Tag: work

Categories
Found Reflected

Milestones

It’s been nearly four years since I joined the staff of Weill Cornell Medical College. In that time I’ve held three different titles and worked on over what feels like a hundred projects.

The first project I worked on, the one I was hired for, has stuck with me through all four years. In one capacity or another, I’ve always had a hand in the WCMC Elearning team, supporting the curriculum efforts at the Qatar branch of the Medical College. In the spirit of honesty, it hasn’t been my favorite project over the years: an operational effort that rarely gets acknowledged for keeping things running, but the first under fire when it falls apart. It’s been a rough existence, fighting with 270 millisecond latency and MPEG-4 encoders. (Good thing we’re not streaming live 99% of the time.)

On May 8th, the very first class of students graduated from WCMC-Q. This is the first time an American medical school has awarded M.D. degrees outside of US borders. These are the students that my work went towards teaching for those first two years when I was most involved with the project.

I’m proud to have been a part of this effort, knowing that it has achieved substantial good in the world. And I’m proud of the team I’ve worked with over those four years to help make fifteen students halfway around the world make history.

Categories
Happened

Escalation

I have a small subset of my home music collection on my work computer. A number of these tracks are things I purchased off the iTunes store, which includes a fair number of tracks that I can only justify owning as “for nostalgic value”.

Because I value nostalgia so deeply, many of these songs end up in rotation, and I’ve taken a small amount of shit from a coworker about the number of times he’s heard House Of Pain’s *Jump Around* in the last month.

After publicly threatening to purchase a copy of Wreckx-n-Effect’s *Rump Shaker*, Adam Kuban (a fellow crap music lover) gifted me the song on iTunes.

But this, I fear, is not enough. Two obnoxious 90’s songs are not enough to terrorize an office, and even the Richard Cheese albums have too much artistic merit to enjoy ironically. I promised my friends that I would out-crazy them in 2008, and if there was ever a resolution I intended to keep, this is it.

So to my coworkers, I apologize. My hand has been forced.

This is, as it turns out, the second CD I ever owned as a child (the first being the original C+C Music Factory album). For the years of 1991 through 1996, I lived on a musical diet of the sorts of things one would hear at a middle school dance (not strange, considering I was *in middle school* at the time). Regardless, my mom was throwing out some of my things and came across a pile of CDs. This one deserved rescuing.

Now if only I could find my MTV Party To Go CDs…

Categories
Debated Reflected

On Goodbyes At The Workplace

As you may know, I work in the education segment of the technology world. This has taught me a few things.

*One*, very few people are here for the money. We tend to be below market price for base salary, and while the difference is usually made up in fringe, many people are looking at that dollar sign for an indication of self-worth.

*Two*, very few people are in it for the prestige. Despite the idea that you are afforded more lulls (not lulz) by the concepts of winter break, or spring break, or summer vacation, you aren’t. There is a constant, overwhelming pile of work – not only to keep the lights on, but to advance the mission as well.

*Three*, because of points one and two, there are a few types of people who mesh very well into this environment. It takes a very particular mix of multitasking, self-sacrifice, persistence, optimism, and zany madcap humor to feel comfortable here. It takes a person willing to trade the spoils for the stability to stay here.

I’m proud to say I work with a handful of people who fit that description. But today, I have to see one leave – not for money, not out of frustration, but to spread her wings and travel the world for a year with her husband.

This wasn’t a surprise, per se; the employee in question was kind enough to give four months notice. But it only really hit me last week, that this constant source of balance and sanity in my workplace is going to be gone as of 5PM today. The contact won’t be gone – I still expect to be chatting endlessly over IM late at night – but the constant interaction will be.

It’s tough losing someone who’s been so valuable to your work experience. And it’s hard, in an environment you’re so used to be professional in, to realize how much certain coworkers mean to you.

Enough melancholy – Paula, it’s been a dream working with you. Thank you for everything. I am undeniably jealous of your plans, and wish you all the best. New York will be here, waiting patiently for your return.