Is there such a thing as a work family?

Yesterday was a Monday. Honestly, who likes a Monday? Seriously.

The day starts by getting up before 4 AM just so I can be in my car and on the road to work before the crack of dawn so I can beat the horrific traffic. The bonus is that when I get to work there are very few people there so I can actually get some work done before the wave of noise and lower productivity sets in.

The engineers who work for me, however, are the delight of my day. These guys are wicked smart, creative, and funny. They are the reason that work is fun and the reason I put up with the ridiculous bureaucracy in the organization.

What I love about these people is that while we are working our tails off to deliver good software we laugh. Someone will share a Dilbert cartoon or a web link from some other software coding disaster. Or we share personal stories like how they met their girlfriend/wife or the latest family vacation. One guy who works with me longer than anyone shares recipes, talks about his beer making, his golf struggles.

When someone calls out due to a cold or this nasty flu we cover for each other. Everyone steps in to make sure nothing gets forgotten and the sickie doesn't come back with a full plate to sift through, but can come back and hit the ground running.

It's all terrific and it's what makes us a work family. Yes. That is the perfect description. We are a family who comes together for 8 to 10 hours a day and then goes home to our home life.

I am grateful for these wonderful and talented people for making my work family so diverse, interesting, fun, and extremely productive. Because yes, they do amazing work and make me smile.

Do you have a work family?

Happy Holidays to my Engineering team!

As the holidays are upon us and the year end is near, I thought this a good time to send you a note of cheer.



Here’s a year in review of BSTAPPS:

Trips to Philip’s Tavern, The Stadium, and even the bowling alley where Steve always kicks butt on the deadwood while drinking Deadwood beer. He should give lessons.

Humor and quick quips from Tony keep us from going insane and Finn for his amazing singing or ditties (data…aggregators) to cheer up any boring team meeting.

It should not be called Dilbert. The cartoon should be called George and Dilbert as he is the one always waking us up in the morning or making us realize that there must be other companies like where we work.

Can you look that up on the Urban Dictionary? Thank you, Maria for the introduction to that new tool.

Let’s not forget…everything is on the WIKI. And if it’s not, just ask Beth, it will be.

If you’re looking for the tough guy on the team you don’t have to look any farther than Zouka. Between his foot, his leg, and his unbelievably hard head, you have a ‘typical guy’.

Has anyone seen Troy? Somebody find Troy. Oh, wait, his meeting reminder didn’t go off…again. Now it goes to his phone!

The Queen of Remedy…Margaret! Thanks to FRY, Margaret has learned far too much about Remedy and will be the new methodology trainer on the subject.


Thank you for another great year of working with a terrific team.

Happy Holidays and Happy New Year!