On the kind of customer service that keeps me from yelling at you

I have worked in customer service for years: retail, food service, secretarial work. Cliche but true, the phrase "the customer is always right" [at least until they're out of earshot] is something to tattoo in a highly visible spot in your brain. While customers shouldn't ignore the humanity of service workers, they are still paying for a service, and expect and deserve polite, respectful, and non-condescending communication. Regardless of age or gender.

Case in point: If you are an MBTA worker, and the trains are running 10 and then 25 minutes late, do NOT berate ME for "cutting it too close" and rudely blame MEfor the fact that I will be horrifically late for work. Instead, apologize for the delays and thank me for my patience. If you do that, I am much more likely to empathize with you also having a stressful morning, surrounded by soggy, late commuters. If, however, you choose to talk down to a 22 year old girl, when I pay the same $60 a month for your services as the rest of your beleaguered customers [only to be late 75% of the time] I will call you out on this in front of said platform of fellow angry riders. I played zero role in making the train late (for the millionth time this year), and therefore, will not accept your Masshole attitude alongside my lack of caffeination and sopping wet shoes.

This same advice goes to sales clerks (how do YOU know that I'm not going to buy anything? I usually do, and if you're a snob, I will tell the cashier that any other salesperson helped me and screw you out of any commission), waitstaff (I tip insanely well), and staff at universities or human resources (I am a student/employee, please don't treat me like a moron).

Do unto others, don't be an jerk, the customer is always right--all synonyms for the same thing. Treat your consumers with at least a modicum of respect. Or beware their early morning rage.

On Being Employed!

Exciting news! I negotiated my way into a full-time position at my temp job. This means the following:

• I can stop trolling craiglist (NOT the adult section, thankyouverymuch)
• I will have real health benefits!
• I will get paid more!
• And the best part: I know what I will be doing for the next year or so, and can make other plans accordingly.

When I was looking for jobs, it was hard to turn that part off and do anything else. I had no central basis for coordinating other things I wanted to do, and was constantly thinking about applications, resumes, and references. Even at my temp job, I had a difficult time wanting to make more solid relationships with my coworkers, because I didn't know how long I was going to be there, and I felt insecure suggesting changes or speaking up. My new job extends me new responsibilities, opportunities for professional development, the comfort to strengthen relationships with coworkers, and the security to flex my muscles in my everyday duties, as well as the ability to enjoy the rest of my other time and ambitions in the near future outside of the 9-5 window.

Now that I can take a mental deep breath, I'm signing up for a real gym membership, applying to be a Big Sister (they ask that you have a secure lifestyle for the foreseeable year to even apply!), plotting more networking and community involvement, and spending weekday afternoons reading and going to the movies instead of writing cover letters. The chunk of actual and subconscious time taken up with the job search and stress is out the window for the time being, and truth be told, I won't miss it a tiny bit. Now I can just giggle at the Missed Connections part of craigslist, instead of the marketing/PR and nonprofit sections of the job posts.

Since I'm working in development (read: bringing in the $$ bills, y'all) at Mass General, I'm hoping to learn enough useful things to contribute skills (and my free time) to nonprofits that need an extra hand--a big perk of learning and working at a large and stable organization. Listservs like Young Non-profit Professionals Network (YNPN) disseminate work, volunteer, and networking opportunities in the Boston area--check it out if you're in the field. There are some great programs going on at Mass General too, like the Home Base Program, which provides crucial psychological services to veterans returning from deployment with post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury, and I'm excited to volunteer at more events.

I plan to use any comp time I get on the job to travel on the weekends. Places on the itinerary are DC and NYC for starters, but I'm always looking for new places/people to visit, and saving up time to make it out to California to see my brother, my cousin, and maybe Leif and Stivers if they're lucky!

On a slight tangent, a friend on Twitter mentioned a great program that doesn't seem to have a general group in Boston: Dining For Women. Once a month, women (don't see why men couldn't be included too) meet for a potluck dinner, donating the funds they would have spent going out to dinner to women in need. I'd seriously love to set up a chapter, any takers? Check out the site and the mission statement below!

Mission Statement:
Changing the world one dinner at a time
DFW empowers women living in extreme poverty by funding programs fostering good health, education, and economic self-sufficiency, and cultivates educational dinner circles inspiring individuals to make a difference through the power of collective giving.

I shall blog again!

Uh. Apparently a brief blogging hiatus transpired. Numerous apologies. The last weeks of college, graduation antics, a stint of frustrated unemployment, two months of rain, and my recent three weeks of legitimate employment are to blame. Excuses are silly though. Blogging will recommence.

I am hungry to learn. Three months after graduating, I miss classes already. To the point where I signed up for the GRE in a fit of frustration yesterday morning. September 26, bring on the math (eeeek). I'm currently working in a development office, and while it's interesting and I'm learning new skills, my liberal arts, politically nerdy brain misses some of the content I soaked up in college. Not that I have a really concrete idea of what I want to study with my hopefully fabulous GRE scores. I have lots of ideas, actually, so I'm doing some serious research into cities, schools, programs, and professors that hit a nerd nerve with me. A smattering of concepts include:

• political rhetoric, inspired by my favorite professor senior year
• public policy
• global communications, inspired by a 2 year program through the London School of Economics and the Annenberg School at USC
• urban planning/city design
• nonprofit management
• business --don't laugh, I'm serious and I have my reasons.
• development/women's issues related programs.

I want to bring both a solid knowledge of material and a real skill set to what I do in the future, and I think a combination of work experience and more school is the way to go. Any insight into what YOU see me doing, or programs you've heard good things about?

On a completely unrelated tangent: I love cooking. I bought a set of cookbooks, and had a little internal monologue about needing to cook more often, and bring leftovers to work. Cooking's also such an easy way to entice friends over for dinner and dessert, and gratefully fed friends often bring wine :). Made delicious chili corn cakes, baked apples with balsamic, and some other tasty things (inquire for recipes), and I'll post recipes/photos as I get more creative. I also baked two batches of treats without burning them, a little more cautious after I charred two sheets of chocolate chip cookies I'd been daydreaming about.

One final note: I am reading like a fiend, due to my onset of desire to learn/think. Suggestions are welcomed, and I'm accumulating what is a pretty intense library of my books and a friend's books I'm babysitting for the year. Let's give/borrow/discuss? There's been murmurings of an actual bookclub, on the heels of our Twitter book club attempt, and I'd be so down.

Rainy Sunday Musings

Update on my life status:

1. Did not get an interview for the first job I applied for/actually wanted. Disappointing.
   
2. Have since sent in two more applications, and have notes on another half dozen job postings of interest to get started on. Let's cross fingers and toes for at least an interview sometime in the next month. [as I was writing this, one of the places I applied emailed to say they just filled the position. Sweet....]
   
3. Signed my lease in Coolidge Corner! Bon and I (and Toomey for the summer) will be in Brookline until August 2010 as it currently stands. We have plans for lovely home design, good lighting, big bookshelves, and maybe a cat! Lots of updates on apartment-related things to come--I've never lived off-campus except for a sublet, and I have myriad ideas.
   
4. Lots and lots of "Oh good, I'm not the only crazy one" conversations. We're all at bizarre places in life right now, and it's good to know I have plenty of solid company in overanalysis and procrastination.
5. People are getting engaged and getting pregnant (separate people, no shotgun weddings in my crowd yet). I still think of everyone I know as approximately 16 and therefore not in any sort of position for those things. But babies are cute, even if it freaks me out watching people I know holding them (I would post the picture of Leif with the baby Nikki nannies for if it didn't make me laugh so hard. I might still.)
   
6. I am having the strongest travel urges lately. Part of me hopes I DON'T get a job right away, and would then have an excuse to just buy a plane ticket and a nice camera and disappear for a little while. Sites like The Big Picture make me want to take the kinds of photos that inspire emotion and a different way of understanding things.
7. Trying to solve my constant indecision/grass-is-always-greener problem. I can see the pros and cons of almost anything, and I need to find a few anchoring principles to try and cut the internal haggling down a little.
8. Getting off of campus more often. Sam and I went to see Arusi Persian Wedding at the Boston Public Library yesterday, and also picked up information for some events going on for International Women's Day in March. When I worked at the Women and Public Policy Program at the Kennedy School, they put on some great programming, and I'd love to check out some of it there and around the city this year.

Off to a United Nations Association executive board meeting...it'll be strange to end my involvement on campus when I graduate, but also freeing after putting hours and hours of time into it for five years...

A Change of Mental Scenery

I always end up at the same local coffee shop to do work: Espresso Royale. Sometimes, it's a little counter-productive because so many people I know head there too, or stop in simply because they know I'll be camped out there. I don't concentrate as well in my apartment because I always have the temptation to reorganize, curl up on the foof and watch tv with the roommates, or crawl into my bed to sleep.

However, lately I've had difficulty focusing anywhere. Danielle (www.beingabeginner.blogspot.com), suggested setting concrete blocks of time for specific tasks, and not veering into tryng to multi-task or do multiple other things in a short span of time. [Like right now, I should be writing my philosophy paper on civil disobedience. But I'm blogging. Because that's semi-productive, too, right? Ugh].

Sometimes the library works. Sometimes setting goals, like announcing to myself that I can't read the new Wired until I've written xxxx number of words for a paper, or can't go to sleep until I've replied to all my actually important emails, is the solution. But sometimes, its like there's no getting anything real done. And it's frustrating.

Part of it is that my mind has been all over the place lately. Part of it is that I can't seem to prioritize my to-do lists in any way, shape, or form. What comes first? Getting in shape? Keeping in touch? Finding a job? Apartment? Schoolwork? Stuff for my dad? Sleeping? Freaking out about the future? Usually, the last one takes priority in some combination with one or two of the others as background.

Reading has been helping settle me, however. The Witch of Portobello and Eat Pray Love both have passages that caught my frenetic little mind and clarified a few things. The Witch of Portobello, by Paulo Coelho, talks about learning to be ok with the blank spaces in your life. I have a very hard time actually doing nothing, so instead I fill my time trying to do multiple things at once. Extremely unproductive. So. My current theory is to learn to love the blank spaces--meaning, when I have time to breathe, time to think, time to be, I won't try to multi-task. And maybe, in time, it will help streamline the rest of my productive time.

Ramble, complete.

In other news: Some Reasons to Blog. I think I'm going to try to ramp up my efforts here. We will see how it goes.

Not falling apart

My happy list post today just proves to me that a lot of what stresses me out is just in my head. Even with a week as stressful as the last one or two have been, there's so many little (and big) things that should keep me from blowing up.

The weekend with the London ladies was exactly what I needed: some of my favorite people, in my favorite city, and all we had to have to make a good time was each other! We ate and drank and shopped and napped and caught up and LAUGHED! Emily's parents treated us to Maroon 5 tickets out in Mansfield, which was an unexpectedly wonderful night--Adam Levine is gorgeous, and I'd forgotten how much I love their music.

This week is all about trying to take a deep breath and not overinvest myself. I stepped down as the chair of a committee for Generation Progress, a PAC/networking organization launched by a friend. I'll remain involved, but wised up and took a leadership load off. I'm almost at the end of all the summer orientation fairs for freshmen, and onto some of the final preparations for the student groups I run. I'm also freelancing right now, and am quite a bit behind on my hours, but I'll hopefully get around to it this week and the next.

Starting/continuing to ponder jobs. This internship has been a minor-league disaster. Jobs and bosses and work always make me think about how I'd do it better as either an employee or a boss in another instance. I really want to own my own company eventually--not sure what the mission would be, but I've been talking about creating the ultimate work environment obsessively lately. Grad school's also in the back of my mind. My poor buzzing mind.

I booked tickets home for two weeks from now, and tickets to Tampa to see my grandmother right before classes start in September. Classes start?! Eek. Still trying to figure out what my 4th class is going to be: options I've found range from journalism on the web to psychobiology to Islam. We'll see what I pick.

Taking.
Deep.
Breaths.

I think that's the top priority on my long to-do list. That, and remembering to focus on the happy things.