Development Week

Last week was development week here at Western Union. Stimulus money hard at work. Next time you see that pesky federal income tax line taking all of your paycheck, remember that I am thanking you as it taught me all of what I'm about to write. Overall, it was a pretty good week. I was frustrated with our "encouragement" to spend 10 hours of the week in development classes, while I still had 40+ hours of work at my desk, but the classes were good and its nice to have a break sometimes. The two classes I enjoyed most were Emergenetics and The Stress Profiler.

Emergenetics is a personality profile that depicts your thinking and behavioral traits. It breaks your thinking attributes into 4 categories (analytical, structural, social, and conceptual) then it weighs each attribute based on how heavily your thinking style utilizes each trait. I am 29% analytical, 40% structural, 28% social and 2% conceptual. I'm sure you're falling out of your chair in shock that I am most heavily weighted in the structural category, as was I. The second portion of the personality profile depicted how expressive, assertive, and flexible you are. I am a fence sitter for expressiveness and flexibility, but very assertive. The teacher jokingly said, "When 2 people in the top third for assertiveness get together, everyone senses it and that's when all the people from the bottom third disappear". I mentally noted that in high school when Philip and I got into it, most of our friends quickly dispersed. It's all making sense. It was an interesting class and the 2page description of me based on my profile was spot on. Don't you hate when those seemingly meaningless quizzes actually peg you right on? Ahh I want to be unpredictable one day!

The stress profiler class was not what I expected it to be, but it was interesting. We took a quiz before hand which told us our stress level and I am "a little on edge". Again, no shock here. This quiz was broken into 10 categories and each one was scored, then added together to get a combined total. One of the categories was "control". The instructor asked, "Anyone in here have to be in control?" I raised my hand so she asked me to explain. I don't really think there is an explanation - I need to be in control. What else is there? Do what I say and no one gets hurt? My way or the highway? I'm right, you're wrong? As true as they all are, those just sound too mean to say out loud. I can think them, for sure. :) She said, "well, did you score high in that category?" I said, "No, actually I scored very, very low. The questions were all about things I already have control over. Do I wander around my house in search of my keys? No, because they're always on the key hook. Is my closet a disaster? not in a million years. Is my car constantly filled with junk? A stroller, an emergency diaper bag, reusable grocery bags, and a toy or two for my baby. My score was low because I already have control of all of the areas it mentioned. Its the nimwits I work with that are the problem" Whoops, shouldn't have said that out loud! :) Overall it was pretty fun, though I didn't learn anything new. I mean I already knew I felt an extreme amount of stress due to lack of time, already knew I had poor stress outlets yet high stress resilience. I wanted the class to just fix it all! :)

One area that none of the classes touched on, though, was how to be a chameleon. Adapt to change. Go with the flow. I suppose Emergenetics kind of did - its the 2% conceptual side of me :) And I guess this is when my fence-sitting flexibility slides over into the "not flexible" side of things.

I can handle a lot and I can take a lot of punches. But I don't adapt to change very well. It really doesn't matter what is changing; if I have something set in my head and it changes in any way for any reason I get frustrated. Which may be why Austin is now mad at me.

He sent me a text message earlier to let me know that his training schedule has changed. Instead of starting at the end of October, he starts Nov 29. Instead of spending 2 weeks in Colorado Springs in January he will be there the entire month, but he will come home every day. Instead of going to Fort Benning, Georgia the week of William's birthday he leaves Feb 18. And instead of leaving Denver Feb 28 for Iraq, he leaves from Georgia.

So if you think about it, the only real drawback to the changes is that he leaves me 10 days earlier. The rest of it is pretty inconsequential. But, it made my blood boil. Why? Because I already had it all planned. What does that matter? It just does. Because I'm structural and I'd already etched it into the stone tablet calendar in my brain. Can. Not. Erase. I don't bend that way.

Please don't take this opportunity to remind me that whether I bend that way or not, the U.S. Army never was one for asking opinions or preferences and that I, therefore, better learn to bend. I better jump to the other side of the flexible boat. Please don't tell me that. Just sit there and nod, and think "oh she'll show them! that stupid army, they don't know what's coming"

Please don't ask me what they've got coming either, though, because I'm as baffled as the army is. I'll probably just sit here and pout, while working diligently to smooth out my stone tablet calendar and etch in the new dates. I'll probably whine and gripe and think about how unfair it is that rather than having 2 weeks of him staying in Colorado Springs overnight I now have a month of him coming home at 7:00...because the first one is...better? No, not really. Not better. Just planned. Expected. Known.

As a result of said frustration, I have now been inexcusably stubborn and mean throughout the rest of our texting conversation. That's right, US Army, I'm gonna stick it to the man. May be the wrong man, but by golly I'm gonna get him!

So, while you're sitting there nodding and smiling, not interjecting the obvious points I asked you to leave out, you could send some kind thoughts/vibes/words Austin's way. Because as the tides will inevitably change over and over from now until Feb 18, he will probably bear the brunt of it. Comes with the territory of marrying someone who is both structural and aggressive when your job is demanding and ever-changing. Whoops.