I'm Back!

I have much to tell you, my friends. It has been an interesting winter: I have lived through many harrowing adventures during the past 6 weeks. I have battled yetis, endured the wrath of Mother Nature on multiple occasions, and have wrestled with the twin demons of career questions and parenting challenges. Yes, folks, there have been some rough spots. But by applying perseverance, strength of will, and the mystical healing powers of chocolate, I have survived to tell these tales...which I will endeavor to do over the coming few blog installments.

Let us begin by setting the framework. Throughout November and December, our workgroup was repeatedly told that layoffs were a-comin'. They promised that about a quarter of our staff would be unemployed by Christmas. Then, in mid-December, the story changed to where three people would lose their jobs in January, and it could be any of us. And oh by the way, everybody in the group has to give up their holiday break to work overtime on various proposals.

For some reason I haven't quite figured out, departmental morale was fairly low during this period. Christmas cheer and joyful holiday shopping sprees were replaced by muted grumbling and repeated visits to Monster.com. I cancelled my planned vacation with my son, and instead drove 80 miles each day to work on a proposal that lasted until the end of January.

The good news is that the team members were great to work with, and the project itself was interesting. The bad news is that there were snowstorms that turned the commute into a terrifying ordeal, and overtime requirements that left me deprived of exercise and bereft of sleep. Because of the constancy of workload and the long drive, my days consisted of getting up, going to work, getting home, and going to bed; rinse and repeat. The weeks passed by fairly quickly...but I'm at the stage of my life where I actually prefer to savor the hours, instead of having them blow past me like Usain Bolt racing Orson Welles.

But never mind all that. The point is that I have returned to what I hope is a normal schedule, with normal commute times and normal opportunities for workouts. And I'm hoping to get back on a semi-regular blogging schedule. But this whole "work getting in the way of life" thing has got me thinking: I plan to take an informal survey to see what percentage of my friends feel that their careers are an essential part of their identity and fulfillment...and how many look at their employment merely as a source of income to pay for the things they really care about. In other words, is business a pleasure?

I'll report the results here in a future posting. For today, enjoy the weather, and have a great day!