October 15, 2007

  • mental notes...

    --- my big boss, the boss of my boss, said to me the other day: your health insurance should be fine in the UK. you'll just be out of network should you have to go to the hospital. oh, and if anything happens to you while you're there- like say you get kidnapped - we have strong corporate insurance for situations like those. you'll have nothing to worry about.

    apparently  we have corporate ransom, kidnapping and extortion insurance. sure, i knew about it, and sure, prudent organizations that do international work should surely have such coverage... but i'd prefer not to be reminded. and really, why would anyone kidnap an HR person? funny. kind of.

    --- my sister cooked me a delicious meal the last night to send me off and away. she's the greatest. she also equipped me with some departure tokens including a home-made note-writing kit and note-book. the notebook, i fancy in particular, as there are pictures in the corner of my little nephew with notes that say: i miss you auntie! i love you auntie! see you in london! don't forget me, auntie! it's so cute.

    --- it's to brussels on the 22nd for two days for business. i look forward to eating waffles from street vendors! cool! too bad i don't enjoy belgian beer more... as a matter of fact, i worry that my beloved bud light won't be readily available. i picture that i will pull up to a bar, sit down on a stool, ask for a bud light... and people will roll their eyes thinking, silly american.

    --- i realized as i was walking to work today that i've become quite good at being noncommittal because of my job. or maybe that's an excuse for just being noncommittal. i speak with candidates, meet with candidates all the time- and few prevail at the end. for those who do not, i will rarely tell them outright what exactly their downfall was. i give answers that skirt around the issue and really, i stretch truths so as to not turn them away and make them run screaming... there could be something in the future, afterall, that i might need them for. and for those i am interested in, well, i never let on. i only tell them enough to keep them hanging on because i don't want them to think they have it in the bag. people ask me during or after interviews what their chances are, or how they stack up compared to others... and i'm always so noncommital. just something i was thinking about.

    that's it for now. just a lot of miscellaneous stuff going through my head. nothing compelling. nothing compelling at all to speak of.