WorldWideWaterCooler

As a marketing professional, I try to be responsible and pay attention to other people’s marketing efforts.

And I’m often stymied by what passes as good marketing these days. I just have to vent about a couple examples of prime marketing stupidity from two companies that I really thought knew better:

Example One: Lululemon

I was picking up some new gym clothes at Lululemon a while back, and along with my $100+ in items, I was given one of their ubiquitous bags to schlep my purchases home in. It’s nice and all, because I happen to like reusable bags, and I’m pleased the company is giving them away (instead of charging a buck or two, like just about everyone else).

But then they went and ruined it all for me. The enthusiastic checkout person gleefully informed me that if I brought back the bag for my next purchase, I’d get FIFTY WHOLE CENTS off!

$0.50

Right.

The cheapest item I’ve seen at Lulu is an $8 headband. In my experience, the average item runs at about $50 (basic shirts, sports bras, shorts) and many items retail in the $75-$100 range (jackets, fancy pants).

If I’m shopping at Lululemon at all, $0.50 is NOT going to incent me to remember my bag. If I’m a regular Lululemon shopper, I might lose more than $0.50/week in dropped change. Not to mention that if I forget my bag, I now get another one for the low, low price of not receiving my $0.50 discount.

Why not say that for every time I remember my bag, you’ll donate $0.50 to an environmental charity? Keep a running tally of how many shoppers have contributed to that particular endeavor by remembering their bags. Then kick it up a notch at the end of whatever year you’re following by matching all those “shopper contributions” - now forgetting my bag costs the charity $1 (and costs me a bit of shame in front of my fellow Lulu shoppers as I check out).

But a lousy $0.50 off for me? Keep it. Use it to hire a better marketing team.

Example Two: Apple

I just just (like 10 seconds ago) got an email from Apple. This is not new. I get emails from Apple all the time. Product updates, iTunes receipts, ads, whatever. I subscribe to them and expect it.

What I don’t expect is blanket “dumb” marketing from a company who’s built a business on being elegant and savvy to a generation of media and tech-savvy consumers.

I got an email inviting me to download the BIG! FAST! NEW! FANCY! iTunes 8! WITH GENIUS!

Great. I did that over a week ago, THE DAY IT CAME OUT.

Not only that, but Apple already knows I did it! I had to sign in to iTunes (with that email address) to upgrade to version 8. I had to sign in to iTunes (with that email address) to purchase the album my Genius playlist recommended.

Apple, you act like you don’t even know me! Sending an email to introduce me to a product you already know I have and have used, that’s like having a one-night-stand, passing that person on the street a week later and not even recognizing them! It hurts!

Why not email me about features with iTunes 8 I haven’t used yet? Why not suggest a billion more artists and playlists I might like based on the Genius data you’ve already collected from me? Why not just act like my interactions with you register somewhere (other than with your accounts receivable department).

In both cases, my boss would rake me over the coals if I so much as suggested ideas as asinine as the ones I encountered. I don’t even want to think about what would happen if those ideas actually made it out of my office to annoy and irritate our customers. (In actuality, my boss is a very nice person who’d diplomatically reject those dumbass ideas - while surely wondering what was wrong in my brain - and suggest better ways of doing things. But you get what I’m saying).

So Lululemon, Apple, sack up and pay attention! I expect better, a LOT better, from you both.

To the women in the office across the hall who use the bathroom on this floor.

In case you hadn’t noticed, this is a fairly respectable office space in downtown Vancouver. This is not the squatter in a lean-to behind some Thai Cat-House.

So please adhere to the following so we can all have a pleasant experience:

Toilet Paper, in North America, goes in the TOILET. It can be flushed here - it’s okay. You do not need to wrap it up in another seventeen yards of paper and throw it in the tiny and already overflowing sanitary napkin disposal can in the stall. Incidentally, the overflow wouldn’t be an issue at all if you’d just FLUSH IT.

Also, in regards to the “fairly respectable space” bit - this is an office, there are cleaners. They come in and wash the facilities nightly. Probably more often than your special throne at home even. So there’s no need to use most of a roll of paper wiping down the entire stall before you deign to park your dainty arse and do your thing. And there is especially no need to then throw all that paper on the floor. If you really feel you need protection from the cooties, use the seat covers.

(To that one woman who won’t touch the doorknob, and uses a piece of paper-towel to open it - quit throwing that paper towel in the plant in the elevator lobby! It’s gross. If you’re that paranoid about germs, carry it all the way back to your office - what makes you think that doorknob is any cleaner?)

I’m not sure what kind of sweatshop they’re running across the hall there, but it seems like you’re not actually allowed to speak or socialize anywhere but the bathroom. Or at least that’s what I suspect, the way you head to the bathroom in a herd and conduct some sort of symposium around the sink.

And far be it from me to take away that bit of clearly unbridled joy in your day - but I do have a small request around that particular activity: there are only two stalls, when you’re making use of them, shut the hell up, focus on the business at hand, then get the hell out. My bladder and I do not have 15 minutes to wait while you finish your conversation between grunts and wipes. Especially when there are 5 people ahead of us waiting.

In closing, please just be tidy and speedy, and I won’t have to give you death glares (or put a stink-bomb under your office door).

Love and Kisses,
-Jen (and the six other women who work in my office and must suffer your bathroom abuse)

In the past couple months, I’ve reached critical mass of “things” in my life. There are a lot of balls in the air (without sign of lessening that load any time soon - more likely increasing it), and I am at serious risk of dropping even more of them.

Since we came back from the wedding, I’d been driving myself absolutely batty, freaking out about uncharacteristically losing a few things.

I’d managed to misplace the secondary set of wedding rings we bought and wore on our honeymoon (and planned on wearing on vacations where we were apt to lose the real ones, or where they’d draw undue attention), along with a wedding card from a distant relative with a not-insignificant sum of cash inside. More recently I’d completely misplaced my Nexus card and, though I hadn’t looked for them, realized on my last trip I had no idea what I’d done with my noise-canceling headphones since the trip before that.

This is VERY unlike me. I do not lose things. Not even insignificant things, nevermind expensive ones.

I also knew I was getting to a dangerous point with bills. Not like I’d forget to pay anything, because most of it autopays out of my bank account - but there were months of statements I’d not gotten around to opening between trips. I really had no idea what the state of any of my accounts were.

I was feeling the same crunch at work. My normally manageable and well-filtered email inbox had hundreds of messages in it. I was firefighting to solve as many problems I’d created with my own scattered brain as had just arisen as problems are wont to do. I’m certainly not paid enough at this point to take on the kind of responsibility that would have me making decisions or missing actions that would sink ships - but I was certainly on my way to wholly preventable fuckups my boss and her bosses would notice.

It was beyond time to do something.

So I looked in to using David Allen’s Getting Things Done system.

I tackled it first at home: dealt with the stacks and scads of paper and crap that have been amassing in random piles all over the place, got an inbasket and made a bunch of files as I went. It’s not perfect yet, and it’s not done, but it feels SO GOOD to have started.

I plan on taking the day on July 1 to fully implement the system at work. The office should be mostly empty, so it’s a perfect opportunity to deal with things before I go away again, and be able to deal with the pileup once I return.

And considering with the little bit I’ve already done, I managed to find the rings, the greeting card, my Nexus card, my headphones, and a few other things I’d forgotten that I’d forgotten about - I have high hopes for a more organized, more productive future.

Have any of you implemented GTD or another productivity system in your lives? Want to? Tricks to share?

So, my co-workers are totally better than your co-workers.

They’ve been scheming for a week now, completely behind my back, to put together a surprise wedding shower. They even got Neil involved, and had him come to the office for the festivities.

I’d been having a completely insane day, between the regular insanity of getting ready to be off the grid (at least as far as work’s concerned) for a little over three weeks, as well as a project that got bumped up by two weeks today.

So when one of my colleagues suggested a trip down to Starbucks at about 3:00, I was game. He even had us go down to his car in the parkade afterward because he “forgot something” in it.

It was all a complete scam.

I came back up, and Richard (the Starbucks decoy) said “hey, lets go into the boardroom and hammer out that storyboard.” Off we go, and I walked into a room full of people and balloons and Neil.

There was wine, and cheese, and presents, and a plastic tiara with a toilet-paper veil on it.

And how well do these people pay attention? They gifted us with the Cuisinart Grind ‘n’ Brew Thermal 10-Cup Automatic Maker, a bunch of different coffees, and some Tazo Refresh and organic Chai teas (my go-to hot drinks when the caffeine jitters are finally too overwhelming).

Yah, I work with a pretty kickass group of people.

For the past 30 minutes, there have been flashes going off pretty much non-stop outside my office windows. From 6 floors up, it could really be a number of things: tourists taking photos, one of the bajillion international students in the area taking photos, welding… who knows.

Then the music started. Christmas carols blaring. So I got off my arse and took a good look out the window at what was going on down there.

I suppose now is a good time to mention that I work across the street from the new Agent Provocateur store (link not particularly safe for work).

There is currently a cube-van with glass walls and a faux office-scene inside it parked out front (after all, this is the core of the business district), containing 3 lingerie models clad in store product and not much else.

I also thought there was a minor earthquake, but it was just all the men in the building dashing downstairs to gawk from a better vantage point. That, and get photocopies.

Yes, I said photocopies. One of the girls is busy sitting on a photocopier, and the other two are handing out copies of her ass (I borrowed one from a co-worker and scanned it, just for you!) to the gawkers.

Sometimes, B2C marketing is way more fun.

Here’s one for my colleagues in the marketing industry: I know with Web 2.0 everyone’s drinking the dynamic web kool-aid. (Frankly, the success of the business I work for depends on it.) We all want fancy sites with live demos and streaming this and interactive that. But for the love of pete, please don’t kill your brochure site components entirely!

There’s still a place for the Static Web

I’m currently hunting for some vendors for a number of products and services for work and am noticing a distinct lack of plain old “this is who we are and what we do” content. There are lots of headlines, and “teaser” segments enticing me to “sign up for a live demo” or “sit in on our webinar” or “interact with a specialist (aka salesperson)” - but no actual content I can read to gauge in 3-6 minutes whether or not it’s worth 30-60 minutes of my time to do so.

All I’m asking is a page or two, clearly marked and dedicated to answering the 5 W’s. And hey, then when I do sign up for your dynamic advertising “value-added content”, your salespeople will have some clue that I’m actually qualified. That way they aren’t wasting their time and mine calling me because you left me no choice but to enter my information just to find out what exactly it is that you do.

How awesome is my boss? So awesome that after the whirlwind of work travel, she gave me (in addition to a nice cash bonus) new running gloves and socks, as some incentive to get back into my running routine, since it was interrupted and had basically died.

I test-drove the gloves and socks on Monday morning when I ventured out in the cold for my first run in about a month.

The gloves are awesome - kept my hands nice and warm, without being sweaty at all. Now I just need a similar product for my ears (perhaps the matching hat!), because holy hell it’s frickin’ freezing at 6:00am!

The socks were great too - thin, comfy, dry-fit wicking material, unique left-right specific padding, and “the Nike Swift technology provides advanced aerodynamics to reduce drag and help you run more efficiently.”

That’s right. Ankle drag. That’s what makes me so slow. Not doughnuts, ankle drag.

Incentive and excuses! It’s the gift that keeps on giving!

Oh, hi there. I kindof disappeared for a bit didn’t I? Rest assured, I was not mugged, nor did I get lost. I was, however, hassled by the mob.

It’s fairly well known ’round these parts that the Jacob K. Javits Convention Centre labor department is pretty much run by the mafia. And I’m not even joking. It’s not wiseguys walking around in Armani suits or anything - but these guys are definitely connected. You do not mess with them, or the system.

They are the exclusive (and I mean exclusive) supplier of shipping, handling, construction and electrical labor in the building. You play by their rules.

You do not touch anything. You do not “take away” their jobs. This includes repairing shoddy workmanship and plugging in your own lights/tv’s (again, not kidding).

For the most part it’s ok - you sit around your pile of half-assembled structure and crates and wait a lot for things to be done. It’s pretty standard that any one of a number of laborers will show up with a work order, look at it, look at your stuff say “I gotta go get a tool/part” and disappear for 2 hours.

But, with a huge heaping helping of patience, I persevered and our booth was constructed relatively competently and in plenty of time for us to get ready for the show opening. Another company with a setup near us wasn’t so lucky - they had shipping troubles, and when their booth arrived late, they tried to expedite things by starting construction themselves. They were then blacklisted by the labor who refused to put up their booth and also wouldn’t let them (these guys are masters of intimidation) do it themselves.

Eventually, after the foremen decided the offending exhibitor had suffered enough, they constructed the booth in just the nick of time. The exhibitor was finally firing up their laptops (one of the few things you can do yourself) when the show floor opened.

Anyhow, we figured we were out of the woods, and had our booth ready to go. Then our video guys showed up to capture some footage of our in-booth demos. And they pulled out some extension cords and got ready to plug in their floodlights.

And that’s when fucking Tony Soprano shows up. “Whoaaahh you? Whadduyuh think ya dooin’? WHOOSE YO’ BAWSSS?”

HOLY SHIT

We unplugged and put away the lights posthaste and apologized profusely. And that was pretty much the end of that. If we’d wanted the lights, it was made abundantly clear that we’d have to order a contractor to plug in the extension cords. They didn’t say what would happen if we’d refused to take things down - but none of us were interested in finding out.

So we shot our video on battery, sans extra lighting.

And ever since, I’ve had an unshakeable urge to watch the Godfather.

So I’m in New York City! The big apple! The city that never sleeps!

I’m bored.

I’m sitting in a conference centre (Javits) in a dirty, industrial part of town, supervising our trade show booth setup and catching up on some work. Thank god for free wifi.

But it hasn’t been all bad.

Even though I had to get up at sparrow’s fart to get to the airport for my 06:20 flight, I had a fantastic surprise when I got there. The co-worker I was flying with used his status points to upgrade us both to first class for the Vancouver-Chicago leg of the flight.

Or at least he thought he did. Turns out the upgrade didn’t go through for both of us, and I was the one who ended up in first class while he got priority boarding and a bulkhead seat (first class was full by the time we checked in). But I got the bigger seat, and breakfast! With real dishes! It was still airplane food, but I’m not complaining. (Thanks again, Rich!) Our bags also got priority tags, so they made our 40-minute connection at O’Hare.

All in all, yesterday was awesome. Our flights left on time and arrived early. The hotel is pretty and swanky (W Times Square) and with the tiny exception of the insane lineups to get up the Empire State building (which had very nice views once we were up there) everything went as smoothly as possible (including the glasses of scotch we downed in the evening).

Today - less smooth.

The booth is going up veeeeeery slowly (Thanks NY Union Labour!), a major piece of hardware is stuck in customs, the flying has caught up with me and my stomach is hateful, my computer (specifically outlook) keeps crashing.

It’s only 2:00pm here, and I feel like I’ve been up for hours. Oh wait - that’s because I have! After a fitful night of mostly not sleeping, I got up at 6:00am to go meet all the vendors, who’d decided they’d hedge their bets on the Union Electricians not finishing their part on time (which they actually did), and showed up an hour later than they’d scheduled last week. Thanks. I didn’t need that extra hour of sleep.

So now I wait, and watch. And hope that this day ends soon and tomorrow everything’s better.

I’m leaving for New York City tomorrow morning at ass o’clock - so I’m finishing up some last-minute laundry and packing.

I have the sneaking suspicion I’m forgetting something. Of course I have no idea what. My list seems complete, and I have all the items on it ready to go.

Perhaps you can think of something I haven’t?

And if not, leave me a comment with something fun to see or do in NYC. I’m staying in Times Square, and will get my share of good eats. My evenings will probably be busy with parties and schmoozing (with work people - so not quite as glamorous as it sounds), but I’ll have some weekday daytimes free to sightsee and shop. I plan on using at least one of those to go for a run in Central Park (yep - still doing that running thing).

What are your top must-see’s?

So, work.

I forgot how much I missed it.

Seriously.

Stop laughing.

Really though, I work with a really great group of people and get to deal with a product that I’m actually interested in and care about.

Strangely enough, I’m also socially connected by 1 degree to a few people in the company - it’s strange, but nice to know that these people are actually “my people” (or more accurately, the people of my people).

Speaking of “people” - if you’d like to be one of the people, we’re on a crazy hiring spree at the moment as well. If you are, or know of someone looking for work as a C or .NET developer, or an Office Manager (must be able to do payroll and that other “office managery” stuff like ordering supplies, etc.) then drop me a line - jenATthisdomainDOTcom. I’ll fill you in on the deets. Also, you’d get to work with me, and how much fun would that be?

Unfortunately, what I’ve been doing most of this week is slightly less than exciting. I’ve been reading a LOT of background material and getting myself settled in. Upside: the company is moving into a downtown office space at the end of the month and everyone is still working from home - so most of the reading (on days when I don’t have meetings) is being done sans pants. Which is awesome for me, but not so much for you, because I don’t leave the house often enough to find adventure to blog about.

Hopefully when I’m working a full 40-hour-pants-on week I’ll have more tales of tomfoolery and office hyjinx to share with you.

Until then, I’ll leave off with telling you that I’ll be doing some travel for this job - I already know I’ll want noise-canceling headphones, but which ones to buy, and what else will I need?

It seems my readers are a fairly risk-averse crowd, with a surprising (at least to me) number saying go for the larger company (Job 1).

I honestly thought for a very long while that’s what I wanted. After some serious navel-gazing and some counsel from close friends and family, it seems that, well, not so much. Thinking about my “favourite” jobs (or favourite aspects of past jobs) I kept going back to the crazy, crazy times I had in startups and non-profits. Few people and fewer resources were balanced out by a lot of enthusiasm and energy. The successes were always far, far sweeter at the end of the day.

The craving for stability has been a response to external pushes. Criticisms that my resume showed too much “movement.” Too many industries. Big red flags. It was a serious barrier to getting interviews. However, the companies who did think to question the situation and my motivation were generally impressed with my chutzpah, ability to recognize opportunities and damn impressed with my work samples to boot. I still hold an impressive interview/job offer ratio, being offered about 75% of the jobs I have in-person interviews for. Perhaps this “liability” has acted as a filter for companies where I could do well instead?

My biggest concern was still figuring out what I wanted out of an employer. Job 1 isn’t a typical “big machine” large company, and Job 2 isn’t a typical startup or microbusiness. Looking at the day-to-day work and opportunities, while I could definitely see myself at Job 1, I was more excited and actually starting to strategize campaigns in my head for the role at Job 2.

That doesn’t mean my decision was any sort of easy, though. I ended up navigating my way through my first salary negotiation/bidding war. Probably not very successfully (depending on your definition of success - which probably isn’t “sit at home a freak the fuck out for a few hours on which way to go while offers and increases roll in”), though I’m still pleased with the outcome.

Both initial offers were completely fair. I make it a point to stay on-top of salary surveys etc. for my industry. Both were on the higher end of the median for that role and my experience. Job 2’s initial offer was higher, though not substantially so. And salary certainly isn’t everything.

After presenting their offer, Job 2 called a couple times to see if I had any further questions, and to lay on the “we really want you” sugar. I expressed my concerns about the potential risk. This is when Job 2 increased their offer.

I really appreciate the way Job 2 went about the process. They acknowledged my concerns, put their money where their mouths are and increased their compensation in a way that showed they were serious - though the increase was certainly not excessive. Their recruitment was aggressive, but I never felt unduly pressured. I also strongly suspect they did their homework, googled me, and may have been reading my blog yesterday. Blogging as negotiation tactic? Perhaps something to explore…

Anyway, I informed Job 1 of the situation, and that I didn’t expect them to change their compensation, but wanted to thank them for the opportunity and tell them that I’d be declining their offer.

Job 1 immediately offered to match Job 2. A full 25% increase in salary and 50% increase in vacation compared to their initial offer. Of course that showed they wanted me on their team, but it also showed they really low-balled me on the first offer. Their first offer was fair and exactly within the range I told them I expected, so the huge increase seems knee-jerk and based on nothing more than competition. I still have mixed feelings about it. So I declined again, and faxed my acceptance to the start-up.

And that’s where things stand today.

My first day’s on Monday, and I’m beyond pleased that I finally feel settled.

Besides which, if the company does tank in a couple years, I’ll just give up on work to have tons of babies, and the Job 1 crowd can all tell me “I told you so.”

The past week has been an absolute whirlwind - and a complete 180 from the 13 weeks beforehand.

I’ve been interviewing like mad (5 work-days, 5 companies, 7 interviews) and find myself presented with two offers (well, 3, but one is totally unsuitable, and the other two companies just haven’t replied yet).

In any case, I’m firmly wedged between the proverbial rock and hard-place with these two offers. Both are great. I’m having a really hard time deciding. So I figured, why don’t I ask the internets what they’d do?

First, the similarities: title, job scope, commute, industry, opportunities for mentorship, vacation time and benefits. You know, the things I was going to use as my differentiators when making the decision on the really *right* place to be.

And now, the differences:

Job One: Is exactly what I asked for when I first started this job-hunt thing. Mid to larger sized company on a growth trajectory. They have made a lot of recent acquisitions in the past months and need to expand their marketing department to deal with it. The majority of work would be doing brand unification and change management. I found this job through an internal referral. There wasn’t actually a position in existence, but a combination of really clicking with the VP of Marketing and their need for people led her to push through the creation of a position to bring me into the team. Speaking of which, there is a team of about 6 people - so lots of opportunity for collaboration. From the state of the company today this could be a great 3-5 year (or beyond) opportunity.

Job Two: Came out of a posted position I applied for. The company is a startup, going to market ideally in September. After researching the management team, questioning their motivation, business plan, beta program, funding and talking to some industry people who may be interested in their product this is a good opportunity. The majority of work would be doing product launch and buzz generation. There is some limited travel involved (about 10%). I’d be working primarily with the VP Marketing, VP Project Management and Director of Business Development. The position has been designed to ramp up to management (where I’d build a team of reports) in a fairly short timeframe. The starting pay is 13% higher. The offer comes with stock options - though I generally don’t take those into consideration. More often than not they turn out to be worth less than the paper they’re printed on. I don’t think this company will fail - but taking into consideration the current state of things, I see this to be an 18-month to 2-year opportunity before IPO or Acquisition takes place. I see acquisition with this particular product more likely, and that move would likely render my position redundant.

So - taking into account the facts I’ve presented (and probably ignoring my speculation) - what would you do?

I’ve even included a handy poll for your voting pleasure!

UPDATE! would those who are voting in the poll care to actually comment with why they’d make the choice they have? Thus far the comments and poll results are diametrically opposed.

I need to have an answer by the end of the day tomorrow. Of course I’m going to choose the one that I ultimately decide is best for me, but I am interested in what *you* would do, or if you think there are other factors I haven’t considered.

Further Proof that HR people (or whoever’s doing the job posting these days) don’t have a damn clue:

I’m checking out what I missed on various job sites in the past few days, and discovered something pretty odd. There’s one site that lists jobs under “Internship,” “Entry-Level,” “Mid to Senior-Level,” and “Executive.”

I like checking all of the categories, just to see what’s out there, and notice that every single job in the “Entry Level” category is asking for a degree, plus 3-5 or 4-6 years of directly related experience. Seriously?

Could someone who actually has a clue please enlighten me on what exactly is entry level about someone who’s three or four years post-collegiate? More specifically, someone who’s been working all those years, as opposed to taking a very extended Gap year?

Job Posters: Do y’all need someone with a damn degree in Communication to help figure out the definition of “Entry” so you can perhaps post your jobs in relevant places? Because currently, the medium is sending the message that you don’t make much sense.

Sooo yah. About that job thing…

I rescinded my acceptance of their offer after the first day.

It’s one of the hardest decisions I’ve made in the not-so-distant past, but it was ultimately the right thing to do. I’ve often heard that the right thing and the easy thing are very rarely the same - boy howdy is that ever true.

When I first started off on this job-search thing, I had a clear set of goals for the kind of work I wanted to do, the type of place I wanted to do it, and the sort of people I wanted to work with. This job only fit one of the criteria. And one outta three ain’t good people.

While I loved the work that I’d have been doing, and was darned impressive at it (pumping out some documents in a few hours that would’ve taken the existing staff days to produce) - the cultural fit was way, way off. I wanted to work for young, dynamic, energetic company. I wanted collaboration and teamwork to factor strongly. I wanted to feel joy about my workplace - I think everyone should strive for that.

I didn’t feel any of those things. In fact, I felt the opposite. Everything felt a little bit wrong. I have nothing in common with my former co-workers, I was everyone’s junior by about 15 years (which sometimes doesn’t matter - in this case it did). I’d be working primarily alone. The duties doled out kept changing in ways that had very little to do with my title or the original job description. The commute was hell. I was planning my exit strategy by the time I got home.

Breaking the news to my boss was tough. He didn’t take it very well - who would, really, it’s a big hassle. But while he offered to change my office, hours and duties, he didn’t offer any of the things I’d tried to negotiate earlier (more vacation, more money, telecommuting/flex-time) so I think he did realize it wasn’t going to work out anyway.

The hardest thing for me was giving up something I’d worked so hard to get. A job! Of my very own! Complete with paycheque and the feeling that someone wants me!

While I’m pretty comfortable as a risk-taker, I’d not taken a personal one quite that big in a while. Would the grass be greener? Would I rather let go of the bird in the hand? I was absolutely terrified at first.

But after speaking to a number of friends and associates (it amazes me the amount of people who’ve been on both sides of this issue before) I started feeling more at peace with the whole thing. And now that I’ve interviewed at a couple other places, it’s become absolutely, perfectly clear. There are just far, far better fits out there for me, where I’m pretty sure I’ll find the trifecta of awesome.

In the meantime I’ve got some promising leads lined up and am grateful for the opportunity to spend at least a few more days soaking up the sun and feeding ice-cream to the dog.