I moved to Denver without a job. I knew, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that I belonged here, and even if it meant sleeping in my car through a Colorado winter, I had to be here. It wasn't long before I got a job with a dry cleaning company, as their marketing intern. I wasn't told that I would be pretty much running one of the stores, and processing clothes, on top of marketing. Not only that, but I didn't know the owner would push back against every single idea I had. Between constantly dealing with buttons and tagging, etc, my hands quickly gave out. I was there three months before I put in my notice, and then quit, without another job.
I spent the next six weeks searching for another job. I don't have the health to work multiple jobs, 60+ hours a week to make ends meet. I also don't have the mental agility to be able to do a lot of things. Academia is perfect for me, and little else is good long term. I didn't even know what I could do.
Thank goodness for Jim. My friend, Jim Ciago, has worked at Level 3 Communications for years, and started working diligently to try and get me a job. It took interviews for four different positions to get a job there, but I finally got one, and started the day after Memorial Day, 2016. I was one of about 100 new Customer Care Managers hired all at once.
The job wasn't bad, until I got fully ramped up, and I made enough money to make ends meet, for the first time in my life. The company is a fantastic company to work for, but it is well known throughout the company that Customer Care Managers have THE hardest jobs in the entire organization. We're really the company's blood and oxygen. Take us out, and the ENTIRE company falls apart. We have to deal with angry customers, net builds (adding fiber to allow us to connect to the right spot. Sometimes a laughably simple fix, sometimes we have to actually get permission from the cities involved to tear up parts of major streets to lay the fiber under the street...netbuilds can take anywhere between a couple days, to over a year), things that go wrong beyond our control, human error, etc. We deal with every product the company sells, on three different ecosystems, with procedures and programs that change on a nearly weekly basis.
"Stressful," is an understatement.
Now, I can handle stress. I wrote a 90 page Master's thesis in 6 weeks, which I would never advise. BAD idea. People, just say no. I wound up on a liquid diet for the last two weeks, because I got ulcers from the stress. But I never had a panic attack, I never cried myself to sleep. It was incredibly stressful, but I handled it, and turned out a good product.
With my CCM job, I had multiple panic attacks some days, and often cried myself to sleep, thinking, "Please don't make me go back there!" What's the difference? I don't do a thousand different pieces at once. I do one. Maybe two. Sure, I can max those things out to the point that would have most people catatonic, but throw in a thousand moving parts and expect me to keep track of it all, and I just. can't. do it. I'm not wired that way.
So I quit my job.
It was exactly what I needed at the time, but not for me in the long run. Thank goodness for Andy's good job, Lyft, and my teaching. I can still contribute, without stressing myself more than is good. I can also have more time to focus on things I want to do, like developing this blog. It also gives me more time to focus on my health.
I don't think I will ever not work. It's not how I'm wired. I am always doing things to bring in money, whether it's working as a personal assistant for an elderly woman in Cape Girardeau, babysitting, selling Norwex, tutoring, selling clothes on Poshmark, driving for Lyft, teaching classes, working full time, or any of a dozen other possibilities, I will always be doing something, even if we suddenly come into money. Which, let's face it, ain't gonna happen. But this is part of who I am. It's nice having the medium sized paycheck every couple weeks, but being able to do other things, while still bringing in money is far better. I can't wait to see what comes next.
I spent the next six weeks searching for another job. I don't have the health to work multiple jobs, 60+ hours a week to make ends meet. I also don't have the mental agility to be able to do a lot of things. Academia is perfect for me, and little else is good long term. I didn't even know what I could do.
Thank goodness for Jim. My friend, Jim Ciago, has worked at Level 3 Communications for years, and started working diligently to try and get me a job. It took interviews for four different positions to get a job there, but I finally got one, and started the day after Memorial Day, 2016. I was one of about 100 new Customer Care Managers hired all at once.
The job wasn't bad, until I got fully ramped up, and I made enough money to make ends meet, for the first time in my life. The company is a fantastic company to work for, but it is well known throughout the company that Customer Care Managers have THE hardest jobs in the entire organization. We're really the company's blood and oxygen. Take us out, and the ENTIRE company falls apart. We have to deal with angry customers, net builds (adding fiber to allow us to connect to the right spot. Sometimes a laughably simple fix, sometimes we have to actually get permission from the cities involved to tear up parts of major streets to lay the fiber under the street...netbuilds can take anywhere between a couple days, to over a year), things that go wrong beyond our control, human error, etc. We deal with every product the company sells, on three different ecosystems, with procedures and programs that change on a nearly weekly basis.
"Stressful," is an understatement.
Now, I can handle stress. I wrote a 90 page Master's thesis in 6 weeks, which I would never advise. BAD idea. People, just say no. I wound up on a liquid diet for the last two weeks, because I got ulcers from the stress. But I never had a panic attack, I never cried myself to sleep. It was incredibly stressful, but I handled it, and turned out a good product.
With my CCM job, I had multiple panic attacks some days, and often cried myself to sleep, thinking, "Please don't make me go back there!" What's the difference? I don't do a thousand different pieces at once. I do one. Maybe two. Sure, I can max those things out to the point that would have most people catatonic, but throw in a thousand moving parts and expect me to keep track of it all, and I just. can't. do it. I'm not wired that way.
So I quit my job.
It was exactly what I needed at the time, but not for me in the long run. Thank goodness for Andy's good job, Lyft, and my teaching. I can still contribute, without stressing myself more than is good. I can also have more time to focus on things I want to do, like developing this blog. It also gives me more time to focus on my health.
I don't think I will ever not work. It's not how I'm wired. I am always doing things to bring in money, whether it's working as a personal assistant for an elderly woman in Cape Girardeau, babysitting, selling Norwex, tutoring, selling clothes on Poshmark, driving for Lyft, teaching classes, working full time, or any of a dozen other possibilities, I will always be doing something, even if we suddenly come into money. Which, let's face it, ain't gonna happen. But this is part of who I am. It's nice having the medium sized paycheck every couple weeks, but being able to do other things, while still bringing in money is far better. I can't wait to see what comes next.
such a great information provided by you.
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