn't even open it to anyone else. They just put me in it, which was a big compliment.
One thing that rocks about it is my schedule. While so many of my friends think I am crazy for waking up at 4:15 am and getting to work around 5:15am I really like my schedule. Most days I can leave right at 1:30 and on a totally busy/crazy day which rarely happens I leave at 3 by the latest.
The other element that I love is working one on one with only a handful of clients. When I was cooking I had to deal with sometimes 100 different people everyday. And usually not people that were in a good mood.
Sometimes my job gets pretty stressful but now my worst day doesn't even seem so bad. And when times are tough my awesome boss steps in and does what he can to make things not so rough.
Well, I actually have three bosses. Usually have multiple bosses is a bad thing, but not for me. My immediate boss is the one I was just referring to and again let me stress that he is awesome. I work on his account's campus and we actually share part of an office space. He has really been supportive and helpful in my transition to this much higher up position. He constantly pushes me out the door saying, "Leave! Seriously, you have worked hard and long enough today....the rest can wait until tomorrow." He also always make sure I don't have too much on my plate. We help each other out and really make a fabulous team.
My second boss doesn't really deal with me all that much except with a few key items from each account that he oversees. He too is good to work for because he is very encouraging.
My third boss is the big one. He is the District Manager for all of the St. Louis. And while I don't need to report to him directly on most issues, he is my boss for my vending accounts. We've had our ups and downs since I have been with the company, but today I received the nicest email from him:
"Sounds good. Keep me posted. Also I wanted to say THANKS FOR DOING SUCH A GREAT JOB. I enjoy working with you more closely. You are a true professional."
He typed in all caps! Compliments from your boss are always so much better when they are in all caps. Plus, I love the phrase "true professional". I think for a 25 year old that is fresh in the game this is a truly great and hard to live up to phrase.
Yep, job is good if you can't tell or have poor reading comprehension. Thanks as always for reading!