Where do I start?
Let me first tell you a little about me. My name is Alex and I’m 25. I live in a small town close to the sea in the north of England. Let me tell you about the craziest decision I ever made and how my life will never be the same again.
Sat in my office, staring out of the window onto the car park wishing 5:30 would hurry up. Then again, that meant Wednesday would come quicker and I’d start the same boring hum-drum day again. It was cold outside & wet – as it often was in the UK. Any memories of the 5 days of summer we had we a long distant memory. The leaves were off the trees and were being washed down the gutters in the torrential downpour. I watched as the people from the solicitor’s office next door to my building ran to their cars, trying to shield themselves from the rain with everything from papers to jackets. I found myself wondering why? when we are so prone to rain in the UK was no-one carrying an umbrella?
I was snapped back to reality by the phone on my desk ringing.
“Yes sir. I do understand but I’m afraid there really isn’t much I can do for you. You were clearly asked if you would like the travel insurance and refused it. You actually ticked on the form that you had your own insurance. I’m very sorry but if you had taken the insurance, you would have been reimbursed for your trip. As it stands we have already paid all of our suppliers for your trip.
I’m very sorry to hear that sir but swearing and shouting at me is not going to change the decision. Enjoy the rest of your day. Goodbye” and I pressed the end call button and removed my headset.
“Sorry Lex” a voice came from the desk next to mine.
“I knew you’d sort him out. Firm but fair, that’s your niche. That’s the 5th time he’s called” Claire was my co-worker. We’d sat next to each other since she started with Mereland Leisure 2 years earlier. Technically I was her boss but I didn’t see it that way. I preferred to sit amongst my team – instead of sitting in a separate office. I had my own office but I usually only used it for meetings. It had no windows and I felt claustrophobic & stifled in there. I’m a people person and needed to be amongst the office banter.
“Its fine” I replied “I don’t think he’ll be calling again. He’s off to speak to a solicitor, no doubt for them to tell him he has no case and charge him £50 for the privilege. If I had £1 for every person who threatens to set a solicitor on us I’d be a very rich lady. Why don’t these people just read the forms before they sign them?”
I’d never understood how someone could tick boxes on a form and sign it, not knowing what it was they were agreeing to. Now me, I was quite a cautious person by nature – not really a risk-taker but surely most people would at least read a form before signing it. I’d learned very quickly how wrong I was.
I swivelled my chair back round to face the window and managed to catch a guy drop an important looking file in a puddle. The terror on his face told me that his boss was probably going to kill him. My mind started to drift again of warmer weather – I needed a holiday. What was I doing wishing my life away day-by-day, week-by-week. I needed something more in my life.
After splitting with Scott my boyfriend of 4 years I’d started to re-evaluate my life and everything in it. My problem was I wanted something.... I just didn’t know what that something was. I was just bobbing along in life waiting for that something to find me.
Finally at 5:30 I packed up my desk. It was a ritual for me. Everything had to go in its place. Stapler & hole punch in the drawer, pens in the pen pot, headset hung over the LCD monitor and files neatly placed in my IN tray. I don’t know exactly when or how this ritual had started but I guessed (half-jokingly) that I have some form of OCD. I had to have a tidy desk before I left. I compared it to removing a uniform at the end of the working day – a kind of debrief.
