Where HAVE I been?

Well now that's a good question.

After almost 20 years of working for myself or running companies, I decided to take a J-O-B. There are about a billion reasons for doing this. Certainly one is: "I was bored with my sabbatical." Another is: "I wanted to see how a Fortune 100 'best company to work for' was really like." And there are more.

But let's face it. I miss the executive washroom. The random respect from people who have some idea that you deserve respect. And the mind numbing sensation of working on things that are so interesting that I wanted to work over 80 hours a week.

And of course, the pay check sucks. I spent my first paycheck getting my hair cut and my eyebrows waxed. (Hey, I'm not giving up the eyebrow waxing!)

There are tremendous benefits to my J-O-B.? When I return to executive life (pleez God, I will return to executive life), I will have a better idea of what is really going on out there. I have learned more in 2 weeks about the general pulse of the American middle class than I could ever have learned from any report.? (I'll blog more on that later.)

All that and? I experience the mind numbing sensation of super boring and repetitive work. I am inspired by autocratic and dramatic leadership. I bow respectfully to mental midgets who assert their power through arbitrary rules (time clocks? name tags? WHAT?)? And I deal with angry, frustrated, broke, stressed and deluded customers.

I am finally seeing first hand how my own mind numbing, autocratic, dramatic, arbitrary rules and mental inferiority impacted the people who worked for me.? I also see myself in the angry, frustrated, broke, stressed and deluded customers.

This is an incredibly humbling experience.

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