Rat Race

Easy Living

By Olive L. Sullivan

“Summertiiiiimmmeeee… and the livin’ is easy…”

I can just hear the sultry voice of Wendy, one of the women who attended the Brave Voice retreat with me a few weeks ago. She didn’t actually sing that song, but I can hear it anyway, and the echoes of those days of bliss seem to have carried into real life.

Living does seem to be easier all of the sudden.

I think part of it really is the increasing length of the days as we count down to the summer solstice, when day and night are the same length. I started my real job in October, just as the days were becoming noticeably shorter. For many months, Colleen and I got up in darkness, drove to work in darkness, and then drove home in darkness. If we saw the sun, it was just a glowing orange sliver on the horizon. It was hard to arrive home after dark because my creative energy was so zapped by work that I couldn’t muster up the enthusiasm to finish any of my ongoing projects, from painting the bathroom to finishing a mosaic table to completing the final draft of my novel in progress. Since I don’t have a working television, I couldn’t join the rest of America in vegging out to “American Idol” or “Grey’s Anatomy.” I went to bed early, got up early, and never felt like I’d gotten enough sleep.

Now, however, the daylight hours stretch deep into the evening, and I come home and accomplish something. Friday Spike and I took my canoe out to Witmore Pits and went fishing, and it really doesn’t get much better than a long evening on a lake. Last night a friend joined me for a weeding party in my rose bed. After an energetic couple of hours, we sat on my deck sipping iced tea and talking, enjoying the garden as the fireflies came out to join the moon. I’m even more enthusiastic about accomplishing my freelance projects, and I’m more energetic about projects on the real job as well. I feel as if I have been sleepwalking, and I’m finally (almost!) awake.

While I credit the lengthening days with much of my restored and rejuvenated attitude, I also have to credit my Brave Voice Divas for their encouragement and ideas on how to keep the creative juices flowing at work. I came back with a sense of enthusiasm that had been lacking. One question these divas asked is, “What do you want to be doing at your job?”

I had all kinds of answers, from working on the Web site to producing a newsletter to spending more time with the other employees so I can get up to speed on what we do, why, and how. I have realized that, while I like the isolation of my private office, I need a little more interaction with the rest of the world. As a newspaper reporter, my whole job was wandering around the county talking to people about the interesting things they were doing, and then writing about them. The BVDs helped me realize I could wander around the workplace talking to people about the interesting things they were doing, and then writing about them. Hmmm. Why hadn’t I thought of that?

One of my complaints has been that I feel like I’m out of the loop. Of course I hadn’t actually mentioned that to Scott or Nancy; Colleen heard about it on the way home, and the BVDs heard about it at the retreat. They pointed out that I had some control over my problem. Hmmm. When I returned to work, I came up with several proposals to move me forward. Scott seemed surprised when I asked if I could attend the weekly meetings of the department heads. After all, I’m not a department head. But in fact, I don’t think it had occurred to him that I felt isolated and even intimidated by my lack of knowledge about what exactly we’re doing. I know about new products because someone asks me to create a label or make up a new product sheet, but I’m not actively involved in the process of bringing the product to life. Since I am the only person in my department, and since Scott has described me as “the closest thing we have to marketing right now,” it seemed like it might help if I had a clue. Because I asked, I now have a plan on how to get a couple.

Another positive change at the workplace is that I’ll be moving downstairs for the summer. Currently, three of us inhabit the upstairs space, which is designed for many more people than that. The advantage is that it’s nice and quiet most of the time. The disadvantage is that the quiet is occasionally broken by snoring! Seriously, it’s too quiet, and it’s hard to keep cool, and it’s too easy to snooze away the day in our little isolated towers. Perhaps the move downstairs started out as a cost-cutting measure – if we are downstairs, the upstairs doesn’t have to have climate control – but it will mean that the three of us are more integrated into the daily workings of our plant. Of course Adam and Rocky are already more integrated than I am, because Adam is a department head, and Rocky is actively involved in product design (also, they actually understand what it is we do here…). But I think that the move downstairs, combined with my more proactive attitude, will make me into a more productive employee. Not only will that be a benefit to my boss, but a benefit to me as well.

Finally, I asked if I could take a couple of summer workshops through Pitt State. Part of my job is taking digital photos of products. These photos go on our Web site and in various sorts of marketing publications, from product sheets to brochures. I can take a decent photo, but I wanted to get a little more in-depth instruction on the camera I’m using, and a few professional tips on studio product photography. When I saw a weeklong workshop, I asked if I could sign up. The second workshop is on the Adobe program Flash, which will help me with the work I will eventually be doing on our company Web site.

The obvious advantage is that I’m learning skills that will enhance my performance at work. The classes also engage my mind and add variety to my day, both things I have realized are important to my workplace happiness. I don’t expect my company to send me to classes all the time, but this is a good step on my way to greater productivity and happiness. On a personal level, however, the big benefit is time. Since the classes are in Pittsburg, I lose the early morning commute. Instead, I go to class until noon, and then drive to Joplin. This gift of extra time won’t last, but, combined with the easy summertime vibe, maybe it will keep me afloat long enough that I’ll learn to swim on my own.

As the days grow longer and I get my mind back from its winter cocoon of thick cotton, I remember what I already know: You won’t get what you want if people don’t know you want it. You just have to ask and see what happens.

My column "Back to the Rat Race" appears every two weeks in Joplin Tri-State Business. This edition was published on June 15, 2009. JTSB is now available online at http://www.joplintristate.biz/.