New Tactics for Big Dogs

I work as a "technologist" for a financial institution - with a capital I. In the current and most recent economy I feel pretty fortunate to have a job. However, the job has been taking a lot of my time in the past year. I complained that 3 managers used to do the work I am currently managing and swiftly got a promotion, raise - and more responsibility. So I am not inclined to go that route again...

Then there was a reorg and I ended up with a new boss who thinks my hours as well as my team hours are crazy but there is no room for more staff and there will be more work this year than ever before and oh- we have the most complicated system he has ever worked with at the company. I keep trying to track down how to make things to create less craziness for us.

About the time I start to get defeated my team rounds up (16FTE, 20 consultants, and 7 folks in India) and wishes me happy new year with a signed card and hands me a gift certificate - and when they meet my new boss and tell him the thing they like most about their job is the team and that it is well managed. I had to ask them how much I paid them for that response - they laughed - ahem....As they were leaving the room during this meeting I looked at my new boss and said the funny thing is that 75% of the folks that work here work more than 40 hours a week - I silently wondered -how is it that they are still loyal to me? I really want to give people back their lives, and oh by the way, I would like mine back : )

There are so many things about my job that are great. I have a fabulous team and I have a job that makes me think and I am challenged. I do not do well with bored. We work with cutting edge technology but then who doesn't these days? I work with smart people and often have to ask them to slow down for me. I do a lot of translation and push hard to make room for success with my team. I have been able to provide training to everyone on my team this year that makes each one of them more marketable - meaning I actually get to help develop careers - really what else can you ask for? No one is stuck in their job - they are all extremely employable and professional.

Okay, here it is - I would like to spend more time at home with Kristin and Gromit and Chewie and Schmadios and Tiace.

This week I got to take Gromit and Chewie to their first class at the new training building for our instructor. It was pretty fun. Because of the cold weather I had spent time doing ever so slightly extra training with Gromit and Chewie inside. I was surprised to see Chewie really starting to get it - and starting to take off. He did not scold me once in class this week - no lectures as I like to say. He confidently jumped up on the table with just one instruction - amazing for him! He followed me through a few difficult jump sequences too and did weave poles - set of 12 (with barriers).

Gromit was tuned in and followed me through the class. My first indication of truly having his attention was when he stopped at the bottom of the a-frame on the first up and over of it - this is one of the most difficult things for him to do, in my opinion. He loves to go, fast, and show off a bit. He just did so many good things. The errors we had were mostly mine - getting lost on the course, not giving him room to do a broad jump.

They have class on separate nights and it really did make a difference to not have them both in the same building at the same time. I was so much more relaxed. The new building has extra room for crates and getting in and out of the building. The extra training apparently makes a difference. I am not trying to help the dogs be more marketable, but helping them be more successful, like my team at work, makes us all more successful. Getting that team at work a better model for staffing will allow me to get more time for training the dogs. I think I just got motivated for work again.