Toughest week at work in years...

When I woke up on Tuesday morning, I had a pretty good day ahead of me. I knew that my meeting with Francis Matus, the VP of Cisco over the Lion project, was going to be pretty tough, but the rest of the day was supposed to go well. That's now how it happened:

• I had about 5 different presentations to work on (Google, Elway, Lion, Cisco, PFF's) and was hoping to get them all done that day. I only got one done (Lion)
• I walked through the status of Lacrosse with the team, hoping to hear some good news. Instead, I heard that we are a month late on the design execution.
• I was hoping to be able to enjoy spending time with Dale during his retirement party - I only spent 5 minutes there and I was roped into giving a speech in the short time I was there. Let me tell you, I'm going to miss that guy - what a great engineer, but more important, what a great guy! I wish I would have spent more time during my "speech" touching on that topic!
• On the bright side, I needed to spend time with Murray and Nicole, walking through the details of Elway to make sure I was pushing the right updates into the dashboard. That meeting actually went well.
• For lunch, I was hoping to play basketball, instead I barely had time to eat.
• I was roped into a discussion about reliability with Cisco - I was not prepared
• I pulled together a meeting to review risks with the GApp AR - that one turned out okay only because Google found a bug and pushed out the design.
• Finally, I met with Francis and he 100% handed me my lunch! I lost count of the f-bombs and other miscellaneous curse words. He was not happy and was totally targeting my team, my integrity, Avago and everything. I think I took it okay, but I wish I could have stood up a bit stronger for the team and the situation. In the end, I felt crushed and very un-motivated. It was pretty bad.
• I ended up being 45 min late to Mutual, so I completely missed the Christmas caroling. But I did hang out with the boys and play some basketball afterwards for a while. It was pretty fun.
• When I got home, I literally cried with Jantzen and Amy in my arms and Alyssa rubbing my back. I felt horrible about myself and the situation. It was really bad. I still had a ton of work to do and I wasn't sure at all how to get it all done!
• I ended up falling asleep at 9:45pm, but I woke up around 12:30am and couldn't go back to sleep. I finally just got up around 3:30am and started working. This turned out to be a great decision. I got everything done and was able to take the dogs on a run around 5:30am. My head was clear and I was back in the game. I had a much better day on Thursday as I came up with a game plan to help Francis feel better about the situation. The meeting went better - no curse words - and we are happy again.
• It was still a crazy day yesterday, though. I was in meetings solid from 8:30am to 5:45pm, no breaks. But it was a very successful day - I solved problems, closed action items and in general, I had a great day! Yeah!
• The best part of yesterday was when I got home. I felt happier and the kids were happier. Unfortunately, Aubrey, the baby and Amy are all sick and it looks like Alyssa is catching the bug as well. Jantzen may have already dealt with it as he still has a pretty bad cough. But, amid all of that, I was able to take Ashtyn, Alyssa and Jantzen out for our annual Christmas carolling in the neighborhood. The kids all really love doing that and I'm so glad it is our family tradition. Next year, we will have to increase our repitoire a bit...
• Finally, at around 8:30am, we had a successful tithing settlement with the Bishop and Ashtyn was officially interviewed to be a young woman and graduate from Primary. She also passed off her Faith in God award and she was interviewed to go to the temple. We plan to take her on her birthday to do baptisms for the dead for our own family names. Very exciting!!
• Now, I'm on my way to San Jose again. I have 2 important meetings and a couple of phone conferences before getting on the plane to head home. It's going to be a busy day for sure!

 

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