Ascension 2012

I've reached the point in my story at which I got a promotion from my first job into a Team Leader. I wasn't the right person for the job. I was an incredibly immature 20-year-old with virtually no people skills. I just goes to show, it's not what you know, it's who you know.

Several young people had been promoted into that job, only to lose it within months. I was determined not to be one of them, so I aimed to impress the boss. When I think back to my boss, I can't believe someone like that would be allowed to be a general manager. He was crude, arrogant, racist, sexist, ageist, and cruel. In my naivety, I became somewhat like him. Perhaps that's where I get my lingering nasty streak today (which thankfully is now disappearing more and more from my life).

I actually had people walking out because of me, and I was praised for it. Over the years, I grew more in tune with the requirements of the job and how to keep a company like that ticking over. I grew in my maturity, knowledge, confidence and assertiveness, until no-one could fault me in anything I did.

The end result of my four years at the company was a fantastic entry into my CV, which has since served me well on a number of occasions. By the time I left there, I was a confident (or so I thought) 24-year-old. I'd met hundreds of people and had a fantastic leaving do (about 30 people came).

I'd began to gain some sense of balance and proportion in my life, and I knew things could only get better...

I was wrong.

I began yesterday telling you about my work life so far. I started working at Metro Marketing, a call centre on the dock road, in December 1997. I was still very immature when I began working there. I'm still embarrassed when I think of the way I was between the ages of about 18 to 22. It was like I'd lost my mind! There were reasons for this, but I won't go too far into it yet until a later post.

Anyway, I worked as a robot for seven months, taking pager messages (obviously before mobile phoned became the in thing), typing them and sending them. It was great at first, earning my own money (I can't believe I thought £4 an hour was great), but, in time, I grew more and more bored at the job. The boredom turned to tiresome anger, and I wanted to leave. Quite early on, I applied for the Team Leader job that had come up, but didn't get it. It knocked my (over-)confidence in myself, but eventually, another two jobs came up.

I remember having a childish moan to the existing Team Leader, Clare, who I was friendly with. She took it upon herself to put a good word in for me with the General Manager. One day, he pulled me aside to ask me if I wanted to give it a go.

I've now learnt enough perspective to realise it wasn't such a big deal, but at the time, it meant a lot to me. I had the opportunity to rise above my academic failings and make something of myself...