Secret Santa History

Of the the many traditions at this time of year, a rather modern phenomenon is Secret Santa. The staple of not just many work places around the globe but many large families also to relieve the burden of expensive gifts for the many. I only learnt about the process while at college, as we used the same system to purchase Christmas presents between a large group of friends. This ensured a level playing field in terms of budget and ensured everybody got a gift.

I thought it would be useful to record gifts from Secret Santa past from my working life after University. Looking back, perhaps I should have posted a blog post each December (when I was lucky enough to be in joyful employment!).

2004 - My first Christmas at my new workplace was without participation of Secret Santa, due to the fact that I started on 16th December. Too late to be included, I would have to wait for next year for my first official working participation in the event.
2005 - Chocolates & How to survive a robot uprising by Daniel Wilson - blog post
2006 - Homer Simpson dashboard buddy - still boxed and unused at my parents home - blog post
2007 - unable to recall gift I was given
2008 - no secret santa took place at my employer
2009 - unemployed during Christmas period
2010 - employer did not carry out secret santa
2011 - cuff links
2012 - Arsenal Desk Calendar
2013 - Touring England boardgame

There you have the comprehensive list from the last decade of my Secret Santa haul, most items I have kept, purely for nostalgic reasons. Although I wish I could work out what I got in December 2007. I know the event took place

Bad Day At The Office

We have all had those days when nothing appears to be going right. I mean, pick up a £7.24, 500 ream of A4 80gsm office paper instead of your £499 Apple iPad 2.

[Courtesy of Simon Ricktets via Twitter]

All Good Things Come To An End

I am feeling very much mixed emotions as I leave Microsoft today. I was sad to be saying goodbye to some good friends but first and foremost, good people. These are the people that have been with me on the journey over the past two years. The highs and the lows. However, in December last year we were informed that our jobs were effectively being outsourced to India. The only saving grace was the fact that we had two years to find alternative employment elsewhere. The next stop was Chennai, and I had no desire to be on that plane or train (even if relocation had been an option, which of course it was not). As you can imagine, some members of the team took this better than others. Some of the older members of the team with family and long-term financial commitments were worried. I was looking on the positive side. After all, in many similar situations, you do not get the generous notice period of twenty-four months to find a new permanent position. However in the short term, there were going to be changes and while my wife would say, "the only constant in life is change", this change was a leap into the unknown.

We all knew that our jobs would not last forever. This is the whole idea behind contracting, the ability to switch people to different roles or disband them all together and relocate your entire function offshore. Perhaps we all got too comfortable and were just rather shocked by the news, thirteen calendar days before Christmas. Stability is important for everybody, no matter their station in life. The Operations Team had been relatively stable over the past eighteen months with only one departure in that period. That changed almost overnight with ten leavers in just over a month. We were saying goodbye to an experienced member of the team every week. By mid-May the makeup of the team had completely changed with many new starters and only a handful of the original team remaining - many of whom had started a long time before me.

Many years ago when I took the first steps in my humble career I had one goal. To work for not just the biggest companies in the world but leaders in their field, the innovators, the trendsetters. I have achieved this goal in recent years, working for the leading technology companies of our age. With Intel and now Microsoft on my CV, many doors will open. People did ask me why I decided to leave a permanent position at Intel, to take up a contract position at Microsoft. One of my previous managers had said to me, that when considering any role, think long-term. Will your next job you have an offer for, help you secure the job after that. I knew with a tech giant, household brand on my CV, securing the next position, even in this rather difficult climate would be ever so slightly easier. While the story ends here rather abruptly and the dream of a blue badge role never materialised, I feel I made a difference and had a positive affect on both the people around me and the organisation as a whole. I feel I also tried hard to secure a role within the organisation long term, by applying for over forty roles within the UK and the US but to no avail. As my Dad would often say to me, when another rejection was received in the post (or via e-mail in recent times), "Their loss, son!"

Probably for the first time in half a decade, I will be keeping in touch with a small group of my work colleagues. Many live in (or just outside) Slough, so there will be no difficulty keeping in touch but ultimately we became good friends outside of work over the course of my time here. This was perhaps the reason to disband the team was so difficult to swallow. We had just reached the point where everybody was getting on extremely well and performing their duties with the utmost diligence. Nevertheless, I am sure I will see them on a regular basis, many have already left and two ex-colleagues even made a guest appearance for lunch today.

It was a great relief to leave the building, having signed off all of my outstanding CRM cases and re-conciliations to a colleague, hand my badge to my manager and walk out the revolving door for the last time! I took a long deep sigh, one adventure had come to a close and a new adventure would begin in earnest on Monday morning. Nothing lasts forever but it was great while it lasted. I will take away some great memories with some great people at this place. Did I live the dream? No, not quite but I grew to understand the dream was possible, just not here and most importantly not here right now.

Time To Move On

There comes a moment in every job when you know it is the right time to move on to a fresh new challenge. In my case, the penny dropped on Wednesday 12th December 2012 at precisely 14:23 (GMT). Our team received a notification from the senior global director (based over in Redmond, Seattle) on the next step of the Incentive Compensation journey. Unfortunately for some twenty of us, we were being told our destination was only eighteen months away. All our roles and those of sister teams in Asia and America were all being relocated to Chennai (formerly known under the colonial name of Madras) in the outsourcing capital of the planet, India. The clock was well and truly ticking. Short term meanwhile, we would have a new boss and be working in a slightly different way for a different company, effectively keep an old bespoke system running until the new system was put in place for FY15 (Fiscal Year 2015 - July 2014 to June 2015).

It took me over six months to finally find a path out but ultimately I am thankful I was able to secure a permanent full-time position. I handed in my notice on Friday 14th June but gave the exceptional five weeks' notice. There were a few reasons for me to give the extra five days grace to my employer. Firstly I was leaving at the crucial end-of-year payout period, the busiest period in the year with a strict deadline to meet. Secondly, I did not want to leave with work unfinished and in an ideal world actually hand over some knowledge to other members of the Operations Team. We have to remain professional throughout our careers, even if in reality you want to book all remaining eight days of holiday and effectively give just two weeks' notice.

As you can imagine, turnover has been extremely high since January 14th (the effective first day of our new contract with a new employer). While it has been hard to say goodbye to some good friends, I have been pleased that they have been able to find new opportunities elsewhere. The prevailing thought in the back of my mind, as we said farewell to yet another long-serving experienced worker, was when will it be my turn? With such a high turnover of staff, new starters have been joining on a regular basis. Some good, some not so much.

The recruitment process for any firm has to be rigorous, more so for a team in global transition as we have tight deadlines and no space for water carriers. When I joined the firm, I had to undertake a timed Excel test under exam conditions on a laptop with no internet access. Had I failed the test, I would have been politely told to go home and failed to have the opportunity to perform in a face-to-face interview with the hiring manager.

Unsure of the reasons but the Excel Test was now sent to candidates to their personal e-mail address at home for them to complete in their own time. While still required to be completed in thirty minutes, being completely unsupervised, it is impossible to confirm with any degree of certainty if the potential employee has completed the test without any outside guidance. If they passed the test, how could we be sure they would cope in the pressurized office environment with weekly if not daily deadlines.

I strongly believe that no matter how long (or little) you spend in a job, you should aim to have made a difference. To have changed processes, to have improved performance, to provide a better service to the end customer. I feel in my rather short career history, I have fulfilled this aim. However, with my role here at the biggest software manufacturer in the world, I feel I am leaving a little earlier than perhaps I should. Yes, I have achieved a great deal but I felt I could have achieved so much more. Such a shame that my career ambitions have taken me elsewhere. The reality is though I have achieved a lifelong ambition. To work for a company that everybody knows. To work for a company that advertises on not just television, but the cinema, on billboards, and in the press.

Butter Fingers

On Thursdays I receive my weekly job alert from Monster. Probably one of the better job boards on the internet today (particularly in the UK) and the main reason I find myself working for my current employer. However, sometimes when you skim through the list of vacancies, you realise that there are some links you will just not bother clicking on. How can a professional person make such an elementary mistake?

Job Mis-Description

Having moved jobs multiple times in my career, I have tended to see several job descriptions of positions I have held. It is always interesting to look back and see your previous position seeking applicants. It was an ex-colleague, whom highlighted to me the job specification for the job we both used to do several years ago. When I read the professional document, I just had to chuckle to myself. It was not just the fact that minimum requirements had been dropped but proof that I was well over qualified for the position, even back then. Further more, the story on the page was much a world away from life in the office in the actual day-to-day role.

you won’t just have all the resources you need at your fingertips, but the team environment to motivate you to take charge of and develop your own progression.

The Team Ethic

As we enter what is described as a quiet period after the quarterly payout, members of my team like to express their creative energies. The result was the following on a spare whiteboard lying around the office.

One of the artists, uploaded the image onto Facebook and tried to find me to tag me in the image. "Andrew, I cannot find you?". My response was, "Fantastic, that means my privacy and security settings are working perfectly!"

Occupational Hazard

I am sure in millions of offices around the globe, this error appears and it is frustrating for the end user. However, when you work at the software manufacturer and are just accessing one of the many internal sites, you really do want throw your desktop machine out the window and into the little crater of snow outside.