Work Update

I am happy to report that things have been going well at work lately. This past year has had some difficult times but recently there has been only minor problems, having mostly to do with conflict between my dad and I. I am continuing to work on my reactive nature and in knowing when to keep my mouth shut even if I know I am right (Kristen, I know you can understand how hard that can be for me!) and although I still let my mouth get the best of me at times for the most part there has been a marked improvement. What I have to keep asking myself is that if my boss wasn't my dad, would I react that way. It works both ways though, they treat me like a child at times but there will always be overlap. It takes while to feel out those boundaries.

I am now in charge of the contract documents for all of our current projects which keeps me very busy. I haven't been blogging much lately because I haven't had the time but I would rather be busy than bored at work. I am finally in a place where I feel competent and know what I am doing, which took me longer than I expected creating a major source of frustration for me. Patience is also continually something for me to work on. I hope things continue on this trajectory not only for me but for the company as well.

Some of you don't know this, but my area of emphasis when I was in my doctorate program was Family Business Dynamics. Unfortunately everytime I tried to do a research project under this topic I would be constantly told it was not communication based enough and be forced to change it so it was no longer rooted in family business. This ended up being one of the reasons I decided not to continue, I wasn't able to do what I wanted even though in my application I clearly stated this was the direction I wanted to go. Most research in family business is about succession planning and not on day to day interactions. Working with your family is very challenging and unique and anyone who has worked with their families can attest to this. I would like to somehow help and be involved in other family businesses but I have to figure out my own family business first and then see how I could be of assistance. We will have to see where that goes in the future.