My New Work Responsibilities

Many of you have continued to express an interest in how I am doing with my new job. Aside from the environment and being in the minority (as it seems I am the only active Church member on the campaign), it has gone swimmingly. Most days, by the time 4 or 5 pm rolls around, all those who head up the campaign are gone for the day (including my project manager and his assistant and my team leader). Since I have been asked for and have given advice to others on the campaign in the absence of anyone higher up, I have frequently been worried that I might be overstepping my bounds. But I have been told that I am trusted to do whatever's needed and to give such advice when requested. And so far, it's been great. I have kind of slipped in to an informal role as the de facto TL for those hours when there is no one higher up there. And so far, there have been no problems in terms of the agent company's response to actions taken under my advice. It has been great to be trusted.

But above and beyond that, and even more amazing, is what happened on Friday when I came in after two days of not feeling well. The account manager (Trent) was talking to my TL (Natalie), and he said (as far as I can remember, this is an exact quote: "Since James is doing so awesome on this campaign, I want you to show him what you've been asked to do." This was cryptic but sounded promising, and I was flattered by the high praise and by the confidence they were displaying in my ability to take on new responsibilities.

So Natalie showed me what it was she had been doing as time allowed over the last couple of days that I had been sick. It involves calling those who have signed up within the last 24 hours for any of the training programs we offer, getting them started with the information they need, and scheduling their first appointment with their coach. It's not all that different from what I've been doing: it's just specific to those who have more recently enrolled in the program. Upon further inquiry, I was told that this would be what my job entailed day in and day out until either the list was sufficiently trimmed down enough for Natalie to resume taking care of it on her own as her circumstances allow or until the system issues we have been having are fixed to the point where the system does not keep calling people who have already been talked to and set up.

It also means that, since I will be devoting all the time I can to these new responsibilities while I am on the clock, there will be much less down time. This is because, for those newly enrolled in the process, the system doesn't call them automatically. My calls will all be manual for the foreseeable future.

So what does that mean in terms of my future ability to regularly check Church sites and this blog and do new posts? It means that less downtime while waiting for calls at work will cut my ability to do those things with any regularity while I'm on the clock. That's not a complaint. It has bothered me more than a little that I have just been getting paid to sit around and kill time in the best possible way while on the clock, even though that has been interspersed with semi-regular automatic calls made by the system. There will be much less free time. But it will be worth it.

As has been my usual response any time this job has led to more responsibilities, I am humbled and in some ways overwhelmed by the trust that has been placed in me by my supervisors. And it seems that every time I turn around, I am doing well enough on the job that they entrust me with more responsibility. Just last week, prior to the days I missed, we got me set up with my first work-related e-mail. And so the first expansion of my duties at that time involved me being able to send e-mail confirmation to the people I talked with regarding what we had talked about. Since I have been apparently doing well enough on the phones in general with that addition, on Friday, they gave me this additional expansion of my assignment.

And so, as overwhelming and daunting as it has been sometimes to consider how much I am trusted, and how highly I am regarded by those who have supervision over me, I move forward with perfect confidence that, even if I do have doubts periodically about my continuing ability to be worthy of the added responsibilities that have been entrusted to me, I can be secure in the knowledge that, as long as I do my best, it will be good enough.

Thanks for taking time to read and (if you feel so inclined) to comment on this post. Again, if I didn't have the assurance that the things I am posting are interesting and even in some ways beneficial to those who read them, I would not feel comfortable continuing to post as time and circumstances allow. Thank you all so much for your readership and support. You can depend on hearing from me regarding personal and Church developments on every front just as soon as I can make that happen. Thanks again.