Asking for what you need

The title sounds like an Oprah episode, and I know how we all feel about Oprah after her treatment of infertility.

However, holy crap, it really does pay to ask sometimes.  When I was looking for a new job a year ago I told people I was looking for one that I could move across the country with me and that I could do mostly as a telecommute (work from home).  And I got it.

That job, however, does involve quite a bit of travel to cover various events. (I am a journalist who covers a specific industry.)  The idea of traveling was completely stressing me out, given the whole problem with James refusing the bottle and me running over to daycare every day at lunch to nurse him.

Day after day emails would come by from my bosses, asking for volunteers to go to one event or another.  And I would sit there and pray for someone else to volunteer.  And they did.

But today I decided to tell them my problem and ask to be exempted from travel for a little while.  They responded very positively, told me that they value my contributions very much, and asked if there was anything else they could do to help.

I'm so grateful for that.  And I'm so glad I swallowed whatever fear I had and asked for what I needed.

Comments

[Eva]

AWESOME!

[Aurelia]

Oh that's so good! Very very smart of you to ask.

[maggie]

Good on you. It's nearly always best to ask.