Jen's New Weight Loss Plan

I have a new company-sponsored weight loss plan. They pay me to lose weight. They want me to lose weight so bad that they're pushing me to work overtime on it. It involves sweating my butt off while climbing through the sweltering bowels of a ship. It's hot, humid, and dirty. And the propulsion plant is not even up, and it's not even officially summer weather yet.

OK, so really my company really doesn't give a crap about what I weigh. What they have done is sent me down to a big, very old ship with the hopes that I can lend a big hand to help get it back up and going...and out of our shipyard. The real reason they sent me down there is to get more experience with the guys who are actually turning wrenches. Hello! I went to a maritime academy--I think I've done my time turning wrenches and bilge-diving in unbearable heat! This is a direct result of losing out on that cool promotion I was going for. A perceived lack of shipyard waterfront experience, due to my lack of marketing skills (I can only seem to toot my own bullhorn to an unknown audience over the internet.) I expressed my frustration to my chain of command, who agreed that these old-school yard birds are out of touch with what we do in my department and with what actually goes on down in the shipyard. Maybe that's why the yard hasn't delivered an aircraft carrier on schedule in a long, long time??? There has never been a schedule/quality issue with the out-of-yard work my department directly manages...hmmm. Don't get me wrong--the guy who beat me out is really good.

I digress. My background got the attention of two VPs (yeah..WOW!) So they decided to develop my skills further by sending me down to the unfixable ship, the USS Enterprise. I now spend my days down in the propulsion plant doing what I can to prioritize work for the tradespeople and showing them where the hard-to-find jobs are. So far it's okay--my body is just not used to being in that environment anymore. What's cool is that Bryan is also working on this ship, so we actually get to see each other at work now & then, and have something common to talk about. It's actually how we first met--working together on the USS Nimitz.

It's still a shock to go from my cushy desk job overlooking the river in an all-glass building. I had a super-flexible 8-hour-a-day, 5-day-a-week job. Now I'm facing 12-hour days with weekends and rotating shiftwork. Been there, done that. Pre-family. I have 3 kids, t-ball games, and a husband who is already battling his own work conditions. We rely heavily on the stability and flexibility of my work schedule, which is now out the window.

Anyhow, the VPs are testing me and my capabilities--I have never failed at any job in this company, and I don't intend to start now. I have to survive until late fall...