An Arizona Cheesehead's Thoughts

Back in January of 2017, my friend and colleague Kyle polled our department to see who would like to participate in playing board games once a week during lunch. We started at the end of that month and the group soon settled into the "regulars" - Kyle, Lenny, Brian and me. Occasionally, one of us would be out and someone else would drop in for the week but then it would be back to our gang. #boardgametuesday Kyle, Kathy, Brian and Lenny At one point during our RIF process, I was considering leaving at the end of May so Kyle suggested that I get to pick whatever games I wanted to play for that month. I ended up staying for June and we let Brian pick those since he was also leaving. I lucked out on the math since I got five weeks to pick and he only got four proving, once again, that I am the Princess. World's Fair 1893 I immediately knew which game I wanted to play first. World's Fair 1893 is my game. There's something about that allows me to d...

Don't you love it when people use acronyms and expect everyone to know what they mean? Me neither. It's just easier to say PMP instead of Project Management Professional because even the long description doesn't help people figure it out what it means if they don't already know. Basically, it's like a CPA for Project Managers. You are awarded the designation by a combination of experience, specific education and passing an arduous (200 multiple choice questions with a four hour time limit and it's super secret how many questions you need to get right but everyone seems to say try for 80%) exam. Just as you don't need a CPA to be an Accountant, you don't need a PMP to be a Project Manager but it adds a level of credibility and legitimacy that was certainly appealing to me for my upcoming employment change. The short story is that, as of yesterday morning, I am one! The official description according to the Project Management Institute (PMI). Yes, ...

Every year, our CEO picks a theme for the company and presents it at our annual staff meeting. This year's theme is "Change" and it's overwhelmingly accurate. The company sold off some of our core business and has plans to sell another division, too. What does that mean? Well, a large chunk of our salespeople and a few operations peeps moved to the company that bought our business. Their last day with us was May 11. Because the support requirements of the overall business will be much smaller, another contingent of operations personnel left on May 25. A few people are staying a little longer for clean up before they, too, depart. I'm in that last group. My absolutely last day will be June 29. I would suggest "surreal" may be another theme as I've been here for over 19 years and it's so strange to think I won't be driving through the gates every day and settling in at my tchotchke filled desk. (I've already taken home two bags of stu...