The Little Things

It's just a job, I am reminding myself.

I have signed more forms today than I care to count, having gone from thoroughly reading my confidentiality agreement to just sort of skimming the code of conduct - I think I can figure out the bullet points, most of which being "we are an outsourcer, and I do not represent us or our clientele." Incidentally, I do only speak for myself, not for any company I happen to be affiliated with.

Forgive my vagueness, I'd rather not speak directly on this topic.

It's a call center job, with all that is implied. But I feel good about it, already finding myself little reasons to be motivated to come back to work, no matter how difficult it is to rotate my sleep cycle so completely. Less than two weeks ago, I was going to sleep at 8AM after cooking breakfast for Mom. This morning, I woke up, grumbling, at 7:23 AM and cooked breakfast for us both (oatmeal with peanut butter for her, oatmeal studded with raisins, dates, walnuts, and chocolate chips for me).

I am, frankly, exhausted.

Hello, Mountain Dew. I have missed your flavor, but more importantly, the sensation of blood flowing through my caffeine stream was becoming uncomfortably tiresome.

It is just a job, I am reminding myself, but a job of any sort means I can afford to live as a person. I am seeing a single-serving pizza in the vending machine and I find myself almost giddy to think I could buy that for lunch. We may, as I understand it, be paid for a single day's work. That amuses me somehow, given the pay schedule, as seems common, is bi-weekly. It doesn't seem like much, but if I were to be paid my single day's wage on Monday, it would make the next two weeks so much more bearable. I may have misheard or misunderstood, unfortunately, I found myself struggling not to doze off.

The workplace seems oriented towards quiet, professional fun. My last job did little to retain employees. This place is filled with little morale-boosts, so much so that I don't have to seek them out on my own. The people are also friendly and professional, which makes them easier to tolerate. I am told and reassured that I will not have to worry about back-to-back calls. I am not afraid that I will be overwhelmed.

The XKCD Tech Support flow chart was posted to the wall, and made me smile.

I feel like I may fit in.