[TobysTrix]

Great news! Not only did I get the geological field training class I wanted in June (a week in the Spanish Pyrenees looking at rocks - woo-hoo!), but my boss OK'd me taking the week beforehand off as personal time. Which means I can visit my dad on the way to the class. AND our travel department was willing to arrange the tickets like I wanted, since it actually saves the company several hundred dollars to route me through London for a few extra days (and no hotel since I'll be staying at my father's). Sweet!

What's extra cool about this is they've really been cutting back on both the training and business travel budgets recently. But I got to keep all 3 of my continuing courses for the year including the field class - guess my boss went to bat for me again, and that annual review I got helped.

Quite a bit different from my last employer - who had a strict policy of not dovetailing personal and business/training trips no matter what - unless you were a manager in which case the normal policies could be ignored... wait, I didn't get ANY training trips when I worked for them, and rarely got sent anywhere good on business.

 

[TobysTrix]

Hmmm! I realize there were quite a few negatives to a field assignment you had last year, but it must have been a pretty interesting experience.

Actually, Ed, I was pretty miserable the entire year I was in Libya. And distance hasn't made it seem any more interesting. Don't get me wrong, I'm not sorry I did it and I learned a lot, the experience certainly was a good long-term move professionally. But so was leaving when I did! In fact, two of my colleagues who had remained behind have gotten treated really badly by the company, and they say we most definitely made the smart move to leave when we did.

I'm just thrilled that I managed to land at such a good place to work now. It's a very different environment in so many ways, and definitely better for me.