Stories about hope

My job had changed. 

For the past 17 years I have worked in a large logistics company. I have been moved around a bit, however I spent 10 of my 17 years in a building that is close to my home. 

Nothing about the jobs where I work are easy. It’s a physically and mentally demanding place. I am ok with the physical part. I don’t mind hard work. When people ask me if there are any jobs that are “easy” I laugh. 

“No, there are NO jobs like that.” 

The job I just moved from was mostly a good fit for me. It had flexible hours and I was able to do some of it from home. The hard parts were being “on call” when help was needed and traveling to the buildings across the district. One of my buildings was over 150 miles round trip from my house. I made the mistake of driving there on Good Friday one year. My hour and a half drive turned into an over 3-hour tour, and there was no “Professor” or “Gilligan” to keep me company. 

When Covid started I was constantly being redirected to other more pressing projects.  I was the “Covid Queen”. Trying to keep the employees stocked up on masks, gloves and sanitizer proved to be extremely time consuming. At one point I spent a week at a building in San Diego County. I took naps at a nearby hotel so I could be at the employee entrance during every shift change to ensure the protocols were being followed. We were deemed essential and as most companies were closing up, we were getting slammed with the increase of on-line commerce. 

I was also working with people who were a level or 2 above me – I had to manage “up”. I had to get managers who had their hands and schedules full, to do necessary things that weren’t very fun. 

As with most companies, there are times when restructuring is needed to keep the company in the “black”. 

Over the past few years, I saw some departments get cut completely and other departments squeak by while keeping only a skeleton crew. 

My department was going from 18 down to 5. 

I was not one of the 5. 

Given the option of taking a buyout or try to find another job, I opted to try to find something else. I didn’t worry when I found out my job was going away. I was pretty sure something would work out. I really like working with my current division manager and thankfully, she found me a spot under her hierarchy in the building that is only 11 miles from my home.

I started my new assignment a few weeks ago. And while I have MUCH to learn, it’s a relatively new type of job so there will be an adjustment. I have done some of it in previous assignments.

The reason I started with my company was to get medical benefits. We had been paying out of pocket at the time, and to be able to afford the monthly payments we had a really big deductible. One trip to the ER one year and our savings was wiped clean.

I mentioned my desire for a “job with weird hours and full benefits” to a friend at church and he told me to apply where he worked. It would be perfect. I doubted it because it seemed like a tough place to work. “If anyone can do it, you can”

 I was happy to work the early morning shift because it allowed me to go to work while the boys were sleeping. My husband would get them to school and I would pick them up, get homework done, get them to baseball practice and make them dinner before falling asleep exhausted.  

I worked that shift for 10 years, setting my alarm for O’dark-thirty.

I don’t miss that. But I do miss the people I worked with. If I had to pick favorites it would be one particular group of people, my favorite “team”.

As I mentioned I am not much of an athlete. I am in fact quite uncoordinated when it comes to anything requiring mastering two things at once. Take for example baseball. I can hit the ball, I can catch the ball, I can run, and I can throw pretty much on target as long as it isn’t a target too far away. 

But ask me to hit the ball & then run to the bag? Nope.I would collapse in laughter. Ask me to catch the ball and then throw the ball to the infield? I wasn’t the fastest at that either.

I do love the concept of a team. Although I was not part of a team in any athletic sort of way, except for that kickball team in elementary school. I was also in many choirs and “worship” teams but it’s not really the “team” I am trying to describe.

Back to where I started. I would wake up at a ridiculous hour, drive to my building and work a ridiculous amount of time trying to accomplish a goal with people I didn’t always click with. I never felt like all the pistons were firing and sometimes it just wasn’t very much fun.  Some of the “less fun” people would leave and the people that took their spot could be even more challenging. Or they could be just the type of person that brought the right amount of hard work and hijinks with them.

The thing about my company is, there are lots of changes in leadership.

You never work with the same people for very long because people are always getting moved around. They say it’s to “develop” us. I say it’s so we don’t murder each other. I also never had the same boss longer than 2 years.  

When some of the bosses left, it was a relief. 

I was always nervous when a new manager was assigned. What would they be like? How would they lead? Would they understand my quirky sense of humor? How would they respond when they started talking “numbers” and my brain would literally liquify? Would they understand this current group of funny supervisors? 

 This organic fertilizer incident is built around a funny little team that seemed to click together well. And then we met a seriously funny manager. He was a prankster. He knew how to inspire us. He who would always say “thank you for your hard work” even on the days we fell flat. He always made sure we had plenty of coffee on hand, and his wife always made sure we had plenty of snacks. 

So here we were, each of us different, but each really dedicated to each other. 

We had a lot of laughs. Computer monitors turned upside down, pictures were changed out, car keys went missing, things yelled on the radio that made us all laugh. We had each other’s backs. We had a lot of fun, and sometimes we were incredibly successful. 

I had a good reputation with my team. They could count on me to show up. They could count on me to have hot coffee waiting for them when they arrived in the wee hours of the morning. 

They could count on me to say things that sounded as if they were made up words. Like “Doo Hikey” or “Thing a ma bob” or “Dealie Bob”. And they could count on me to try to be helpful. 

In June of 2014, I was working in my area at the end of a long conveyor system when one of my coworkers said there was something sticky on the conveyor belt. 

When I made my way to him, I saw what he was talking about. The sticky brown goo was everywhere. It had an oddly sweet aroma to it and was really causing problems for everyone. 

Things would break open at work, packages would leak. Sometimes it was a hazardous material but more often than not, it was something like a household product like shampoo or laundry detergent. The later, would cause a mess, but could be easily cleaned up. 

This particular mess was NOT easily cleaned up. Everything was sticky, especially the conveyor system. I decided I would need “help”. 

I deduced from the look & smell of the substance that “Molasses” had spilled on the belt… A LOT of molasses. 

So, I called on my 2-way radio and let my team know that my belt was going through a jam cycle caused by a leaking package of molasses and I needed their help finding the leaker and clean up the spill.

I was absolutely SURE it was molasses. 

My manager and other supervisors came to help. They were climbing around, mopping up what they could with paper towels, trying water, chalk like substances & whatever they could find. We could not find where the “molasses” was coming from. 

I will never forget the sound of my boss’s voice over the radio. He said my name so loud, his booming voice so full of exasperation it reminded me of when I was a very little girl & my dad would raise his voice to really get my attention. 

It sounded like I was in trouble. 

I could hear it. 

But as much as I could hear absolute frustration in his voice, I also heard a smile, and perhaps laughter 

“I found the source of the leaker, and it’s definitely NOT molasses” 

“What?” 

“Not Molasses?”

“Then what is it??”

“It’s ORGANIC FERTILIZER” 

I was silent. I couldn’t process what he had just said. 

I knew Organic was a good thing, Organic apples are good, Organic Lettuce is also good. 

So organic can’t be bad Right? 

But he ALSO said fertilizer. 

I had spent many years in the backyards of my various homes, and I knew what fertilizer is.

And then it hit me.

I looked at my sticky, weirdly sweet smelling, brown goo covered hands and it hit me. 

“Ohhhhhh Nooooooo”  

Yup, I had the team that I LOVED climbing around in brown gooey Liquid POOP. 

The team that trusted me.

 The team that always defended me.

The team that had my back 99.9% of the time was now covered with sticky disgustingly and oddly sweet-smelling Brown goo. 

That day will forever be one of my most favorite days at my job. Not because climbing around in poop is a good thing. But because I realized, the people that I was working with were the kind of team I had always hoped to be on. A unified, amazing team that would walk through the mess of things with me. 

We didn’t get to “stick” together forever that team of mine. Some of us (like me) got moved to other buildings, some of us retired, some of us went to work elsewhere. But I will always treasure being counted as one of theirs as much as they were mine.

The day came when I saw my manager coming down from the division managers office. We had been working together for a little over two years at this point. Two years meant change was coming.  

I could tell by his facial expression when he saw me standing there that he didn’t have good news.  

“Edie, She wants to see you.”

“Oh no.”

A position needed to be filled in the Aliso Viejo location. I drew the short straw. 

I would be leaving this, my most favorite group of co-workers, in the building that was close to home. I would be starting a new job that I didn’t want and certainly didn’t feel qualified for. The job where the days would be very long. I would be away from my family all day and my husband would have to take over getting the boys home from school and making dinner. 

I was really sad about that change. 

Now that it’s in the rear-view mirror it doesn’t seem like it was that bad. It was quite difficult at the time. A hard adjustment. A ton to learn, a new group of people to work with.

From time to time the members of the “organic fertilizer” team still reach out to me. We text funny little memories or life updates. With my new assignment, I get to see my old manager from time to time. And no surprise he has moved his way up in a position of more responsibility. I’m proud of him, like any family member would be.

I can count these people as friends. 

They have supported me during some rough times. 

We were a little whacky, sometimes dysfunctional, and sometimes had some heated discussions. 

Not having a “normal” family growing up, I learned from them that this is what it’s like to function. To be able to have heated argument one minute and be climbing around saving each other from brown goo the next. 

To say, “I need help” and to have them show up ready to do what was needed. 

To stand up to bullies for me. To celebrate wins together. To have fun even on the most challenging days.  I look on those days and am so grateful. 

I have grown through my job changes as well. I truly hope I am doing my work heartly and with an attitude that shines God’s love, even when the “Fertilizer” hits the fan. 

“A joyful heart is good medicine,” Proverbs 17:22

“Be devoted to one another in brotherly love; give preference to one another in honor.” Romans 12:10