Author: Mark

Groups of people can’t be forced to mesh. The intangible qualities of a team that works well together develops naturally through experience with each other and a shared understanding of their goal. It often requires leadership. Once everyone is flowing together, occupying their well-defined roles, the planned injection of a some humor or event to bond over becomes a layer of glue rather than a wedge of forced corporate optimism.

What I’m really saying is that I made a mug last year for my team at work, and I’m finally getting around to sharing it.

My boss is known for his heavy use of cliches in everyday conversation, so we decided to honor that. Because everyone is in on the joke, it works out well.

It’s once again time to be thematic. I’m calling 2024 my Year of Opportunity. Characterized by a desire to explore and treat new experiences with more positivity and excitement, I hope to make the most of what could be our final year living in California while also increasing my appreciation for the life I’ve built.

This year my company is officially taking a break starting the weekend before Christmas through New Year’s Day. I haven’t had a break from work this long¹My honeymoon last year was pretty darn close, but there is a big difference when I know I have a huge amount of work piled up to go back to. since graduating college, and I am thrilled by the concept.

Several of my coworkers are nervous about this change—we have customer support teams and we need to ensure our sites don’t suddenly break while everyone is gone—but I plan to revel in it in the intended fashion. I get to enjoy time with family and friends without distraction, without needing to burn additional PTO, and come back refreshed with an eagerness to get work done.

I’m not going to treat this like a miniature sabbatical and plan an ambitious number of projects to fill the time. While I’ll certainly manage to occupy myself with writing, reading, and exploring some ideas I’ve built up over time, the goal is not to prescribe any work in detail. A break should be exactly that, and in the last year I’ve learned to take my time away from daily work more seriously by increasing the divide between the two. I barely check my work email on my phone, and try to keep Slack out of mind once I’m done for the day. Neither of those slight changes has affected my work negatively, but has certainly improved my personal time.

A winter break will increase the dosage of that effect for a week, and I’m ready for it.

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  My honeymoon last year was pretty darn close, but there is a big difference when I know I have a huge amount of work piled up to go back to.

Erin and I spent a weekend north of San Francisco in a small house among the redwood trees. It overlooked a misty valley that offered the perfect balance of seclusion without isolation.¹We were only fifteen minutes from the nearby town with a Safeway, but nobody could see us on the deck’s hot tub, and we couldn’t see anyone else. We set up this small retreat to disconnect, focus on ourselves, and also discuss our yearly themes.

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  We were only fifteen minutes from the nearby town with a Safeway, but nobody could see us on the deck’s hot tub, and we couldn’t see anyone else.