It sure is...if you're "highway" equals work and the "cars" equal all the sh*t you have to get done at work. Then yes, my life is a highway...a very backed up, no relief in sight kinda highway.
Three months ago I hired a new PM. My excitement around having him as a PM for me was that I'd get some of my life back. I'd stop working 50 hours a week (or more) and I'd be able to be me again.
The problem is ... our sales team are awesome. Our company is doing sensationally well - which a good problem to have - but it also means, we're slammed! Always.
The new PM is up and running. He's got 27 projects. I have 33 and my other PM has 32. I have three new projects in my Inbox waiting for a PM to be assigned. I have no idea who I can assign it to. I'm been told by management to not take on anymore - in an attempt to get my work/life balance back. But the other two PMs are starting to have no work/life balance either.
Thankfully management heard my cries of exhaustion. That's what I love about this place...they aren't blind to the reality of the work load. Well, that and I'm the squeeky wheel that won't stop reminding them we're slammed. Our company prides itself on quality and when you have PMs that are as slammed as we are, your quality goes down. That gets to them for sure.
Enter new PM job description. Finally.
This search didn't take us quite as long. We are changing our roles, or I should say planning to, to be more Customer Success Managers - its the buzz world in the SaaS environments. It basically means we, as PMs, own a lot more of the relationship and really focus on supporting that customer for the duration of their license with us. It's checking in on a regular basis. We can't do that now because we're too busy.
At any rate, our search was for a person who had more that experience along with PM skills. And we found someone within a month. He starts on Wednesday! He's going to have to hit the ground running and will likely have 3 projects ready for him to run with.
In other non work related news. The MomUnit was here for a couple of weeks. Her being here made me realize just how much I do work at home in the evenings. With her here I couldn't work at night...now what? So instead of worrying I just did my best and spent the time I needed to with the MomUnit. She's off to Portland now to visit the sister.
The MomUnit brought with her, her new little dog Stitch. I wasn't sure what I was going to think about her new Taco Bell dog. Turns out he's quite the character and it's almost impossible to not love him. Why do we always have crazy dogs - pets?
