Lewis, Jeff, Chuck, Patti
Today is the first official day of my “staycation.” I’m taking a week off from work to stay home and rest, read and write. This is a rarity for me, so I intend to make the best of it.
One of my challenges this week is to resist the urge to log in to work email or our corporate social network for which I’m responsible, and truly get away from it for the week. On previous vacations – even quiet study breaks at a monastery – I usually found some time to sneak a peek at what was happening back at work. Doing that, however, prevents the mind from truly getting away. This time I don’t want to look until I return one week from today. I was able to resist the urge over the weekend.
While I know I’ll have a ton waiting on me when I return, I can still rest easy this week knowing that everything I would normally do is in the great hands of my awesome coworkers. Having quality, hard-working, thoughtful, energetic, capable people like Patti Smith, Chuck Stephens and my manager Lewis Bertolucci around contributes to my ability to step away and know that everything is being taken care of. There have been other times in previous positions where that was not the case, so I am grateful to them for their part in letting me get away this week with peace of mind.
I hear stories from time to time about people who can’t trust others around them at work, who fear being undermined or thrown under a bus by others trying to get ahead by knocking them down. I can’t imagine working in such an environment. It is far superior to have a team like ours where we genuinely strive to build each other up and help each other out. Work is, after all, where many of us spend more waking hours than any other single place Monday-Friday, so it’s important that it be a good experience with good relationships.
I dedicate this leap year lesson #248 to my coworkers Patti, Chuck and Lewis: Colleagues who have your back bring peace of mind.
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