32 YEARS

How is it possible that I am in my 32nd year at my company? It’s so crazy to think that more than half my life has been at the same place. I have only had 4 positions in that time, all of them challenging in their own way. First I started out handling packages and crawling around the bellies of the airplanes. That is until I got pregnant and they didn’t want me doing that anymore. But I did work up until my 7th month.

My next position was a driver of large trucks making deliveries. I loved it! I loved the freedom, I loved that I was alone in my truck and I loved driving to different places. I did this for about 20 years. I put on hundreds of thousands of miles and only three accidents and a few tickets in that time. I was lucky that likely should have been more of both. One of the parts I loved was I could be my own navigator. Whatever way I wanted to go depending on what I wanted to see I could and I did!

A position was coming up as a dispatcher, I had been the fill in dispatcher for a while and enjoyed it. The hours were kind of early, but with that I got off work early too. But the biggest reason I wanted this job is that I couldn’t see myself being a driver and being told to do something by someone that didn’t know the job as well I did. I had to go after this! I had an interview and felt I knocked it out of the park. I had to come up with a scenario where I had made a plan and executed it. I used a driving vacation to 7 western states I took with my 11 year old son. I had to plan visits to many places that required pre-paid tickets and hotels. This was summer of 2000 and not much could be done on the internet to plan.  I believe this is what pushed that interview over the top. I could route, I could plan and I could make it happen! Turns out this job was perfect for me and it fit a lot of my skillsets. Until the stress became too much. I had taken it all too personally. The late deliveries, the routing mistakes, all of it I couldn’t take it. Eight years I was a dispatcher it was time for someone else to do it. It was hard to admit and hard to leave because I liked the control and being in charge. 

Perfect timing. I had heard that a job was coming open. A friend was retiring. He had helped me with everything previous in my career and this would be no different. He had taught me how to drive a forklift and had encouraged me to learn dispatching. He told his manager that I was a good fit for his job. I could be self-sufficient, self-managing and I was responsible. So now I track down shipments that are being held by US and foreign customs and work to get them released and delivered. It’s a lot of desk time, it’s challenging, but there isn’t a lot of immediate gratification. It takes days, sometimes weeks for customs to get something done. So I am learning patience now and things get done in time. What I do enjoy is that I can do what I want mostly, as long as I do my job as well. 

Not everyone can stay at the same place for 32 years. I probably got that from my parents. They both stayed in their jobs until retirement. My mom, a banker and my dad an art teacher. I am envious of people that can switch jobs and companies, move and find something new to do. There is a part of me that would enjoy that, always something different, never knowing what’s around the corner. But there is something that I find comforting in knowing what I am getting into. Safety, likely. 

So maybe in retirement I’ll try something new. I won’t be rushing into anything.

I have a few more years to think about that!