Every Time I Leave They Keep Pulling Me Back…

I think Kee Won said it best the other day: “they keep dangling that carrot in front of you.” Yes, that’s what my job keeps doing to me. Let me explain what happened:

On Thursday, I skipped out of work to go to the Vera Wang fashion show. The fashion show is only about 15 minutes long. So i figured I would just take a long lunch and skip out to the show and be back before anyone noticed. I should have known better. The last time I went, the show started an hour late. The same thing happened this time. Also, after the show, I went backstage to see my friend and ended up staying there for 30-45 mins. Then my friend all decided to go to the bar to celebrate the end of the show and invited me along. At this point, I had already been missing from the office for about 3-3.5 hours. I almost went with them (who doesn't want to hang out in the bar with models?!), but better judgment intervened. I quickly said my goodbyes and ran back to the office.

When I got back to the office, my co-workers didn't say anything, but they gave me the "where the hell have you been?!" look. But I figured all was well. Then, literally one minute after I sat down, my boss swung by my desk and told me he needed to see me in his office. Crap. He must have noticed that I had been gone all afternoon. Also, I had been late the last few mornings weeks...ummm...I'm late every day.

I go into he offices and he looks at me for a couple of seconds. "Should I say something?" I think. "Should I just come clean?" But before I can say anything, he smiles and says, "It's bonus time!" My heart stopped for a second and I think my delayed reaction confused him. After we go through the obligatory bonus talk, he then tells me that an opportunity will be opening up in our office in San Francisco in the next few months. The opening has not been announced yet, but my boss wanted to give me a heads up because he knows I have family out in Cali. He then tells me that if I want the transfer, he will help me get it. Wow. Then he went on to tell me that he hopes I don't take the transfer because he really likes me and thinks I'm doing a great job.

Add to that, our head marketer has been giving me a lot of positive reinforcement lately and told me that he likes working with me so much that he's trying to get me on more of his deals.

Good thing I didn't skip-out of work to go to the bar. Hard to hate the job now, right?