Every year I write a poem for work and read it at our last company meeting of the year. Here’s the poem I wrote this morning for 2022:
Here we grow, team
Nearly 100 of us, we’ll cross that bridge soon
So few of us remember now
When we tore down the walls at Wallingwood
Or sat on bright blue carpet
Eating pizza on the floor on moving day
Here we grow, because more us remember now
What it means to grow from everywhere
Thirty states, crossing timezones and we find our way to each other every day
I don’t have a mural to hang on the office wall that says Be Kind
But I have a team that shows me what it means
It’s been years since the office fridge was stocked with Diet Coke for me
But I am known here just the same
I hope that for y’all too, to be known
Images spin in my mind as I think back
ADP deal, Autopilot, launches
Hiring, hiring, hiring
Many of us meet in Austin in June
Happy 15th Birthday CareerPlug
It was good, it was hard, it’s a new chapter
Here we grow, team
We have book clubs and lunch and learns and ERGs
And new ideas and new processes
And our second full year on EOS – scorecards, L10s, rocks
And we tried, and are trying to figure out
How to do more than survive, but thrive
Some weeks it feels like there is no capacity
But then again, we always find capacity for what matters
Be Kind, team, and we find our way through
So here’s to you
The people who showed up for me
Who pushed me
Who walk beside me while we build something together
To be proud of
I’m proud of this community
And all that we have done and is yet to be
So here we grow team
Into 2023!
Happy New Year!
With Love,
Natalie