July 3rd, 2008

AKA: DAY 3 OF WORKING WITH MY FATHER.

To start, let me say that at this time I was 27 years old. Mature. Living on my own (married, yes, but had been separated for almost 3 years….a story for another day). College educated. Mature. I had been working in sales for 4 years. I was ready to take on the new task of stepping into a position at my dads company with the vision of learning manufacturing and eventually using my sales knowledge to go out into the world and expand his business. I was thrilled. I was excited. I was going to conquer the world my dad needed me to. Did I mention I was mature?

Ok, yes, I was frightened, but that’s not what this is about….this is about the first 3 days. I had just left the housing market, which we all know was doing so fantastically! So, needless to say, I had a lot of time on my hands before. I was now going to be in an office for the first time in my life and learning from my dad. Still, I walked in knowing I was going to be amazing. I mean, after all, I was the boss’s daughter and confidence is half the battle, right? So, I went in at 8am (after an hour drive and 2 cans of Red Bull) ready to kick ass. From there it becomes a blur. There were phones ringing, calls to transfer, computer systems to learn, accounting? whats accounting?, payroll systems, employee paperwork, invoicing, and lions and tigers and bears OH MY! I was replacing a woman who had been with my dad for almost 10 years. She knew what she was doing. Being the “boss’s daughter” I felt like I had to make a good impression and learn everything right away, so I worked my tail off those first days trying to quickly learn everything this woman had done for 10 years. I literally (sorry Michelle and Amanda if you are reading this, literally has to be said here, LOL) felt like a chicken with its head cut off running around the office. I wanted it to seem like I could manage it all with no problems. Answering this call, copying this order, learning this program, entering this PO, calling this truck….did I pee yet today?

So, it finally got to be about 4:45 on day 3, which lucky for me was also the day before a Holiday and I had a 3 day weekend coming up. OMG, I can pee whenever I want, without asking my dad if I can take a break from learning what a t-bar thingy is! (BTW, it's some accounting thing that I can draw, but does it make sense to this day…only kind of, shhhh, don’t tell my dad). I had just finished doing a task and I was supposed to go tell my dad when I was done. I had to go potty real bad and I was starving, but I figured, go tell dad you’re finished, it’s 4:45, he probably just going to tell you to take it easy for the last few minutes of the day then you can use the restroom, grab a Twix bar and catch up on People.com (I am sure so much has happened in the 3 days I have been out of the loop!). So, I walk into my dad’s office, announce that I am finished, and smile when I see him look at his watch to realize that it is 4:45. No time to do anything else. WRONG. He promptly jumps up and says, “Great, lets quickly learn one more thing for the day!”

WHAT! Are you nuts!? Do you not see the glossy look in my eyes that says I cannot possibly hold any more information!? Do you not see my tummy looking full because I haven’t peed all day because there has been no time!? Do you know that I might fall asleep right now because the last time I had to wake up at 6AM to go anywhere was high school!? DO YOU NOT KNOW THAT I WANT A TWIX BAR!? DADDY, GO GET ME A TWIX BAR!!!!!!!!

Those were the calm, rational, mature thoughts (I mentioned I was mature, right?) running through my head at that moment. Your internal monologue screaming “Daddy get me a Twix bar!” is definitely a sign of maturity =)

What did I do? I smiled, and said “Great, let’s go!” Then a week later I told my dad the story when I was out to dinner with him and my mom and he simply looked at me, patted me on the back, and said “Welcome to the real world hun, it sucks.”

The moral of this story is, there are times you have to suck it up and hope that your internal monologue is working and you don’t vocalize what you are thinking. But, there are also times where we have all wanted to look at our bosses, no matter who they may be, and just simply yell “SHUT UP AND GET ME A TWIX!”