Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes...Turn and face the strain OR Get the heck out your house Will.
Well...for those who haven't been keeping up on my facebook, twitter, internal monologues or looking to the sky for my smoke signals...it's finally happened.
After four years of being a hermit and working out of the home...I've gotten a different job.
Starting in mid-October...I go back to an office working as a Systems Administrator for a company called iCardiac (and yes...they did do the little i and capital letter...).
It was a hard choice to make for me. I've gotten kind of used to working from home. Getting up at 7:45 every day, wearing shorts, and a t-shirt in the winter and a t-shirt and speedos in the summer...mid afternoon naps (take that 5-hour energy with your '2:30 feeling'...I found the PERFECT beatdown for it), and sneaking off for lunches. That all will end and while I won't have to dress SUPER business casual (I mean one of the guys I'll be working with WAS wearing a Thundercats T-Shirt during the interview) I will have to dress better than shorts and a t-shirt.
Some have asked...why? I've been working from home for 4 years and a lot of people feel that is the 'valhalla' of positions...and I'll admit it has its advantages. However it does come with a few disadvantages...and I found that as I'm growing in my walk not only with the Lord but my career...I wanted to 'challenge myself' and also get involved.
See one of the problems with a 100% at home position is that social things take a BIG back seat. Football pools, poker games, Fantasy teams, NCAA brackets in March, picnics, happy hours, inside jokes etc...these all take a hit. We've tried various instances of it in the past...but it never works. There just isn't enough social interaction to do it. My CEO's answer to that was at one point legislating a monthly 'on-site' meeting at IHQ (his house) for the locals for us all to see each other. Problem was this meeting was at 7:00 PM and so in essence it was a night away from home requiring babysitters etc. The compromise was moving it back to 4:00 PM and then saying that we only had to be on-site every other month. That wasn't bad...but again since our company is 'nationwide'...you still don't get to see everyone except at the once a year meeting in January (where we usually end up going out 4 nights in a row to make up for it...). The people I work with are AWESOME. For the most part everyone gets along...but seeing each other once a year kinda sux. As the years have gone on I've started to miss having a group of people I enjoy working with whom I see daily and who I can laugh and enjoy working with. Also...for me personally I work on a team with 1 guy who's in Canada, and then my CEO and COO...which means any sort of 'team building' involves hanging with the two big bosses. Working with my co-SA in Canada is cool...but being so far away the only other guy in the company who understands what I'm going through with the gig is not around...and frankly venting is usually something people do 'spur of the moment' and aloud. If venting requires an IM that says 'you got a sec?' and then a phone call...it just loses something. :)
Likewise other team aspects took a hit. It took me close to 9 months to get up to speed on things. Working in an office...your co-workers are right there...collaboration is in real-time and usually hands on a lot easier. Having to open a GoToMeeting or other online collaboration leaves a bit to be desired. Usually in meetings I find myself working on 3 other things (in fact...as I write this I'm in a meeting right now...) so I find I can't LEARN what I need on the first try...but rather have to do a couple of sessions. In an office environment there's the chance for a 'hey Dan...got a quick question' which isn't involving picking up a phone or opening IM. It lessens the training time.
There were other reasons...but the social aspect was the main. Even still...in this final two weeks of work I find myself saying "I'm going to miss this.". Never in my career have I had more fun working with a group of people. UniteU is an amazing family experience corporately. I can't say one bad thing about it. It's been so hard to consider leaving.
I think though that the other reason I'm leaving though...is I want to be challenged. It's going to be challenging to go back into an office. To 'break' the bad habits I've formed in the last four years (no more Star Trek Voyager lunch hours) and to be visible with my bosses again. The days of keeping FB open on one of my six monitors in my office is over...and the days of doing 'a little task' here or there for the church or Finney. I'm going to be focused entirely on my job again and I find I like that. I got my father's work ethic. I believe wholeheartedly that if I do a job...I give 40 hours a week to it (at least...usually more). Working from home that wasn't hard to do. I found myself doing a lot off hours, and sometimes on weekends (ok...every month on a Saturday for about 9 hours at least). However...now that I'm in an office there will be a seperation. That isn't to say I won't work from home occasionally and won't check facebook from the office either (most likely from my iPad while going potty...there's something to think about...:)) ...but it's going to be nice in some ways. There is a freedom in having your house and office be seperate. In our old house...it was easy to mix those. At first I was in the basement and that was just WAY too disconnected. I heard/saw nothing of the upstairs or daylight. After a year and a half...Deb let me take the office upstairs next to our room. That was a little better...but then I was far too CONNECTED. Nothing happened in the house I didn't know about and when Deb was home from work for awhile...I found it was HARD for us to share an office. Finally when we moved one of the reasons we took this house was that my office would still be on the main floor, have windows...but in essence be in a seperate 'wing' of the house (the front half...) and that has been perfect. Working from home however...there have been days/weeks where all I wanted to do at 5:00 is go SOMEWHERE...which is bad when the wife gets home and wants to be only here. It's partially my hope that with us BOTH working out of the house...home will become a haven again...and one I won't be so eager to leave at times.
So I'm going to work. My first day is October 12...(I took a few days to 'get things together', tear apart my UU equipment to take back and get some clothes as well as pray and prepare.) and I can honestly say I'm excited. I'm going to miss my UniteU people...I'm sure we'll see each other (especially Karaoke night in January)...but it will be different. That's ok. I've made some lifelong friends and I'm glad to know them.
However I'm excited to be working with Jaimie and Dan. To be able to be around other 'geeks' and share a job together.
The extra money doesn't hurt either.
Thanks for reading...
After four years of being a hermit and working out of the home...I've gotten a different job.
Starting in mid-October...I go back to an office working as a Systems Administrator for a company called iCardiac (and yes...they did do the little i and capital letter...).
It was a hard choice to make for me. I've gotten kind of used to working from home. Getting up at 7:45 every day, wearing shorts, and a t-shirt in the winter and a t-shirt and speedos in the summer...mid afternoon naps (take that 5-hour energy with your '2:30 feeling'...I found the PERFECT beatdown for it), and sneaking off for lunches. That all will end and while I won't have to dress SUPER business casual (I mean one of the guys I'll be working with WAS wearing a Thundercats T-Shirt during the interview) I will have to dress better than shorts and a t-shirt.
Some have asked...why? I've been working from home for 4 years and a lot of people feel that is the 'valhalla' of positions...and I'll admit it has its advantages. However it does come with a few disadvantages...and I found that as I'm growing in my walk not only with the Lord but my career...I wanted to 'challenge myself' and also get involved.
See one of the problems with a 100% at home position is that social things take a BIG back seat. Football pools, poker games, Fantasy teams, NCAA brackets in March, picnics, happy hours, inside jokes etc...these all take a hit. We've tried various instances of it in the past...but it never works. There just isn't enough social interaction to do it. My CEO's answer to that was at one point legislating a monthly 'on-site' meeting at IHQ (his house) for the locals for us all to see each other. Problem was this meeting was at 7:00 PM and so in essence it was a night away from home requiring babysitters etc. The compromise was moving it back to 4:00 PM and then saying that we only had to be on-site every other month. That wasn't bad...but again since our company is 'nationwide'...you still don't get to see everyone except at the once a year meeting in January (where we usually end up going out 4 nights in a row to make up for it...). The people I work with are AWESOME. For the most part everyone gets along...but seeing each other once a year kinda sux. As the years have gone on I've started to miss having a group of people I enjoy working with whom I see daily and who I can laugh and enjoy working with. Also...for me personally I work on a team with 1 guy who's in Canada, and then my CEO and COO...which means any sort of 'team building' involves hanging with the two big bosses. Working with my co-SA in Canada is cool...but being so far away the only other guy in the company who understands what I'm going through with the gig is not around...and frankly venting is usually something people do 'spur of the moment' and aloud. If venting requires an IM that says 'you got a sec?' and then a phone call...it just loses something. :)
Likewise other team aspects took a hit. It took me close to 9 months to get up to speed on things. Working in an office...your co-workers are right there...collaboration is in real-time and usually hands on a lot easier. Having to open a GoToMeeting or other online collaboration leaves a bit to be desired. Usually in meetings I find myself working on 3 other things (in fact...as I write this I'm in a meeting right now...) so I find I can't LEARN what I need on the first try...but rather have to do a couple of sessions. In an office environment there's the chance for a 'hey Dan...got a quick question' which isn't involving picking up a phone or opening IM. It lessens the training time.
There were other reasons...but the social aspect was the main. Even still...in this final two weeks of work I find myself saying "I'm going to miss this.". Never in my career have I had more fun working with a group of people. UniteU is an amazing family experience corporately. I can't say one bad thing about it. It's been so hard to consider leaving.
I think though that the other reason I'm leaving though...is I want to be challenged. It's going to be challenging to go back into an office. To 'break' the bad habits I've formed in the last four years (no more Star Trek Voyager lunch hours) and to be visible with my bosses again. The days of keeping FB open on one of my six monitors in my office is over...and the days of doing 'a little task' here or there for the church or Finney. I'm going to be focused entirely on my job again and I find I like that. I got my father's work ethic. I believe wholeheartedly that if I do a job...I give 40 hours a week to it (at least...usually more). Working from home that wasn't hard to do. I found myself doing a lot off hours, and sometimes on weekends (ok...every month on a Saturday for about 9 hours at least). However...now that I'm in an office there will be a seperation. That isn't to say I won't work from home occasionally and won't check facebook from the office either (most likely from my iPad while going potty...there's something to think about...:)) ...but it's going to be nice in some ways. There is a freedom in having your house and office be seperate. In our old house...it was easy to mix those. At first I was in the basement and that was just WAY too disconnected. I heard/saw nothing of the upstairs or daylight. After a year and a half...Deb let me take the office upstairs next to our room. That was a little better...but then I was far too CONNECTED. Nothing happened in the house I didn't know about and when Deb was home from work for awhile...I found it was HARD for us to share an office. Finally when we moved one of the reasons we took this house was that my office would still be on the main floor, have windows...but in essence be in a seperate 'wing' of the house (the front half...) and that has been perfect. Working from home however...there have been days/weeks where all I wanted to do at 5:00 is go SOMEWHERE...which is bad when the wife gets home and wants to be only here. It's partially my hope that with us BOTH working out of the house...home will become a haven again...and one I won't be so eager to leave at times.
So I'm going to work. My first day is October 12...(I took a few days to 'get things together', tear apart my UU equipment to take back and get some clothes as well as pray and prepare.) and I can honestly say I'm excited. I'm going to miss my UniteU people...I'm sure we'll see each other (especially Karaoke night in January)...but it will be different. That's ok. I've made some lifelong friends and I'm glad to know them.
However I'm excited to be working with Jaimie and Dan. To be able to be around other 'geeks' and share a job together.
The extra money doesn't hurt either.
Thanks for reading...
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