The gift of perspective

Last Monday wasn't the best day in the history of the world by any stretch of the imagination. It was just what that woman in "Office Space" meant when she said she thought Peter had "a case of the Mondays."

I might've let out an exasperated sigh or two and asked my wonderful officemate (who was having the same kind of day), "What is UP with today?!" but that's pretty much where it ended.

That's right ... I didn't mope. I didn't dwell. I didn't worry. I wasn't overcome with feelings of failure or inadequacy. I just took note of the issues (and determined whether they were anything within my control) and let things go.

And my Facebook status that night reflected it:

"Lindsay Allen thinks that PERSPECTIVE is the greatest gift of all. Even though today was what I'd call a challenging day, I didn't feel worried, scared or discouraged when I left the office, and I'll sleep just fine tonight. What a difference a year (or so) makes!"

So, what did I mean by that?

Simply put, I'm finding that being in the right place doing the right kind of work for my skill set has made a huge difference for me. And I have the perspective (and appreciation for my current situation) that can only truly be gained by being in a rather opposite kind of situation -- the kind of situation that has you feeling like a square peg trying to fit into a round hole because your strongest skills are seen as less valuable or are perhaps even seen as a liability rather than as an asset. My uncle, Scott Allen, very eloquently wrote about this type of thing already, so I won't try to reinvent the wheel in explaining the phenomenon.

Bottom line: Even the hardest or most frustrating day at my new job (and there honestly haven't been many at all) has been more manageable and less stressful than most of the days -- good or bad -- at my previous job. And that has everything to do with being in the right place, doing the right thing ... and having the PERSPECTIVE that allows me to truly understand and appreciate the difference.

Being able to put the day behind me because I know the next day is a new chance is the No. 1 gift that perspective has afforded me. What are the others? In no particular order, here are the rest of my "Top 5 Gifts Provided by Perspective":

- Learning the importance of making sure you land at a workplace where your supervisors truly understand what your strongest skills are and are committed to focusing your responsibilities in those areas (while also providing opportunities to explore other skills that interest you).

- Recognizing the value of really being valued.

- Realizing that taking work home *every single night* is not healthy.

- Knowing that taking a lunch break helps prevent mental and physical fatigue.

It might sound simple, but it's the truth as I've lived it for the past seven weeks or so. And it's why I know I'm where I'm supposed to be ... and that I got here in the manner in which I was supposed to get here.

(Photo: "Perspective": http://www.flickr.com/photos/huntz/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

(Photo: "Tiffany Gift Box": http://www.flickr.com/photos/jillclardy/ / CC BY-SA 2.0)

March comes in like a lion, indeed ...

Today is the anniversary of something that has already proven to have made an impact on my career -- and will long continue to do so. Oddly, yesterday was, too, as I realized last night. And so was Thursday. And Monday was a milestone career day as well, although in a much different kind of way.

So, that whole "March comes in like a lion" thing? Yeah, I buy it.

One year ago today, on March 6, 2009, I had a meeting that changed my career -- and, really, my entire life. In a matter of minutes, I went from being employed at a place where I'd worked for nearly seven years to only having a couple of months left at said job courtesy of an impending reorganization, kicking off what I referred to as "the ultimate PRofessional test" in a guest post I wrote for Rachel Esterline's blog a week and a half later.

On the surface, losing your job is a bad thing. (Note those three words: "on the surface"). But once you get past the surface and stop focusing on how you think you're supposed to feel or how others are telling you you should feel, you might find a whole new world.

Anyone who has gotten to know me during the past year knows that I chose to approach being unemployed as a professional and personal opportunity rather than as something bad that happened to me. It turns out that that benefited not only me, but also others. Just the other day, I was reminded of this by a friend who recently lost her job and was able to land back on her feet relatively quickly. In an e-mail, she said, "Whether you know it or not, all those posts you've been making for a year now really gave me a positive outlook when it happened to me." Wow!

But I digress ...

When I found out that my job was being eliminated, it came at a strange time. The day before, I'd had a really fun, creative shoot for "Inside Central," the TV show on which I'd worked for several years (my clip starts at the 20:28 mark; and yes, the way I did my stand-up was my idea). And the day before that, I'd achieved something very exciting for a PR pro: My first hit in The Wall Street Journal, which came without the aid of ProfNet, HARO or anything else. It was completely self-generated, which made it all the more satisfying to accomplish.

So, imagine the feeling of being on a huge professional high on Wednesday and Thursday, then losing your job on Friday. That's exactly what happened!

In an oddly similar -- and almost identically timed, which I failed to realize until yesterday -- twist, it was March 5, 2002, when my young career hit a scary bump. I was working as a print journalist at the time, and the day started out like any other ... but it ended up being the most frightening day of my entire professional life. It was the day that the worst crime in the history of the county occurred: Three people were shot and killed in the parking lot of the county courthouse.

Covering this horrible crime was terrifying and draining on so many levels. And I still clearly remember one of my bosses saying, "This is the kind of day that either reminds you that this is the job you were meant to do or sends you running in the opposite direction."

A few weeks later, I had a job interview downstate for an advertising copywriting job. I ended up not taking the job, but I did switch roles at the paper when an opportunity to transition to community news -- honor rolls, birth announcements, senior citizen card showers, military honors, etc. -- arose. Ultimately, I ended up leaving the paper (and the news business) altogether just five months after the incident.

So, the first week of March and I have a pretty bumpy history, but ...

The tide seems to be turning, and March seems to be coming in more like a lamb in 2010.

On Monday, I marked a truly happy early-March career milestone: 10 months after my first day of unemployment, I started the job I told you all about a few weeks back.

And the verdict? So far, so good. The commute (which I'll have to do for a few more weeks) tires me out ... but I come home every day with my soul intact, and that's more important than anything.

(Photo: "Male Lion": http://www.flickr.com/photos/arnolouise/ / CC BY-NC 2.0)

(Photo: "Happy Lamb": http://www.flickr.com/photos/bhenry/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

A confession ... and a humble request

So, I head back to work on Monday, March 1, 2010, after being unemployed since Friday, May 1, 2009.

And I'm a little freaked out about it.

The freak-out is not so much about the job itself, but is more about returning to the world of the working after being "out of the game" for awhile.

As I prepare to set foot into full-time employment for the first time in 10 months -- and in an agency environment for the first time in my career -- I ask ...

What advice do you have for someone who hasn't worked full-time in almost a year and is starting a new job?

("Scared" photo: http://www.flickr.com/photos/viknanda/ / CC BY 2.0)

Why I'm not on Team Kevin Smith (even though I probably should be)

As you've likely heard at this point, writer, actor, director, etc. Kevin Smith is using his Twitter stream -- and, later today, his podacst -- to wage war on Southwest Airlines because he says he was deemed a "safety threat" by an airline captain and removed from a flight due to his size.

Immediately after he was removed from the flight, Mr. Smith began tweeting about his anger regarding the situation, warning the airline it had "f****d with the wrong sedentary processed-foods eater!"

My initial reaction was anger. I'm not -- and never have been -- a thin person. I used to be self-conscious about it, but as an adult I've learned to be more concerned about being healthy and less concerned about my physical appearance.

Still, though, I find air travel to be a little uncomfortable (especially if I'm stuck in the middle seat), so I felt empathy for Mr. Smith as I read his initial tweets. I know I would've been angry (not to mention embarrassed) had what happened to him happened to me. And I probably would've tweeted about it, too.

But that's where my empathy ends.

Have I recently been wronged by a front-line employee of an airline (not Southwest) and taken to Twitter to vent about it? Yes.

Did the airline respond to me? Yes.

Did I respond favorably to the airline's efforts to make it right? Yes.

Did I keep tweeting about how wrong the airline was? No. (In fact, I tweeted praise for the airline for accepting responsibility for its failure and for making things right.)

That's what reasonable people do. But, unfortunately, that isn't what's happening in this case. Despite several reach-outs from Southwest -- both via Twitter and via a telephone call (for which Mr. Smith says he never received the voicemail) -- he just keeps spewing angry words via Twitter, ignoring and/or mocking every effort that the airline is making to reach out to him.

Now, if Jane Citizen like me was doing this, it probably wouldn't be so bad for the airline. It wouldn't be great, since I do have 2,200+ Twitter followers ... but that's nowhere near Mr. Smith's level. The man has 1.6 million followers on Twitter -- surely all fans of his work, and surely many of them who take his advice to heart.

What I think Mr. Smith fails to realize is that the people who are reaching out to him now are not the ones who wronged him. Instead, their job is a challenging and unfortunate one that is common among professional communicators at large organizations that serve the public: Cleaning up the very public messes created by others in the company.

I put it this way in a tweet:

Do I think Mr. Smith has a right to be angry? Of course I do.

Do I think his removal from the plane might've been unjustified and/or handled poorly? Yes.

Might the airline's urgency and persistence in trying to remedy the situation be tied to the fact that Mr. Smith has a public platform and plenty of devotees at his disposal? Certainly ... but that doesn't make it "disingenuous as f***" as Mr. Smith suggests, particularly if Southwest typically is diligent about responding to customer complaints and concerns that arise on Twitter, which it seems to be.

So, Mr. Smith, I hope you'll take a deep breath and think about this. Did the airline screw up? It would seem so. But there are several people -- none of whom have probably even met the people who wronged you -- trying to make this right, and you're only making their lives harder ... and potentially harming a business. You don't have to fly Southwest ever again. You don't even have to accept the airline's apologies. But, on behalf of everyone who's ever worked in corporate communications and/or customer service, I beg you to at least be respectful of the people who are trying to be respectful of you, even if it feels like too little, too late to you.

I'm ... employed!

Something has happened. Something I've been waiting, hoping and working for for nearly a year.

... wait for it ...

I got a job!

As many of you have read about on this blog, I've been a job seeker since last March, when I received a two-month notice that my job at the time -- at a place where I'd worked for nearly seven years -- was being eliminated.

After plenty of unanswered inquiries, fruitless resume submissions and everything else to which every job seeker has become accustomed in this economy, it finally happened.

The right company and I have found each other.

Starting March 1, I'll be a proofreader/writer/editor for AGP & Associates, an advertising, marketing and creative communications firm in Midland, Mich. And, while the thought of transitioning back into a world I haven't been a part of in almost a year (the world of full-time employment, that is) and packing up and moving to a new community is a bit scary, I couldn't be more excited.

Why?

1. The workplace and culture. This is a small firm -- about a dozen employees, including the owners, who serve as the CEO and president. Everything I've learned about the culture here suggests that it is collaborative, communal and challenging (in a good way). It also is clearly a place that doesn't believe in pigeonholing people into job titles, instead opting to draw upon the strengths of its team members as situations that call for different skills and expertise arise. If you know me, you know this is what I've yearned for.

2. The work. Words are my passion, and this job is completely about words. A proofreading/writing/editing job doesn't come along often; I saw very few such positions available during my job search, so I feel fortunate -- and excited -- to have found a job doing exactly what I want to do and where my skills are strongest. The best way to add value to an organization is to focus on what you do best, and working at AGP will allow me that focus.

3. Mutual understanding and respect. I did some freelance work for AGP so the company could get an idea of my writing/editing style and so I could get a feel for the kind of work the firm does. This makes me feel more confident, both about what the company thinks of my work and about my capacity to handle the type of work that the job entails. I've met and worked with several people at the company already (and know two others from my former job), and everyone has been fantastic. I honestly cannot wait to call them my colleagues.

4. A new adventure. I've lived in Mount Pleasant, Mich., for nearly 14 years -- since I came here for college. My time here has been great, and I'll be leaving behind a lot of friends as I move 35 miles down the road, but I think it's time. If there's one thing I've learned about myself in the last 10 months, it's that I'm a lot more adventurous than I ever realized.

5. A cool town in a great location. Not that there's anything wrong with Mount Pleasant (if there was, I wouldn't have stayed here so long), but come on ... Midland is Tennis Town USA! And there's a mall. And my favorite little shop for wines and obscure craft beers is in Midland. For mid-Michigan, I can't ask for much more! Plus, the move will shave 40 minutes off my trips to visit my family downstate and put me much closer to the highway for other travels.

Obviously, I'm excited, happy, nervous and a whole lot of other things all at once. But the thing I am, above all else, right now is grateful. Grateful for the family and friends who've provided emotional support, passed along job leads, thrown me opportunities like guest posting on your blogs or doing freelance work for you, and just generally encouraged me and believed in me ... even when I had moments of uncertainty about what the future would hold.

I don't dare list names because there's always the danger of leaving someone out. Plus, I think you all know who you are. Thank you. ALL of you.

Now ... let's celebrate!

(Photo: "Celebration": http://www.flickr.com/photos/ficken/ / CC BY 2.0)