Uneventful Awesome Day

Well, today was finally day one at work. A day I never thought would come. Today, I got to finally be me at work, and I must say it was totally uneventful and totally awesome. Contradictory terms one could say, but that is just the best way to describe it.

My day started off getting up early. I did not sleep all that much, partly because of nerves, and partly from the round of storms that rolled in through the evening. I got ready for work, the usually showing, and the welcome additions of makeup and actually doing something with my hair. Getting dressed took a bit longer than I anticipated as I changed outfits a couple of times trying to decide on the right look for day one. I originally planned on a pant suit and heels, but ended up nixing that for a pair of slacks, a blouse, and a nice pair of flats. I just wanted professional, but simple, something that said I am here and I am ready to get to work. I think that came across. Besides that, I was, as it turned out, already the tallest person at the branch, heels would have had me towering over everyone. 

 

 

After getting ready, I had a light breakfast, the butterflies in my stomach were not going to allow for a decent breakfast. I was really a lot more nervous than I anticipated being, but found ways to manage it and take my mind off of being nervous. On the way in to work, I stopped for a Starbucks, figured I might as well, after-all I had a five dollar gift card sitting on the counter. I might as well use it today!

As I got closer to the branch, I got more and more nervous, and had to work a bit harder at controlling the butterflies that were going full tilt in my abdomen. When I pulled in the lot, and saw my district manager car already there, I was able to relax a bit. Knowing he was already there put me at easy. From there, I went in, and things got pretty uneventful from there. I was introduced to the branch team, they had their Monday meeting, they were told that I was the acting manager while their manager was off, and that was that. My district manager and I chatted for a few minutes. He got me up to speed on what was going on this week, conference calls and a branch manager meeting. He told me what he knew of the branch and its staff, and then he was off to his regular rounds at other branches. 

With that, I was in charge and on my way to an uneventful day. Really only two other significant things happened. First off, even though my e-mail address was updated, there was a database issue that was not addressed, and I had no access to my e-mail. I had to call and get a ticket opened for that. This was not resolved until late in the day. Heck many of those e-mails had been sitting there for over two weeks, there was not reason they could not sit  there one day longer. 

The other wonderful thing was a flower delivery from Zoe. She had conspired with my mother to find out where I was going to be working this week, and to ensure flowers found their way to me that day. They were gorgeous, and I loved that she did that for me on my day one. 

 

I also had lunch today with my previous manager and the assistant manager from the first branch I worked at. They both commented about how happy I looked, and that they had never seen me look so happy. They were right, I was happy, I am happy. It was just so nice to be able to sit down with them and talk and just be me doing it. They apologized in advance if they messed up on name or pronoun stuff, and I told them I would never hold it against them. They had actually been planning this since they learned about my transition. They also relayed to me how surprised everyone was. The fact that no one had any idea. I did a pretty good job of keeping my transition under wraps. Not that I wanted to, but, as many of you know, it is kind of a necessity. They both thought they were in some kind of trouble when they got the confidential e-mail instructing them to be on a call with HR and the market manager. Little did they know what the real topic was, it never crossed their minds. They were also sweet to pledge their to take care of anyone who may not say the right things or who may have a problem with my transition. They stood up to defend me, yet again, so cool.

The rest of the day was pretty uneventful. Oh yeah, there was the obligatory people dropping in out of their way to stop by and see me. Now the branch I am in right now is inside a grocery store, and we have a free standing branch on the far end of the parking lot. I started at that free standing branch when I first started with the bank. My old manager, assistant manager, and one of the bankers is still there. The first person to stop in was my old manager. He just happened to be in buying a few things at the supermarket, and a miserable super rainy, chance of hail storms and tornado kinds of morning. They didn’t need excuses to come see me, he could have just stopped by. The next person was the banker I used to work with. He also just happened to be in picking up a few groceries on his was back from lunch. I personally do all my grocery shopping in the middle of my work day, don’t you? It was nice that they stopped by, don’t get me wrong, I just had to laugh a bit about how they did it. Not unlike the typical parade of people by the cubicle that I heard goes on in a typical officer setting.

Well, Day one is a wrap. I am hoping for more uneventful awesome days to come. Wednesday I have a branch manager meeting. My last manager and I have already made arrangements to meet for bagels before hand, and sit together at the meeting. It’s nice to have people standing by and showing support. Oh yeah, another manager I worked with recently asked me to lunch later this week. So, I actually have a semi busy week, but I am sure it will be a good one. Thank you everyone for your words of support, and you friendship. For those not quite at your day one, I look forward to hearing about yours. For those whose day one is in the past, you too know the liberation of finally getting to be yourself.