Category Archives: Work

This week I will be in Las Vegas for work so I will be slow to approve comments, I may miss a post or two and I’ll definitely be less visible on social media.

Thank you in advance for your patience and understanding. My job has me in all day training classes, and it’ll be a struggle just to get the work from my day job done while I’m out of the office.

Earlier this week I took a day off from my day job to join Sergio as an honorary employee of his company, Mazon Lighting Design, while a lighting manufacturing conference came to Boston. The show, Boston Lights, has sentimental meaning for Sergio because he conceived and created it back in 2010 (BTW, Sergio is the most amazing lighting geek you’ll ever meet).

For those who don’t know, Sergio is a lighting designer who teaches lighting design at several universities in Boston and started a design company several years ago. Truth be told, I’m quite proud of him. He follows in the footsteps of my mother and several of her siblings as well as my grandfather who all started successful small businesses. What can I say? I’m attracted to self-starters.

Anyway, the day spent as an employee of Mazon Lighting Design was a lot of fun and I learned a little bit about lighting along the way. On the off chance you may be remodeling, building a new home or have some questions about lighting, give Sergio a call. Not only is he handsome, but he also knows more about lighting than you could ever possibly imagine.

Mazon Lighting Design

The above photo is a poster placed by the Swiss Initiative for an Unconditional Basic Income is displayed on the Plainpalais square in Geneva, Switzerland, on May 14, 2016. (Reuters / Denis Balibouse)

What would you do if you didn’t need to work?

While I’m not 100% certain what I would do, I know that it would involve traveling, blogging and advocating for a handful of causes that are important to me and which I feel like I could help make a difference. It is an interesting question and one that I find very appealing to daydream about. If you like, share with me what you would do in my blog’s comment section.

My job has been pretty intense lately and as this post goes live I’m about 30,000 feet above ground heading over to the Left Coast for the week. That combined with the fact that what little free time I had last week was spent enjoying Boston Pride means posting may be thin this week and my ability to respond to questions and comments will be limited.  Thanks for your patience with me.

I rarely write about my work on this blog but recently a friend who happens to be a former manager of mine shared this post on LinkedIn, Don’t Fool Yourself – There Is No Work/Life Balance. The article on LinkedIn clearly resonates with people having been viewed more than 280,000 times.

I think the author is spot on when she writes, “How do you know when your priorities have truly gone awry? I believe it’s when you’ve reached a point where the urgency to react to something is disproportionate to its priority.” 

I make a conscious effort not to reply to emails on weeknights or weekends. There are of course exceptions but generally speaking it is a rule that I stick to. I’m curious if you have any hard & fast rules about work to try to help you keep things in perspective? Do you think you have a good work / life balance?

Below is an abridged email from an employee after they quit their job. It is well written and very funny – enjoy.

**********         *********        *********

As many of you probably know, yesterday was officially my last day. But before I’m just another memory of coworkers gone-by, I wanted to take this opportunity to let you know what a great and distinct pleasure it has been to type “…my last day.”

Over the 57 months I’ve hoped and prayed and wished upon stars I might one day leave this company. And now, when this dream has finally become a reality, please know I could not have reached this goal without your unending lack of support. Words cannot express my gratitude for the words of gratitude you did not express.

I would especially like to thank my managers:  In an age where miscommunication is all too common, you consistently impressed and inspired me with the sheer magnitude of your misinformation. It takes a strong person to admit their mistakes—it takes a stronger person to attribute their mistakes to me.

You have taught me more than I could ever ask for and, in most cases, ever did ask for. I have been fortunate enough to work with some absolutely interchangeable supervisors on a wide variety of seemingly identical projects – an invaluable lesson in overcoming daily tedium in overcoming daily tedium in overcoming daily tedium.

Your demands were high and your patience short, but I take great solace knowing my work was, as stated on my annual review, “exceeds expectations”—high praise indeed, until realizing how farcical those words are when a salary increase of less than 2% goes with them. Amazing how one can exceed all expectations at every turn and yet the distance between compensation ceiling and actual annual salary keeps growing wider and wider.

To the few people with whom I’ve interacted, here are my personalized notes of farewell:
To M: You’re the ONLY reason my sanity is still intact.
To N: You’re amazing. Thank you for sharing your positive vibes and energy, great attitude, and wonderful sense of humor with me.
To H: I’m sorry you set me up to fail. Maybe one day you’ll get it.
To A: Get over yourself. You’re not a nice person. Own it.

Are you contemplating a job change in the new year? You may want to check out Glassdoor’s annual list of Best Places to Work for 2015.  While Google took the top prize for the first time this year, six Boston-based firms were recognized making it the second most represented metropolitan area on the list – not bad for such a small city if you think about it.

In addition to Bain & Company (No. 2), the other Boston area companies on Glassdoor’s list are Boston Consulting Group (No. 5), Brigham and Women’s Hospital (No. 12), MathWorks (No. 19), Massachusetts General Hospital (No. 28), and Bose (No. 46).  In addition to its “Best Places to Work” list, Glassdoor also released its annual report of the “50 Best Small & Medium Companies to Work For.” A total of four Boston-area companies are represented on this list, including Hubspot (No. 15), Hill Holiday (No. 33), VMTurbo (No. 40), and Analysis Group (No. 41).

This pretty much sums up my feelings today.  Much thanks to MAC who writes the blog Yummy of the Day whom I swiped this from last month.