Have a better attitude at work

I’ve rubbed shoulders with a minister in a foreign country. And in the process probably saved the project I’m managing from certain doom. It’s hard not to be all gung-ho about work right now. :)

Thanks to my presentation last year, we’re getting some business from another country. And I facilitated a deal between a friend’s employer and our company. They better give me a bonus or something. :P

In other news, I’m pissing blood right now. Figuratively of course. I wish I were on vacation already.

I think it’s a really sad sign of the times that we (my friends and family, at least) celebrate getting a non-fixed-length employment contract as a major life milestone and opportunity. Comments on the “happy occasion” are usually something like “Now you can buy a car!” “Now you can get a bank loan!” “Now you can have kids!”

I’ve had the rare opportunity to read my CV as written by our marketing people when the company was trying to get some job and had to submit the CVs of all the people that would be working on that job. Boy, what an ego-boost that was! I had no idea I’d been working on all those projects. ;)

I’ve been described as “assertive” at a business workshop recently. Moi, assertive? I still see myself mostly as a shy, timid introvert, but I’m beginning to see it’s not really true. Sadly, I think I may be heading into the other extreme – aggressiveness. (Maybe overcompensating?) Guess I’d like to be confident but nice.

I’m being sent to a 2-day conference in, err, another European country I’d rather not disclose so I could keep my pretense of anonymity on the net. :) It’s nice to see hard work and positive attitude bearing fruit! (About damn time, if you ask me.)

I got a 10% raise, totally out of the blue! :D Woot woot wooooot! :D

I was highly praised at work for traveling to a neighboring country and giving a presentation on two projects, one I worked on and one I had no clue about but had to present in place of my colleague because he didn’t speak the language. And for agreeing to do it and doing it without any fuss. I don’t know, it just doesn’t seem a big deal to me? More like an opportunity to spend a day away from daily work, travel a little (_{mostly just sit in the car and make small talk, as the big boss was doing all the driving}), bring some randomness into my life.

_{PS. My favorite moment: one of the organizers of the presentation asking me if I maybe had a business card, so he could write down my name without making a mistake, me pulling out my card in a second, and the big boss going all wide-eyed and asking “you have your cards with you???” Pfft, I’m a professional after all, what do you think. :P}

Today I feel like sleeping, cooking, reading, writing, exercising, knitting… But definitely not working. And I’ve only been here for an hour. :(

Update: About half an hour after I wrote that, my boss praised me so much I almost started blushing. Almost. ;) But I still left work early and strolled leisurely around town. (_{I walked 100 meters from Queen Elizabeth! But I didn’t want to mix with the crowd to gape, so I strolled on.}) It helped me feel much calmer and more focused. Lesson: sometimes it doesn’t pay off to keep working if you don’t feel like it.

I volunteered for a super exciting new project at work that might even help me with two of mygoals. :)

I need to start pulling my weight.