LJ Idol 11 - Week 15
I think that I have mentioned that my boss of 15 years passed away last September. Our company - I refer to it as “our”, but it was really “his” - is a very small energy (mainly oil and gas) company. There were only ever two employees, him and me. It made for a pretty intimate working relationship throughout the years. I knew almost everything about the business and also performed lot of tasks that were related to his personal life. He was the face of the company; I was the background crew. He had the ideas; I helped make sure they worked. My responsibilities grew through the years, even though he made it clear that I was the employee and he was the boss. And I liked it that way. It gave me a boundary, a defined place in which to exist, work, and excel.
In October 2018, he received a fourth diagnosis of cancer - this time it had moved into his brain. There were seven inoperable tumors. It would just be a matter of time. With luck, two years. This was when my job really changed.
Brain tumors are…horrible. This brilliantly successful man, who held two high level degrees in topics that require a brain-glowing level of intelligence, could raise figures for deals that had occurred over 10 years ago from his head, remembered countless colleagues and friends as if a day hadn’t passed, could pull together a deal with barely a second thought, skied, sailed, golfed, and helped raise three young men, began to lose it all. Physical limitations entered the picture early. Dementia and confusion soon followed.
Suddenly, I was thrust from the background person who pulled everything together and made sure paperwork was turned in where and when it should be to the person who was making decisions on how the company ran day to day and worked overall. I, who had rarely attended face to face meetings, was now the one who was consulted and met with colleagues, business partners, and industry regulators. It was daunting. It was terrifying. It still is to an extent.
His wife, who had until then not been involved in the business other than to know it was successful, began to come on board so she could become the new owner/leader of the company. There has been a huge learning curve for her. Luckily, she’s smart and is picking up the business side of things. However, I have an inordinate amount of job security. She just handed me a promotion and a raise that are more commensurate with the work and leadership role I’ve had over the past 18 months, which I am excited about.
She also asked me to visit with a life coach - on the company’s dime, of course. Part of that meeting was to set goals for the year. One of those business-oriented goals is to visit some of our well sites in a bid to “learn what happens on the ground”.
I have done this before, but it was a quick visit at a site that had been developed and producing for quite a number of years. There wasn’t much to learn about at the time - it was more of a “Oh, that’s what the equipment looks like” with a quick, basic tutorial regarding the path oil takes as it is pumped out of the ground and sent to the stock tanks where it is picked up and sold. It was interesting, but the trip was more about getting to spend a weekend in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. I brought along my husband and niece and we had a great time in a stunning part of the state, where we added some fishing, a ginormous cinnamon roll (seriously, it was the size of your head!), some bowling, and a ride above the tree-line where the first of the fall snow had already fallen.
We now have a few newly drilled wells and I’m looking forward to visiting them this spring/summer. They are not in Colorado, but I’m still excited. (They’re considered confidential at this point, so I’m not going to say where they are.) I have learned a lot more about the drilling and operations side of oil wells and am anxious to attach that knowledge to on-site experience. The new wells are in different states of production in a different type of terrain. They are different types of wells and will have different equipment onsite. There are different people who work with those wells, so it will be a face to face meeting with colleagues that I’ve only had phone and email contact with.
I’ll turn it into a vacation type trip with at least five days away from the office. I’m excited to get out my camera and get some fresh pictures to add to our company website. I’m not sure what there will be to occupy our time recreationally (I’ll definitely be bringing my husband along), but I’m sure we’ll find something. Vacations are what you make them, and they’re even better when you can write some of it off as a business expense.