Just a Quick Update

I'm so pleased! I got right up when my alarm went off - in fact, I was awake before it went off (this could very well be due to the excitement of a first day!). I showered and then went downstairs to enjoy some breakfast and quiet time with the Lord. Perfect way to start any day, and the best way to start my first day on the job...

Here's a quick update with how my first day at Medline went -

There are 22 or so of us "newbies". (At the rate that they promote customer service reps to other areas in the company they need to hire lots at a time, a few times a year - fyi on the reason the class is so big.) We did a few get-to-know-you activities throughout the day to familiarize ourselves with the people we will be working closely with for the duration of our training and probably lots afterward, too. They showed us the Pink Glove Dance video and the Catch the FISH video which is a behind the scenes look at how the fish throwers at Pike Place Market in Seattle,WA have become so successful.

We were given a tour of the facility, met many new people who are already employed with Medline who will be either helpful to us as we learn everything and/or whom will be supervising us after we're out with everyone else taking calls. We went over a few things pertinent to the job and were presented with a list of all the branches across the country where products are shipped from that we need to memorize - yikes - by tomorrow!

In order to make the training month a little more fun with an added challenge and team work all mixed in they have set up a "Scattergories" game that we earn points toward, as a team, for different successes or lose points from if we're late back from breaks or lunches, or have cell phones on, etc. It's a great idea to make the training personal and bring people together in their small groups. And, on occasion, they provide a topic like with Family Feud where you have to think of the most common answer for the subject as a team within a time limit and the ones that we answer correctly are plus points for our team - so far my team is tied for first place with 14 points!

It has been fun to get to know, a little bit, the people in my class. I am really excited, though, to get down to it and start learning how to take calls and all that entails. I know, however, that the way they do training has been well thought out and improved over the years to make it the most condusive possible to quick learning...so, I'm along for the ride ;)

Oh! Today was the day they chose to celebrate Halloween, so everyone was dressed up - wow! The different departments chose a theme and the training department had chosen "puns" as their theme and mentioned this to me as an option for dressing up for my first day. I chose to dress up by placing the numbers 1 through 9 each on my front and back and being the pun "You can count on me."...ha, quite clever is the person I found on google who thought that one up :) Some of the other puns that were represented were: Serial Killer (shirt with "cereal must die" and a box of cereal with a knife through it), Ceiling Fan (dressed up like a sports fan, but the "team" is ceilings), Leaf Blower (this is an easy one, just carry around a handful of leaves and when someone asks what you're dressed up as, blow them on the person), Nacho Cheese (Wear a cheese head hat and all yellow with the word "mine" written all over you), one of the trainers is pregnant, so she dressed up in a fancy oven costume with a loaf of bread in it: "A bun in the oven".......And there were so many more!

Anyway, I think that's all for now - I'm a little tired and if I'm going to keep to my schedule I'd better start getting ready for bed! :)

Also, please leave a comment every once in awhile if you're reading my blog! I'd love to see who has ventured here and taken a look and would appreciate any encouragements or whatever from you! And just to see who all is reading this crazy stuff ;)