...and so I got the job! I'm so RELIEVED!

This is a great big thank you to Friend Will - thank you for everything you did to help me! Now, I know I can't screw up because he recommended me - but, hey, no preasure!

Actually, I don't think I'll screw up. Well, I didn't think I'd screw up on my last two jobs-in-boxes. But this place is a lot different from those places....I don't think it's actually a job-in-a-box.

The job is to interview people who are applying for life insurance over the phone. There's a scripted, computer program which you use to input the answers. Sounds easy. Like bill collecting - you call people up and ask them to pay their bill - that can sound easy too.

Well, of course, there's more to it than that. For one thing they were looking for someone with a better than average phone voice - a thing I just naturally have, mostly because my lung capacity is a little diminished and I therefore speak into the phone the way I would speak if someone's ear was inches from my lips....which, of course, it is in a way. And I speak very clearly, because I had a minor speech defect as a kid and therefore sort of over compensated. But, the result is that most people can understand me without asking me to repeat - at least on the phone.

The other thing that is a good fit is that it's important that the person be soft spoken. It's the opposite of the late job-in-a-box where it was nessasary to shout at people down the hall, bellow into the squalk box, and yell into the telephone over the roar of clattering machinery at the site. While this office has the "cube farm" lay out, it's not a maze of beige. The cubicle tops don't come over the tops of anyone's desk so the entire office is quite open...so the person with the loudest voice is going to be the least popular.

You have to sound professional and calm, and, if people have questions, answer them in such a way as to sound like you know what you're talking about and you're happy they asked.

You don't have to pay attention to a million little things, but you have to focus all your attention on the thing you're doing. They want an intellegent person but recognise that the person may get bored. I said that I didn't believe in being bored - that I'm like a cat: self entertaining. I can always think of something, play a mental game - that's how I got through that proof reading job. Besides, people are interesting, and I never get bored talking to them. Even if I'm just saying the same things over and over again, no two people ever answer questions the same way.

So I don't think of this as being another job-in-a-box. The people here seem interested in doing their job and going home, not getting into power plays with each other. I think of it as more like the movie Office Space where most people are just trying to do the best they can....well, except in the movie the hero was trying to embezzle millions of dollars, but I don't think that's happening at this company. The point is, I feel like it's less of a box and more of a space.

Oh! Someone is coming to see the house! Jeepers, I've got to run and clean up the kitchen. I was making lamb stew & it looks a little like a spice explosion out there. Also, strange noises coming from the basement workshop. Better check and make sure The Hub is still down there!