What a Difference

What a difference 5 months makes!

Those of you that have been with me for a while on this blog know what sort of environment I used to work in, to a certain extent. I kept a lot of it filtered off the blog for fear of the blog taking a negative turn that would have driven you all away.

Truly in more ways than even I could imagine - being laid off on May 1st was a gift from God that I'll never truly be able to completely appreciate. I wouldn't have to put up with swallowing my pride in order to get through everyday at the office. The verbal abuse was more than anyone should ever have to deal with, and no pay check is worth it... but I digress.

I'm rounding the corner of my first month at my new job, and can I just tell you that it is SO different here. I find myself not knowing how to respond to the number of times I hear "Great Job" or "I appreciate you" throughout the day.

It's hard to describe in words what this feels like, but here is my attempt... there are animals out in the world that are abused and beaten for everything they do - hit on the nose for instance for whatever they do... and after a while the animal will flinch everytime you raise your hand. I feel like that has happened to me... I'm not sure how to react to things or proceed because I'm constantly waiting for the shoe to drop.

Earlier today, we all got an email from our CEO telling us that October is now "Casual Month" and we can all dress casually everyday in October. She said that it is a reward for our hard work during the recovery from Ike. This of course comes with needing to use your judgement if you have outside meetings and all, but what a refreshing action from a higher level manager!

I took this a step further though, and asked my direct supervisor if I could wear my pajamas. Here's how the conversation went:

Kim: "Soooo, since I don't have any outside meetings - Can I wear my pajamas to work everyday?"
Boss: "Do they have flowers or penguins on them? Because we don't allow flowers or penguins."
Kim: "No, no flowers or penguins... just stripes or polka dots."

I then left her office laughing.

Even though it's quite obvious that politically I am on a very different page - I'd have to say that if the worst of my problems at work are personal belief differences... I'm very lucky. (I might have to keep reminding myself of that over the next month... but this too shall pass, right?)