I can do more than paint....
So last Friday we had a little meeting about this week at work. The make ready team (2 of use, Gale and I) was going to be pulled off the make ready rotation to help with work orders. We'd gotten to around 90 to a 100 and we needed to get them knocked down. The maintenance team kind of snickered. We are make ready after all, not maintenance, so they didn't expect us to do too much. I'm not a big fan of doing work orders, I'd rather be in an unoccupied apartment doing my painting and drywall, but hey, if you gotta do it, you gotta do it.
Well Monday came and at the end of the day Gale and I had accomplished 10 work orders apiece. The maintenance team was stunned. Our boss (our manager not the maintenance lead) then makes a comment to the lead of maintenance, "how is it that the make ready crew has run circles around your maintenance men?" It was a foreboding of things to come. Granted, I was working on some pretty simple problems, but they soon found that my skill set goes beyond painting and drywall. Gale left for the next two days and I kept plugging away. I had a couple of drywall work orders so that takes some time, but at the end of Friday Morning, when we were released to make readies, I'd accomplished around 34 workorders on my own, Gale had done around 20, and again, the maintenance team was taken aback. The lead maintenance was very appreciative, he kept telling us on Friday how thankful he was for our help, of course we've become pretty good friends as well, so that helps. And I think maintenance found out we can be just as much a part of their team. Make ready has typically been the step child of the apartment complex which is fine with us, we may be quiet, but hey we just played with the big boys and beat them. No longer am I just the "painter" now! I should say that I was given the offer a couple of weeks ago to move to maintenance, mostly because I'm on time every day and I am a quick learner (and until this week they didn't know I knew half the stuff I did!) I turned it down for two reasons. First, I didn't want to go on call. I like to work and then get off and go home to Ginger. Work is not my life anymore. It is necessary, for sure, but not my reason for existence. And second, Ginger. Because she is bipolar, it is important for me to be here on the weekends and even at night when I get home, for her. There wouldn't have been a pay raise, though I'd have moved up prestige wise. Don't need the attention though. It just seems to me I had a choice of career advancement at the sacrifice of family time and that wasn't a sacrifice I was willing to make. We have our happy, comfortable, simple life. We have our little routines and there is alot of laughter and love at night. The funny thing is, several years ago I'd of jumped on that opportunity because that is what "they" wanted. I would have wanted to please my boss, or fellow employees, instead of asking myself what I wanted. I love what I do. So I gave myself permission to ask myself what I wanted first. In the context of codependency you have to understand that this is huge. I asked myself what was best, as a whole, for me and for Ginger and I. It was a no brainer. It's funny really. I have people who tell me I can get a better paying job, or get a job closer, or blah blah blah. Do you really want to be a painter, they say, I mean, you have a skill set that you can do this, or that, or this. This is what I say:
I am where God wants me right now. I love painting and drywalling and the job is new each week with new challenges and short term goals. I'm not stuck in an office, I can move around, enjoy the air and outside. I can go into a trashed apartment and when I walk out of it at the end of the week it looks transformed. God is my provider, in the money department. We make enough to pay our bills, save some, and play some. Granted, we can't jet to Paris each week, but I don't need that. Plus, as our savings builds you really think hard about spending it so I think God has been teaching us about being wise stewards. And lastly, if I have to be a painter (until I become a well known artist and Ginger and I have a little shop of our own!) and yet with that comes this simple life having a loving, loyal wife, a faithful, providing God, and a supportive and loving family, well, I'll paint away! After all, it is God who guides our steps and frankly, I don't want it any other way...
Baa
Well Monday came and at the end of the day Gale and I had accomplished 10 work orders apiece. The maintenance team was stunned. Our boss (our manager not the maintenance lead) then makes a comment to the lead of maintenance, "how is it that the make ready crew has run circles around your maintenance men?" It was a foreboding of things to come. Granted, I was working on some pretty simple problems, but they soon found that my skill set goes beyond painting and drywall. Gale left for the next two days and I kept plugging away. I had a couple of drywall work orders so that takes some time, but at the end of Friday Morning, when we were released to make readies, I'd accomplished around 34 workorders on my own, Gale had done around 20, and again, the maintenance team was taken aback. The lead maintenance was very appreciative, he kept telling us on Friday how thankful he was for our help, of course we've become pretty good friends as well, so that helps. And I think maintenance found out we can be just as much a part of their team. Make ready has typically been the step child of the apartment complex which is fine with us, we may be quiet, but hey we just played with the big boys and beat them. No longer am I just the "painter" now! I should say that I was given the offer a couple of weeks ago to move to maintenance, mostly because I'm on time every day and I am a quick learner (and until this week they didn't know I knew half the stuff I did!) I turned it down for two reasons. First, I didn't want to go on call. I like to work and then get off and go home to Ginger. Work is not my life anymore. It is necessary, for sure, but not my reason for existence. And second, Ginger. Because she is bipolar, it is important for me to be here on the weekends and even at night when I get home, for her. There wouldn't have been a pay raise, though I'd have moved up prestige wise. Don't need the attention though. It just seems to me I had a choice of career advancement at the sacrifice of family time and that wasn't a sacrifice I was willing to make. We have our happy, comfortable, simple life. We have our little routines and there is alot of laughter and love at night. The funny thing is, several years ago I'd of jumped on that opportunity because that is what "they" wanted. I would have wanted to please my boss, or fellow employees, instead of asking myself what I wanted. I love what I do. So I gave myself permission to ask myself what I wanted first. In the context of codependency you have to understand that this is huge. I asked myself what was best, as a whole, for me and for Ginger and I. It was a no brainer. It's funny really. I have people who tell me I can get a better paying job, or get a job closer, or blah blah blah. Do you really want to be a painter, they say, I mean, you have a skill set that you can do this, or that, or this. This is what I say:
I am where God wants me right now. I love painting and drywalling and the job is new each week with new challenges and short term goals. I'm not stuck in an office, I can move around, enjoy the air and outside. I can go into a trashed apartment and when I walk out of it at the end of the week it looks transformed. God is my provider, in the money department. We make enough to pay our bills, save some, and play some. Granted, we can't jet to Paris each week, but I don't need that. Plus, as our savings builds you really think hard about spending it so I think God has been teaching us about being wise stewards. And lastly, if I have to be a painter (until I become a well known artist and Ginger and I have a little shop of our own!) and yet with that comes this simple life having a loving, loyal wife, a faithful, providing God, and a supportive and loving family, well, I'll paint away! After all, it is God who guides our steps and frankly, I don't want it any other way...
Baa
Comments
Post a Comment