A message from a Linked In friend reminded me that it is the 15th anniversary of my employment start date. Actually that’s not exactly true. I began a few months before that as a student intern. So I sorta have two start dates. Anyway, cheers!

It was a really really odd day to start a job. It was a Monday and it was the day after the cFam xmas party. And then I got there. The parking lot was largely EMPTY. And… And… And… Well, I had been using a fugly old desktop computer in what they called a “bullpen”. That means a space where four people (or whatever) share a space. I was the only person in that bullpen. There was a printer and a mini fridge and I fergit what else.

Anyway, I got there on my first day as a full-time employee and the bullpen was empty. I mean my fugly old desktop was NOWHERE TO BE FOUND. My boss (the LSCHP) was nowhere to be found.

So, as an intern I only worked about 12 hours a week. Since the last time I had been there, which was Thursday noon, the LSCHP had MOVED me into my own cubicle. Which was fine except I didn’t know where it was.

Eventually it all got sorted out. As it turned out I was also issued a laptop. It was the laptop previously used by our team’s then “technical writer”. He had been laid off… So… I could be hired. I wasn’t EVER told this but I figgered it out and have always felt a little weird about it because he was a nice young man and I hate to see people get laid off unless they’ve done something awful. But people do get laid off and maybe someday I will too. As a business systems analyst, I do a lot of technical writing but I am kinda more than a technical writer and we have not employed a technical writer since then. I hope he is having a nice life.

So cheers to me for my 15 years. At the time I got the job I hadn’t been sure I would ever have gainful employment again. Managing to put together a tech career after the age of 50 and umpteen years of unemployment (albeit voluntary) is probably one of the things I’m proudest of in my life. I guess I have to tell myself “you go girl!”

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