Wednesday, May 14, 2008

The right foot, and the one that I started off on

Everything is coming together. I'm ridiculously busy, but completely driven to get things taken care of. When I was offered the job in DC, my new boss had wanted someone to start right away. She gave me a start date of May 30th to make sure I had enough time, but I could start sooner. Things are moving right along, I've fallen behind for finals week, but not enough to hurt my GPA too terribly much. So, I emailed my new boss today to let her know that it's impossibly ambitious, but my goal is to start work one week ahead of time.

Yeah, well... that didn't quite go over as well as I had hoped.

It's my fault for being a nimwit. First of all, I was operating under the "ASAP" timeline since my new employers have waited so long for this position to be filled. (What is it that happens when you assume?) The real reason I'm a twit is b/c I was so non-committal when I contacted her about it. If you've known me for a while, you'll know that I hate making commitments. Commitment is a four-letter word - like "death" or "marriage" it's something I try my best to avoid (despite some close calls.) So, when I sent my new employer an email that said, "I can't make a commitment and I may end up behind schedule but I'm aiming to start on the 23rd..." her response was - No problem. Since you're not sure, let's just stick with the 30th.

Wait, what?!? No! When I said, "I may end up behind schedule," what I really meant was, "I've already rented a truck, asked my friends to take time off of work, and purchased plane tickets so that I can start next week and fly back for my brother's reception."

I don't understand how this miscommunication happened.

I'm hoping that she was just being nice and saying, "Take your time, no big deal" by sticking with the 30th, but by the time I responded to her email, it was after 5pm EST, and I didn't get a response. I should've just said in the first place: Block out your calendar cuz I'm starting on the 23rd.

In my horror of waiting another week to start work, my tone was much more committal for the response email to her. I suppose I'll find out in the morning. If it turns out that I've worked my schedule toward a time that's inconvenient for my new boss, that will be a very depressing way to start off. I'll still move on the same days and fly back for Mark and Jamie's reception, I just won't be gainfully employed. The real tragedy would be having all that extra time on my hands after I've spent the last two weeks in a stress-filled and overly-ambitious rage trying to get things done and out the door early.

Ah well. Life goes on, I'll keep putting one foot in front of the other - even if they both happen to be left feet.

1 comment:

The Morel Family said...

I can't believe you are moving to DC! I don't think anyone from our class has gone that far. Most of us are still stuck within 20 miles of the Leland limits. You go girl!