Before I begin. Before I begin I want to thank four people. There are a million other people beyond this blogpost and planet that I am thankful for, but these four people in the space of three days, have asked me a simple question, and for the first time, I am able to answer it. Properly. For myself.
Maybe it has something to do with perspective, maybe it has something to do with “all that fresh air”. Maybe I’m just lucky to be surrounded by inspirational people. The simple question they asked me was: “but, Cath, what do you really do?” My gratitude overwhelms me. Those four people are:
- My eternal support and number one cheerleader. He believes in me when I cannot go on, and he is the first to applaud when I get it right;
- My friend and hugely well-named confidante;
- A friend on a dark day when I didn’t think I wanted to carry on and;
- The most synchronistic compadre of all time.
Thank you, you lot. You already know who you are.
Without you, I wouldn’t have the perspective I have this afternoon, sitting on my balcony, watching the sea and typing this. Before I continue, however, this is not some cheapshot touchy-feely-catch-you-unsuspecting advert for what I do to put food on the table and make a little difference.
This isn’t about promotion and it’s not about ego. It’s just that, for the first time, I can see, for myself, what I do and how it lives and breathes beyond my monitor. I always believed it was there. I just never knew the dream had a face, feet and thought I was doing a good job.
My job title? Information Technology and Quality Assurance Manager. If you think sounds like a lot, you’d think correctly. But, seriously, folks, you don’t want to hear my Director’s scope. And, if you think about it, somebody working on the streets picking up rubbish could have the title “Chief Crap Fixer”. You wouldn’t want that job, would you? Didn’t think so. Sounds like a lot, doesn’t it? Yep, I thought you’d agree.
So, titles out of the way. What does that mean? Information Technology. I’m the girl who fixes the printers and makes sure you get your forwarded joke of the day that got sent to forty people before you. I’m the girl that makes sure our website is updated and working and improved to make your experience with it more user-friendly. I’m the girl who virus scans your memory stick when it picked up a virus from your uncle’s Windows 98 machine that runs Solitaire and he still thinks he prefers playing it by hand. I’m the girl who worries at 2am if that proposal really did go through and pings mail servers in Austria, just to be sure.
I’m the girl who learns all the time. Who wants to learn all the time. About new things and how they can help. About new technologies, new ideas, new gadgets to play with that will somehow help someone. Somehow change somebody’s world. That sounds so egotistical to say, but it’s not.
Think about it. I don’t think about changing the world, all it’s continents and politics and plane crashes. I’m thinking about how the man who just found out his wife is dying and he doesn’t know what to do. I’m thinking about the child who has no mommy or daddy and nobody to talk to. I’m thinking about the Director of a company, sitting in his luxury vehicle, crying, because he did something stupid on a business trip and can’t figure out how to fix it. I’m thinking about a little girl sitting on the side of a road, with nowhere to go to feel safe. I’m thinking about how technology can help those people.
So when you see me get excited about the possibility of something…it’s probably not because it can play me a video in high resolution, it’s probably because I’m thinking about that girl and how it can help her. I’m thinking about how someone who seems to have nothing, can have everything they could possibly need, with our help.
Quality Assurance. You see, we run this database. It’s not designed to sit there and hold information. It’s designed to help people. It was not created for the sake of us to look at it and say: Oh look, it just made a beeping noise and flashed it’s little red light at us. It’s designed to help someone who does not know where to begin. That database holds information on over eight thousand (yes, eight thousand) people and places that can help someone in need.
And, my friends, it does not just sit there. It grows every day, faster than flowers in spring, and you can touch it or look at it in just about any way you want to nowadays. You can read it, you can hear it, you can touch it, Most of all, you can use it to help. To help you, or help anyone that you think needs it. We do it to help one person connect the dot on the map from themselves to someone who knows what to do. We do it to enable that little girl to ask a question. We do it to allow someone who does not feel anything but confusion to get a little clearer on what to do next. I could go into doing my advertising talk, but I won’t. You can read it here.
Quality Assurance, then, Cath? What’s that about? Well, information is only useful if it’s good. Information is only useful when it helps someone.
One thing that I do to make sure that information is useful, is read it, verify it and make sure it answers one simple question: Does it help? Does it help that Director and does it help that little girl? If my answer is yes on both counts, then it stays and we use it and make it accessible to people who need it.
So many times, over so many years, people have raised their eyebrows at me. They’ve asked me the same question: why do you do what you do?
And my all-time favourite: but that’s not a real job. When are you going to grow up, stop trying to save the world and get a real job?
Well, my answer is simple. My answer is… My answer is…Never.
Your cubicles may hold your egos in safe places, but I don’t care about mine. You can tell me I’m wrong and I’ll take it.
Your lunch breaks with clients may fill your belly and help you close that mammoth deal. But I’d rather have my sandwich and listen to someone’s story of their day.
Your investments and shares could help you build your twelve-bedroomed mansion. But I love my home and don’t want yours, thanks.
Your dreams of being the king of the world are not mine.
I don’t want to be king.
I want to be me.
And if I can help just one other person be themselves, and whatever that means to them, then I have changed their world.
And that is enough for me.
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