She interviewed me, hired me, promoted me, then promoted me again - my boss from my job prior to me leaving to work at my current job.
She'd been a good boss, I liked working for her, and I think it's safe to say she liked having me as an employee. I was a dietary supervisor at a full nursing facility where she was the dietary manager. Shortly before I left, she'd left for an administrative position at a largish senior living facility.
When I applied for my current job at the college, she served as a key reference. We kept in touch for a while after going our separate ways, but that died off as such things tend to do.
I've been working at the college for a little over two and a half years now. Yesterday, I got into work, looked over the list of people scheduled to come in for testing, and a certain name caught my eye. It was the same name as that former boss.
"Is it her?", I wondered. Her name is not particularly unique, but she spells her first name slightly different than is typical.
Sure enough, PB (previous boss) came a-walkin' in at the appointed time. I recognized her by her hair and voice - which may sound funny, but when we worked together, we were deep in the throes of the covid pandemic, at a nursing facility no less.
Meaning, we were always fully masked and often moreso. I sometimes saw the faces from afar of coworkers as we took our socially distanced lunch breaks together. But the boss didn't eat lunch with us. I'd never actually seen her whole face and vice versa.
So, she came in yesterday, and I was all,
"Hey, I wondered if that was you on our roster!"
And she was all *as I imagine from the look on her unfamiliar whole face* "who the hell are you and why are you talking to me like that?", not to be fully attributed to test anxiety.
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| Pandemic Abby |
I stated my name and the place we used to work, THEN she remembered me. We acknowledged the whole mask thing.
I recall one time I went in to speak with her about something on a day off, and she marveled at how different I looked. Although I was still masked, I wasn't wearing my hair band.
So, I see why I was so unrecognizable yesterday - no mask, no hair band - just out there, free range, spreading and absorbing whatever's in the air with my whole face.
And honestly, if I hadn't seen her name, I doubt I would've have recognized her either.
7 comments:
Not quite the reunion you were expecting...?
John, kinda makes me wonder about other "pandemic friends" I've come across without knowing!
Wow.thats rather fascinating to me. Since I worked from home before, during and after covid I missed out on such fun events.
Crazy. Just when we think we're past those times. Almost like another version of "long Covid".
Peggy, I think our brains fill in the blanks when seeing a masked person. Then the "reveal" is someone we don't recognize!
Marty, yep!
It is weird how different we all look with masks versus without masks. One of the vet techs at our office started during COVID, and it was a little weird the first time we saw each other without masks.
It always throws me off when I'm used to seeing someone in uniform and then see them in regular clothes.
Danielle, the dental assistant at the practice we go to goes to the same gym I do. She, one day, said hello, and it was only after I heard her voice that I realized it was her - no mask, no scrubs!
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