The more things change

One of my departing colleagues just dropped off a thank you card for me. It's nice to know that the things I do that seem to be unnoticed by management are at least appreciated by my peers. Or actually, former peers. I was talking to the boss's assistant the other day, and she's fairly new, so we got on the subject of all of the turnover and how it affects staff productivity and "morale". The result was it seems to affect other people in the organization, throwing them off kilter and disrupting their ability to function. I don't quite understand this. To me it's no big deal. But I used to work in TV production, where whole departments were eliminated in the course of a day and half your crew could just walk out one night. Or your coworker could show up wasted and end up passed out in the breakroom leaving you to handle several hours of a live broadcast while the supervisor tried to make sure your shiftmate wasn't in jail or dead in a gutter somewhere. The halcyon days of live retail television broadcast production are well behind me, but the effects of the experience I gained (and the changes it manifested in me as a person) still linger. Some valuable lessons I was able to take away with me, that help me function on multiple levels:

1) Turnover happens. You'll just have to do more with less, and hopefully it won't be a long term situation. But if it is, parlay it into a way to showcase your organizational and leadership skills - management loves that crap. They'll eat it with a spoon from the palm of your hand.

2) I can handle just about anything. Once you've dealt with swing shift sleep deprivation, had a producer call you stupid and a supervisor throw things at you, survived the resident harpy host's withering glance of death only to win her over by bringing fresh coffee and become one of a handful of people she trusts to be competant enough to allow anywhere near her, endured the people you work with reinacting middle school by making scathing fun of everything about you en mass and learned to see the humor in it and join in yourself...well, a lot of personal growth happened during those times. Not to mention working a very physically and emotionally intense job while heavily pregnant, actually going into labor at work, and insiting on finishing out my shift and driving myself home while having contractions. So, yeah. I'm stronger than I give myself credit for, and I can deal.

3) Stressful situations can lead to bonding. The bonding can be a boon by creating friendships and reinforcing a support system, but sometimes that bonding is a little too intense and can lead to an unhealthy reliance on or expectation of another person. You need to be able to recognize the signs of bonding gone wrong and correct the course before it goes too far or irreperable damage is done.

4) No one is perfect. You can like someone personally and still think they suck at their job. And someone can be and do all the things you despise in their personal life and still be the best at what they do on the job.

So I'm here all alone for the next two days. Good thing I brought Neverwhere with me. And there's always the internet...