Success!!!!!!!

So, the last couple of months at work have been....well, hard. Stressful. Exasperating. Exhausting. Literally high-blood-pressure-making (both times I had a doc's appointment during a workday, I had way-higher-than-normal-for-me BP). Tiring, emotional, BUSY.

I had a minor meltdown right before Thanksgiving. I had HAD it. I put my thoughts, concerns, complaints, etc onto paper and had a nice, calm (okay, I started breaking out in hives midway through, but still kept it together and managed to sound like the intelligent, has-it-together, multitasking BA they hired) meeting with my regional controller.

Long story short - way overworked. Underpaid. Underappreciated.

Well, a lot has changed since that meeting. I'm having more frequent check-ins with my manager. He has really taken a lot off my plate (and I've practiced saying that nasty "n-word" - NO!!), which has really eased my workload. I'm now being able to focus more on my core tasks and doing them WELL.....as opposed to doing my core tasks just okay (and pushing more and more to the back burner) and doing a lot of unncessary work, too. I'm leaving work at the end of (most) days feeling like I really accomplished things, rather than just feeling like a hampster in a wheel.

And today, what I've really been sticking to - without being SUPER obnoxious - the "funds" part came through, too. I have gotten 2 raises since I started in 2008 and I KNOW that is more than most people have gotten in the last 2 years in this economy - but my branch alone grew 38% (THIRTY-EIGHT PERCENT, not a typo, and not just pocket change when you do commercial landscaping for over 100 job sites) last year, and I felt like a bone thrown my way wouldn't break the bank. With the growth we experienced last year, we got 2 new trucks which meant 2 new supervisors and 5-6 new crewpeople. We ALSO got a new Operations Manager, bringing the grand total in my branch up to 5. But still only ONE me! Only one me to absorb all of that extra billing, all of the extra payables, all of the extra payroll, and the extra receivables.

So. I wasn't going to be a brat about it, and I wasn't going to back off doing my job as well as I could possibly do. But to be recognized, and compensated fairly, for the hard work you've done, and are doing on a daily basis, feels really good.