My Why?

I've just finished my first 3 weeks of work, got my first paycheck, and feeling pretty good about having nothing to do for the day. So, I figured this would be a good time to fill in anyone who has been waiting to know what is going on in my employed life (because I'm sure the suspense has gotten a bit unbearable for all you folks).

The company I work for has a sorta... unique culture. I'll give you a brief taste for the sake of the sheer disorientation I felt on my first day and continue to feel if I let myself think over the volume in the office. Looking back at the interview stages, its apparent they were primarily awkward because I was rocking a slick ass suit while everyone on the sales floor was wearing jeans, and some even trainers. And my final interview was made even more uncomfortable since a lot of people were in shorts and t-shirts due to the company's casual Friday, while I was dressed, once again, in a 2 piece. Now I'm finally on the other side of the fence, walking in to work a standard employee (or trainee or whatever), and 6:15 am, and wearing jeans to an office job. And that's still kinda weird to begin with. Then you add the auditory sensation of being blasted with surround sound around the entire office.  The musical collection includes great, memorable artists that are all too effective at focusing you on work, such as Skrillex, Miley Cyrus, W&W, Avicii, etc. It's like they decided to put on a NOW: greatest club hits - but at 6 am. So you put your stuff down at your desk, and follow your trainer into a section of the floor boxed off by cubicle walls, and take a seat at the front of a bunch of rows of folding chairs. In front of you is a projector screen with this image on it:

And suddenly you get the very odd feeling that you are not at your first day on a new job, but you've arrived in some strange detainment facility for that brainwashes folk with chart music. And soon the entire office is filing in, and at the desk next to the projector screen, there's not a soul. Then everyone sits down and starts doing a drum roll on their thighs, until its so loud its almost hard to hear the music battering my face from a speaker 10 feet in front of me, and finally it stops and everyone is screaming shouts of joy. I turn to see what the hell the commotion is about, and turn around to see a man with short, black spiky hair in a black suit and a bright purple shirt running down the middle aisle between the rows of seats, high fiving all the employees in the central seats of the rows (who are still cheering as loud as possible), until he makes his way to the front and shouts, "GOOOOOD MORNING (insert company name here)!!!!!!" It is now 6:30. The strange detainment facility has spontaneously combusted into a noisy summer camp for morning people who like to hang out indoors. and all I can think is "whatthefuckisgoingonIdon'tevengame."

So that part is pretty fun I guess. Alot better than drab corporate grey with budget memos and water cooler talk and some asshole in the corner of the office who's got a weird tie that curls upwards and thinks he's funny.  I mentioned last time this is a sales job, but I guess I should be a bit more specific. I work for a company that develops software and does internet/social media marketing for residential Realtors, and its my job to ring up everyone in my assigned territories and sell them our service. Which sounds an awful lot like telemarketing.... and sorta is.... but its not SO bad since I'm just calling business to business, and hey! Our product actually seems pretty good, and has pretty good feedback from our clients. Of course, that doesn't negate the fact you have to temporarily piss off about 100 people before you find one that's the slightest bit interested... only to talk to them for an hour, call them back and give them a presentation of the product for another hour, discuss price for another 40 minutes, and them have them say 'no'. And then there's the awful excuses that I can't even imagine why they would say this to get off a phone (seeing as they can just hang up). Seriously though, I've only just started this job and I had 3 people in a single day tell me they were at a funeral, which is just 'wtf?', especially considering I reached one of them on their office phone. But thats the fun part! Much better than researching online looking for folk to call, or going through the lists of hundreds of names a day without even getting them to talk to you. I think the dial tone on a telephone will be associated with suicidal thoughts if I don't get better at getting people talking within the first 15 seconds of the phone call. Who knows, maybe it'll make me better at talking to people in real life, which I have an ineptitude at that my friends never seem to notice.






The job actually makes you focus a lot on what our trainer refers to as 'your why'. Why do you have this job? What inspires you to  talk primarily to people who hate you on the principle that you are selling something through the medium of telecommunication? At first I had a lot of trouble with this - but I took this job because I'm trying to keep an open mind. It seems even the managers main goals from their job at the company was financial or material - neither of which is a great motivator for me. As long as you paid me enough to pay base expenses and a few bucks a week for some pints, I could literally do any job so long as I thought it was meaningful or provided some utility that was important. And it's difficult to find the meaning in talking into a electronic device in order to sell a product I have no experience with developing or using to a person who has little or no interest in the product anyhow. I get an okay wage, and each sale means more cash, but I can't even think of something I want to buy - unless its things to give to other folk... or stupid relatively inexpensive shit like magic cards.  Its the same with every job though - the reason we work is to get paid. It just leaves more to be wanted though... and I wonder if that want will grow or diminish over time. I think my success in this job will be determined by whether I will find my position more and more insignificant, or my own personal feelings non-sequitur. At the moment, I think my 'why' is to be doing something and meeting people. I've met a lot of cool coworkers, as most people at the job are in my age group. And I've had plenty of great adventures to keep me busy and certainly frustrated, which is much more fun than being content and bored right?

Poor Volkswagen broke down on the way to work... and gained me a carpool buddy. Atleast I've got something to wake up for, and having a purpose, whether you like it or not, is important. And I'm doing fairly well at it too - only two weeks on the phones and I already have made 2 sales, and scored my first sample of bonus potential. Not bad at all!

I know it doesn't sound like theres much going on, but transitioning to a 9 hour a day work week is a bit exhausting and I've either had not much time or will for recreation (hence the late blog post). But I'm finding out more and more about San Diego certainly, and visiting new places as well. The days are getting a bit longer, but they're certainly getting more wet and stormy, and its nice to smell seaside fog in a place I thought I was going to be boiling alive everyday.

I've had some chances to tromp through the heavy rain, visit some antique and thrift shops nearby - gotta love those Blue Boy and Pinky lamps - as well as catch up on a few doses of Pho that were long over due. Not to mention the exploration of some dives and breweries, and frustrating the hell out of Simon with our games of darts (but that's mostly because he hates to lose and I don't mind). So its all falling into place slowly - who knows, I might have to upset the balance just to get out of a rut. But for now I'm hanging in there, enjoying a paycheck, and slowly converting to being a morning person through the means of people clapping for you when you ding the bell for a sale.... We'll see how long that lasts anyway...