Work Wife #4?

It’s been almost three months since Jackie (Work Wife #3) left.  Her last day was 04/28/23.  Since that time, I have had to get used to the idea of being on my own again at work and for the most part, I want to say that I’ve been successful in reverting to being a loner again there.  For the first week and maybe into the second week after Jackie left, many co-workers had approached me and checked in, to see how I was doing and to see if I needed anything.  That’s just people being polite and I welcomed it, even though the only thing I really needed was time.  I needed time to return to some state of normalcy, where I could go back to working on my own, without having to consult with a partner or coordinate schedules.  I don’t deny that I missed Jackie very much, but this was also a change that was going to take time to overcome and heal from.  I also realized that once again, and for the first time in a long time, I was back to being on my own.  This is heaven to an introvert and I was getting comfortable with the concept again.  It didn’t take long.  As of the week of 05/08, I was back in a sense.  I was alone.  I was free.  I had to be and I was ready for it.

Then suddenly, really without too much warning, she came almost out of nowhere.  I know that sounds dramatic and to some degree it is.  I had gotten to know Serena well before Jackie had left and I knew that she was there, a mere physical presence and not much else.  Serena had come in as part of a larger seven or eight-person training class, though at the time, none of those seven or eight people stood out in any form.  They were just sort of there, taking up space and I was skeptical and convinced, as I am with every training class that comes in, that none of them would be there for the long haul.  People come and go all the time.  It’s just an expected part of the job, though I had made it a point just to keep my distance and not get too involved with trainees.  This would include Serena and those who were in her training cohort.  These people were merely passing through and I had no reason to engage or get to know them on any level, other than we just so happen to work in the same office.  My intent was to keep things cordial and not come off an asshole, at least not in an overt manner.  I want to say that to some degree, I succeeded.

I don’t know if anyone in that training group outright left, but I know that at least three of them had already gotten promoted to higher positions, all within a short time frame.  Serena was one of the three who had promoted to a higher position.  Even as I learned of her promotion, I thought little of it.  I still maintained the idea that I wanted to keep my distance and not get too close to anyone.  Then word started to circulate that there was a chance that she would be joining my work group.  I still didn’t pay it any mind, because it didn’t matter to me and it sure as hell didn’t affect me.  Sure, it would have added another body to our group and with the way that people keep leaving, Serena would have been a welcome addition to any of the work groups in the office.  It just so happened that she was slated to join us and that would have been okay.  Again, we’ll take the bodies we can get and hope for the best.  Training doesn’t lead to workers being good or even competent, so to some degree, the jury was still out on Serena’s group and even Serena herself.

Eventually, confirmation would come out via officewide e-mail (though I suspect that Serena knew well before this e-mail was sent) and Serena would ultimately be assigned to an entirely different work group.  Her group happened to sit on the other side of the office from where Christina and I sit.  I thought Christina knew of Serena’s assignment prior to the e-mail, but she gave the impression that she was blind-sided by it as well.  Maybe she knew?  Maybe she didn’t?  I didn’t pry.  I had no dog in the fight anyway, in that, until something happens in that office officially, everything else is just rumor and speculation.  So with that, work life resumed and Serena was now on the other side of the office, likely moving on to bigger and better things.

I had no reason to think of this situation any further and I hadn’t, at least not until Jackie left and suddenly, Serena’s supervisor, Netta, had asked me to assist in training Serena at least for those next two weeks or so.  The entire office, especially management (who hated to see Jackie go, as I did), knew that Jackie was gone and that I suddenly had the time to teach someone the proverbial ropes of the position.  I used to train people all the time dating back to several years ago, but after Jackie left, I didn’t feel the need to do it anymore.  I stopped caring.  Why get close to people who aren’t going to be there for very long?  Why go into my lengthy training script, just to have it fall upon deaf or unwilling ears?  This place tends to hire more for quantity than quality anyway.  Everyone they were bringing on board probably couldn’t do the job anyway or would discover later, after their training ended, that this wasn’t the kind of job they wanted to do.  Strangely and contrary to everything I just said, when Netta asked me to train Serena for those two weeks, I said yes, but was reluctant to do so.  Netta and I go way back and I didn’t want to disappoint her, at least not without a convincing excuse.  I had nothing though.  Aside from my thoughts on the whole training bit, I had no valid reason to say no and otherwise turn Serena away.  I already had it in my mind that I was just doing Netta a solid.

Just like that, I was again connected to someone.  This didn’t happen organically though.  I was merely doing a favor for a friend.  I went in thinking that it was going to be temporary.  Surely, I can do two weeks.  After all, Netta asked me for help because the guy who would have trained Serena was slated to go on vacation for those two weeks and suddenly, I became the best next option.  Now I don’t want to rip into Carlos and from what I’ve seen, he’s a nice enough guy.  I write better than he does, though I’m nowhere near as thin.  But with my level of arrogance, I knew that my alter ego had/has a much better personality than he does.  I started to think that maybe, just maybe, I was the better man for the job, even though it was one that I never asked for.

Perspective being what it is, I wanted to say that Serena took to me pretty well from the very beginning.  I don’t know why, but I think she did.  She was interactive, inquisitive, and seemed like she wanted to learn as much as she could.  By the end of those two weeks, we had already gone on some adventures, though nothing at the time that I would have held onto as memorable or something that I needed to readily commit to memory.  We spoke, but nothing that I would have considered to have been deep or meaningful.  This was the kind of conversation that people have when they would rather talk about anything else rather than be subject to the pervasive sounds of silence.  I didn’t tune her out and I engaged with her just the same.  Again, this was conversation just for the sake of talking to someone and not being bored during a long drive.

And before things had a chance to progress any further, our two weeks were up and my duties to Netta’s new person were over.  Serena would return to her work group and likely Carlos, since his vacation was going to be ending.  In some manner of speaking, Serena would again be Carlos’ responsibility and I was no longer involved with that situation.  I wished Serena well, in my head anyway, and that was that.  I figured that I’d see her around on occasion, though not that often because of how far she sits and being that I’m usually not interested in venturing towards that side of the office.  That’s a long walk and not one that I cared to make multiple times a day, if ever.