I had a meeting yesterday that became so much more than a meeting. A new employee at work was supposed to come and see me as part of her induction. We missed each other over the last couple of weeks and probably rescheduled this meeting about 6 times. Yesterday the meeting happened, I knew that I had half an hour to bore the pants off this lady. I was hoping I would be so good at being boring and that she would then be so sleepy that she would ask not a single question! She arrived and we talked over the work stuff but got horribly distracted and moved into some interesting areas. To tell you the truth, here I was supposedly imparting some work wisdom and instead I came away from this meeting having learnt far more myself. One of her friends had completed her PHD along the lines of the work life balance and effective work based solutions. I blogged about this a couple of weeks ago contending that companies need to do more and that as employees we should push back more to ensure that our working life works for us. More than this, companies need to realize that money does not have the same allure for all employees, better working conditions are far more valuable to some. I found out that other companies like RMB work a 4 day week and yet another company has it’s staff alternate their Fridays. It was a breath of fresh air to hear that there are companies out there who are progressive in terms of their employees working space.

This lady was really interesting – she called herself an old soul and I would have to agree that this description sums her up well. She told me of a family ritual whereby each member of the family would have to share their high and low of the day at dinner time. What a wonderful way to appreciate on a daily basis the good that has come your way as well as recognize the bad and look to avoid it in the future. It was most interesting to understand the value of appreciating everything now while you have it rather than waiting for loss and then mourning your loss. Do what you can now to ensure that you have no regrets. Every experience must generate some learning and if not, it is an experience to be stopped or avoided. I liked her spunk! I tried this at home over dinner last night. My son told me that the highlight of his day was playing. The rest of the family declined to comment – I see that I am going to have to work at this!

I am not sure that I have done this conversation justice. Suffice to say that we stood up after 2 hours to go our separate ways. I could have chatted all day!