Stokes Sounds Off: 12/30/16

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Friday, December 30, 2016

My very close call

Hello, all! The last couple of days have been personally hectic for me. I will explain that in a minute. But first, there was so much Church news yesterday what with the temple construction updates and the reported death of Elder Porter, and given the situation I have had in the last 24 hours, I have not been at liberty to blog about things until now.

Yesterday was a fairly good workday. I felt confident doing what I was doing, and the best part of yesterday was that the assistant account manager had a split shift, so even after Trent and my TL left for the day, by that time, she (her name is Jenny) was back, and she was able to stay the rest of the night.

Things went swimmingly . . .until about 8:15 PM. Due to some technical errors with my system that could not be resolved because our technical support staff had gone for the day, I was sent home. While I was getting ready to leave, Jenny talked to all of us that were representing the campaign. She said the agent company had come down very hard on Trent due to mistakes made by the ROI agents who represented the agent company. The situation was bad enough that they were threatening to pull the contract.

While I had been assured by Jenny when she shared this news that even if our contract with the campaign ended, they would try to find another campaign at the Lindon ROI for me, I had that all-too-familiar knot in my stomach about the stressful nature of the situation. As instructed, I went home at about 8:45 since the issues with my system would not be cleared up until today when the technicians could handle it.

When Amy came to pick me up, I told her about the situation. She waited until we were home to ask me about it further. Her fear was that I would lose this job within the same week of getting it. I had been assured by Jenny that there was a learning curve for the job,, and that any errors I had made were due to not being properly trained on how to handle them, and that this would be a consideration in determining my fate, regardless of the outcome with the campaign.

Shortly after we arrived back home, Amy asked me how I was handling this. Putting a brave face on it, I told her I was fine. But I couldn't look her in the eye while saying so. When she told me to repeat that while we had eye contact, I couldn't. I had a meltdown right then and there. She held me tight and let me know that whatever happened with work, she was here for me.

One thing I have always been able to count on during the last 6+ years is Amy's ability to calm me down and reassure me. She has never once failed to do so. She encouraged me to pray right then and there for the Lord's blessings in our situation.

As I followed her advice, I became convinced that everything would be okay. I felt an overwhelming sense of peace. I was able to enjoy the rest of the day and get to sleep with relative ease, albeit in the early morning hours.

I had no end of trouble waking up and getting going today, but I still managed to arrive at work on time. When I got here, I received additional training from Trent and from my TL. Latitude had been extended to me because of the learning curve. Some of my coworkers, with whom I formed a good bond in a short time, were not as lucky unfortunately. I am hoping beyond hope that nothing I did led to their termination. Time will tell.

In the meantime, with the retraining, I was able to handle things so much better today. It was a wonderful day. There were system issues, but I had no issues learning from my mistakes and changing my behavior accordingly. If only everything could be resolved so easily!

Well, FWIW, that's my report of the latest personal happenings. Another bullet dodged. I am one of the luckiest men alive. That said, the time has come for me to leave for the day. Thanks to you all for your interest, concern, and support. Any comments continue to be welcome and appreciated. Thanks for your readership and support.