Not just a job…

It wasn’t just a job to me. “Just a job” means the place you go to during the day, do your time and then go home without caring about anyone or anything you did. For the last eleven months, work felt like another home to me. That’s not to say that it didn’t stress me out, and there wasn’t drama. Let me start at the beginning.

Last October, I was unemployed and a lovely lady at an employment agency I had signed up with contacted me and said that she had the perfect assignment for me. It was with the company her husband worked at, could I go in for an interview tomorrow? I thought, the alternative is to sit at home NOT earning money, so sure, why not?

Xulon Press is a self-publishing company for Christian Authors.  That means that Christian authors can contact Xulon, and they will help publish their books. It does cost money, but the author gets to keep 100% of the rights, and no agent is going to call them hounding for pages, or whatnot. It’s a pretty sweet deal, and quite a few of their books had been picked up by traditional publishers.

Working for a company like Xulon Press was a new experience for me.  I’ve worked for great companies, and I’ve worked with great people, but I’ve never gotten the opportunity to have both in the same job.  Again, I still had stress, it was’t perfect, but it was the closest thing to perfect I’ve ever gotten.   It was exactly what I needed at the time.

A couple months ago, when Christopher and I came up with this amazing idea, one of the hardest things to decide upon was leaving my job.  But we came up with a solution – earlier in the year when Christopher was laid off from his previous job, they let me earn extra money by doing data entry for our editorial department.  If they would let me do that again, then I would be okay, and have a way to earn money as well.

It was a pretty easy decision to give my “notice” as quickly as possible.  Part of my job responsibility is being my boss’s assistant, and he was the first boss I ever admired, respected, and quite frankly loved.  He was like a father to me, and was there for me through a few rough patches.  I didn’t want to leave him, or the company, in the lurch and if they were going to replace me, I wanted them to have time to find a replacement.

So fast forward now to a couple weeks ago.  My friends at the company arranged a going away lunch, and a going away cake.  They weren’t a surprise or anything – yet still, at the luncheon, I was shocked and awed that 27 other people showed up (out of a company of 60-70) to celebrate me.  And they weren’t all from my department.  I felt so very loved and appreciated.

And then there was the cake:

After one of my coworkers (who is a pastor at his church) prayed over Christopher and I and our journey, we enjoyed this delectable treat from Publix.  Seriously, it was amazing (Thanks Michelle!!!).

This all happened throughout the week, and again, I felt so blessed.  So blessed in fact that I was therefore shocked on Friday when I was dragged by the aforementioned Michelle into the conference room, for a sales meeting that I had set up (seeing as how I’m the Sales Assistant, that’s my job).  Only usually I’m not in the sales meetings, since I’m not a sales representative.  What was even more interesting is that the other sales representatives, not in my department, were in the meeting.  As my boss started the meeting with sales information, my mind wandered.  This was after all, my last day.  I was trying to wrap up loose ends before I left for the day, and now I was in a meeting that would have no effect on me??

And then came the surprise.  This meeting was about me.  Okay, maybe I’m lying a little bit.  Maybe I had a SLIGHT inkling that would happen.  But whatever.  They asked me to make a little speech.  I told myself I wouldn’t cry, and so far I had succeeded (except for a small bit in the morning, but that didn’t count!) and continued to not cry throughout my speech.  I explained what I stated earlier in the blog.  That I had never worked for such a company, or with such people.  And I considered them my family, and would never forget them.

At that point one of my coworkers pulls out a gift bag.  Some of my coworkers actually read my blog (Hi everyone!) and knew about the plight of not being able to take everything I wanted with me, including something I love to do – crafting/scrapbooking! So they gave me this gorgeous scrapbook album with four photo openings in the thick leather cover.  And when I opened it, I found stickers for some of the cities they know I’m headed to, a Boston travel book, and a large stack of notes and letters from my coworkers. Suddenly, something happened that NEVER happens to me.  I was speechless.  After catching my breath (and wiping the tears that had fallen) I explained that this further proved that I will never in my life work with such an amazing group of people.

And then my boss had to go and pull out his gift bag.  He had bought me a giant box of Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups (my favorite candy in the world) for the drive.  He gave me a big travel encyclopedia book that has all kinds of information about every region and area of the United States.  After he pulled out a beautiful leather-bound copy of Jesus Calling (signed with a note by him), he gave me a leather-bound journal for me to write in on the trip, and told me that he knew of a great company that could someday publish my book. (haha)  And lastly, he said the thing they would miss most about me was my inspirational spirit, and my constant desire to motivate everyone (I was the Sales Assistant after all!).  So he gave me a pack of inspirational notecards and asked me to send them once in awhile to share some motivation and inspiration with them.  Which OF COURSE I will do.  Finally, my boss (a retired pastor) prayed over me and our journey (you can never have too many prayers!).

I cannot express enough how loved, appreciated and blessed I felt after that outpouring of love.  I wish I could write a love note on here to each and every coworker that touched my life.  I’ll just leave it to this: I may not have been at Xulon Press a full year.  But I grew up quite a bit during my time there, and I wouldn’t have done it without my amazing FRIENDS (since they are no longer truly coworkers).  I have had friendships that outlived jobs in my life many times, but never so many from one job.  I love each and every one of the people at Xulon Press, and I only hope someday I can show them how much they meant to me.

 

Don’t forget to “follow” the blog! I’m hoping to revamp the website over the next couple weeks, so stay tuned for upcoming changes.  Stay tuned for next Monday and my next post!