Moments of Opportunity and Opportunity for Those Moments

“So, what do you do?”

I am often asked and I typically reply while smiling—most of the time, anyway—with, “Well, I’m in the people business.” Yeah, I get some chuckles, yet more often than not, I’ll get a pause and more questions are asked.

Funny, how conversations start that way.

One day not too long ago, I was across the street from our office visiting with our local Post Office family, forwarding mail to one of our clients. The gal at the desk and I are chit-chatting pleasantries and she asked me, “So what is Office Evolution and what do YOU do?” “Well”, I said, and I continued to explain to her my daily grind, memorized right off the top of our Office Evolution home page–yes, I am original. Giving her time to grasp the enormity of my job description and what Office Evolution is, I continued with, “What I really do is take care of people. I listen to dreams and ideas. I laugh a lot. I encourage. I make plans. I am a gatherer of people–of all sorts. My job gives me all of these moments of opportunity to grow and learn, to teach, to tour our location, to answer phones, to send emails, to clean messes, to reorganize the dishwasher and refrigerator, to paint walls, to unjam the printer, to explain invoices, to jest with my fellow BCM’s about all of the above but more importantly, I’m given vast moments of opportunity.” “Hmmm,” she says quizzically as I walk out the door.

Days later, this same Post Office gal walks in with an older couple who don’t speak English. They speak French. I don’t speak French. A little Spanish but no French. My hands speak a language, as do theirs. So, we commence with this hand language and I learn that what is needed is a scanned letter, which then needs to be emailed to a brother in South Africa. We nod our heads in agreement that everything in the email is correct. “No charge,” my hands say. And off the couple go on their merry way.

My bosses unknowingly gave me the opportunity to experience this moment and I will always be grateful. We didn’t profit in dollars–bosses, I bought office candy on my tab to cover the loss, just so you know–but I/we profited in their gratitude. I’ve come to understand that graciousness is expressed daily in this job, and, and it isn’t by any means one-sided, so thank you.

In short, this couple has returned and befriended me. And, just today, I got a Facebook friend request from the brother in South Africa. How cool is that?

Office Evolution is the land of opportunity for those who seek it. It can be where the dots connect, where hand language makes sense, where every day can be a holiday and where the little, big voice can be heard saying, “Hello, thank you for calling Office Evolution-Southlands, this is_______, may I help you?”