RE: Good News Everyone!!! (The joysplosion thread)
03-16-2016, 01:30 AM
Several weeks ago, my bakery experienced a severe labor hours cut. Severe severe. Even after reducing most employees to a schedule of 24-32 hours a week (from the 32-40+ they had before the cut), there was still not enough time to go around, and as the newest hire, I was the low man on the totem pole: my manager sat me down and said her choices were essentially to lay me off or transfer me to another bakery. I was very apprehensive about that, given that I would be leaving most of the people I know and likely having a completely different job description and schedule. I wasn't just apprehensive, I was frightened, and worried for the livelihoods of myself and my now-ex coworkers.
Since then, though, it has proven to be an amazing change: my new manager was the head decorator at my first bakery (the one that was closed by corporate) and who has since gone out of her way several times to help make sure I and the other people who got shafted by the closure had jobs and prospects even though I'd only known her for a month when it happened; I'm now a full-fledged baker instead of primarily being a donut fryer, and while I was worried I would miss the expression of a skill I had taken great pride in developing and got satisfaction in doing, I get even greater satisfaction from what I'm doing now and get to develop new skills and tricks every day; as our only trained baker (the other employees being decorators and sales personnel) and having a pleasant personal and professional relationship with my manager, I am given much greater latitude in making production and style decisions than I've ever been before, and I'm able to see every day the things I make as an expression of my craft and the people who enjoy them, both of which bring me great happiness; my job is something I enjoy a lot but don't have to live in when I'm not there. It is all very good.
It's also a reflective microcosm of my whole life right now. I'm rediscovering things I used to love but felt shamed into abandoning years ago, I've made enormous strides in personal acceptance and self-love which are things I struggle greatly with, I have healthy and emotionally satisfying relationships with the important people in my life. I am at a baseline of contentment for the first time in my life, which I enjoy even more because as a person I was born and raised to have unhappiness in my blood and bones; it's taken years of struggle and work and drugs and setbacks to reach my current state of personal enlightenment, and reaching it brings me great and consistent joy, especially following the understanding that even that enlightenment, like all things, is mutable and transient.
I am well, and things are good, and I can finally live for myself while living for others. I am so happy, and even when I'm not I can still see that happiness and I know the gnawing void at the core of me is no more valid and true than the wellness I've achieved and will again. Life is such a wonderfully chaotic experience.
I'm also literally draped in pearls and jasper right now and have a tourmaline in my hand, so that helps. I love the look and feel (and honestly sometimes taste) of gems and minerals~
Since then, though, it has proven to be an amazing change: my new manager was the head decorator at my first bakery (the one that was closed by corporate) and who has since gone out of her way several times to help make sure I and the other people who got shafted by the closure had jobs and prospects even though I'd only known her for a month when it happened; I'm now a full-fledged baker instead of primarily being a donut fryer, and while I was worried I would miss the expression of a skill I had taken great pride in developing and got satisfaction in doing, I get even greater satisfaction from what I'm doing now and get to develop new skills and tricks every day; as our only trained baker (the other employees being decorators and sales personnel) and having a pleasant personal and professional relationship with my manager, I am given much greater latitude in making production and style decisions than I've ever been before, and I'm able to see every day the things I make as an expression of my craft and the people who enjoy them, both of which bring me great happiness; my job is something I enjoy a lot but don't have to live in when I'm not there. It is all very good.
It's also a reflective microcosm of my whole life right now. I'm rediscovering things I used to love but felt shamed into abandoning years ago, I've made enormous strides in personal acceptance and self-love which are things I struggle greatly with, I have healthy and emotionally satisfying relationships with the important people in my life. I am at a baseline of contentment for the first time in my life, which I enjoy even more because as a person I was born and raised to have unhappiness in my blood and bones; it's taken years of struggle and work and drugs and setbacks to reach my current state of personal enlightenment, and reaching it brings me great and consistent joy, especially following the understanding that even that enlightenment, like all things, is mutable and transient.
I am well, and things are good, and I can finally live for myself while living for others. I am so happy, and even when I'm not I can still see that happiness and I know the gnawing void at the core of me is no more valid and true than the wellness I've achieved and will again. Life is such a wonderfully chaotic experience.
I'm also literally draped in pearls and jasper right now and have a tourmaline in my hand, so that helps. I love the look and feel (and honestly sometimes taste) of gems and minerals~