This is a picture of my new workplace, the Target in American Fork. T-1814 for those of us team members. It's been exactly one year since I was laid off from a custom home theater shop. While not having a job sucked at times, it was nice to get school done and have all the time in the world for a wedding and honeymoon. But now, it's back to work!
While the wife is making the "big bucks" in her career, we still decided that extra supplemental income was a security we could not pass up. The story is rather short: I walked inside, handed my resume to the nearest Executive Team Lead, got home 10 minutes later only to receive a phone call for an interview! After looking over my experience they hired me on the spot. And so...after an absence of 2 years, Andrew is back in red and khakis!
So it is at this time that I need to stop and remember the lessons I learned during my 3 years at good old T-1750 in Centerville. The following blather is in no particular order, only as my brain spits it out. Here goes:
I learned a lot more about who I am and how I react to events. More specifically, I got to see how I coped with stresses and interpersonal relationships in a professional setting. This occurred due to my two promotions I received while at the Centerville Super Target. I was promoted to the department head of Electronics, and a year later I was also given the responsibility of Entertainment, specifically music, movies, and books. We called the position back then a "specialist."
With my added post, I reported and coordinated with Team Leads and Executive Team Leads all the time. I established a good rapport with my superiors and for the most part we got along pretty well. But there were times when things didn't go so well.
I recall an incident where an Executive yelled at me on the sales floor in front of my team and shopping guests. It wasn't pretty. I look back through time and realize he must have been super stressed that day. The store was a mess, and there was an abundance of abandoned items at guest service that needed to be put away. As the leader that day I'm sure if felt burdened greatly. But I disagreed with him taking my lone team member and putting him elsewhere. There was an affinity of Electronics tasks and Entertainment resets that needed to be completed asap. When turned and rolled my eyes he lost it. The eyes rolling was immature on my part and very much an in-the-moment emotional reaction. But his was also the same.
After being publicly humiliated and berated , I made an attempt to forget it and go back to work. This proved monumental as my blood pressure was still astronomically high. I remember wanting to heft the large red cart and throw it over the aisle. I felt as though I could feed off my rage and summon the strength to do so. (Those carts we use to push things out to the floor are very heavy).
Eventually however, prudence prevailed. I left the Electronics counter in the hands of a team member and tracked down my team lead. We found an empty room and talked for about 20 minutes. It was good. I said that I regretted acting childish (even if it was only an eye roll). But he said he would talk to the Executive, because that kind of rebuking was completely unacceptable in front of guests and my team. The Executive found me a little while later and apologized. We made peace and maintained a good relationship after that.
But I discovered through this experience that I am a very social creature. Did that make sense? Let me be clear, I discovered that I could no longer bottle things up and keep them in cold storage. I found that communication was an absolute must. In other words, after such an experience, I felt a great desire to find an objective third part to mediate my disputes. I needed someone with another perspective into my problem.
I used to be good at soaking up problems, much like that nasty bath carpet you have near the toilet. Don't deny it, you know who you are. Anyways, that's not so much the case anymore. It makes me more grateful for a wife to talk to. She is on my side and has my back all the time no matter what.
Additionally, I learned what kind of leader I am. My patriarchal blessing contains the following line:
"Now go forward and serve. Seek every opportunity to extend yourself to other people. Be a student. Be a teacher. Be a leader."
After a getting the hang of managing a team and a department, I found that I LOVED it. I loved the challenges that came with it. But I was taught (by myself) how I govern other people. I'm not an authoritarian by any means, nor am I a goof-off. And I found by sad experience that I do not like unrighteous dominion in any sliver of the term.
My personality profile falls somewhere else. I love the lead by example; to use my talents and energy in discovering the best way to perform my tasks. Doctrine and Covenants 46:16 comes to mind:
"And again, it is given by the Holy Ghost to some to know the diversities of operations, whether they be of God..."
Once I found the best way to do something I would write it in my "department bible." I would then share it with my team and come up with methods on implementation. Show and example, role play, and apply was my code.
And so it pained me when I observed one of my team members throwing away what we had agreed upon. I never spied on anyone, I was usually less then 10 feet away when I would observe them. And through this I learned that I hate correcting people constantly. I am passionate about what I believe in and I guess I hoped that it would rub off on everyone, to the point where they would be passionate about it too.
Also and finally, I learned that I am a lot like my mom. Like her I have a Tigger personality and love to find the fun or laugh in everything. Because of this, I often worried that my superiors never took me seriously. More specifically, I always thought they might have viewed me as more of a goof. It still confuses me. I like to think that I have found the thing line between honest hard work and some honest harmless fun. I always thought that they wanted me to be more sober. Which is funny because I always thought I had plenty of that in reserve. To sum it up I felt comfortable with who I was, but sometimes got the impression that my superiors didn't quite understand who I was. Because of that I didn't know how to act around them sometimes. At times I felt too serious for them, and other times I felt like I was being too light minded. It was always a walk on the tight rope.
SO!
A new store and new experiences await me. I find I am eager to experience them and continue to get to know myself and other people I work with. The most important lesson I have learned that I am determined to apply here is to BE MYSELF. I felt (at many times and circumstances) like I had to act like another person around my old bosses. I have decided that it's not worth it because it doesn't make me happy. I was told in my interviews that this new store wants me to promote quickly. And so if I get the chance, I will do it with my personality intact.
Into my brain ring the words of old: "To thine own self be true."
It might be an uphill battle for the constant state of "understanding" and "rapport" between my superiors and myself, but I am looking forward to it, like a Tiger ready to sink his jaws into fresh prey.
Time to dust off the old name tag!
Bring it on.
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