Refresh and Rejuvenating

Over the past few months, it just feels that I am getting hit with bad things at work. I had asked for a project assignment but was asked to wait. I have one of my manager leaving the team for an individual contributor role in another department. Like me, he did ask for another assignment but we did not have anything exciting in the current roster. There were a few initiatives that I had been asked to start that got stalled.

With all things happening, I feel dejected and depressed. A lot of negative vibes as to whether this is the job for me. I also see a lot of my peers leaving for “greener pastures” or making plans for themselves. There’s a lot of opportunities out there currently as we see a lot of expansion in the industry. For whatever it is, I could not leave this bridge as there are people who count on me to bring the team to more success.

Following footsteps of some folks, I have contemplated taking a long holiday. Being in movement control I know taking time off currently is going to be bad morale for the team and also not going to be productive for me as I will not get the full benefit of the rest.

So happen an event came up. To help the government expedite the vaccination, my company has signed up to be one of the vaccine delivery center under the government-private initiative. The site management is calling for volunteers, especially with program management skillset to run the center. With the encouragement from my VP and a colleague whom I work with on university outreach, I signed up. Another person from my department also signed up and we both picked the job to interface with external companies who are coming for the vaccination. We are fortunate to have one person from the MD’s office to lead our small posse.

I get to work managing the volunteers from external companies who are scheduled to run the stations at the center. I work with very dedicated and passionate people from companies to round up volunteers, arrange for the roster and training. I get to set up a sub-committee lead by external company rep, where I am the facilitator. It was a different experience to see how other parties would run the show.

Since I have to be at the center for 6 days during the external companies turn for vaccination, I am forced to disconnect from day to day job although I am literally at the office. I get to share the positive energy from the volunteers during the days that I was there. I get to talk to people from those companies and hear their stories. We talked about work, talked about life, talked about the disease.

At the end, the body is tiring as I have to stand or walk 10 hours a day. But the sprit is refreshed with positivity and encouraged. I feel energetic after the stint.

Just completed the first dose, going for second dose in a couple of weeks. I don’t expect to get back the same thrill as the first time since we are not going to have external volunteers to reduce the risk of exposure to covid. Hopefully I get to catch up with some of the folks I met earlier and get more positive energy.