Pizza Party

In 2009 I quit a really cushiony accounting job for another accounting position at a pharmaceutical manufacturer in Grand Haven. I'd worked for a private equity firm in their corporate office for nearly five years. My cushiony job really shielded me from the grit of the true general ledger manufacturing accounting. We operated at such a high level consolidating financials and info from the actual plants who were doing most of the groundwork. Our office had top of the line everything. It was renovated while i worked there and full of the latest technology. My cubicle was huge and clean; and we had a cleaning service that came in daily to keep it that way. We even employed a plant watering service to keep our plants looking their best. We had a small staff of about 12; they were mostly executives in the company. We frequently had lunch brought in, my boss was a seriously the nicest guy. We only brewed Gevalia brand coffee. We had unlimited free soda of every kind in the fridge, snacks galore. Sometimes we'd sit and have a beer in the conference room together on a Friday night. During the holidays, we'd get a caterer and have our fancy little office party. During Christmas season, everyone and their brother would send us more junk to eat, poundcakes, cookies, it was endless amounts of food. Half the time they'd give it all to me to take home to the kids because I was one of the lowest paid employees there.

I started looking for a job with companies that carried Blue Cross Insurance to help cover my boys for autism services at the time. I really thought it would be good for me to step down from the corporate level and "get in the trenches" so I'd gain some experience at the ground level. So I took this job right down the street from my house. I'd later ask myself what on hell I was thinking leaving such a lofty job in a lucrative company on purpose. I did get a raise at the new place and the insurance I was looking for.

It was Day one , literally hour one of the new job. The new boss, who'd hired me, brought me into his office and shut the door behind me. He asked me a series of questions about another employee we worked with who I'd also worked with at my previous place of employment. He wasn't in the corporate office but worked for one of our manufacturing companies. This new boss had an axe to grind with this guy and I soon realized he'd hired me as a henchman in an effort to get this guy fired. He picked the wrong candidate. I knew I'd stepped into some dysfunctional stuff right away.

After that odd introduction, I trekked back to my tiny cubicle across the plant , which was crammed together with a bunch of other cubicles in a cold, small, dark office space with about six to eight other people who worked in other departments. The atmosphere was very cold. I'd later find out, one of the guys who worked alongside me was in R&D but applied and interviewed for my position and didn't get it. So he wasn't thrilled with me being there. It was just a quiet unwelcoming place. I thought "what have I done?!" and I called my prior employer to see if they'd filled my position. Unfortunately for me, they had.

So one day, still my first week or so at this new job, I'm sitting in my cubicle and it's about lunchtime; I smell pizza coming from somewhere. So I look around and realize everyone is gone, they're all down the hall in this conference room sitting together sharing some pizza. Evidently, they had a pop system there to fund their pizza. You paid $0.50 for a soda, when there was enough money from returnables, they'd all order pizza to share. They intentionally didn't invite me. So I follow this pizza smell into the kitchen across from the conference room where they're all sitting....I grab a few slices of pizza, throw it on a plate, walk across the hall into the conference room and sit down right in the middle of all of them and eat pizza. I decided I wasn't going to be uninvited.

It was pretty awkward, for them anyways. I was thinking "who one earth does this??! ain't no one gonna have a pizza party and not include me", so I just included myself. I never regretted it....Today I realized that I still pretty much live my life this way.

For most years of my life, I was really concerned with what others thought of me. When I became a believer and a conservative...things got awkward for alot of people around me. I'm so accustomed to it that I generally ignore the awkwardness and stick around anyways. You might think I'm just clueless, but I know whats going on...I'm well aware I'm not always liked or appreciated or respected by many people, I just don't care. I did end up becoming friends with most of those people, great friends with one of them. So stick around, some of you might end up liking me after all. For the ones who don't...I could care less, and I'll bless you anyways!!