Standards

From the Oxford Dictionary:
• noun 1 a lesson about right or wrong that can be derived from a story or experience. 2 (morals) standards of behaviour, or principles of right and wrong.

I’m choosing to focus on #2 – “principles of right and wrong” maybe not in the evil/good (yes I listed evil first) connotation but we have an idea of the right way to go about doing things, both in our personal and professional lives. Believe me, as far as personal lives go, I’m a resident in a glass house so I’m not picking up any rocks…so the focus of this is, for the lack of a better term, Professional Standards.

Bottom line, I’ve let mine slip, and I’m not proud of that. Due to a host of reasons my mind has been elsewhere lately and that has affected my attention to detail. I work in a detail orientated profession…records must be kept, communication is a priority, and things can’t fall through the cracks and I have been going through the motions for about the last two months. It’s time for this to stop.

You’re probably asking why I’m putting this out there…some of you reading this might be surprised, I was too as I sat back and looked at how things were going. I was starting to slide into a lack of professionalism and it scared me, I needed something to refocus me.

That refocusing…wow, no matter how many times you hear it, “No” still stings. Even worse is the absence of information until after the fact.

I mentioned way back in January that I was applying for a job. Thought I was pretty qualified for the position, turns out my opinion differed greatly with that of the people actually making the decision (personally I am sticking by my guns). Funny thing is someone in the decision making process had the chance to tell me “you’re not in the running for this” three days after the committee met (we were at the same event, sat together, went for drinks at the same place later that evening) and chose not to do so. Interviews are being conducted this week.

I get it.

No time to dwell. Back on task.

So thank you, XXXX, for getting my head out of the clouds and back where it belongs: taking care of kids (is it ok to call college-age students “kids”?) who say “thank you,” who are appreciative of the little things you do for them and their teammates, who don’t have delusions of grandeur as far as their place in the scheme of things…basically doing my job.

Only better now.