Dear Reader,
You probably think that I hated working in the office, and in a sense I did. I hated the way fluorescent lighting combined with a/c made this sterile and soulless environment, and that the only nature I saw was the screen saver when I first logged into my computer. But that doesn’t mean that I hated everything about it, it is better to say that I did not like the environment of the office. Over my time working in a church office and state rep’s office I met a lot of people who became very dear to me and helped me become the person I am today. I had a lot of great opportunities that I would have never thought I would have experienced. I had a lot of experiences that I would have never asked for, but looking back, they were exactly what I needed.
So here is a positive list of things during my time in the office:
Getting outside of my “bubble”:
It was not unusual for me to be the only person that came from a ranching family or was connected to Ag, before I started working in the office, but those moments were only for a bit. Once I was out of college and had gotten my first job as a church secretary, I was the only person in the office that was part of agriculture and even more so when I worked for the state rep’s office. This was helpful though because I had to learn how to explain ranching things in a way to people who had little to no concept of what I was talking about. I also learned to find things in common with people besides my family business.
Running the Office
During my time as in the state rep’s office, I ran the district office, managed the budget, the rep’s district schedule, managed constituent cases, and was mostly the only one in the office. I learned how to efficiently plan out my day, how to prioritize fires, and how to turn and pivot when something changed. By the end of the first month, I said this job was like fighting wildfire that never completely went out, it was just a matter of whether the fire was under control or not.
Keeping Records
Left alone, I am a horrible record keeper. I was the kid that filled out their 4-H project book the night before it was due. But you get really good at that while working in an office. When I worked at the church, I had to bring back a receipt for everything that I bought. When I started working for the state rep’s office, I had to do a monthly spending report complete with check numbers and bank statements. I spent months trying to figure out why we had an out of sequence check, only to realize some of the pages in the check book had gotten stuck together. Now I catch myself hoarding receipts and watching check numbers.
Figuring Out What People Need
While working in the state rep’s office one of my main tasks was helping people resolve issues with state agencies. Sometimes this meant kindly referring them to a congressional office because it was a federal issue, and sometimes this meant getting them to email me their issues so that I could forward it to the appropriate state department. When people called my office, they were usually at the end of their rope and understandably upset, sometimes upset to the point that I had a hard time piecing together how exactly they needed help. After a few months and several cases, I got pretty good at piecing together not only specifically what they were asking for help with but also determining the larger issue. Mostly listening and asking clarifying questions when people are done talking, not only got me far in solving the problem, but somehow it got people to trust that I was truly trying to help.
Sometimes I feel like I wasted my time in the office because I wasn’t doing the things that I wanted to do, but I have learned that time is rarely truly wasted unless we have nothing to show for it.
