I've been training at work. Prior to my official arrival as warranty administrator, I got about 6-8 hours of training with the previous admin. AKA: Not enough. This seems to make sense. Rarely have I stepped into a position with a gracious amount of training.
So the past two weeks has been a lot of "I'm sorry, I'm new, can you explain..." Which is good and all, people have been mostly receptive. And I'm making fewer stupid mistakes (though there is the occasional flare up).
This is the most complicated work I have done in... well... ever. Turns out nothing is simple in the automotive industry. From paperwork, to car sales, to financing, to parts, to service department, to warranties. It is convoluted and everything is an exception. In fact, there are more exceptions to the rule than actual instances that follow the rule when it comes to the warranty billing.
My boss, well, the big boss man of the store, turns out to be a very avid reader. He's the son of the son of the guy who started the business... so it would seem that access to the family fortune would be through participation in the family business. But prior to being the general manager, he focused a lot of time on writing for film and stage. That being said, I feel it is going to be an important component in relating to him. Everyone sort of walks on eggshells and treats him differently. I guess he can be a pretty terrifying commander when he is in a bad mood. I haven't seen that yet.
We (the office staff - 4 women) and Boss Man went to lunch earlier this week. "He'll get mad if we don't talk enough. But if we bring something up, we better know a lot about it or he gets mad that we can't converse on his level." That was the warning I'd been given. "The problem is he's a GENIUS. You can't just talk about a movie you enjoyed, you need to know who directed it, who starred in it, what the symbolism was and how they used the cameras."
Bring it on.
We sit down to lunch and the ladies settle into their quietude... buried in menus trying to make decisions. Boss Man is criticizing the slow service. Which, in his defense, was ridiculously slow. I start the "so what are you thinking about ordering" question around the table, trying to prevent any fireworks. Boss man was going to order the same thing as me. I would look like the sheep. I can't have that. He's the boss man. No one asked me, so I had time to change my order before the waitress came.
"Ladies first and Ashley, you have to order in Spanish," Boss Man jokes.
Knowing full well that no one would step up to the plate, I place my order. "54. Pechuga de Pollo." We slowly make it around the table as the ladies order. Ashley did not order in Spanish... Boss man... "Pechuga de Pollo."
I mutter "copy gato" playfully under my breath. The woman who laughs at everything guffaws, in turn making the girl who laughs at nothing snort on accident and Boss Man is wondering why he's surrounded by nervously laughing women and none of us can tell him what is funny... at this point "copy gato" wouldn't be clever so I just keep my mouth shut.
In true form, the table goes quiet. Just like they warned me. I step behind the conversational blockage and try to give it a little shove. "So, How's training for the race coming along? What time are going to beat?" Boss Man takes the bait and things start rolling slowly. Much to my pleasant surprise, conversation is easy and light through all of lunch. All it took was asking questions - who are you bringing to the christmas party? - what have you be reading/watching lately? - when you're not at work, what have you be doing to enjoy yourself? - normal peanut gallery questions. Everyone participated. Boss Man even enjoyed himself and contrary to what I was led to believe, asked questions back. He was very interested in what everyone had to say.
I can say that between my coworkers, he's probably the most well-adjusted and socially aware. He's a challenge. He's smart, young, in touch with life beyond minivans and car sales, and has a high standard for what he expects from those who surround him. I suspect he is going to be one of my better bosses. I'm excited about that.
All that being said, every time he's popped into the office this week, he asks me what I've been reading. Without fail, it's usually something different or I can give a new plot point that's occurring. We sparred over favorite authors and I urged him to read more female authors. It got him thinking, now when he pops into the office he gives me one female author and a book he enjoyed by them.
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Novels Read This Week:
Random Family - A non-fic that follows the lives of two young women involved in a huge heroine ring that got busted in the 1980s. It sees them through prison, the birth of babies from different fathers and basically documents the complicated problem of urban poverty and it's relationship to violence, drug culture and family life.
FanGirl - Fiction. Twin girls go off to college. One extroverted and determined to become an individual, the other who tries to not speak to anyone, including her roommate - while she goes through classes and writes her fan fiction. The story is told from the hermit twin's perspective as she is forced into a lonely world without her twin (different dorms/social circles/classes) and is forced to grow beyond her comfort zone.
Random Family - A non-fic that follows the lives of two young women involved in a huge heroine ring that got busted in the 1980s. It sees them through prison, the birth of babies from different fathers and basically documents the complicated problem of urban poverty and it's relationship to violence, drug culture and family life.
FanGirl - Fiction. Twin girls go off to college. One extroverted and determined to become an individual, the other who tries to not speak to anyone, including her roommate - while she goes through classes and writes her fan fiction. The story is told from the hermit twin's perspective as she is forced into a lonely world without her twin (different dorms/social circles/classes) and is forced to grow beyond her comfort zone.
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Friendly Visit...
My good friends Laura and Purujit came last weekend for a fun little dinner party at my place. Laura and I go way back. We met through a friend (Abby) in Pocatello when Abby's car broke down on the way to Lava Hot Springs on one of those -4 degree days in Idaho. We passed around a sleeping bag and waited for the tow truck and friends with cars to help us out. That was about 5 years ago.
She moved to NYC - I moved to NYC.
She moved to Seattle - I moved to Portland.
We are destined to follow each other around the united states. It was great to reunite for our first time on the west coast. She reminded me of all the good times in NYC... the visit made me pretty home sick for the east. I interpret it as mourning... now that I've gotten past that, I'm ready to make the west coast home again.
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I roasted my first chicken today. We're about halfway through the cooking marathon.
We have been cooking like mad people this weekend. It is winter and I want comfort food. I also want to never have to cook or make last minute decisions or else I will fall into a vat of cheese and stay there all winter.
On the Menu...
- Split Pea Soup - Pea, carrot, celery & bacon.
- Chicken Noodle Soup - Rice, roasted chicken, carrot, celery, zucchini and carrot greens.
- Chicken Gravy
- Pizza Dough
- Meatballs
We tripled the soups, doubled the pizza dough and doubled the meatballs. It should last about 2-3 weeks. Mostly, I'm happy about not having to go grocery shopping for at least a week or two. We only spent about $27 on ingredients. I'm interested in seeing how far it takes us... If it's satisfying... we can do this all month and really cut back on spending.
XO,
N
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