BLINDS WIDE OPEN -day 251 The Last Work Day

Many memories, highlights, issues and concerns swirling around in my head this morning as I start work on the last official work day of the year. Although, it has been well documented in this blog that weekends are as busy as weekdays in our field. Since tomorrow is the 31st and the last day of the year, today I will dream that I am a disgruntled 40 to 50 hour a week employee, in some large corporation, watching the clock tick away as I count the hours towards a long 3 day weekend filled with football, friends, family and libations.

It has been a rather eventful year for the corporation, manufacturing in China has been difficult with Typhoons rocking our facilities. A few trips to Iowa to help facilitate the the restructuring of our midwestern strategy, a new boss who I do not see eye to eye with and has me a tad concerned going into the new year. I look out at my calendar and see my meetings are scheduled for the entire year, pending of course, typhoons, company reorganization, competitive breakthroughs and a host of staff issues that will undoubtedly arrive at the most inopportune times. Speaking of the staff, I ponder having to meet with the the same people time and time again, wondering if Charlie will ever improve on his hygiene. I can't stand sitting next to him during the meetings, the smell is unbearable and if that Jill, aka "the Blabberer" extends one more meeting because of that mouth of hers, I swear I will stand up and shove a one of those day old doughnuts right down her throat..Whew! I could get in trouble if anybody at the company were reading my blog today. I don't even want to think about the parking this year, I go to the gym to get my exercise, the company should pay for new shoes since it's a 1/2 mile hike into the office every morning. How many years until I retire? Wow, only 9:30 in the morning, 7 hours still to go, oh no, here comes Jim.......sorry about that, he just can't let it go. I got the promotion 6 years ago and he still comes over and wines but finishes with a barrage of self promotion that is only matched by the late KIM JONG IL. If his team wins the company boiling trophy again, I will make sure he will be the late JIM JONG IL. Oh boy, the final numbers for the year just came in, not to bad, maybe I will have to hit up the big boss for a little raise based on these numbers. Can it please be lunchtime yet? Well, big brother has new internet access rules starting next year, only 15 minutes online per day for personal use time, like checking mail, facebook, etc etc. I am going to maximize my internet time, on this, The Last Work Day of the year.

I know it is not that bad and in fact so many people love their jobs and in many ways I do envy the stability, steadiness and certainty of the corporate life. In fact, I think just having a job is a pretty good thing, just ask around these days. It is fun for me to type away between my appointments and to poke fun at others but most of all to poke fun at myself because I realize how lucky I am. I probably met over 100 new families this year and the interaction with all of them is beyond rewarding. Challenging, fun, emotional, stimulating and I could go on and on. Throw in my team that I get to work with on a daily basis (we have no Charlies, Jills or Jims unless my group things I am one of them) and I realize just how fortunate I truly am.

This is Dave, from The McLaughlin Group, keeping it real in real estate!