This past month has been trying, professionally, to say the least.

After She Who Shall Not Be Named left our facility a couple of years ago, I reported to He Who Shall Not Be Named. And then, on September 18th, he told me he was retiring.

Seriously? Who is going to babysit me and mine, professionally? And why are you abandoning us? We are a well oiled machine!

So let me break it down.

This might be of some use to those of you that don’t think you have made a difference in anyone’s life…

I started working for She Who Will Not Be Named in July of 2001. I had been a web-geek; web server administrator, web developer and customer service professional up until the time that I was laid off in April/May of 2001.  (This wasn’t too horribly long after my husband and I separated and I really, REALLY needed the money to raise those boys of mine.) I actually was able to take some of my web site clients with me, but knew, as a newly single mom of three boys, that I would need a full time job with benefits to continue to make ends meet.

I ended up interviewing for an administrative assistant position at a local healthcare facility. I think my mad typing WPM got me the job, because I had little knowledge of Excel and Word at that particular time of my life.

She Who Will Not Be Named hired me and I started working as an admin assistant on July 16, 2001, in spite of my lack of knowledge of the “regular” use of Word and Excel (I had basically used them as tools in website development at that time, in spite of what the job description asked for).

I don’t even know why SWWWBN actually hired me. I really don’t, except that I like to think that she saw something in me that I didn’t see.

Don’t get me wrong. Those first few months were TOUGH! I mean really tough. SWWNBN was a retired Gunnery Sergeant in the Marines. She had some issues coming into civilian work life (and I missed many of those because they happened in the year prior to my arrival), but she also had a work ethic that was second to none. And she is who I got my work ethic from. Not just me, actually…A lot of us in the office. We’ve had employees go on to improve themselves and move on up to the East Side. That’s not to say things were easy. I went home in tears many afternoons. So much so that I thought I would go to school and simply become a nurse. (Except that raw meat and phlegm are to this day my undoing.) I thought that getting out from under SWWNBN would be the best course of action for me. Until I realized that it wasn’t.

A few years after I started at the job at the hospital, SWWNBN was promoted to Environmental Services Director, and I was promoted to Service Center Supervisor. I was stunned, to say the least, because, until then? Promotions had been few and far between.

When SWWNBN had to go out on a medical, we were placed under He Who Will Not Be Named (HWWNBN). I was following in She’s footsteps and if you don’t think THAT was awkward? OMG!

But, HWWNBN and I actually hit our stride and ended up being a great team. He promoted me to Supervisor, Service Center/Central Transport. How did I manage this? I used a LOT (and more) of the skills that S(he)WWNBN taught me.

All of this is supposed to let all of you (or any of  you) that have a boss that you might not immediately see eye-to-eye to, to give them a chance. They might want to test you to see that you are capable of excelling and moving forward. They might be testing you to see how you react to different scenarios.

Take the education that your supervisors give you and run with it It might just make you the best that you can be!

So for both She and He Who Will Not Be Named? I thank both of you. She for teaching me a work-ethic that can’t be beat, as well as how to be human during all of this. He for teaching me how not to take bullshit personally, because people will be how they are, and when they are pissed off at the job? (Which some people are, frequently.) It’s not about me, personally.

Now I have a new boss, who shall not be named, but will be henceforth referred to as, “The New Boss;” he is infinitely different than She and He Who Will Not Be Named. I’m still learning who he is (and training him, because I have worked for the best and now know how to train a boss, LOL), and am looking forward to the future.

So when my Work-aholic blog goes AWOL (absent without leave), it is probably because my day job is sucking up all of my time. And by sucking up, I mean I am learning something new and that  is okay. I learned from the best!

So thank you, BW and SH (aka SWWNBN and HWWNBN)! I owe both of you big-time!