On training, boys, meeting family and horrible commutes...
Ran 3.1 miles, walked .5 miles, biked 2 miles. 75 crunches on the ball, leg circles, 20 lower ab crunches, 15 pushups, held the plank position for 40 seconds. I remembered to take my allergy meds and I could breath! It felt really good - an easy workout even though I am so very, very tired... My knee was a little twingy but nothing that stopped me. I also managed to workout once last week while i was in training, on Wednesday. Once a week is definitely not enough but the new commute is sucking my will to live and I get home really, really late. Here's hoping staying in a hotel next week will help me work out more often.
So last week I finally went to manager training! My company has a program set up through the Yale Management Program's (their version of an MBA) executive education department and it was awesome! The Yale professors covered all sorts of management and leadership topics, from planning how to make decisions (not just making them) and cognitive traps to avoid to managing conflict and improving how we are viewed personally within the company. It was a very worthwhile week, if for no other reason than the classes and I met some really interesting folks. Also some real duds, but that's to be expected in a huge company, I guess. I experimented with leading by influencing others rather than directly, and it actually worked reasonably well. By that I mean I identified someone on my team who I got along with and agreed with on almost everything and who was very adept at influencing others. And I spent my energy influencing her and trading group power back and forth with her to actually get the group in line - worked like a charm. Interesting.
Because I was in class I missed our practice call Friday, in which several of the consultants managed to nail one of my Managing Directors down and he admitted he is leaving the firm. As you can imagine, folks are all in a tizzy over losing their boss - and they should be, our pipeline is soft and since the news got out before he had finished working through the transition details with our other MD (my boss), our leadership also has no real answers to give us right now. Oi.
Spent the weekend in Charlottle with CG and his brother, sister-in-law and nephew. They are all good people and the kid is adorable - he's 2.5 and super smart and very low drama - my kind of kid! Was a little nerve racking but I managed to get through it. The sister in law contrived for us to get mani-pedis so she could ask me some real questions (like would i ever move to Chicago? answer: no) but I had a great time. The more time I spend with CG the more I am drawn to him - but I am painfully aware that the long distance thing needs to be resolved eventually and it will probably not work out the way I want it to - I am unwilling to move from the Bay Area and he in unwilling to leave Chicago, at least not yet. There is some slim chance - his friends are all getting married and having kids and moving out of the city so he has less to tie him there than he used to, but I'm not holding my breath. In the meantime I intend to enjoy his company as much as possible and will continue to get as much quality time as I can with him. That said, I won't see him again till early June, which makes me very sad... Meh. :(
I flew home Monday and went straight to the new project, which is in Cupertino. After spending more than an hour and 30 minutes in the car (hour and 40 one day) I decided "fuck it" and researched our travel policy. Turns out the SOW we signed with the client provides for travel expenses if you live more than 50 miles away from the office. I live 48 miles away... in JLS. But in the house I own with my Mom I'm a lovely 50.5 miles, so I am going to start "traveling" next week. This means that I can charge in mileage in excess of my normal office commute and will have to the option to stay in a hotel any night I want. This is good because I will avoid the horrible commute, but bad because I'll be "local" but not home much! At least I'll be in the same time zone and while I won't get per diem, on nights that I stay in a hotel they will pay for my meals so I won't be making money but I won't be loosinglosing it either. The flip side is I am still "local" enough that they want me in the office Fridays rather than working from home. We'll see how that goes - in general clients ask for it then hate it and/or the consultants just eventually go back to working from home and no one notices.
Saturday I host my 33 1/3 birthday party! Rawr!!! Can't wait!
So last week I finally went to manager training! My company has a program set up through the Yale Management Program's (their version of an MBA) executive education department and it was awesome! The Yale professors covered all sorts of management and leadership topics, from planning how to make decisions (not just making them) and cognitive traps to avoid to managing conflict and improving how we are viewed personally within the company. It was a very worthwhile week, if for no other reason than the classes and I met some really interesting folks. Also some real duds, but that's to be expected in a huge company, I guess. I experimented with leading by influencing others rather than directly, and it actually worked reasonably well. By that I mean I identified someone on my team who I got along with and agreed with on almost everything and who was very adept at influencing others. And I spent my energy influencing her and trading group power back and forth with her to actually get the group in line - worked like a charm. Interesting.
Because I was in class I missed our practice call Friday, in which several of the consultants managed to nail one of my Managing Directors down and he admitted he is leaving the firm. As you can imagine, folks are all in a tizzy over losing their boss - and they should be, our pipeline is soft and since the news got out before he had finished working through the transition details with our other MD (my boss), our leadership also has no real answers to give us right now. Oi.
Spent the weekend in Charlottle with CG and his brother, sister-in-law and nephew. They are all good people and the kid is adorable - he's 2.5 and super smart and very low drama - my kind of kid! Was a little nerve racking but I managed to get through it. The sister in law contrived for us to get mani-pedis so she could ask me some real questions (like would i ever move to Chicago? answer: no) but I had a great time. The more time I spend with CG the more I am drawn to him - but I am painfully aware that the long distance thing needs to be resolved eventually and it will probably not work out the way I want it to - I am unwilling to move from the Bay Area and he in unwilling to leave Chicago, at least not yet. There is some slim chance - his friends are all getting married and having kids and moving out of the city so he has less to tie him there than he used to, but I'm not holding my breath. In the meantime I intend to enjoy his company as much as possible and will continue to get as much quality time as I can with him. That said, I won't see him again till early June, which makes me very sad... Meh. :(
I flew home Monday and went straight to the new project, which is in Cupertino. After spending more than an hour and 30 minutes in the car (hour and 40 one day) I decided "fuck it" and researched our travel policy. Turns out the SOW we signed with the client provides for travel expenses if you live more than 50 miles away from the office. I live 48 miles away... in JLS. But in the house I own with my Mom I'm a lovely 50.5 miles, so I am going to start "traveling" next week. This means that I can charge in mileage in excess of my normal office commute and will have to the option to stay in a hotel any night I want. This is good because I will avoid the horrible commute, but bad because I'll be "local" but not home much! At least I'll be in the same time zone and while I won't get per diem, on nights that I stay in a hotel they will pay for my meals so I won't be making money but I won't be loosinglosing it either. The flip side is I am still "local" enough that they want me in the office Fridays rather than working from home. We'll see how that goes - in general clients ask for it then hate it and/or the consultants just eventually go back to working from home and no one notices.
Saturday I host my 33 1/3 birthday party! Rawr!!! Can't wait!