The Second Week

Week two at the new job has almost officially come to an end, and it was surprisingly good. They threw us in on actual orders right away, beginning Monday morning. I think most of us are processing pretty slowly, but it's expected and is actually preferred that way. We aren't messing anything up, and we're able to learn through our own mistakes as they come. The week started off a little rough, and there was definitely a point Monday afternoon, where I was just thinking, "I want to go home", but the rest of the day evened out, and I settled in. Since we've been processing actual orders, our job is to look through them and catch things that customers had either missed, or not taken the time/care to fix themselves. It's amazingly horrifying what some people send in, and the customers even get to see previews of their orders when they submit. They don't magically go from shit to glory. It's our team that makes it go from shit to glory, with a lot of strained eyes and carpal tunnel. It does seem like a lot of the processing is the same, and I can definitely see how it could get repetitive. I haven't minded that at all, so far, but I am also taking way more care than I probably will come December. Right now, it's more about testing the boundaries and getting our skill set up to speed with the demands of regular, full volume processing. Our assigned evaluators go through our completed orders and then send them off to print or back to us if changes are needed. So far I haven't had any awful mistakes that would likely have come back as reprints, so that's a relief. Although, my orders for today haven't been checked over yet, so that could change. Hopefully not! It's definitely a different kind of atmosphere here, too. I think that's the most amazing thing about it so far. My last job seemed to stifle fun and creativity, and here it's completely welcomed. The ten of us, plus our evaluators, all get along wonderfully so far. Both of our on-site evaluators have moved here from another location, so in a way, we're all new here. We're all in the same boat, and we all are essentially strangers. It's an even playing field, which is quite nice. At my last job, it was really tough at first, because I was going into a tight-knit group of close friends so it was difficult to break in and feel like I belonged. Here, it's different. Our entire team gets along great. I've had lunch with a few of them already, and it's definitely starting to feel more natural. Some people are already making vague future plans for things to do as group PDT Outings. Tonight, we're meeting up for our "First Official PDT Happy Hour". Yup. Right?! My old job didn't do anything even similar to that, so it really is refreshing to be in this new, fun environment. All in all, things are going pretty well. I have my own desk area, a private little lock box on wheels, two (!) computer screens, and my own phone number. Wowsers. I imagine it will be a lot more hectic when the orders ramp up, but I think we're going to be given plenty of time to really learn the process and therefore, plenty of opportunity to succeed. I'm definitely happy so far, and hopeful that things will continue to improve as we get to know the job and each other a little better. This weekend should be a nice relief from the past few stressful weeks, even though it will involve a ton of driving. But I'll get to see my puppies, my preggo friend, and my birthday cake. Yum and yay!