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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 for 2023 that I read today:

This year we chose Client Love
We chose outcomes, results
We played a Tina Turner song
We chose hires and interviews scheduled
We built a pretty funnel
To count Wow moments week after week

This year we chose Client Love
Because it’s results that matter
Or . . . it’s the people that matter
Not a number but a person
Not just interviews and hires
But teams
Like ours

And team, the year didn’t go as we expected
(but what year has, really
Pivots and successes and falling down
So we can keep learning
Keep growing
That’s the game
The more you play
The more you learn
The more you win)

This summer, we met in the Austin heat
Sweated through connections
That cannot be beat
One hundred and counting on payroll
And sometimes I can’t quite get my arms around it
Not like I used to
But then I talk to you – all of you
And I’m reminded that I don’t need to
We have our arms around each other
We’re tangled up in our goals and Slacks
A community built on iteration and GIFs
And problem-solving in long threads
And debating over Zoom vs Google Hangouts
In the end, does it matter how we see each other?
Only that we do?

Just kidding – it does matter. Zoom is better.

I used to mention that old electric blue carpet in the office
But it’s been nearly four years
So few of us remember it

Fewer still remember the animals that died in our ceiling at Wallingwood
Or the great flood of May 2015
Monday morning and an inch or more of bathroom water on the office floor
These days our obstacles are more technical – headset glitches and changing Slack channel permissions

It’s good to have history
To have stories we can build upon
And if you were here for none of them
If you joined this year or even this month
You are part of our story too

At our heart, we will always be who we were on the first day I joined
Sitting around in a circle on a Friday afternoon
Back when we could all fit in a small room
Giving shout-outs and gratitude
We didn’t name it as a value back then
But it was generous and kind
And I can still feel that
Ten times the size
Thirty-two states
Looking at screens
Instead of pulling up chairs
And I can still feel that
When it’s hard and we go quiet
When the weeks are too long
And we don’t know what to say
I can still feel that

Be kind, be kind, be kind

This year CareerPlug chose Client Love
And I chose the word Waves
I imagined the ebbs and the flows
I imagined the dexterity I’d need to ride the swells
I imagined a Great Lake full of change

This year didn’t go as I expected
(but what year has, deep breath)
The waves felt a little less like riding to a new shore
And more like the crash
Like the gulp of saltwater
Burning down your throat
Like lungs reaching for air
That just isn’t there

But Great Lakes and Oceans
Are more than we see
Tumultuous waters
But there’s calm in the deep
Every year we grow a little older
Sixteen and a half years now
One hundred and more of us now
Great things ahead of us now
More than ever now
We need to come back to what’s true
The values, the vision, the lessons
The people, the people, that’s all of you

So here’s to your health
And to your spirit and to your cheer
Wishing all of us
A Happy New Year!

With Love,

Natalie