Basel has become like a ghost town to me. Most of my colleagues have either left the project or moved on for the remaining months to Singapore. The office feels a bit forlorn with the sunlight streaking trhough the quiet, dusty air, warming a bit everyday. Some people are still around but mostly there are just remnants of their clutter and chaos, littering the hall and the desks.
It is hard for me to believe I have been here now for 2 years and 4 months. Career-wise it was ultimately a good move but a rocky process. When I started on this project I went through my all time career low, as I struggled with my new position and expectations in the company and the international experience in parallel. After 6 months, I was nearly at the point of quitting; the only thing keeping me going was my work permit and some instinct that I would find my way.
In time, I fixed what I could and other things fixed themselves. As my father says, this too shall pass. After a period of stability, I took the biggest risk in my career last fall, filling a new position leading a team in an area where I had very limited expertise. I had no idea how I would do it, when I couldn't fall back on myself to bail people and the project out of any jams.
I learned some things I didn't expect to learn. I learned that being a good leader doesn't necessarily mean knowing all the answers. I learned the value of good relationships in achieving goals and motivating others. I learned to stand back more often and let people sink or swim of their own accord and how empowering that can be for them. Respect is a two way street and what I couldn't provide in expertise I made up for with opportunities for my team to grow and shine. And they did. I really loved this experience.
I still have a few more months until I finish but I have given my team of new leaders bigger responsibilities and soon they won't really need me anymore. It will be time to move on. And then I will know I was successful here.
Posted from Basel
Showing posts with label basel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label basel. Show all posts
18.9.07
Basel!
Lunch today closed the deal and Basel it is for the next year. I can't deny I'm happy with the situation. This will be a great career opportunity and a reasonable situation for my personal life (in my line of business anyhow). We started to strategize the next steps and I will work part time in the new position until the official transition. There is a lot to come up to speed on as I will have a big team who carry a complicated workload and aggressive schedule. This won't be an easy job but I'm looking forward to a new challenge!
Posted from Basel
Posted from Basel
13.9.07
Basel?
It has been an eventful week for sure!
On Monday I finally received notification that the work and labor departments in both Frankfurt and Munich agreed that I could live and work in Germany so my work permit is ready! I will have to wait until next week to get it because I am waiting on my US passport to come back. In the last weeks I applied for and received a short term US passport (2 years) that I can travel with while my permanent passport is being replaced or, when needed, submitted for visas to work in other countries.
It was tough to find anything on the internet about people in my situation who travel so frequently for work - more frequently than replacement passports and visas can be processed. I finally went to the Munich consulate for advice (they should issue me a frequent shopper card) and they explained what to do.
Basically, I obtained a letter from my company stating that I travel frequently for business and need a 2nd passport. I received the short term one two weeks ago. Last week I said farewell to my first ever passport, issued in 2003 with no travel plans in mind, just to win a bet with a colleague. Now it's filled with two extension books, 2 Visas, about 150 Munich airport stamps, and various others including Mexico, the US and other European countries. The next one is already processing and will be here within a week. Hopefully it will have a tidier and longer, but just as full a life.
I've had it about up to here working with the Americans. I am counting the days until we finish their part of the project and move back to European countries. In a nutshell, they are so focused on morale and acknowledging what has already been accomplished that they forget that they are not done and are in danger of not making their timelines. I am American. I understand where they are coming from. It is just almost too much to ask to work with Americans right after the Austrian, Swiss and German group. And oh by the way, throw Latin America in with the US to make it a bit more interesting. It sure is. Interesting.
I have come a lot closer to reaching a conclusion behind door 1, 2 and 3 on my next steps with my career. Things have progressed favorably (quite surprisingly to me) towards signing on with the Frenchman. Top level management all endorsed the move and now it just remains for me and the Frenchman to go to lunch on Monday, work out the details and make a final decision. I turned down Singapore. With M. in the US quite a bit in the coming months I don't want to be heading so far in the opposite direction. Only a tiny tinge or regret but another 12 months in Basel in a well positioned spot with a group I enjoy working with isn't too shabby. If for whatever reason it doesn't work out, door #3 cracked open this week revealing some promising prospects in Germany and the UK so I am relaxed that all will play out ok now.
Now I just need to figure out when M. and I can get some time off together and plan a real vacation!
Posted from Basel
On Monday I finally received notification that the work and labor departments in both Frankfurt and Munich agreed that I could live and work in Germany so my work permit is ready! I will have to wait until next week to get it because I am waiting on my US passport to come back. In the last weeks I applied for and received a short term US passport (2 years) that I can travel with while my permanent passport is being replaced or, when needed, submitted for visas to work in other countries.
It was tough to find anything on the internet about people in my situation who travel so frequently for work - more frequently than replacement passports and visas can be processed. I finally went to the Munich consulate for advice (they should issue me a frequent shopper card) and they explained what to do.
Basically, I obtained a letter from my company stating that I travel frequently for business and need a 2nd passport. I received the short term one two weeks ago. Last week I said farewell to my first ever passport, issued in 2003 with no travel plans in mind, just to win a bet with a colleague. Now it's filled with two extension books, 2 Visas, about 150 Munich airport stamps, and various others including Mexico, the US and other European countries. The next one is already processing and will be here within a week. Hopefully it will have a tidier and longer, but just as full a life.
I've had it about up to here working with the Americans. I am counting the days until we finish their part of the project and move back to European countries. In a nutshell, they are so focused on morale and acknowledging what has already been accomplished that they forget that they are not done and are in danger of not making their timelines. I am American. I understand where they are coming from. It is just almost too much to ask to work with Americans right after the Austrian, Swiss and German group. And oh by the way, throw Latin America in with the US to make it a bit more interesting. It sure is. Interesting.
I have come a lot closer to reaching a conclusion behind door 1, 2 and 3 on my next steps with my career. Things have progressed favorably (quite surprisingly to me) towards signing on with the Frenchman. Top level management all endorsed the move and now it just remains for me and the Frenchman to go to lunch on Monday, work out the details and make a final decision. I turned down Singapore. With M. in the US quite a bit in the coming months I don't want to be heading so far in the opposite direction. Only a tiny tinge or regret but another 12 months in Basel in a well positioned spot with a group I enjoy working with isn't too shabby. If for whatever reason it doesn't work out, door #3 cracked open this week revealing some promising prospects in Germany and the UK so I am relaxed that all will play out ok now.
Now I just need to figure out when M. and I can get some time off together and plan a real vacation!
Posted from Basel
6.9.07
Three Doors
As the reality that my time is running short in Basel hit me, it occurred to me that I would actually miss it. I went to lunch by myself yesterday, after a little bit of wandering the canyon-like streets, and sat outside in the autumn sunshine relecting on my time in Basel, now nearly two years.
The seat opposite me at the table was empty, but the ghosts of many colleagues who had joined me in that exact spot flitted by, bringing back fond memories. I feel lucky that I got to work with so many people from so many places around the world. We spent countless hours discussing differences and language mishaps, what we missed most about home and why we keep traveling. When I look back now though, I don't see the differences. I see the kinship of the journey we shared for this brief span of time and I know that as humans we share more in common than we differ.
While I confess I sometimes get amusement out of making fun of the Swiss culture and I don't think I will ever really understand the people of Basel, the town has a simplicity that I think so many of us yearn for. Whenever I try to describe it to people, inevitably I make a comment along the lines of 'it's a city that is stuck in the 50s.' Seeing as I was born in the 70s and don't have any recollection of the 50s, what I am really trying to say is that the town, for me, represents the ideal of the 50s that I have fabricated from watching old 50s TV shows and movies. I always had a thing for I Love Lucy and Leave it to Beaver. The world was crisp and clean in those shows. Humor came from the disorder amongst the order and the reaction of the orderly folks. That is so Basel.
When trying to pinpoint exactly why I should feel an attachment to Basel, there was something more to it than the safe, cozy feel. My bright sunny apartment, the funny Swiss francs, my smattering of Basel dialekt...and then it hit me. For me, Basel is my independence in Europe. It is the proof that I exist outside of what I was in the past in the US and what I am together with M. in Munich. It is a place where I showed I can made it on my own. I am proud of my life in Basel.
Tugging at me all week was this instinct, that when I leave, there is the uncertainty of the future and an instability in my independence. I don't want to lose that independence, so I don't want to lose Basel.
With this realization in hand, it is time for Let's Make A Deal.
Behind Door #1 - An opportunity has come up to stay in Basel. Same project, different team, in an area that is not my specialty by any stretch. The proposal was made based not on my skills but on a good working relationship from previous collaborations. A tempting offer in that I like the individual, would stay mainly in Basel for another year and it would be a good foundation for the promotion I am up for next year. Somehow funny, it would mean I would be partnered with a Frenchman at work and a German at home - two countries I never wanted anything to do with before I met M.
Behind Door #2 - Six to eight months commuting to Singapore! Again, for the same project. The opportunity is a perfect fit from my previous experience and for making a stab at the promotion but so, so far away from Munich. My Sagittarius spirit makes me want to impulsively leap at the chance to fulfill my ever growing wanderlust. I always want to see more! This would be hard on me and M. though, especially with him signed up for some more time in the US in the next months.
Behind Door #3 - I don't get to find out until I reject 1 and 2. Truly a blind roll of the dice, where I would pack up from Basel in two months and set off searching and who knows where and with whom and on what I could be working. There is something scintillating about that too.
It will be interesting to see how it all unfolds...
Posted from Munich
The seat opposite me at the table was empty, but the ghosts of many colleagues who had joined me in that exact spot flitted by, bringing back fond memories. I feel lucky that I got to work with so many people from so many places around the world. We spent countless hours discussing differences and language mishaps, what we missed most about home and why we keep traveling. When I look back now though, I don't see the differences. I see the kinship of the journey we shared for this brief span of time and I know that as humans we share more in common than we differ.
While I confess I sometimes get amusement out of making fun of the Swiss culture and I don't think I will ever really understand the people of Basel, the town has a simplicity that I think so many of us yearn for. Whenever I try to describe it to people, inevitably I make a comment along the lines of 'it's a city that is stuck in the 50s.' Seeing as I was born in the 70s and don't have any recollection of the 50s, what I am really trying to say is that the town, for me, represents the ideal of the 50s that I have fabricated from watching old 50s TV shows and movies. I always had a thing for I Love Lucy and Leave it to Beaver. The world was crisp and clean in those shows. Humor came from the disorder amongst the order and the reaction of the orderly folks. That is so Basel.
When trying to pinpoint exactly why I should feel an attachment to Basel, there was something more to it than the safe, cozy feel. My bright sunny apartment, the funny Swiss francs, my smattering of Basel dialekt...and then it hit me. For me, Basel is my independence in Europe. It is the proof that I exist outside of what I was in the past in the US and what I am together with M. in Munich. It is a place where I showed I can made it on my own. I am proud of my life in Basel.
Tugging at me all week was this instinct, that when I leave, there is the uncertainty of the future and an instability in my independence. I don't want to lose that independence, so I don't want to lose Basel.
With this realization in hand, it is time for Let's Make A Deal.
Behind Door #1 - An opportunity has come up to stay in Basel. Same project, different team, in an area that is not my specialty by any stretch. The proposal was made based not on my skills but on a good working relationship from previous collaborations. A tempting offer in that I like the individual, would stay mainly in Basel for another year and it would be a good foundation for the promotion I am up for next year. Somehow funny, it would mean I would be partnered with a Frenchman at work and a German at home - two countries I never wanted anything to do with before I met M.
Behind Door #2 - Six to eight months commuting to Singapore! Again, for the same project. The opportunity is a perfect fit from my previous experience and for making a stab at the promotion but so, so far away from Munich. My Sagittarius spirit makes me want to impulsively leap at the chance to fulfill my ever growing wanderlust. I always want to see more! This would be hard on me and M. though, especially with him signed up for some more time in the US in the next months.
Behind Door #3 - I don't get to find out until I reject 1 and 2. Truly a blind roll of the dice, where I would pack up from Basel in two months and set off searching and who knows where and with whom and on what I could be working. There is something scintillating about that too.
It will be interesting to see how it all unfolds...
Posted from Munich
30.8.07
Orchid Success
Back in April, M.'s mom gave me an orchid. I had my doubts based on all the dead orchid stories I've heard and the general ugliness of the plant, especially when it is not blooming. I brought it to my apartment in Basel and basically neglected it. My other three plants get all kinds of love, but this one I was afraid of. Pretty quickly the blossoms wilted and the leaves looked kind of, well, like they were dying. I watered it once every 2-3 weeks, just in case it wanted to try to survive.
This morning I was stumbling around my kitchen in Basel and glanced over at the orchid, and look what I saw! It is even sprouting a new bunch of leaves.
Posted from Munich
30.4.07
Roses in Bloom
I had a post in mind as I was on my way home from work but all thoughts have vaporized now due to sheer exhaustion. There is a light at the end of the tunnel now though and overall it has been a successful week & weekend. Only one more day until I get my life back from work.
It's not worth explaining what I do. No one understands it no matter how I explain it anyway. I am a consultant. Great. Consultant for what. Blah Blah. It is a weird job. I've just been working for 8 days straight, on average 16 hour days so I can probably only say nonsense anyway. We try to push the limits of what several hundred people can do in a few months starting from scratch and starting as strangers.
Between the travel, the weird hours and the tendency it causes for me to disappear into the great abyss for months at a time it makes life a little schizophrenic. There is 'weekend Michelle' and 'weekday Michelle'. Two strangers passing in the night with completely different priorities, hopes and dreams. It is not such a big surprise that M. is from the same company. No one else would tolerate this lifestyle from a girlfriend.
A friend passed me this last week and it is all too true:
Now I remember what I wanted to post about. The roses in Basel. They are surreal. Great climbing roses, immense bushes, wild roses and garden roses. I have not seen such spectacular roses anywhere. I'm not sure, but I think April is absurdly early for them. They are stunning. Red, Pink, White, Yellow and Orange. When I was going to work at 6 on Saturday morning, there was one that was a pink-peach color that was nearly luminescent in the gray blue light. Combined with massive vines of wisteria all over the place, the city looks amazing.
Posted from Basel
It's not worth explaining what I do. No one understands it no matter how I explain it anyway. I am a consultant. Great. Consultant for what. Blah Blah. It is a weird job. I've just been working for 8 days straight, on average 16 hour days so I can probably only say nonsense anyway. We try to push the limits of what several hundred people can do in a few months starting from scratch and starting as strangers.
Between the travel, the weird hours and the tendency it causes for me to disappear into the great abyss for months at a time it makes life a little schizophrenic. There is 'weekend Michelle' and 'weekday Michelle'. Two strangers passing in the night with completely different priorities, hopes and dreams. It is not such a big surprise that M. is from the same company. No one else would tolerate this lifestyle from a girlfriend.
A friend passed me this last week and it is all too true:
Consultant
Have gun, will travel
$$: Entry level grunts may begin in the high five and low six figures. If you're a graduate of one of the huge consultant factories that leach humanity out of students and turn them into guns for hire--Wharton, and to a lesser extent, the somewhat squishier Stanford School of Business--you could be making an executive's salary almost immediately.
The upside: It's a pretty easy job, with great travel benefits, nice hotels, drinks on the companies you are soaking.
The downside: Your kids can never explain what you do to their friends.
The dark side: You are a ninja, a samurai, a lone traveler on the road to nowhere. It's a very opulent nowhere if you're good at it. But somewhere in your heart, you want to come in from the cold.
Now I remember what I wanted to post about. The roses in Basel. They are surreal. Great climbing roses, immense bushes, wild roses and garden roses. I have not seen such spectacular roses anywhere. I'm not sure, but I think April is absurdly early for them. They are stunning. Red, Pink, White, Yellow and Orange. When I was going to work at 6 on Saturday morning, there was one that was a pink-peach color that was nearly luminescent in the gray blue light. Combined with massive vines of wisteria all over the place, the city looks amazing.
Posted from Basel
8.1.07
Anniversary
Where was I one year ago tonight?
Spending the first night of my life in Switzerland, at the Ramada Inn. I had landed in Munich on Saturday morning after saying a sad farewell to Washington DC. On Sunday M. drove us to Basel. I met his parents for the first time, who live just over the border in Germany. I was horribly jet-lagged and worried to meet his family when I felt completely in over my head and exhausted from the move and wondering if I made the right decision to come.
After dinner we headed back to Basel and went for a walk around Basel so I could learn my way around a little bit. I was impressed right away with (to use my Mom's favorite word) how cute the city was. We shared a toast at the Campari bar to a successful start to my life here. Shortly after, I went to bed, hoping for the best on my new project and making it on my own in Europe after M. left for work in Hamburg the next morning.
It was extremely cold and windy and the morning was dark so late. In my top floor hotel room I watched from behind the security of the glass walls as the little city came to life in the pre-dawn. Smoke curled out of the chimneys and smokestacks of the local industry. The train-set trams rolled along on their tracks and people were bundled up against the cold as they headed to work in singles and pairs.
No more stalling. I showered and dressed and bundled up in my new warm clothes, feeling safe and snug against the cold, more from the knowledge that I had bought them with M. who wanted me to be warm during the long cold winter than from any protection they could afford against the bleak, frosty days. I opened the door of the lobby, and joined the others heading off to work.
Posted from Basel
Spending the first night of my life in Switzerland, at the Ramada Inn. I had landed in Munich on Saturday morning after saying a sad farewell to Washington DC. On Sunday M. drove us to Basel. I met his parents for the first time, who live just over the border in Germany. I was horribly jet-lagged and worried to meet his family when I felt completely in over my head and exhausted from the move and wondering if I made the right decision to come.
After dinner we headed back to Basel and went for a walk around Basel so I could learn my way around a little bit. I was impressed right away with (to use my Mom's favorite word) how cute the city was. We shared a toast at the Campari bar to a successful start to my life here. Shortly after, I went to bed, hoping for the best on my new project and making it on my own in Europe after M. left for work in Hamburg the next morning.
It was extremely cold and windy and the morning was dark so late. In my top floor hotel room I watched from behind the security of the glass walls as the little city came to life in the pre-dawn. Smoke curled out of the chimneys and smokestacks of the local industry. The train-set trams rolled along on their tracks and people were bundled up against the cold as they headed to work in singles and pairs.
No more stalling. I showered and dressed and bundled up in my new warm clothes, feeling safe and snug against the cold, more from the knowledge that I had bought them with M. who wanted me to be warm during the long cold winter than from any protection they could afford against the bleak, frosty days. I opened the door of the lobby, and joined the others heading off to work.
Posted from Basel
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