Feeling at Home

I started a new job this week. When I retired, I took the first job that was offered and tried to make it fit. After three years, it was apparent the company didn’t fit with my personality and I didn’t fit with the company. It wasn’t a bad experience and I certainly learned a lot about business and the civilian world.

One of the things that stuck out with my previous job was a lack of common background with other people in the company. It was rare to find another veteran and even more rare to find a veteran that had shared the same types of experiences I had in the military. I missed the mindset, the desire for structure, the need for processes that were efficient and effective. Mostly what I missed were people that I could relate to beyond work. It was tough.

The company I am working for now is a Disabled Veteran Owned Business. The owner hires veterans, not exclusively, but there are a number of us here. He focuses on helping veterans. You get an automatic discount if you are a veteran. We make specific follow up phone calls to veterans to ensure their experience with the company was good and to thank them for their service. When we ship something to a veteran, it has a hand written note on the box and a sticker specific to the veteran’s branch of service.

I have been here less than four days, but I have already been in and out of the owner’s office a handful of times to discuss some changes and additions to the way we conduct business. I am focusing on adding structure and processes to an already great business. The owner listens. He takes my advice and understands I am seeing things with fresh eyes and I am here to make the business better. It is a team environment, like we were all accustomed to in the military. Be successful together. No one is looking for accolades, we are just trying to make it better.

It will take me some time to get my feet under me here. There are lots of systems and technical information I don’t know yet. But, it has a familiar feel with the number of veterans and the common ground we all have. We have all spent nights, cold and wet and hungry, sleeping under a poncho strung between two trees like the one in the picture. We have all spent those days in the deserts of Iraq or Afghanistan. We have “been there and done that” and now we are all on a new mission together.

It’s been less than four days here, but it is already starting to feel like home.