Never volunteer for anything...

...until you know what you are volunteering for. This advice was offered to me and my classmates by a couple of teachers in high school after they called for volunteers and then stuck the eager saps with some unpleasant task. But the punishment was never bad enough for the lesson to sink in. Today I made good on a promise to help out another department here at work, and upon arrival, I was dismayed when I found out what I had to do.

As it turned out, I was given approximately no instructions and then left alone to work for two hours at the intra-company help desk line. People called in constantly wanting me to fix their problems, and I had to apologize to every one of them that I could not fix their problems. I did not know how to do anything except pass the calls along, and that is what I did, for two hours. I made that help desk very unhelpful during the time I was there. The good news is that the computer I was borrowing had Google Earth on it, so I got to play with that for a little while in between calls.

Actually, two more good things came from this experience. For one, I gained a new appreciation and thankfulness for the job I have. And second, I finally learned my lesson about asking first before sticking my neck out on the chopping block. I'll never make that mistake again!

Tags:

• work