August marked my 5 year anniversary at Automattic.
This is a momentus occasion for two reasons:
First, it’s the longest that I’ve been at job in my adult life. My last four jobs before this were all in the 3-4 year span. I will say though, I hadn’t planned on leaving FreshBooks, as I was still quite happy and developing there. However life cicumstances (needing to move away and then struggling to be the only remote employee in the entire company), dictated otherwise.
Second, all Automatticians get to celebrate their 5 year anniversary (and every 5 years after that) with a three month, fully paid sabbatical.
Summer is almost wrapped up. With that, Willow is also wrapping up at her home daycare.
We’ve had Willow in a home daycare since September of last year. Finding the right daycare was a long and stressful process for us. Ultimately though, it was worth the journey as her provider (Paola) turned out to be better than we could have imagined.
In the year that Willow has been there, she has exploded in her development. Her talking, problem solving skills, social nature, and nap habbits all improved. Paola’s care and guidance had such a huge impact on Willow. She really became an extension of our family… which is why when she told us she was shutting down to pursue teaching, it hurt so much.
Immediately our thoughts went to: “What if we can’t find someone else that we like in time?”, “What if they aren’t as good and Willow’s development slows down?”, “What if Willow doesn’t like the new place?”…What if, What if.
After a bunch of research and comparing by my wife we settled on a new daycare. This time it’s a centre, not a home daycare. With COVID, the larger class sizes made us hesitant, however we feel that it is the right place for her.
In true Paola fashion, she’s planned an amazing send off week for all the children. Including Halloween in August, a Teddy Bear picnic, renting a ball pit and snow cone machine, etc.
I’ve been working long hours and overnight shifts, leading to an unhealthy lack of sleep. Additionally, a few things have come up in my personal life to add extra stress to the situation.
Today looked like that was all going to turn around. I was set to have a night of relaxation and early sleep. Then, more last-minute bad news: I would have to work into the early morning again.
It wasn’t good. I was burning out and I was beyond my stress limit. Then while playing with my daughter, she decided to drop some life advice on me. She said:
Daddy, sometimes you just have to eat bubble gum
This little girl doesn’t know how much she saves me on a daily basis ❤️
My name is Phil Thompson. I'm a customer support enthusiast working at Automattic, currently with the Pressable support team.
I love customers, animals, people, video games, and technology (in no particular order).
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