Corporate Novelty

Last Monday, I began training for a teller job with Capital One and so far, I am pretty impressed. I'm accustomed to the field of education where there is never enough money spent where it is needed and higher-ups shrug and say, "Oh well. Work with what you've got." I've never been drawn to the business field, but Capital One may be changing my mind. Sure, they spoiled us at orientation with complimentary coffee, tea, and breakfast followed by gourmet sandwiches for lunch. But beyond that, our facilitators seemed genuinely excited to have us join the "team". There's more of a horizontal mentality at Capital One when it comes to their infrastructure; very little emphasis is placed on job titles/positions/hierarchy.

The job I'll be doing is a temporary, summer position that could become permanent. It has been my experience that when you're a temp., you're seen as disposable and pegged for grunt work. However, our facilitators took the time to explain the importance of our position/role and why it was created. Excuse the cheesiness, but they really do use their resources to invest in their people as they want to ensure that you're successful; they encourage you to explore all avenues available and build your own career path within the company. I know: it's a business. They spend money to make money. They're corporate. But it seems like one of few companies that understands...happy employees are more productive :)

Lighten Up

I'm into my 3rd week of being employed again and for the most part, I don't have many complaints...except for one. Now, it has been quite a few years since I worked retail; but I haven't forgotten that some people can be rude and difficult "just because" while others can be delightful and understanding. In the past, this would normally refer to the demeanor of the customers; however, I'm finding that while most of the people at work are pleasant, they aren't necessarily nice, friendly, or incredibly helpful...well, at least this is so for the team with which I usually work. The 5am-9am shift is interesting for me because (1) I am not a morning person and generally dislike needing to be out of the house before 7am and (2) I spend most/all of the shift working alone. I don't expect to be talking about our life stories with each other, but a little bit of conversation while working tends to lighten the mood, especially that early in the morning.  I feel foolish even writing about this as it is only part-time work, but the anti-social-ness bothers me since I am still training.

My most interesting customer so far:
A woman who looked very young for her age (she told me she was 78 but looked like she was in her late 50s) told me not to tell anyone that she grows a garden in her house. She whispered this to me across the register counter as I was ringing up her items.