Saying Goodbye to the Abusive Boyfriend

I've been saving this posting for awhile and have finally found the right occasion to use it. You'll see why at the end.

There is a funny thing that happens when you have a job you actually enjoy and care about. You spend time actually working instead of figuring out ways too just look busy. With being busy doing actual work you don't have as much time to read about all the current happenings of the day. In case you haven't noticed, and I am sure you did, I have not been posting to this blog at all lately.


The one thing that I am learning is that I guess things really do work out the way they do for a reason. After a very tough year I have finally landed in the place that I was meant to be in. I guess it's one of those things were I needed to learn a lesson of patience which is not really my strong suit.


In case you don't know the details of my past year here you go....

After getting laid off from a job that I transferred to Atlanta to take, because I was told the position would carry through the transition, it took me 8 months to finally land the right one. I was offered a position with Starwood in Birmingham and after turning it down have apparently now become blackballed by the company. I submitted my application for a position here in Atlanta at the Westin Buckhead, called the Controller twice and never got so much as a callback to say thanks but no thanks. Then I applied for my old position and what do I get, the promise of a second interview only to be followed up a month later with a fairly non-specific rejection letter. The best line in the letter was the opening line of "It was good t osee you again..." the reason this is good is because I never even came into contact with the guy who signed it! Throw in a couple other positions that had 11th hour complications, 2 with sudden interest from internal candidates and one where I didn't like the offer, and you can see all the fun I had. Oh and don't forget about the Temp-to-Perm deal that never really materialized (thankfully).

Now I find myself in a fairly good position where I am constantly busy and, so far, continue to surpass my bosses expectations. After seeing how Starwood operates we (Elizabeth and I) still have a bit of scepticism about this new company but we are trying to ignore it and let them prove themselves.

My point to all of this is things work out the way they do for a reason and while that reason isn't always made clear in the time frame you wish or it's often not one you like. But there is a reason and in the end it's usually for the best. This was confirmed for me this past Tuesday. We had our first ever Quarterly Business Review (were I got to do a 2 hour presentation on our P&L, yeah you can imagine the fun) at the Sheraton Gateway, a Starwood managed property. While there I ran into three people I knew, two I worked with at my old hotel and one was the Controller. Needless to say I didn't miss it at all. I had absolutely no thoughts of wishing I was back in hospitality.

This is where the saying goodbye to the abusive boyfriend comes in. I can't take credit for it, I have to give that to Elizabeth and her sister. They gave a great analogy of Starwood and an abusive boyfriend. It's a tough one for me to come up with since I've never had an abusive boyfriend...I've never had a boyfriend at all actually!! But I understood their points and really liked it.

It goes a little something like this. An abusive boyfriend treats you like crap and kicks you around. You take it for a little while because you love him, then you finally decide you have had enough and break it off. You decide you don't need him anymore nor do you deserve how he has been treating you. About the time you break it off he decides to come around and promise you how he's going to change, maybe he does for a little while, he turns all lovey treats you well and promises the world. So you take him back because this time it's going to be different only to have the same stuff happen start happening again and again.

Well today we get to say good bye for good.