Old Times

It’s only my first week at my new job and I’m already loving it. I’m working with awesome people and doing stuff that I love. #startuplife 

Tuesday in particular was the best though, it was really totally like old times at the last start-up that I worked at. I am, once again, working within spitting distance of my friend Ben and there’s a Calexico cart at the end of my block in Madison Square Park. So what’d we do for lunch? We did our thing: meeting up for burritos. Delicious burritos. The best burritos that you can get from a cart in the city, in my opinion.

Later on in the day, the marketing associate, who sits next to me, and the CTO asked about ClubMed (the 5 minute meditation break that I used to lead at my old job). Apparently this really sparked their interest when I mentioned it in my interview a couple of weeks ago. 

So, when 2pm rolled around, we all gathered in the conference room and took a 5-minute pause in our day. It’s a small company – 12 people – and I was shocked, and happy, to see that everyone got in on it.

If I’d have stayed an extra week at my temp gig, I’d be miserable right now. I’m so glad I made the decision to cut it short and start my new journey. 

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I’m in charge of HR and team building at my new-ish (I’ve been there for a month and a half already) job and one of the first things I talked to the CEO and co-founder about was a mini mid-day meditation break. The CEO is huge into meditation, mindfulness, yoga, etc. It was something that I made sure to bring up in my second interview with him when I was asked to come back in. 

So, I sent out an invite on Wednesdays and Fridays at 2pm for a mini 5 minute meditation break. Yes, I know, it’s tough to drag yourself away from whatever you’re doing in the middle of the day, but trust me it’s worth it.

Last Wednesday the CEO told me I’d lead the meditation. Although I’ve been meditating regularly for almost two years, I’d never led a meditation. But whatever: It’s only five minutes. And five minutes is really a blip.

So we all sat down in one of our conference rooms and I regurgitated a lot of what I’d heard from teachers in my yoga classes and meditation workshops. I felt like kind of a fraud. But after five minutes had passed, everyone felt better. Less stressed. They thanked me, told me it was awesome, and the CEO gave me a high five. 

And today I walked into the office to find a colleague burning sage to get rid of a smell, and also to, you know, clear the energy. I asked if I could borrow the sage for my apartment and she said to ask the CEO, because it was really the office’s sage. My office has it’s own sage. I died. The CEO gave me the OK and it’s in my apartment now.

Another colleague told me about an hour-long Monday morning meditation group and that I should totally come next week.

Needless to say: I am so, so happy with my decision to work at this company. I’d been waiting to hear about jobs with huge companies like Disney Theatrical Group when I got this job offer and I’m so glad I didn’t wait. I actually like working at a smaller company.

Especially a smaller company that encourages meditation and sage-burning.

I found out I was getting laid off about six weeks ago. It wasn’t something that was totally unexpected, but my bosses admitted that they’d made a mistake and needed to hire somebody with more experience who they didn’t need to teach advanced digital marketing to. They were eliminating my position entirely. Okay, fine. I got it and I was kind of relieved. I’d been stressed out and working my ass off to try to get to the level they needed.

Then I freaked out. The first thought was: I needed to find another job, and quickly. The second thought to pop into my head: do I really want to stay working in theatre? I wasn’t positive, but part of me was saying no. I was tired of working for what felt like zero dollars and feeling like the whole world was crashing down around my colleagues and I whenever the smallest mistake was made. To be blunt: there was never an instance where what we were doing was saving lives. Ever. Period. Yet I always found myself being stressed as fuck about my work load. (As per usual in theatre, we had about 14 times as much work as we could handle.) 

We were selling tickets to Broadway shows. That’s IT. I thought about why I worked in theatre and it was because I liked the fun work environment and the free tickets. But the more I thought about it I admitted that the work environment wasn’t that fun and I could afford to buy TDF tickets to shows (and I still have a valid student ID too!) if I had a job that paid me what I was worth. And while it’s fun to get comps to shows, it’s more fun to love your job and be good at it.

But just for the hell of it, I still applied for a few theatre jobs here and there. Through a reference I got an interview right away at a very small general management company who needed a new bookkeeper. The woman I interviewed with was disheveled and said she thought her current bookkeeper was an idiot because she asked questions. I knew right there that this wasn’t the boss for me. She also looked at my address on my resume and asked, “Whoa. Are you rich?” Excuse me?. She said she paid her current bookkeeper $30k but could maybe offer me $35k but no benefits. HAHA. Nope. Sorry. Like I said, I was done undervaluing myself and this woman was batshit insane.

The next gem of a person that I ran into at an interview was a woman that couldn’t even be bothered to meet me in person. She was a seasoned talent agent who was striking out on her own and she needed an assistant. We were on a phone call and towards the end when I asked about benefits, she said, “Oh no, I don’t. There are a lot of people out there who would really want this job and they’re on Obamacare. I have to run my business as I feel comfortable.” This is also known as an internship, or slave labor. 

This is common practice on Broadway. There are so many people wanting to work for these companies that they don’t need to offer benefits or a livable salary. During my hunt, I was talking to a good friend who’s a pretty successful company manager, and occasional general manager, and he said, “You know I used to think that people who left working in theatre couldn’t hack it but then I just realized they’d just smartened up to it.” And another friend who occasionally raises money for shows told me, “Broadway will always be there. You can always go back.”

In the end I found a company that really excites me and a role within that company that utilizes my skill set. It’s not theatre, but it’s all about promoting culture in the city. The workspace and people are awesome. And I’m making a way better salary than I would’ve been elsewhere. The photo above is the view right behind where I sit. Not too shabby.

So I’d love to hear about your experiences working in theatre. Let me know!?