Sunday, December 17, 2006

The End......at least for now.

My new job is working out EXTREMELY WELL. My bosses seem to be just the right balance of hands-off while still directing. One is a little too concerned about making sure I'm comfortable with every step of the learning/doing process. Perhaps I should explain to her that the way I become comfortable with something is by doing it, even if it IS uncomfortable to start with.

I've had a big hand in the hiring. Being able to interview people with resumes and education is a nice change from high school students with no job experience. I've interviewed some very nice and competent people but also some really weird ones. I'm hiring only good people--no employees whose best quality is that their bodies are warm. I'm also planning on being proactive with hiring to avoid being stuck short-handed at critical times.

I had to sign probably a half-dozen agreements: confidentiality, non-compete, non-disclosure, etc. No non-blogging agreements, HOWEVER…….the nature of the business does require a level of privacy that the old one didn't. If someone did find me out, anything I wrote could severely impact the reputation of the business, perhaps in an irreversible way. In this business, reputation and trustworthiness of the staff are paramount. Even in the short time I've worked here, the owner has been entirely too good to me to risk all the time, money, and effort that she's put into the business over the last months even before opening.

I'd like to continue writing, but I don't see any way to do so without jeopardizing the privacy of our clients. Some of the situations I've already encountered are really private and no one's business, yet I have to know in order to perform the services for our clients. I'm trusted not to reveal the intricate details and problems that led them to need our services in the first place.

While anonymizing things, changing details, etc. could possibly work to protect the identities of the clients, there's still the issue of not disclosing our practices. There are a lot of company-specific terms and abbreviations that I've had to learn, so one mis-written word would make it obvious to those within the business that there was someone among them revealing company secrets and sales techniques. Even if if was in an anonymous way, I could be potentially hurting the business/my boss/a lot of other people with my writing.

So, I guess this is goodbye. I'll continue reading blogs and occasionally commenting, but writing one.....not at this time. I've enjoyed getting to "know" everyone. Have a great holiday!

Monday, December 04, 2006

No homework for me!

I'm at a training conference. My boss gave me notes to review to "help" me with the training. Tonight's homework assignment? Her notes, nearly word for word. Guess who's going out on the (small) town tonight?