Literal Sweet Revenge

I started a new job for the postal service 3 weeks ago. I get to work with my daughter, which is the best! So far, it's just been training full time and tonight we are out of training but on probation for a little over 2 more months. We had to work days for all of the training and I feel like our lives got really shaken up by that. My husband, who is pretty much the best!, took over the whole time on home duties. He made sure our boys got to school and he worked from home many of those days so that he could accommodate our oldest son's at-home classes and back-and-forth schedule.

The job is surprisingly demanding. It's typing addresses but you have to type at a very productive speed for hours & hours and you learn so many rules as to how to type the addresses. It gets confusing and it's overwhelming to adjust to. However, it gets easier over time. I know that because I have done this job before prior to having children. You know it's been a long time though if now I have a child old enough to work there. It used to be in a different building and many things have changed from 20 years ago! I remember very little from doing it before and a good portion of what I do remember has changed now.

We've had many trainers throughout our time there and I've done my best not to annoy any of them. I will write about trainers I like and then the one that bothered me most. The first trainer who made a huge difference to me is Russ. I had gone through a little bit of trauma from one of the trainers and was considering quitting. The next day, I was assigned to Russ. There are things that I could not avoid having issues with, such as computer problems. The only thing I do with the computer is log on and off. I don't mess with any other thing so I could not have caused the problems. He had to help me 3 times in a short amount of time and I apologized and he just said, "Are you in training?" and of course, I said yes and he responded, "Perfect! Because my job is to help you complete that training. As many times as you need help will be as many times as I'm happy to be of help and I will never mind or be bothered by you trying to do your job because that's what gives me the opportunity to do my job." He talked to me at another time, giving me some background as to his patient approach and his professional background in general. When I struggled to learn certain rules & kept making the same mistakes on my testing, he always responded with, "Well, let's see what we can learn," which I thought was a very positive approach to my mistakes. I can't think of a better experience I could have had that day. Nobody else was ever quite as patient or dedicated to training as him but I only got to have him for one day. My daughter was sad because she never got to have him so at least I got one day. There was another trainer, Nicole. No matter how many times you asked her questions or for clarifications, she always said, "That's a good question" or "I'm glad you asked that." Those simple phrases made you feel totally comfortable approaching her with anything and like she had time for you. There was another trainer who's name I don't know that cheered everybody on constantly and got very silly one afternoon, which made me think the best about her. The other trainers showed varying levels of helpfulness and approachability.

For a side note, although I did work for the post office before doing this job, they consider you a re-hire only if you've worked there in the last 5 years, which I have not. I'll end with Karen. This was the first trainer I was exposed to and she's the one I had most often. I tend to be very independent. I found ways to do my training and learning early on that didn't require much help from her. Me not calling her over for help regularly meant that when I failed a test (which you are designed to fail & fail & fail & fail because the information gets drilled in your head so many times from failing that when you finally succeed, it means the information is sinking in well), without her re-setting the computer system, I had to do a ridiculous amount of practice & re-training before I could re-test. If I called her over every single time I failed, she could have re-set the system so I could skip the practice stuff and just re-test but I felt like it would be annoying to call her over so many times. After a couple times, I just did the extra work and took the 200-scenario test over and over and over, including 75 practice scenarios in between every test. I was on a good pace so I wasn't worried about getting behind and I felt like my system made it possible not to bother her very much. She somehow found out I had worked for the post office before because when I did pass one of my tests, which has to be signed off, she said, "This must all be coming back to you now, right?" I was surprised she had found out and I mentioned it had been so long that I really had to re-learn. This is the point where she seemed to change and I'm not sure why. There was a front side of paper for all the testing we had to pass off and a back side. On my last test on the front side, Karen was on lunch and another lady was in the training room. She announced that she didn't want to be there and did a big, annoyed sigh every time somebody needed a test signed off. I had her come sign off the test and thought I would have to do things from the back side but at that point, she told me to read some things and then sent me to another trainer, out on the regular floor outside of the training room, who didn't tell me anything other than how to log on and a couple random facts, which had no context to me at the time, and then when I asked a few questions, he told me I was keying live mail now. If I could go back, I would have done things very differently but you don't know what you don't know. I felt so confused and lost and unsure of what the next few weeks would look like for me there. When Karen came back, I asked her a few questions, trying to get information about my transition so I could be successful at it and once she found out I had already been logged into live mail, she just started screaming at me and shooed me out of the training room without answering one single question. My trainer outside of the room just talked in circles without answering any of my questions, too, although he didn't yell at me. The next day as I stood at the only time clock I had ever used, Karen stood there with us for 5 minutes before we could clock in but when I went to clock in, she took the opportunity to scream at me in front of everybody for clocking in near the people still in initial training. When I asked her where I should clock in instead, she just screamed but again, wouldn't even answer my question.

I don't respond too well to being yelled at, especially if I'm just seeking the minimum amount of information necessary to be successful at my job. Also I felt like I had put trust in her to train me and had been a good trainee but the second I wanted an answer to a question, she didn't just not answer but she unleashed a torrent of wrath upon me and I felt betrayed. I made do though and eventually figured out the minimum amount of information I needed to know so I could at least get by. There was a day that everybody was supposed to be getting information on the successful ergonomics of the job and all the how-tos of working there. I looked forward to a break from typing very much. She came up to me the day before and told me I couldn't go to it because I'd worked there before. I reminded her it was 20 years ago and I really needed the information. She screamed at me, in front of everybody again, that I was being so stupid for wanting to go and that there was no reason for me to go. I gave some push-back anyway because I will stand up for myself when things are this ridiculous. She told me she'd talk to the probation supervisor and make sure I couldn't go. The next day, I was told that I wouldn't be allowed to go. I went to the probation supervisor myself to push and I basically found out Karen was so adamant about me not getting the training that everybody was convinced and wouldn't budge on the decision. I typed all day while every other person from my training spent the whole day learning how to succeed at every aspect of the job there. When I found out what they learned, including how to attend our audits and how to request time off and how to do job requirements we are not taught in training, I felt a little angry that nobody taught me how to do any of that. Those are things that could be really helpful to know. The only reason I didn't quit then is that my daughter is there & got to go to the training and she'll try her best to help me figure out those things. Nobody from the company taught me those basic things that any employee there would need to be able to do their job.

By this time, I had learned there's a table in our break room where people put out whatever they want to give away. I've seen food there, coupons, crafting supplies, audio books, magazines, serving trays, etc. I bought several cases of cookies from a company close to my work. I got a great deal but couldn't fit all of them in our freezers so I thawed two cases of oatmeal raisin cookies and sent a case with my husband to work and took a case to our work to leave on the table. It was 240 cookies. My daughter pointed out that one of the first people to really swarm the cookies was Karen. She kept saying, "Mom-you have to look!" I looked over and sure enough, she was grabbing at cookies like a kid in the candy store, a kid who fights off all the other kids to get the most candy. I thought how funny it is that she did all she could to ruin my experience there yet she was quick as can be to grab all the free cookies she could get her hands on that I brought. We laughed and laughed and joked about me walking up to her to say snarky things like, "Karen. I'm glad you enjoyed those cookies so much. Did you know I brought them? You sure do like the things I bring." Later in the week, I thawed a case of chocolate chip cookies and brought in. It was pretty much a repeat of before with Karen leading the pack in grabbing for and hoarding cookies and then walking around so proud of herself for her haul. I brought you those cookies, Karen. When I want to feel mad, I will just think of you acting like what matters most in life is getting a lot of free cookies. I will laugh and the anger will just drift away because I will be laughing too much to be angry. That's what I call sweet revenge.