Standing in someone else's shoes

This week I learned about what it is like to do someone else's job. I work in a small music school and generally work with stacks of paper and a computer. This week I was doing more people management due to the absence of the regular manager (my husband). I have experienced the joy of coaching new employees, handling small crisis, dealing with nice and not so nice customers, and juggling lots of details. Things have gone well for the most part but I am feeling the stress. It could be that I am just not used to dealing with so many people, or that my general Zen routine of bookkeeping has been interrupted. I guess this might be called experiential learning. It could also be called wandering into a pit of hungry lions.

Comments

Andy Egizi, Program Coordinator said…
:) You eventually enjoy the den of lions. LIS students are pretty easy to work with but when I was in financial aid, the students were much more angry - adding money to the mix results in a lot more yelling. I actually liked the angry ones since it was easy to tell if I'd done a good job. If they left thanking me, it was one in the plus column.
September 6, 2008 at 7:34 AM
Raisa said…
Ha! Dealing with people is always a riot. What helps me to de-stress is to not think... well, not think about too many things. Not only does it hurt my head, but it gets me all on edge when I think about too many things going on, which just adds to the stress. It really does help to focus on one thing at a time, one customer at a time, one book stack at a time. Plus, if you stress others around you will stress too. People are very sensitive that way, even the tough shells.
September 8, 2008 at 8:33 AM
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