After a long, interrupted day at the office of phone calls and emails due to our mass mail blunder today, I decided that I was due for a late night michelada (for our non-drinkers: i.e. a Dos Equis Beer with tomato juice, a lime, and a salted rim). 

This week marked my fourth year at Thunder Data, and January thankfully always brings our only quiet time of year to catch up and tie all loose ends.  At this time every year, we find ourselves with time on our hands to better our website and reflect on the previous year’s business sales, goals, and practices.  So, it is here I have found the time to inspect our own site for needed updates to our portfolio, page enhancements, search engine optimization and other general improvements. 

Like a carpenter’s home, our own site has sat neglected behind the day to day work of our clients.  So, with my laptop, great pub grub, and a michelada, our site received much needed attention.

As a tech company, we’re supposed to “mind our Ps and Qs” among all things technical.  (As a tangent, the term “Ps and Qs” refers to both diligence in your work or minding one’s manners.  With roots in the old Brittish pubs and referring to ”pints and quarts”, the term was used when too much brew caused misbehavior.)  Today, after I carefully crafted an informational tutorial for our ThunderBits section, we sent it out to our mailing list.

We haven’t been particularly diligent about using a mailing list to market ourselves even though we strongly suggest that our clients use mailing lists to roll out product ideas, helpful hints, and updates.  So, here we are, starting our 8th year in business, and we’ve used the mailing list less than a dozen times–all without a glitch until today.

Wouldn’t you know that an email address on our own server had an “auto-responder” indicating the recipient was on vacation.  Her email responded back to our list, in turn spawning yet another email to the list updating them about our  party’s whereabouts.   As loops go, our gal on vacation received a second email from our list notifying itself that our gal was out, and another loop began.  And again.  Twelve times.

It didn’t take long for our phone to ring and our Inboxes to fill up with requests to notify us of the error.  Thankfully, we realized the mistake early and stopped it quickly enough that only 12 spam messages went out.  But the whole fiasco was embarrassing, and I hope this type of public humiliation doesn’t happen again.

With that said, I’m drowning my sorrows at Sherlock’s in Austin, but I promise that while I drink my pints, I’ll mind my Ps and Qs!

I won’t allow my coworkers to refer to me as “my boss.”  I can’t stand the term.  The word “bossy,” from which boss is derived, is defined in Merriam-Webster as “inclined to domineer” and synonymous with “dictatorial.”  That I am not!

On Thursday evening, I met a few friends for a beer at the Irish-themed Fado pub, and one of the young women present said that in addition to never having been thanked for her efforts, she commented, “I have had probably ten managers in my life, and not one of them has inspired me!” 

To me, those who ”boss” are not managers.  And managers who dole out thankless assignments without inspiration are merely bosses and not leaders.  I’d like to believe that I help to inspire the people with whom I work, and I know they inspire me.  I also believe it is that rapport and respect for each other that make this business–and by extension, me–look good. 

My goal in the workplace is twofold:  help our clients realize the potential of their businesses with web-based applications, and to lead this phenomenal group of coworkers to such heights that their pride has them reaching even further. 

So the word “boss” is forbidden here.  We are coworkers and colleagues who take turns inspiring and leading each other.  I cannot imagine that our success is incidental to this core and fundamental respect. 

January, my 3 year anniversay with TDS.  We currently have 2 positions available to join our Austin team — a graphic artist and an applications programmer.  As a team, we have been doing a lot of brainstorming on our “ideal” candidates (too much during work time which I have been attempting to keep to a minimum, but our excitement for new talent gets the best of us).  Collectively, we have come to the conclusion that we are no longer interested in applicants with little experience (and a lot of heart), but which require training and time to get up to speed.  We desire talented, accomplished, and intelligent people to join our tight knit group — People that are able to start working with little to no training in their trade softwares or languages – mostly training in our business, our vision, and our core values. 

Individually, I have come to the conclusion that our newest team member must be confident.  I want to know that when our graphic artist or software programmer answers the phone, or contacts clients, that their knowledge is not only displayed through their outstanding portfolio, but in their communication skills and conversations that exude confidence. 

We have been going through the interview process for several days now and it is a relief to know that we actually have choices reagarding which qualified applicant we will decide to hire.  Not only for their breadth of knowledge in their field, their desire to learn, their interaction with us as a team, but also for the way that they carry themselves.   I don’t know yet who’s picture we will place next on the Team page, but I do know they will fit in with our mentality, style of professionalism, and willingness to share a few beers (or cokes) at the local pubs and breweries.  :)