My first job as a temp at Xerox was to call for meter reads. Someone, probably Zelda, explained to me that billing worked like this. Customers buy or lease a piece of equipment and their invoices bill the base charge in advance and all copy chargers in arrears. Technicians note the meter read when they service a piece of equipment or the customers can note the meter reads on a card provided by Xerox so they can be billed. If a technician has not serviced a machine or if the customer has no clue about reading the meter then they don't get billed for copy usage. There were approximately 8 billion machines that hadn't been billed meters. We got to call these customers and ask them to go read their meter while we waited on the phone and then explain to them that their next invoice might make their head explode. Sounds easy, yes?
My first call to a customer went like this: "Hi calling from Xerox need a meter read on your 9999 copier. No, it isn't the Savin Xerox that would be a copier made by Savin. I don't know if it is the machine in Bob's office, I guess it could be. I'm not sure if it's the one you don't use anymore either. What does it look like? It's beige, and it looks like a copier. I didn't realize you were having problems with that copier. Have you called for service? Well, sure I can do that for you but first I need to get a meter read. No, not the Savin." Really? Yeah, I don't want to do this.
The other option was to run the copy center and fill in for the receptionist on breaks and sick days and vacations. This was right up my alley. I liked interacting with the employees more than the customers who had a tendency to send mail to Zerocks. Not kidding.
I learned the most sitting in the reception area, answering calls. The elevators opened into the reception lobby. I knew who was who, who was having an affair with who, who was making the most money. This was because the sales reps used to sit in the lobby and talk about their half million dollar sales. We were the Fort Worth Branch. Xerox ran their business with many branch offices. These offices were overseen by Regional offices. Then there was headquarters in Rochester, New York that oversaw everything and Corporate offices in Stamford, Connecticut, I don't what they did there except the CEO must have a nice office. They could have worked in a few more layers of management but I guess they stopped at just complex.
The Controller at our branch was my mentor. She was every woman's mentor. She looked like Wonder Woman. She was obviously gorgeous, over six feet in her sensible heels, smart as a whip and never missed a day of work in her career. The first time I met her she said, "I'm the Controller but you don't work for me, you work with me". She could tell you that because of cut backs you would have to clean the office after work and you would walk away feeling like you had scored a great opportunity. She was warm and friendly and inscrutable. I wanted to be Wonder Woman or maybe Wonder Girl.
On the music scene Jeff and I were playing every weekend and usually on Wednesday nights at a local steak house bar. Elsie was good as gold. He carried equipment, he worked the sound board, he brought his camera and took publicity stills. He's a great photographer. One night we got a gig at what would become our house bar of sorts. We had a odd set up and Elsie had to stand behind us with the sound board. I listened to him sing the perfect third harmony part to himself all night. "You're getting a microphone." I told him. That harmony is PERFECT. And it was. So now we were three.
This sounds odd to many I'm sure but three part harmony is my thrill. My hang gliding or mountain climbing or skydiving. It's my adrenaline and my joy. Here I was with my best man friend and a man I loved even though I knew he held the power to hurt me. We were a band. I was happy every moment we sang. No missing a baby, no wanting anything while singing. It was my happy place.
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