A Perfectly Imperfect Re-entry Tale

You GOT the job! After what seems like an eternity of looking you are ready to start your new job. You have that feeling you get on a roller coaster as you head for the first drop, nervous but excited. There is a vision in your head of a parade heralding your triumphant return to the working world. Surely everyone is as happy and excited for you to be there as you are, right?

In reality, it's more subtle. Kander and Ebb beautifully describes it in the song A Quiet Thing. The song begins with the lyrics,"When it all comes true just the way you planned, its funny the bells don't ring. It's a quiet thing.", that capture how it really feels. Wait...what? Try it's more like Murphy's Law.

On my first day back to work, I was prepared. I had mapped out my commuting route. I got up early to make sure I could get the kids off to school and leave for work with plenty of time to spare. I had a killer outfit picked out. I was ready to take on the world.

Well it all flew right out the window, when one of my children decided they did not want to go to school that day. Come on! Are you kidding me? Yep, there was a full blown tantrum going down and the war of wills followed quickly. So after some unpleasantness and not the best moments for either parent or child, I get myself to my new job. But, not before I notice a lovely spot on my "killer" outfit during my commute.

The day goes well. I jump right into the on-boarding process and start my first assignment. I'm feeling pretty good about things. As I leave for the day, I notice my favorite ring is not on my finger! I know you are asking "How do you loose a ring off your finger?"  Believe me, I have asked the same question over and over and over.

I rush back and look throughout the office, the trash cans, the bathroom etc. No ring. I had been playing with it throughout the day and I may have placed it somewhere or maybe it ended up in the bathroom trash can. Not bad for a first day, don't you think? The icing on the cake was that I thought it was insured, but it turned out it was not.

In the weeks that followed, I experienced more fun mishaps. Such as backing the car into a tree while trying to back-out of my driveway. Another gem was struggling to get the video working on my computer for my first video conference. I finally get it working, start my meeting 10 minutes late only to have my computer freeze halfway through the meeting. Nice.

Oh and let's talk about video conferencing for a minute. The camera really does add 15 pounds and having to see myself regularly as I am rather than the image in my head is a bit jarring.

One of the more silly things I kept tripping over was scheduling meetings on my co-workers calendars.  I lost count of how many times I scheduled the meeting but neglected to add the participants to the meeting invite. Oops!

And then there was the phone... It turned out the phone for my desk was broken and a new one needed to be ordered; but I could use the soft phone on my computer. Ok, great, one tiny hitch, there was no head-set. I could wait for one or I could use my own earbuds. No problem, I have extra earbuds at home, I will just bring a set in.

Well it turned out, the ones I brought did not have the right plug for the computer. No worries, I have others at home. I will just bring in another pair. Well after at least a week of forgetting to bring a new pair, I finally bring them into the office. One slight problem. They don't work at all. They are broken. No wonder none of my kids had made off of with them.

And why did I not check it all out at home? I was bringing my laptop home every night, surely I could have easily tested the headphones out. Nope! I was a smarty-pants, determined to check them out in the office. I still scratch my head about this.

My first few weeks were a bit bumpy but things did settle down. (Well mostly, I still have a love/hate relationship with Google Meet). I practiced a lot of patience with myself during that time. I was constantly reminding myself to go with the flow and not aim for perfection. The people I work with were so nice, supportive and understanding of my foibles. But being perfectly imperfect was never more true for me than during this time.

Obviously, everyone's re-entry experience will be different. If you have smooth sailing and everything goes without a hitch, congratulations and I want whatever tea you are drinking. If yours is like mine, stay open to what unfolds and embrace any calamities as learning opportunities.

It also helps to laugh at all the mishaps. They are actually pretty funny. Well maybe not the ring,  I still may cry about that. No, I think I will laugh at that too.

Want to share you re-entry experience?  Leave a comment here on We've Got This.