First one

Not the first, not the first.

Today marks 294 days since my position was eliminated. Eliminated. Let me back up and tell you the whole story.....

In 2006, I was given my dream job. I became an Event and Learning Coordinator for a consulting company that does very interesting and cool investigations. And it was my job to provide support to a director who had little to no training or learning experience, other than she was really good at her job, and the president wanted to model other employees in the style of her. He wanted clones of her integrity, her writing, her wit, her tenacity, and to do this he went to the big parent company, asked for a boatload of money, and got it.

Thus, training program was born.

However, other than an idea, no one had a flushed out plan of how it was going to happen.

For the first year, there were bumps, mainly on the traveling part. Up until this point, I had been out of the country a total of 5 times-- 2 to Canada, 2 to Mexico, 1 to London. None of those trips were interesting nor memorable, so international travel for work seemed so incredibly cool. However, being a large woman in business class on a Chinese airline warrants an extender and a precarious balance between sitting up straight and lying flat on your back (for those of you who don't know, buttons to recline in airplanes are on the inside armrest. Problem if you extend into that armrest and then some. The slightest motion catapults you into full recline. Not appropriate during dinner with fine China.)

Another bump was giving participants alcohol in their welcome/gift bags. I spent a lot of time regretting this one, most specifically when the hotel management was calling with tales of people laying on the floor in the lobby, wasted.

Regardless of the bumps, I learned. I learned about the job, the company, how to promote and produce a training event, how to write an email in just one hour, etc. I also learned politics. I learned that if your name is the same as on the door, you have a different set of standards to uphold than others. You can get away with leaving for a couple months to pursue your dreams without fear of your job being given to someone else. You also can get away with not doing your job to the fullest, and take no responsibility for the crappy job you have done. And if you are close to those who have their name on the door, then life is protected. Not like showroom protected, more like Italian gramma plastic slipcover protected-- at any time you can come off but everyone knows you are staying for good.