What is your BEST work related memory?

[WillParkinson]

One year when the Circus Parade was in town I delivered an order to a woman early in the morning. She had 2 cat carriers in her room with large kittens in them.

I said, "How cute! Do they bite?" And she said, "No, they're very friendly." I said, "Oh, I wasn't going to pet them (though I was dying to do so!).

She walks over and opens the cages up and out come the two kitties.

They walk around my legs, rubbing against me until I finally bend down and start rubbing them.

They're adorable, says I. What kind of kittens are they?

Lion cubs, she says.

Whoa.

[onebigbadwulf]

1. So I was working back stage...

and this Lion lept at roy and dragged him off stage. He went to ICU for months. Boy was that funny....

[WillParkinson]

2. Um....OK....sure....

If you say so.

[grannylib]

3. On a mission trip to Arizona with kids from my church

we had a really amazing experience working on the Navajo reservation there, repairing homes, about 500 of us from all over the country. We had a great trek on the way down and back (drove a big 15-passenger van, 11 kids two adults and gear for 3 weeks)
It was awesome.
It was job-related since I was the youth director at my church at the time.
Only bummer of the trip was that I missed the birth of my first grandchild who came a week early...

[Robb]

4. Best job ever, best day ever

I've probably told this story before. :shrug:

Working for the Telluride ski mountain as a lift operator... actually a lift "lead", since I didn't smoke pot I became in charge. Anyhow, we had three people working every day, and it took two to run this lift (this was one of the old, old lifts that had two buttons: "go" and "not go" :) ) The "best job" part meant that we would alternate breaks all day long, either taking runs one after another, or else taking huuuuuge breaks for 1/3 of the day.

Best day ever of this job: beautiful clear, crisp sunny morning. The night before we'd gotten about two feet of new snow. I was working on top first thing in the morning, so I rode the chair up in this beautiful silence. Got off at the top, took a shovel and smoothed out my ramp, opened the thermos and began drinking coffee as the sun just sparkled over the ski hill.

The first man came up the lift when we opened, wearing about three grand worth of ski gear, probably in his 50's. I'm standing up there sipping coffee, and as he reaches me I have to shout out "Have you ever seen a day so beautiful in your whole freakin' life??"

He skied down the ramp and turned around toward me, and yelled up (with a big smile) "Imagine a world where everyone loves their job as much as you!"

:) Good day.

[XNASA]

5. I had only been working for NASA TV for a couple of weeks......

...when my manager told me to get down to the Press Room and get somebody mic'd up for a video shoot we were going to do.

When I get to the Press Room (which wasn't normally used for video shoots, except for Press Conferences) there's an old guy sitting there in a white vest and blue jeans, reading the paper. I thought that he was with the janitorial crew or something.

So he gets up and starts walking towards the door with a serious limp and I ask him if he needs any help and he says, "No thank you, I'll manage." He leaves for a few minutes and comes back in and sits down. I ask him if his leg is bothering him, etc. and he says, "Yeah, my hip is giving me trouble, I hurt it coming down a ladder."

So now I'm convinced that he's with the maintenance crew. And tell him, "You know, you should really see a doctor about that. It's not a good idea to let that kind of stuff slide."

He says, "Oh, I will. I have an appointment this afternoon. BTW, I'm Gene Krantz and I'm supposed to be meeting some folks from the Studio. Do you know anything about that?"

He was so gracious and patient and unassuming. I'll always remember that moment fondly.


Another time I was in a meeting with John Young. He asked someone a question and didn't get the answer he was looking for, so he folded up his binder, stuck it in his briefcase and left. Everyone just sat there looking at each other not knowing what to think. I guess after you've walked on the moon, you don't feel like you should have to waste your time with anyone.


I'll always treasure both of those moments.

[HEyHEY]

6. Working for the city

We got the morning off to go watch the Olympic announcement in the local theatre, they had a big screen set up and coffee and doughnuts. Half the city staff was there....then when they announced Vancouver was getting the games the whole place erupted.


EDIT: THough quite often working for the city we seriously did FUCK ALL for an entire day, we'd just drive around turning on sprinklers.

[qwertyMike]

7. Johnny Paycheck

I actually said the words "Take this job and shove it".
Advertising office too, not some sweat shop.
In front of everyone.

FELT AWESOME

[Faygo Kid]

8. Honoring Fred Korematsu; fought internment in World War II.

Long story, but to make it short, we had a program that honored and recalled the Japanese-Americans interned in camps during World War II (Korematsu v. U.S., Supreme Court case). I conceived and organized it; a great success, and I got to have dinner with Fred Korematsu and his wife (1996). What a great person! So many other great memories; wish I had a job now. Did well for 30 years. I really did.

[JM]

9. Best day on this particular job...

I was a division head at a summer camp. Not particularly fun. We were setting up a game of dodgeball, and the counselors were playing with the 10 and 11 year old kids. The counselors were generally good about their aim, and only wound up on other counselors, but this one kid was having a miserable time, capped off his experience by walking into the path of a ball intended for me. He caught it right in the face.

He immediately ran out of the gym crying.

After he calmed down from the hit, he said he didn't want to go back in because he couldn't play. He really couldn't catch. I got a ball and worked with him for about five minutes. He then took the ball and ran back in yelling "I can play now!" at the top of his lungs.

What was even better was the director's reaction a few weeks later. This kid I helped in dodgeball was a real problem and had a hell of a reputation. His name was constantly being yelled over the loudspeaker. At a dance two weeks later, he was just sitting calmly outside. When the director asked him what he was doing, he told them he wasn't interested, so instead of causing trouble, he would just sit and talk with his new friends he just made.

Amazing what a little positive problem solving and attention can do.

Compassionate Conservatives would have told him to suck it up and bombed his cabin.

Later,
JM

[TrogL]

10. My first LAN

Ordered all the equipment.
Strung all the wire.
Installed all the cards.
Installed the software.
Configured the servers and printers.
Fired it all up and it worked first time.

Ripped it all out two years later and did it again with all new technology (got a contractor the string the wire).

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

14. What software was it?

First LAN I participated in installing was a weird DOS-based one over (I kid you not) ARCNET. Made by a Brazilian software company called Mira. Early 90's.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

11. Coming up with original ideas that are actually USED and RECOGNIZED

1. Back in the heyday of DOS boot viruses (early 90s), I came up with the idea of plugging an extension ROM in the unused boot ROM slot of network cards, with code to perform system integrity, so no boot virus could possibly go undetected. Became a product too. Messing with Turbo C startup libraries to make ROM code in C was also lots of fun.

2. Irritated at Perl dependency hell when installing AMaViS in the mail server of the ISP I worked at, got fed up and created OdeiaVir instead. Getting mail from people around the world thanking you for your work is a HUGE ego boost!

[RebelOne]

12. When I was working for a city magazine in Miami,

Sky King (don't know his real name) came into the office. I was thrilled to meet him because I would watch his TV show faithfully when I was younger.

[skypilot]

13. Was tipped for NOT serving.

Years ago I worked as a waiter at a now defunct restaurant. The food at this place wasn't that great but it was new at the time and was on a very busy and popular street here in Philadelphia. The items on the menu were just all over the place. They had a couple Italian pasta dishes that weren't that good. Anyway, a couple guys come in wanting Italian food and they see the "Italian" dishes on our menu. This restaurant was, at that time, starting to go downhill fast and when the guys asked me if our Italian dishes were any good and if I honestly recommended that they eat at our establishment I told them no. They said thank you and got up to leave. When I passed their table again I saw that they'd left me a three dollar tip.

[midnight armadillo]

15. .

[shanti]

16. the best one

was my last promotion. i'd been working as a secretary at a new agency for only a month, when my boss comes up to me and asks me if i wanted a promotion. i had dreamed of this nonclerical promotion for 10 long years, and it was handed to me on a silver platter.

thanks again, ben, and god bless you! i will never forget your kindness.

[NightTrain]

17. When I was part-timing at an AM/FM station in 1990...

...there was one night when the other DJ, a single parent, couldn't find a babysitter for her three-year-old and had to bring the kid in with her that night. Since most of what I did in the AM studio involved little more than babysitting an automated broadcast, I spent most of the evening playing with the toddler. Eventually, she fell asleep with her little arms around my neck and her head resting on my shoulder. The look of amazement on her mother's face was priceless!

[ArkDem]

18. Kingston or Viking

Actually, Viking is better for the price.

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

19. LOL!

Geeky humor at its best! :yourock:

[LuLu550]

20. As a reporter for the "underdog" paper in town

I scooped the big papers and even TV, on a big story. Literally had them "holding the presses" for my front page story! What a rush!
Oddly enough, while I remember the rush and the scoop, etc., I have no recollection of what the story was about!

[geniph]

21. Do you want the G-rated or the R-rated version?

The G-rated version - I'd been working in a word processing center as an operator when they started networking our equipment. The woman who was theoretically our system administrator was something of an idiot, so I started gradually taking over some of her job functions with regard to our department (sticking my nose in where it didn't belong). When she transferred to another department, the manager and the senior sys ad from that department came over to our department, and asked me if I wanted the job. That was how I became a system administrator - in 1982. I've been one ever since (it was Xerox networked equipment on an old Ethernet thickwire backbone with vampire taps).

The R-rated version - that would have to be an illegal activity my now-husband and I engaged in in a storage room after work one day. When we emerged (luckily, everyone was long gone), I recall flinging my panties over the cube wall onto his desk. I think he kept 'em, too. It must have been enjoyable for him as well - that was more than 10 years ago. :D

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

23. Is sex illegal? (nt)

[geniph]

24. It was that time

just take my word for that!

Actually, I meant "against company rules" rather than specifically violating statutes, but we were probably violating the law in about 48 states...

[SmileyBoy]

22. In HS, I was a janitor at a grocery store that had very few customers.

On Saturday nights, there was usually almost customers there. Our supervisor was a great guy, and he'd let us basically do whatever the hell we wanted as long as there was no customers there. And that happened often.

So my friends and I would go cart racing down the aisles at the NewMarket Grocery Store in St. Louis Park, MN at 9pm on a Saturday night.:D:D:D:D

Meeeeem-oriiieeeessss......

[rbnyc]

25. A woman ODed in our bathroom.

I found her unconscious on the floor with her boot unzipped. I radioed my coworker to call 911 and send maintenance up with the CPR mask in case she stopped breathing before the ambulance arrived. I went through her stuff and found her drugs to give to the paramedics. I talked to her the whole time. I had no idea if she could hear me. I kind of doubted it. But I told her that I would stay right by her side. I held her hand and kept saying that she would be okay. I monitored her breathing and heart rate, and kept reviewing CPR in my mind. As I heard the paramedics coming I told her that they were on their way and that they would take care of her.

A few months later she came back to tell me that she remembered me and that she heard every word that I said. She said she was in a program and had been clean since her OD, and that she found a job and she just wanted me to see how well she was doing. That was the very best day I ever had at work.