Work Lessons

Tonight I thought I would write about my life BMK (before Marriage and Kids). I think some younger people think you were born boring, but no this has been a journey getting this boring.

When I was single, I was living in a suburb of Dallas. As I stated my family is from Dallas, and in so many ways, it will always be where I came from. I never seemed to work near my home, God knows I would try but I worked in Dallas during the Savings and Loan crashes. I had more companies on my resume that no longer existed than Carter had pills. It was not uncommon for me to work for a company six months before knowing they were shutting the doors. My friends that worked in government jobs I thought had it easy. You couldn’t shut down the government. It was a very common theme, we are “restructuring”, “re-organizing”, “doing a complete re-valufication”. They all meant one thing eventually the doors would close and I would be unemployed. No matter what new adjective they used, going out of business still hurt every time I experienced it. Each company would look so good on paper but the money was not there. The good thing about being a lower worker is you have no idea how solvent a company is, the bad thing is you have no idea how unsecured your job is. I did get good at picking myself up. I had the experience at it. What I wanted most was to find the perfect company and stay there. I felt like I was a woman continually picking a bad husband repeatedly. This was not unique to me, it happened all over Dallas and the southwest. It was a time where you don’t want to visit again.

I had a routine. I would come in take my suits to the cleaners, pick up a paper and start circling jobs. I got a job each time I looked for one. It taught me perseverance. I was stubborn for Dallas. I knew eventually I would end up on my feet employed for more than a few months and I did end up at a place I never thought I would be.

Where did I end up? I ended up doing a collection job at a psychiatric group of doctors. We had in-patient and out patient. I worked the phones during the lunch hour. I met and observed fascinating people, some celebrities even. I talked to addicts, many with serious psych problems and I loved it. I felt happy there, it was a job that I could have worked at until today. I had great bosses, my job changed responsibilities depending on the day of the week. Some days I would meet with clients, some days I would watch for security to make sure everyone was safe. No two days were completely alike, which made it exciting. My survival skills helped me identify with the patients, and my competitive nature made me want to collect more and more money. Had I not re-met Hubby I would still be working for the group I hope. I think back now and am grateful for all the lessons I learned through my work experience.

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