Very recently, like just the day before, I was adding photos I had tagged with my company’s name to Flickr and I wondered at the size of the set of my photos tagged with my company and it was a pleasant stroll down memory lane even though it is just two years long. In two years, I have worked in four different offices – two as a result of “secondment” and the fourth and current one because I transferred here. Work has given me the opportunity to visit and spend significant time somewhere I’d “never” go to but now think of fondly, Saskatoon.
I work for a professional services firm with offices around the globe and huge global reach. So I get excited when I see our advertisements splashed across billboards at airports. And it gives me purpose when I travel to seek out our office in the city I’m visiting and visit the office and/or photograph the signage. We have the building naming rights/outdoor signage in Toronto, Quebec City, Montreal, Detroit, New York, London, Amsterdam and Paris. I’ve seen them all. Because we sponsored the exhibition at the Tate Modern, I came to know the beautiful work by Paul Klee. That’s all aside from the neat things I have been able to do as an employee – from a rockin’ evening at a Battle of the Bands in Toronto to working at our prestigious annual awards gala at the convention center. I’m really grateful for the opportunities and when I think I’ve “plateaued”, there just happens to be more around the corner!
It was a particularly stressful week and day on Wednesday with a proposal that was far from being tight (but was getting there) going through endless revisions. I know about the process in theory but it was my first time running through it.
[Aside: A partner I recently started to support gets a kick out of my name, “Wynne, are we winning yet?” And I groan and answer, “No!” And on Wednesday, I most certainly was not winning either.]
My podmate told me someone in Marketing was coming to see me and I was anxious that I would be requested for something when I felt particularly stretched thin. And my phone rang. As I was getting off the phone, a little crowd had gathered and the Marketing person (I hadn’t met her before) was holding balloons and I wondered who the lucky duck was … me! I won balloons! And, a round-trip to anywhere in Canada!
It pays to be work geeky. I enter the contests for free mugs open to the entire global firm provided you watch a webcast (or read the transcript) by the global CEO. I submitted a suggestion when one of our Canadian offices opened up naming their meeting rooms to our suggestions. I sent in a photo of myself posing with one of our airport advertisement campaigns and ended up in the Canadian daily news e-mail. And when trivia questions were posed about the history of our firm in Canada (celebrating 150 years this year, hence the balloons chosen), I submitted my answers almost every week of 8 weeks in hope of winning in the weekly Visa gift card draw. Correct answer submissions, apparently, were also entered in the grand prize draw for the flight!
When the prize is something I would have purchased anyways, after my initial shock and glee, I rein in otherwise exorbitant excitement. But I’m happy again upon the realization that I was lucky to have my name drawn and had someone else won it, I would have thought I “deserved it” more given my frequent flights to nearly the farthest end of Canada. Mum’s response was to suggest that I use it during high season. And I can’t use it and go “far” (eastern Canada) and not see my family. Hopefully I can roll going somewhere I’ve never been to (like Newfoundland) with seeing my family!
“Are we winning yet?”
I guess we are now. :)
