I really enjoyed my last two weeks off work, it was nice not to return emails or answer phone calls, no meetings, training sessions or work to do lists. I thought I would be bored but I wasn’t.
I read a couple of books, binged shows on Netflix, and had meals with friends.
But even though this was a great mental break for me, I am still happy to go back to the office today , not because I miss the work but because I miss the people I work with. I miss my team!
I have a great team. Some unfortunate weeks we spend more time together at the office than with our families at home, so naturally we are close to each other.
Most of us are immigrants and have shared experiences as strangers in a strange land (yes, I love the book), moving to the USA without our families and reinventing ourselves in a foreign country. We make sure we all have breaks, make sure that the workaholics among us stop to eat and cover for each other when an emergency happens. So yes, your work is not your family but there is something different about a group that really cares about each other. And no, we are not all women, we are a mix of men, women, younger and older who come from different backgrounds and are in different stages of family lives and careers.
Not everyone has this experience with their work colleagues, I believe I am quite lucky. I worked with teams and bosses before that were just terrible and Sunday night was filled with agony about going back to work on Monday. The question is why is this team different?
It is different because our supervisor built this team from scratch and when she chose team members added people that are positive and can contribute to the team. She surrounded herself with team players who are good at what they do and there was no fear of overshadowing herself. This leadership played an excellent role in building a great team that most of us are happy to be part of.
So yes, I am happy to go to work today and see my team.
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