08.23.05
Posted in General at 10:42 pm by Paloma Cruz
I forgot how discontent I am with my current employer (not with my team, they’re fabulous, but with the the people who exist outside our offices but within our building).
I forgot how excruciating it can be to get blindsided by the people who are supposed to be working with you. (This is from the “with colleagues like these, who needs enemies?” workplace.)
I forgot how draining a stressed day can be, how working against the current can take all the joy out of the work itself, how trying to be logical in an illogical situation only leads to headaches.
I forgot that the easiest way to jinx yourself is to think, even for a moment, that you have a project wrapped up.
I forgot that getting pissed off and not being able to show it, even with a flicker of emotion, takes attention and practice and talent and energy.
You have to understand, after the pain was under control, I was basically on a week-long vacation where the only thing I was allowed to do was rest. I read, I thought, I made lists and and I rested. I have never taken that much idle time to myself, ever.
I came back to work very relaxed. I came back to work on very powerful drugs. I came back to work without my guard up.
But in that first week back, before I was forced to remember those negative things I forgot, I remembered other things. I remembered how much fun it is to do the work. I remembered the absolute joy of being proved right when everyone had expressed doubts. I remembered the high of seeing a great return on a communications plan I had created and implemented myself.
I remembered why my work is important to the people who count on my being effective and efficient.
I remembered why I enjoy my field of expertise. And the fact that it is growing and changing and adapting to new technologies and demographics and trends only makes it that much more fun.
I remembered that the exchange of ideas on how to get my job done, on how to communicate and how to promote and how to reach the customer, that there is beauty in the process itself.
In the time when I wasn’t being distracted by office politics and personnel roadblocks and the tyrant queen of my building, I remembered why I’m actually still doing that for which I trained, which I thought I would do, which I knew I would do… and I’m glad.
So, if it’s not the work, and it obviously isn’t, then it’s the workplace. I am happy to work within my current team, but they are a very small part of what makes my work environment. They are a very small part of what makes my workday. At some point I am going to have to decide if the team, the work, makes up for the rest.
In the meantime, I am going to start updating my resume and look at getting accredited. I hadn’t considered it previously, but one of the many many things that dinged through my brain while I was “resting” is that next year I celebrate 10 years of doing PR profesionally — isn’t it time I sought accreditation?
Some of the things I’ve had to remember I wish I didn’t. And some of them I’m glad I did.
So speaks the PR professional.
Permalink
08.17.05
Posted in General at 12:56 am by Paloma Cruz
From Shel Holtz’ blog (posting IceRocket to stop listing Blogger blogs), to blog maverick (posting A splog here, a splog there, pretty soon it ads up… and we all lose), to the buzz on the blogosphere… it looks like the spamblogs populating Blogger are creating a reaction. I don’t know if it’s a positive reaction, or a negative reaction, but it is generating a buzz.
Shel writes:
…has prompted Mark Cuban, owner of the IceRocket blog search engine (in addition to the Dallas Mavericks) to warn users of the Google-owned blogging service that he’s close to excluding Blogger.com blogs from his service.
Mark writes:
Blogger is by far the worst offender. Google seems to be working hard to adjust their relevancy indexes to exclude splog from having influence on search rankings, but they dont seem to be doing anything more than removing reported splogs. Kind of like going after the zombies one at a time with a shovel. Can we get some help on this Google ? (you can check out weblogs.com to get a feel for just how much splog we are talking about )
Whatever your take on this may be, I can already feel the ripples starting. Who knows what happens now?
Permalink
08.13.05
Posted in General at 7:22 am by Paloma Cruz
For those of you who have decided to blog, to post details about your personal life, your professional life, yourself online I ask: where do you draw the line? I thought long about what I would and would not include in my blogs, but still sometimes wonder if it’s going to come back to haunt me. It seems I’m not alone…
Business Blog Consulting asks Does personal info belong on a business blog?
Recently Amy and I revealed stuff about ourselves on our personal/business blogs. Amy and I both caught some flak for it. Which got Amy and I to talking about the issue of personal info on “business blogs”. When is it okay to post personal information on your business blog? Or is it okay at all? Amy and I talked about stuff that was once only whispered or just not talked about. I think we both feel good about what we wrote, I know I do. But how do you feel about it? Well, Amy wants to find out! She wrote a great survey and talked about the details on her blog—Contentious » Survey- Online Professional-Personal. So, take a gander.
Permalink
08.09.05
Posted in General at 10:56 pm by Paloma Cruz
I’m back at work this week. I don’t know if I’m glad about that or not. I’ve had a good day, which was almost unexpected. It made going back to work a pleasure.
In this post I give kudos to my gang at work. My boss, who is the nicest person you will ever meet. She knows when to push me, when to give me room and backs me up whenever I need it. She’s also the reason why I was able to come back into the office after more than two weeks out to find that 99% of the things that would normally land on my desk in my absence had been handled. She has an ability to make certain that things get done that I envy.
Did I mention that she provided me with a work laptop so I could surf the net from my bed? Not so I could do work, but because there’s only so much television and romance novels I could take, even on drugs.
My colleagues, who each and every one took on extra work to make sure that my clients and my projects received the attention they deserve in my absence. And, more importantly, gave them back to me today when I came back.
This is the team that makes me love my work. Yes, I enjoy the work itself. Yes, I love making an impact. But the truth is that I wouldn’t enjoy it nearly as much if I didn’t work with such a great group of people.
So I thank them, knowing that I owe them… again. 
Permalink
08.08.05
Posted in General at 10:36 pm by Paloma Cruz
I’ve received the results of my MRI and it looks like my back issues are going to be long-term. I’m still wrapping my brain around it and am not ready to go into details.
Just giving notice that posting will continue to be sparse for a little while.
Permalink