health, leadership, technology

The need for sleep is a bug, not a feature

Arianna Huffington wrote a piece for Thrive last week called, "An Open Letter to Elon Musk". In the piece, she chides Musk for working 120 hours per week, a fact he revealed in a recent New York Times interview. I agree with Huffington's overall assessment, of course. Elon Musk is clearly overdoing it and that… Continue reading The need for sleep is a bug, not a feature

leadership

Small, tangible acts of gratitude

As an employee, one of the things that keeps me energized and engaged is positive feedback from my boss. As a Customer Support Manager, I have adopted the leadership philosophy of treating others how I would like to be treated. So, I make providing simple and effective positive feedback a priority. One of the many… Continue reading Small, tangible acts of gratitude

about me, motivation

There’s no substitute for changing the world

I work for an enterprise-level SaaS company with an important mission. Our software helps advance scientific research in this country by making it easier for research universities and hospitals to develop, submit, and track federal grant proposals. Even after 6.5 years, I still get the warm-fuzzies every time I think about the fact that we're… Continue reading There’s no substitute for changing the world

Customer Support

1,001 Ways to Say, “I’m Sorry”

In my role as Customer Support Manager at an enterprise-level SaaS company, I've had to apologize a lot over the years. That's ok of course; de-escalating tough situations is part of the job. I like to joke that someday I'm going to write a book titledĀ 1,001 Ways to Say, "I'm Sorry". In a professional setting,… Continue reading 1,001 Ways to Say, “I’m Sorry”