what about the other guys

2007-11-03 11:29:03.000 – Stacey Kawecki,  Observer

eventhough this has nothing to do with the comment

As most of you who frequent this website know, we observers work on a bi-weekly schedule. We work for a week, we have a week off, with Wednesdays being the all important shift-change day. This comment is not about that particular day, but about some of the dynamic relationships that form between coworkers. Those on a shift together spend more than half the year with each other (if you want to be technical, none of us has ever spent an entire year with any of the other because, with the exception of Ryan, none of us have even been here for one continuous year). We work together, eat together, we pass free time playing cribbage, watching movies, hiking, practicing our dance moves, or figuring out what to do with the next snow. This is precisely why working on the summit is such a unique work environment. One develops a close relationship with the people on their particular shift. This is a good thing, at least in my mind. However, something is lacking. What about those other 3 observers? For the most part, the only time opposite crews see each other is on Wednesdays. Wednesdays are not always the best days to try to get to know someone. For one thing, the night observer is usually tired, having been woken up only a few hours into his sleep. Another thing is most of the day is spent in meetings. Each crew can only judge the other by Wednesdays and what has been left behind for the week.

I’ve heard so many of “I’d really like to get to know (insert name here). Too bad we’re on opposite shifts, he seems like he’d be a cool guy…,” and so on.I was lucky enough to be the third observer on two shifts. For the first two months I was privileged to work with Brian and Ryan and four hard-working, interesting, and intelligent interns (you all know who you are). Many movies and dance parties later, I have now switched to Kyle and Zach’s shift. Zach and Kyle are great, and the interns are still interesting, hard-working, and intelligent, and all is good on the Rockpile. However, I cannot help but be a little sad at the fact that while we all work here, and share similar day to day experiences, we will never be able to share them all together, we’ll never actually get to know Steve. We will all continue to hear, now from Zach and Kyle, how it’d be pretty cool to get to know the guys on the other shift.

We did get a nice treat yesterday, though. Every day, we do a “Live from the Rockpile” with the Weather Discovery Center with our video conferencing technology. I was pleasantly surprised by three of the five people on the other crew, who had attended the daily show. It brightened everyone’s day.

And now we anxiously await was the storm will bring us, and are all crossing our fingers for snow!

Rime in the morningSunrise

Stacey Kawecki,  Observer