Working For A Living

I have a couple of work stories.

I really do like my job. I like 98% of the people I work with, and I enjoy about 80% of what I do. Inevitably, there are times when it is going to be work, and there's pretty much nothing I can do about it. Sometimes I feel so put out with interviewing, but I had some good ones on Friday.

My favorite one was a pretty young kid who came in for our entry-level leasing position. He had been recently laid off from his previous job, and was mostly just looking for something sales related that would be pretty stable. He couldn't have been any older than 23, max. I went through the normal questions I ask, and the last one I always ask which I think always feels the most telling about who it is that I'm actually interviewing is "what are you most proud of? personally or professionally." Throughout the duration of the interview this guy felt very genuine. I expected this answer to be similar in tone, and I wasn't disappointed.

He started off by saying that admittedly, he was not feeling too proud at that particular moment in his life. To put that in context, over the last 8 months of being in this position, nobody has ever answered that question by bringing up a negative. I also probably interview around 15-20 people a week, so that means in about 480-620 interviews, I've never had that answer. That's about 0.5% of the time. And that could be attributable to his youth and inexperience, but I think it had a lot more to do with his candor. He felt that way because he just wanted to be able to support himself and his wife, but he couldn't without a meaningful income and he was feeling pretty low from being laid off. What melted my heart, though, was that he followed up that part by saying that "Well, I got married not too long ago, and I know that we're young, but I'm in love with my wife. And I love the Lord." I wish you could have heard the tone of his voice. If I could have, I would have hired him right on the spot. If only every husband could say those words with the same kind of sincerity that he did on Friday.

My other story...so I'm pretty tight with our Wednesday-Friday receptionist, Brandy. She can be found here. I don't think that I've given her the deserved credit she deserves. I actually look forward to the second half of the week like you wouldn't believe just because I think she's so cool. She'll definitely be one of the people/things that I'll miss most about my job when I leave this summer. Anyway...so throughout the day when she's around, I'll usually pop in at her desk and we'll chit chat for a minute or 30 and then I'll go back to blogging or chatting online. That's a pretty honest assessment of a lot of what I do at work. So last Thursday was no different. I dropped by toward the end of the day, and she had a little story to tell me about the CFO of our company.

First, he made a joke about how he was standing in my spot because I guess I'm up at reception (or the Wooden Fortress, as it's affectionately referred to as) so often that people associate me with that area of the office. She gave him a courtesy laugh, and then he asked her "do you think Chris is gay?" I couldn't believe my flippin' ears when she told me that. For a long time now, I've been a little offended that no gay dude has ever tried to make a pass at me, not because I'm actually gay or anything resembling that, but because I'd like to be considered a hot enough piece of meat to appeal to both sexes. But never has anyone ever confused me for being a homosexual. She responded "No! He can't be. He's mormon." To which Scott replied, "but don't you think it's weird that he's so old and not married? It's weird isn't it?" Something to that effect. I'm not sure if he asked my age or not, and when that might have happened in the conversation if at all. And I couldn't think of anything else for the next 15-20 minutes.

I should probably be more embarrassed about it, but I thought it was worth sharing because I'm so obviously not gay, right guys? I mean considering all the chicks I sleep with, and the love affair I have with boobs and NOT weiners, it's pretty safe to say that I'm as straight as they come. Maybe he just wants to prod me into sharing my vast appreciation and knowledge of sports more, or share some secrets with him about developing relationships with the opposite sex because I'm so apparently successful with it. Or maybe he's the gay one and trying to coax me into asking him out. I dunno, but I thought that was pretty funny.