01504: Time to Collect One's Thoughts

My first work shift of the year was a mixed bag of being busy and yet not overly so. It comes with the natural backlog after any extended holiday period balanced with the fact that most folks in our team still had not returned to full work status as of last night. So that gave me a good amount of time to catch up on the post-holiday email glut that had been waiting for me in my inbox, address pending reports and related deliverables, and of course work on the new stuff that had come my way.

Work days last my last shift are rare gifts - when you just get to focus on the work itself and not need to worry too much about interacting with other people or address more real-time concerns in a sort of crisis management fashion. That's the irony of the workplace environment - when a lot of us can actually get a lot more done when people stop checking on how we're doing or keep following-up on our progress. The Hawthorne Effect be darned, not everyone needs constant supervisor to feel the urgency to get something done.

Already I have a fairly major deadline on my hands that will take up a lot of my work time over the new 2-3 weeks as I get the response in order. And I know that once everyone else returns to work, they'll have other things that they'll need my help on. Plus there's the long-standing concern about getting the team fully staffed again as I work through pending applicants and see which ones make it through all the hoops of the interview and screening process. And that's really just the tip of the iceberg since there are the things that I know are coming down the pipe. It's the unexpected stuff and surprise complications that really keep any job interesting thanks to the constant challenges that life throws in our direction. But hey, it pays the bills and I've gotten pretty good at riding the wave, so who am I to complain at this point?

It's a good job and I do see myself sticking with it for a significant period of time. Beyond that, I really hope to get into business for myself, and that goal will never become and more likely a reality until I start seriously investing the time and effort into making it happen for true.