Justin starts a blog

The team smashes the vacation test

I don’t go on vacation often. About once a year I spend a week to ten days in California with my family. This year I took a full two weeks and went to Burning Man as well. More on Burning Man in a later post.

Once upon a time going on vacation was a terrifying prospect. Fire fighting was a nearly daily exercise, and leaving that in the hands of the new kids just didn’t sit well with anyone. My vacations were spent largely on ready alert, able to drop what I’m doing and jump into the fray within minutes. I was happy if my phone went relatively unmolested and I could stop thinking about work for brief periods.

Later things got better. Fires were fewer and further between. Sure I still had to make sure my phone was charged and I knew where my laptop was, but I generally only have to make use of it once per trip. There wouldn’t be much progress made, but the site would stay up, happy, and healthy. I could relax, and by the time the week was out I was anxious to get back to work.

These days I’m in full on manager mode. Not only is everything hunkie-dorie, but the team is marching down the field. We set ambitious goals before I left, and all signs are pointing at us hitting them all before I return. I disappeared into the desert for 5 days and when I returned things were better then when I left. Amazing!

That’s how I know we have the right team. Thanks for kicking ass guys!