I hope that I am fortunate enough to have been missed by my readers while on an unintentional sabbatical these last several weeks. I have been moving to my new home in North Carolina and starting a new job. Our house temporarily has no television, no land line, no cell phone reception and no internet access so I’ve been cloistered from the news, my blog, Twitter, LinkedIn, email, FaceBook and listservs. It has been INTENSELY quiet, if there is such a thing.
I’ve been doing a lot of thinking about my new community, my new job and my chance for a fresh start. A television commercial I saw recently says something about being able to be more yourself where no one knows you. It’s true. Here in my new community I can be a better me as no one knows any different. A new job is always an opportunity to do things differently and I’ve made a list for myself of the things I will do differently, better, or not at all:
1. I will stop rolling my eyes. I don’t like it when someone rolls their eyes at me, yet I think I roll my eyes without even realizing it. I will become aware and stop it.
2. I will arrive to meetings on time. I have the compulsion to do “just one more”¦” that compels me to read one more email, squeeze in one more phone call and so I don’t arrive places on time. It’s rude and it sends the message that I think my time is more valuable than the time of others. Nope.
3. I’ll work a normal amount of hours per week, as soon as I can find out what that is. Boy, is this a can of worms. I’ve always heard that you have to put in more hours if you want to advance and that managers should be the first ones in the office in the morning and the last ones to leave. The problem is, of course, that you will be exhausted, sick, cranky, unfocused, estranged from your family and one-dimensional if all you are is a workaholic. It is a disease and I want to be on the road to recovery.
I have lots of new stuff to share. For one thing, I just completed the best orientation I’ve ever had, and several readers have expressed an interest in creating a stronger orientation program for their practices, so I’d like to expand on this. I also kept extensive notes on my job search process and will write about searching for a job in 2009.
As always, I thank you for coming along for the ride with me and I welcome your comments and feedback.
