The more thankful for my current job I become.

For those who don’t know, I’m sitting in CS/IS Overview 2. It’s a tech industry “soft skills” class and the last couple of weeks have focused on professionalism in the workplace and the mechanics (legalities, taxes etc) of being employed. Besides the fact that this is old news to me (I’ve signed plenty of NDAs and filled out plenty of W-2s), it shows me just how lucky I am to have the chill job I currently have.

One of the first things my current boss said to me when we were interviewing is that he believes in “work where you want, when you want”. I work in bed and on airplanes and poke my head into the office roughly once every four months. Even when I had a legit “desk job” at Ubicom, I could come and go whenever I wanted as long as I did roughly 40 hours a week (I generally did more because I’m compulsive like that) and I could work from home if I didn’t have any meetings. 

Now they’re talking about not having shady pictures on your Facebook. I have co-workers AND customers (not to mention my mother) friended on Facebook, and certainly my shady pictures are up for all to enjoy. I’m very lucky in that all three groups have the presence of mind to understand that none of those things matter as long as you do good work and treat people with respect. 

It worries me a little that I’m getting spoiled this early. If I ever change jobs to a company with a stricter work environment, I’m afraid I’ll feel unnecessarily restricted since I’ve clearly demonstrated to myself (and my current employer) that I’m capable of getting a lot done without the chokechain. 

Shit, my desk at Neetek was a red velvet couch. I don’t think I’ll be taking any jobs from companies that have long-standing relationships with Northeastern simply because they seem to expect an unnecessary level of meaningless professionalism. 

Ooh! She just said “blogging is fraught with peril”. They say not to say anything about your employer, positive or negative, without their specific permission to publish it. Oops. 

Anyway, end rant. Being an exception is fun.