My Job

In a couple days I will reach my 5 year anniversary with the company I work for. I am blown away that I will be starting my5th year with this company. It is a job I truly do love even though I have days I could just rip my hair out. I work for a small company that is based out of Ontario Canada. Our company is small with a total of almost 30 employees. About 6 years ago our owner hired a friend of his who use to be my boss at another company I worked for. He then hired another guy I use to work for and then they recruited me. I was the third US employee hired to our US office. We started out working in a small room over top of a little store in a downtown area. It was pretty cramped with the three of us and when we added our fourth employee we had to find a bigger place. Today we have a nice office space with 6 personal offices and a warehouse in the back. We have filled all 6 offices and have a total of 7 employees here now.

You are probably wondering what it is I do? I manage all of our companies marketing. I do everything from designing catalogs and advertisements to writing press releases and I am currently working with a web developer to completely overhaul our company website.

I would like to share 5 reasons why I love this company I work for.

1. The people:
All of my co-workers both here in the US and in Canada are the most wonderful bunch of people I know. They are hard works and always eager to help.

2. The understanding of the company
I have never worked anywhere that is as understand to a parents needs than this company. If my kids are sick and I stay home, no big deal. I have worked for the type of employer who thinks the world is ending because you miss a day and they make you feel awful about it. Not here, not this company. Our owner will ask how everyone is doing and he truly means it. If I have an appointment, need to leave early, the kids have a function, again no big deal. I don’t know if this is part of the Canadian culture and how things are their and it has just carried over into our US operation but either way it is a wonderful thing to know that I am trusted and given some flexibility with my job.

3. Maternity leave
This was a bit different for me. I was the first US employee who ended up having a baby. In Canada they take a year off and the government pays for that time off. In the US most companies give 6 weeks and they don’t have to pay a thing. My company gave me 4 months off (ok it’s not a year but who can complain) and they paid me 75% of my pay during my four months off. Again… what a great employer.

4. Flexibility
After returning to work from child number two I became a very stressed out person. I wasn’t managing things well at all. I went to my boss and said I can’t do this, it is just to much. I asked if I could cut my hours back and they said yes. So now I have the best of both worlds, a career I love and I work only 32 hours a week. This gives me more time for my kids, me and getting things done.

5. Vacation time
Coming up on my 5th year with the company and this year I get 16 days of paid vacation. Not to many companies get to this level of vacation after such a short time. Plus we get the week between Christmas and New Year off every year. So it is like another week of vacation. I couldn’t imagine giving up all of this vacation time.

I have also made a few trips to Canada over the past few years and find it such a great place. I haven’t been since 2006 because of baby number 2 and I now have to have a passport. Just yesterday I went and filled out the application for my passport and it is a good possibility that I will be see Canada again before the year ends.

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