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Quickie business trip to SF
Sep. 7th, 2018 02:44 pmHmm. I like San Francisco but I don't like business travel. I've trended toward making my trips easier and lonelier lately, by not setting up evening plans (beyond business dinners) and keeping more time for cursory workouts, sleep, and work mail; I still dream of some kind of high-quality hookup app for business travelers, but it doesn't exist and I give up for now.
This summit was for women in my slice of the company and at my level, so pretty targeted; and it was the second in a series so I knew people already. Two interesting things came out of it. One was information from the facilitators that we seem to be more stressed than our peers in other slices of the company (where they run the same summit/training), and that they're planning to take that bit of information to the execs. Another was more actionable for me, and was about sponsorship vs mentorship* and trying to make better connections with folks above me who might sponsor me in some meaningful way in the future. I could be doing that, yup. And I was able to think of people I have sponsored, also, which was nice to remember. I think I'm going to lean vaguely in the direction of running larger groups / thinking about being a director, and see how far leaning takes me in the next four years. But I'm a little resentful of this conclusion, because half the reason I want the director title is not for the role at all, but for the doors it opens. And, in my 40s now, I'm effing tired of collecting credentials.
There was some body horror on this trip (trigger warning: body/fat discussion ahead). For one, my skin was kind of sucking, and I was in awe of the power of concealer to nearly erase red spots. 120 seconds every morning took me from horrifying to presentable, and I was grateful. For another, there was one woman at this summit whose body... well... just didn't make sense to me. She was not the most heavyset, but she was I guess the most S-shaped: belly ahead and above, butt behind and below. I found it impossible to not stare, and to not try to figure out where her skeleton was in all that. I suppose this is awful to admit? But there was legitimate confusion to go along with my "eww" reaction -- the logic and mechanical function of skinny bodies is pretty evident, and for this body it just wasn't. I think an X-ray would have set me at ease. But none was available, and you can't just go around asking people to please point at their hip bones to help you out, either. :-/
So that's that. I feel way disconnected from basically everything I like, with the exception of my red boots, and can't wait for this airplane to land at Logan. I just checked up on the wildfire that kept me from being in the Northwest right now, and it's grown to 13,000 acres and seems just as threatening as it did when we cancelled our flights; it's just as well that I'm on my way home.
* If you don't know the difference between sponsorship and mentorship, it's this: mentors advise and can be peers, while sponsors are powerful people who do things to advance one's career. Women in tech tend to be over-mentored and under-sponsored when compared to men in tech.
This summit was for women in my slice of the company and at my level, so pretty targeted; and it was the second in a series so I knew people already. Two interesting things came out of it. One was information from the facilitators that we seem to be more stressed than our peers in other slices of the company (where they run the same summit/training), and that they're planning to take that bit of information to the execs. Another was more actionable for me, and was about sponsorship vs mentorship* and trying to make better connections with folks above me who might sponsor me in some meaningful way in the future. I could be doing that, yup. And I was able to think of people I have sponsored, also, which was nice to remember. I think I'm going to lean vaguely in the direction of running larger groups / thinking about being a director, and see how far leaning takes me in the next four years. But I'm a little resentful of this conclusion, because half the reason I want the director title is not for the role at all, but for the doors it opens. And, in my 40s now, I'm effing tired of collecting credentials.
There was some body horror on this trip (trigger warning: body/fat discussion ahead). For one, my skin was kind of sucking, and I was in awe of the power of concealer to nearly erase red spots. 120 seconds every morning took me from horrifying to presentable, and I was grateful. For another, there was one woman at this summit whose body... well... just didn't make sense to me. She was not the most heavyset, but she was I guess the most S-shaped: belly ahead and above, butt behind and below. I found it impossible to not stare, and to not try to figure out where her skeleton was in all that. I suppose this is awful to admit? But there was legitimate confusion to go along with my "eww" reaction -- the logic and mechanical function of skinny bodies is pretty evident, and for this body it just wasn't. I think an X-ray would have set me at ease. But none was available, and you can't just go around asking people to please point at their hip bones to help you out, either. :-/
So that's that. I feel way disconnected from basically everything I like, with the exception of my red boots, and can't wait for this airplane to land at Logan. I just checked up on the wildfire that kept me from being in the Northwest right now, and it's grown to 13,000 acres and seems just as threatening as it did when we cancelled our flights; it's just as well that I'm on my way home.
* If you don't know the difference between sponsorship and mentorship, it's this: mentors advise and can be peers, while sponsors are powerful people who do things to advance one's career. Women in tech tend to be over-mentored and under-sponsored when compared to men in tech.
