It's hard to tell if you're really 'loved' where you work. Before I came to Iraq I was a contractor at Microsoft. Now Microsoft is a great place and it's a great place to work and all that but frankly, gawd I was bored. I did some interesting stuff with rather large SQL databases and while it was interesting, I could have also done most of my job sitting at home in my underwear and telecommute. At Microsoft I worked with a guy named Mike who I really thought knew more about VB script than me but when I told them I was quitting to 'finish my military committment in Iraq' (OK, so that really wasn't true) my boss wanted to know when I'd be back as they were thinking of letting Mike go. Now Mike was a good guy and knew his stuff but he didn't like to share with everyone what he was thinking. They eventually let Mike go.

Recently my boss here let an employee go (she was at the end of her contract of 1 year) and he got someone who's worked here before and I think that he got along better. Once my boss here told me it bugged him the way Nancy would question what/how he wanted to do things at times. I think it 'really' bugged him. Now now we have Jennifer instead of Nancy.

Anyway, I'm hoping to go on R&R next month and found out just today my boss's boss wants me to stay a few extra days at corporate for additional supervisor training (this is generally a good thing.) But my boss here wants me back as soon as possible. They both 'want' me! A lesson I learned in MBA school is that it's just as important to be liked as it is to be competent! Such a lesson has served me well.