Life on the Mason Dixon Line » Work

How to be irrelevant in business without even trying

Susan — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 12:09:55 +0000

Originally written 1.6.12: My Blackberry blew up at lunch today, which is unusual. The culture in our company is very email-heavy so phone calls are rare. I answered in my chirpy, upbeat professional voice, “Hello, this is Susan!”

The person on the other line was my boss’s boss’s boss’s boss’s boss. Seriously, Ed McMahan would have surprised me less. I think I even stood up straighter. Could he SEE me standing in the parking lot of the Subway? Why was I reading Magical Thinking instead of Good to Great or something else heady and business-like?

Why was he calling me? WAIT! I just had my annual review this morning and IT WAS STELLAR! High ratings, excellent feedback from my manager.

HE WAS CALLING ME TO OFFER A NEW JOB!!!

Or at the very least, he had heard of my rock-star performance in the first year w the company and was calling to encourage me. Now THAT is some principle-centered leadership in action. I was blown away and was so busy getting my acceptance speech ready, I didn’t listen too closely to what he was saying until the end.

He was looking for the OTHER Susan Sanders in the company. It was a wrong number.

Baby got back!

Susan — Sat, 30 Oct 2010 17:32:50 +0000

Back to the clothing issues…

When I was debating whether or not my jeans were work-appropriate, Elli had a checklist to determine if jeans are too tight. Here is the list, in no certain order:

Can you breathe?
Does the seam leave imprints on your legs by the end of the day?
Does the button give you a new navel by the end of the day?

I am adding a 4th criteria: What do the voters on the blog think of them? Review the picture and decide…

Are Susan’s jeans appropriate for work?

Obviously I would not wear this shirt to work, no matter how bad ass it is. Are these jeans ok for work?

Note: There is a poll embedded within this post, please visit the site to participate in this post's poll.

1st day of school!!!

Susan — Mon, 04 Oct 2010 22:45:07 +0000

Back to work for me today! The company I am working for is Active Health Management, a subsidiary of Aetna. I am the Team Lead for the Active Lifestyle coaches. That is a team of nurses, dieticians, exercise physiologists, and mental health counselors that will do individual coaching via the telephone for the employees we are contracted with. The contract we are on is the the NC State Employees and Teachers, which is 570,000 covered lives. No small potatoes!

It was pretty standard as far as first days go. We went over orientation schedules and had a tour, then spent 7 hours going through the different programs and services that Active Health Management offers. Each has its own proprietary software that have different usernames and passwords and can be used independently or in combination with each other.

The most important issue: What did I wear for my first day on my new job: black pants, my new black shirt and a Carolina blue jacket. My hair was kind of average, but considering that I barely brushed it, let alone fix it. It was probably just not sure where it was supposed to go.

I appreciate the phone calls, texts, and emails that you have sent wishing me well for my first day. Thank you!!!

Congratulations, Paul!

Susan — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 09:53:18 +0000

Great news! Paul won an award at work for a project where he ROCKED. Basically they were having duplicate records in their data files and he wrote code for the software to get rid of them. Translation: he saved the company a TON of money. He got major props in front of a global audience by lots of big wigs and a cash award.

My handsome smart, husband demonstrating the tendons in a "wrist" of an Alaskan King Crab.,

Tyler will be a vampire for Halloween and insisted on wearing his costume all day Saturday. Paul thought wearing the cape would help him run faster. Not even Jake buys it.

Hey! Check me out!

Susan — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 01:38:32 +0000

Couple cool things from work today. A few weeks ago one of my departments won an award: American Diabetes Association Provider of the Year. There was an awards gala at Washington Duke Inn. Check me out in the pic below. I got this from the ADA today. I was waiting to get a picture of one of my nurses who won the ADA Patient Care Award. It was a great night!

ADA Awards ceremony

Then I got an email w the proof of an article I did. I can’t show the whole thing here b/c they are sending it out to all of their customers: INTERNATIONALLY! How cool is THAT?! Here is a piece (the blue on the bottom and right is the actual article I wrote):

This is p.1 of 2 of the article

Great conference!

Susan — Thu, 29 Jan 2009 12:29:10 +0000

Yesterday I went to the NC Conference for Women. It was VERY empowering and uplifting! I don’t have too much time to write this morning, but wanted to add a couple things:

Lisa Ling was the opening speaker. She spoke about global issues and how we have to act. She was a very persuasive speaker!

Gov. Bev Perdue was the lunchtime speaker. They closed the airport so she could not appear but they rigged it up so she could speak by cell phone from the car driving from opening the state senate to a friend’s funeral. She has renamed the conference NC Governor’s Conference for Women. V cool.

Another session I went to talked about how to not let fear stop you from what you want to do. A lot to do w increasing self esteem: Self-esteem comes from DOING Esteemable Acts.