Conventioneering...

An important facet of my work is meeting up with clinic managers and doctors when they gather for educational conventions. It is nothing like the old Standard days, when we'd gather as a giant sales force and be wined and dined. These are a collection of people who don't see each other much, but like to learn from each other. Here's what I learn:

Far too many people change business cards and logo wear, thinking it will change the work they didn't like in the first place.

The older I get, the younger the newest sales people get, widening the divide between "should we invite them to dinner" and "I have kids that age" even more.

Once we've seen our old friends during the first break, as they come by to visit and escape their own boredom, there is little to be gained.

Oddly enough, in the most random moments, some actual sales opportunity will arise when we least expect it. Makes the entire effort worthwhile.

Our firm is very fortunate. We work with true professionals who are also caring people, both within and outside our organization. I can't imagine making myself work with some of the people I contact in these meetings, and thank our lucky stars for our market position. Is that something that one learns in a Masters' class, or are we just lucky?

Back to the office on Thursday. For now, it is a bit of rest, a bit of cocktail hour, and a bit of smiling small talk, awaiting those random moments when something really good may happen...

Work...Satisfying, but??

The return to work on Monday was uneventful. A bit of a novelty, actually, given that I’ve never taken a funded sabbatical. (Periods of unemployment are simply not comparable. The continual worry. The way others turn their heads when they pass. The silence of friends. People acting as if unemployment is a virus.)

A sixty day medical sabbatical is completely different. People are anxious to learn how I feel, act surprised that I seem to look the same as before. Even those with whom there was little contact before have “heard,” and ask about my health. Thankfully, the day-to-day activities and challenges were handled by others and I returned to a fairly clean desk. Unfortunately, some of the larger, annual responsibilities simply didn’t receive any action in the past 60 days and need completion. The simple head-shake that accompanies such delay is a frustration that hasn’t disappeared. In fact, it may have been underscored, given that people had two months to accomplish fairly routine tasks and didn’t get them done. Corporations seem to take their own time, turning the battleship in the Columbia is simply not an easy task. Arrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrgh!

As for my mental attitude, it is really fine. The first couple of days were mentally easy, almost like starting a new job. Now, with a few days under my belt, the thought of “this really is a job, not a novelty” has arisen. I’ll be rejuvenated when visiting clients and prospects in the next two weeks, but once again that will lead to delay in the projects mentioned above. I figure if they didn’t get resolved in sixty days, another six to ten won’t poison the result.

All in all, a successful return. I remain convinced that the economy needs to rebound and I must put much more money aside for retirement…so that it more closely resembles this sabbatical period. At my age, though, either worries about health or worries about retirement will remain, and I’ll take the worries about retirement—anytime!