Rookie Chronicles: Lessons from the Field on Day One
My new job has really thrown me for a loop.
I'm recovering from my brush with burnout, and that means going to bed early and sleeping in late. It means putting a pause on everything but the essentials.
It also means sitting down at work when I need to, even though years of working terrible jobs trained me that unless your job is in front of a computer, not only should you always be standing, but you should always be cleaning or doing something. This job isn't like that, though. In fact, it might be one of the most accessible jobs I've ever had for my combination of disabilities. There are definitely ways it could be improved, but I'm impressed with how accommodating this job has been so far.
I had my first day out of training yesterday, and it wasn't good, but it wasn't tragically bad, either. I made some rookie mistakes, but I'm a rookie, so it's expected. As long as I learn from these mistakes, things will be okay.
I'm hoping today will be a better day. I feel more prepared to handle a variety of issues I could face in the field than I did yesterday.
Also, it can’t get much worse than being dropped off in a strange, new location and being told to set up…somewhere…but that somewhere isn’t clear. I had a brand new table, chair, and tent to shlep around, which I still haven’t figured out how to carry all at once. I transported all of it from one side of the grocery store parking lot to the other (and this was a pretty large parking lot, even for California standards), and then set up my booth all by myself. I honestly don’t know how my coworkers do it on a daily basis.
Someday, hopefully in the near future, I will acclimate to the job and have energy to do things outside of work (like work on this newsletter). Until then, I’ll have to put my body in battery saver mode.
Hope today goes better.