My Sally Fields Academy Award Winning Moment
Accepting the Best Actress Award for “Places in the Heart,” after having won in 1980 for “Norma Rae” Sally Field said: “I haven’t had an orthodox career, and I’ve wanted more than anything to have your respect. The first time I didn’t feel it, but this time I feel it, and I can’t deny the fact that you like me, right now, you like me!” (See source)
Last night at work I experienced a Sally Field-like moment.
I don’t often have the opportunity or inclination to work overtime. But every once in a while, the stars will be aligned and I’ll say yes. Where I work this means that I’d be working with an entirely different group of people.
Walking into situations and settings with people I don’t know has never been easy for me. For that reason I’ve turned down opportunities for overtime. It’s not the job or the time away from home that necessarily keeps me away, it’s fear and uncertainty about the reception I’ll get when I arrive.
But for the past two nights I’ve worked overtime. The first night I felt out of place. This crew has a different system than mine. I didn’t know everyone’s names and I couldn’t recognize people from across the room. (I work in a cleanroom manufacturing environment. In the work area people are covered from head to toe in white smocks, hoods and booties. All that is visible are the eyes–which are protected by safety glasses).
Anyway… the reality of being there was much better than the expectation. Of course people were friendly. Of course people made allowances for “my” way of doing things. Of course they were thankful to have someone share the work load.
But it was the second night that I had my Sally Field moment. I was delivering work to another work station. I didn’t know the woman who was working there, but I had spoken with her earlier in the evening as we were “smocking up.”
As I dropped the work onto her table she said, “Hey, I’ve got plenty already. Deliver your present to someone else!” We laughed as I assured her that my intention was to bury her in “presents” over the course of the night.
At another point in the evening I was measuring a test in another work area. Three men were standing behind me talking. I didn’t recognize any of them so I just focused on my work.
Then I heard one of them say, “Things sure got noisy over in Thin Films after midnight last night!”
I worked in Thin Films! He must have seen me in Thin Films so I knew the comment was directed at me. I turned and laughed. “But I left at midnight so it wasn’t me!” We chatted for a few minutes about the man from my normal work shift that came in at midnight for six hours of overtime. He is loud! 
These were just two of the things that happened that made me feel welcome and liked. It would have been easy for both of these people to just let me do my work and go on my way. Instead they invited me into conversations with them.
I am fairly confident that most of the people I work with on a regular basis like me, but it never really occurred to me that people I’m meeting for the first time might like me. But the response I received these past two nights made me feel liked.
These people didn’t know anything about me. They didn’t know my work ethic, my productivity level, my intelligence, etc. But there must have been something about my demeanor that let them know I was open to conversation. Something about me that let them know they could tease me–like friends tease each other.
I’ve always been nervous and fearful of new settings and meeting new people. I dread attending business and social networking events. But maybe after last night I’ll feel more confident and comfortable.
Have you ever had a Sally Fields Academy Award Winning moment? When you knew, just knew, that for the moment at least–that someone liked you? Tell me about it.
