On the Road Again

  

(The view from my office window)

After eight and a half years with my current employer, I've decided to move on.  My last day with Paul Capital will be tomorrow, April 30, 2015.

It has been a fun ride with PCA.  I started at the time of its boom.  I had a chance to learn about hiring in this mega $$$$$ earning field.  The compensation package design was an eye-opening experience for me.  But hey, I got used to it.  After all, we are in the investment services business where transactions are valued in hundreds of millions and/or billions of dollars.  I got a chance to dive into international HR.  That was such a valuable experience and the best knowledge I picked up from this gig.  I trained myself not to impose US labor standards onto other country's labor practices.  Some country's labor laws are actually more stringent than the US.  I had a kick learning to appreciate Brazil's pro-labor compensation to employees (yes, love those vacation allowances) and HK's 20 some-odd public holidays per year.  UK is stingy but sure loves their regulated paid leaves.  And if you work in France, considered yourself one of the luckiest workers in the world!

After eight and a half years, I got restless and felt plateaued out.  Although I'm over the hill (age wise), I still feel like an Energizer Bunny.  There is still so much to learn and absorb.  I wanted a change.  JOB GOD must have heard me and dropped an opportunity on my lap -- literally.  A recruiter, whom I met last year, called me out of the blue regarding a Director level HR opportunity.  I met with seven folks and they offered me the position within two weeks.  It happened quite suddenly.  I had to make a decision very quickly whether I was really ready to leave this comfy zone and venture into the land of unknowns in the name of promotion.  Decisions.  Decisions.  Decisions.  At the end, I decided that going out there is the right direction for me.

What's ahead of me?  Who knows!  That's the challenging part that keeps me going.  What's at the next turn?  What's up ahead?  We will find out when I'm on the road again.

Wish my luck peeps!

Saving Daylight

Our Office Manager puts out a memo reminding us that daylight saving time starts this Sunday (3/8). But, this is only in the US. France and the UK won’t change to DST until 3/29. Brazil has already changed to DST on 2/15, and Hong Kong doesn’t have DST. So, it will be fun trying to figure out who is at what time in the next couple of weeks.

What’s TIME any way? There seems to be no standard around when DST should start or end or should there even be one at all. We are all kind of playing with our own time. Why do some countries have DST and some don’t? Hmmm... I'll need to do some research.

Daylight saved but not time. I’m not complaining though. I wish we are on DST all the time. Right now, to gain extra daylight means I have to get up extra early. It will be good to have “the night is still young” feeling. Although we may lose an hour of time on Sunday, we will gain more with one additional hour of daylight. There’s so much we can do in that one extra hour of daylight:

• Gardening
• Walking
• Reading
• Washing car
• Eating outside
• Simply enjoying that there is light

Back in the City

I could feel the charge in the air as I came up from the BART station. It was an energy that only could be found in the city. It might have been the people, the cars, the noise, the pollution... together, they pumped me up. After being away from the financial district for 3 years, it's almost like being back home.

Things have not changed all that much. Most of the stores that I was familiar with and used to frequent are still in business. I am, however, older and hopefully a little wiser. Not sure where I will be in a few more years - things do happen - but for now, I'm glad to be back in the hustling and bustling of things.

I'm Running Away

Well, after 2 years, I'm leaving my team. It has been a great ride though our team has gone through some bumpy roads.

We started with 3 and ended up with 7 - and we made a good name for HR and Payroll.

Our biggest goof was when we had to stuff checks for 2,000+ employees in 235 stores (the very first time) before the UPS truck showed up. We worked frantically and even had a plan to block the UPS truck from leaving if push came to shove. We stuffed all the checks in time but found empty envelopes and checks that had no envelopes... that was not a very pretty sight.

Our greatest accomplishment was when we had to sort 5,000+ W-2s by store numbers manually. Oh, the pains, the agonies, and the cursing... but we made it and pulled it through at the end.

Over the past two years, we lost 2 original team members and added a new one. Now I'm going, and someone will replace me... I know that she or he will be welcomed with open arms.

I wish my team the very best. They will forever have a place in my heart.