Moving Up

I think I've finally gotten into the groove of working at my new job. Wake up. Turn off the alarm. Sleep for another 10 minute. Get up. Get ready. Get stuck in traffic. Be a few minutes late (but no one cares). Sit down in front of a computer. Talk on the phone all day long and help people. Head to the gym. Go home. Internet. Pass out.

It's nice to have a routine. Well, a routine in which I get paid to be tired and deal with (occasionally) stupid people.

All the time.

For those unaware, I'm currently working at my new job at a concrete company. For the month of August I was pretty much being taught as much as I could learn about concrete, and then how to sit in front of a computer how to respond to the many clients who wanted concrete orders or modifications to their orders.

I was told I was learning extremely quickly. Maybe it was just because the last order person was a complete ditz who couldn't figure out the program but I picked it up within a week. Last week they unleashed me on the phones by myself and I've been fine every since.

Which is scary, because a single error can result in massive costs on our end. In fact, the other day, someone checking over an order I made brought to my attention that I had entered in a wrong concrete mix due to a 3 character difference. And had that order gone through, it would have cost the company easily $25,000.

Oops.

So part of our training is to double check orders, and re-double check orders to make sure everything goes right. Nearly all the mistakes I make are simply due to being new and they're pretty much all caught or not costly. My coworkers are pretty nice about it, teaching and showing me how to do things properly without making me feel like an idiot.

And so for about 2 weeks I did this. Time goes by surprisingly fast, shifts disappearing quickly. I rarely have an idle moment and I don't mind. This job keeps me awake and conscious and that's not a bad thing at all.

But on the side, I was also being trained for dispatch. Meaning I would now be in charge of sending out trucks in the city, directing drivers, etc. etc.. It's more fast-paced plus I believe I get paid more to do so.

Being paid even more to sit in front of a computer? Awesome.

But the training for being a dispatcher slowly disappeared. And I resigned to sticking with being in Orders. But I was ok with it. It kept my mind active, I was still being paid well, and there's something rewarding about helping people all day. Especially when most are appreciative.

And then yesterday,  my supervisor suddenly pulls me away from my desk. Usually when he does this it's because he caught a mistake I made. Except this time I'm greeted with, "Damian, you're completely comfortable with orders now. Starting now, we're training you for dispatch."

Turns out, dispatchers do EVERYTHING on top of sending out trucks. No point of training me for it if I wasn't comfortable with orders yet. But it clear that I am proceeding far ahead of schedule. Especially since we hired someone new and I can compare my rate of progress to her.

Feels good man.

Well, we would have started. If my systems account didn't suddenly decide to die on me. So we start next week. My official dispatcher training will require me to work longer and later hours. But I get overtime so I'm not complaining.

But this means that I can no longer work at my fast food job during the evenings. I'm now occasionally working on the weekends and this will continue until my full-time job starts allocating me to weekend shifts as well.

As much as I'll miss the cheap food, I think it's time I finally move on. Plus, I make more doing 1 hour of OT than I would doing 3 hours fast food.