Hairspray in the bathroom

So I need to catch up on posts. It's been a while since I last wrote.

After I got back from Europe I started temping. The first job I was sent to was with a company called Grail Partners. It is a financial banking firm located on the 41st floor of One Post Office Square downtown in the financial district. I figured the view must be pretty great from there, but had no idea just how great! The office is surrounded by windows that overlook the harbor as well as the rest of Boston. Check it out.




Anyway, the week and a half I was there was interesting. I had been flung head first into this world I know nothing about - corporate America. The office was the entire 41st and 42nd floors with the exception of one small corner. It had green marble floors and all the juice, soda, gatorade, and bottled water you could drink, as well as oodles of snack food. I found a platter in the bathroom that had the full spread of a woman's necessities - hairspray, Bath & Body Works lotion, body spray, hand cream, etc. Maybe it's because I grew up in a town of 2,ooo, and in a relatively financially challenged situation, but I found this stuff, these perks, what is the word . . . extravagant. But it was nice. I could tell how well they treated their employees and how they worked hard as a result. Don't get me wrong, I don't think having hairspray in the office ladies room holds magical powers that increase work performance, but those kinds of "extras" do have an effect.

This led me to thinking . . . I had just quit my job at the Boston Symphony Orchestra in an office that was definitely considered at the bottom of the food chain at the company. I was a data entry clerk in the Telemarketing/Telesubscription sales office. We worked in a basement down the street from Symphony Hall. The BSO is a non-profit organization . . . and sometimes it sure felt like a struggling (financially) one at that! It definitely is not however.

There was a general feeling in my office of being lower than other people who worked for the symphony. All of the employees felt this way . . . even my boss. I was on an elevator once with him inside Symphony Hall and a couple of the orchestra members got on. They made small talk with each other and the musicians asked James what his job was. He sheepishly replied that he was the manager of the call center and that he worked in a basement down the street. I think he even looked at his shoes as he grinned. I really like my boss, but I was sad to see his lack of pride in his line of work. He does a lot, and without the fundraising office, the symphony wouldn't have the needed money to continue on. His job is important, but morale is, and seems to always have been, down. It felt like there was this invisible ranking system in place. Ugh.

Anyway, the point of that is, that I truly expected that to exist, and even be worse, in the corporate world. I'm sure it does in some companies, but I did not find this at Grail Partners. The Boston partner, or boss in the office, was incredibly personable and made time to ask me, the temp, what I studied in college. The boss can truly make or break a person's job experience. Still, I tried to get used to and feel comfortable with these extravagances, but the words, "I can't believe they keep a bottle of hairspray in the office bathroom" ran through my head as often as I saw it. Small town girl, I am!

P.S. Now, I'm employed as Tim Hart's assistant at Northwestern Mutual. Well, I guess you could say that I'm the Hart family's personal assistant! It's great; I'm at the office 3 days a week, and nannying at their home the other 2 days for their adorable kids.