Now I Know Why Bosses Hate Summer :)

I can't believe how long it's been since I last posted and how much has happened since then both professionally and personally.  I guess that just goes with the blessing of a full and rich life.  As we sit here in the midst of vacation season, I can't help but have one of those moments of clarity.  Just about every boss I've ever had seemed to have a sense of dread as vacation season approached.  Some of them were also a bit grouchy during the summer months.  I always wondered, "Gee, why can't they be happy? Sunshine, smiling faces, team members returning rested and refreshed? What's to be grouchy about? Sure hope I never get like that if I'm ever a boss!"

Well, here it is, 2010 and I am a boss.  While I much prefer to just be one of the guys, or thought of as a coach to the team, the reality is that the combined weight of our forensic, data recovery, and risk management practices rest squarely on my shoulders.  The buck stops here and many of our clients are folks that I've come to regard as more than professional colleagues.   Not sure if "professional friend" is the right term, but I take the work we do for them very seriously.  When we have Reclamerians out on vacation, I'm very happy for them to have time to recharge the batteries and bond with their families.  But I'm painfully aware that our clients do work with us because they truly like our people.  And they trust that our people will be there when they need them.  Just because someone is out on a vacation, no matter how well-deserved, it still puts a burden on the rest.  So if I ever have that "grouchy boss" look on my face about vacations, now you know why!

One of my fondest analogies (and I have many) is that of the double-edged sword.  This vacation-thing is exactly that.  Truly there is a burden when members of the team are out, but it seems like when a key team member is out, we get some of our most exciting and rewarding projects.  Fortunately, we have some of the most professional and dedicated people on our team.  They are always available for a quick phone call, always taking a look at email each day, and in extreme cases where necessary, actually doing work on their time off.  It's this kind of dedication that goes a very long way with the owners of Reclamere.  During the depths of the recession, we made a commitment to not lay off any of our staff, even taking pay cuts to make sure that we could honor that commitment.  As we come out of the recession and have one of our best years ever, I am more certain than ever that our ability to hold the team together and even bring on some additional superstars has made a big difference between Reclamere and the competition.  So now when someone turns in a request for time off, the pessimist in me may be thinking a sarcastic, "Oh great!", the optimist in me is screaming, "Cool!!  Here come some great opportunities!!!".


Speaking of vacations, the Keatings are off to the Outback next week.  From August 7th to the 21st, we will be down under in Australia.  And if you are a thief who is reading this (or my mother who is worried that I just posted our vacation plans on the Internet) we have a very big dog, a little very loud yapper dog, a house-sitter who will be packing my Taser and last but not least, a robust home security system. ;)

Our first week will be spent in Sydney.  I'm so honored to have been asked to speak at the NAID Australasia 2010 Conference.  The National Association for Information Destruction is an organization that has been very close to my heart since 2002.  Information security and professional information destruction go hand-in-hand.  I can't tell you how many organizations have spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on complex security and then forget about the data on their old computers.  But thanks to NAID, organizations that use a NAID AAA certified service provider for the destruction of electronic data or paper can rest assured that their data is protected to the highest standards in facilities independently audited annually, as well as subject to unannounced audits at any time.

During our second week, we head up to Cairns to snorkel the Great Barrier Reef.  Certainly this will be one of the greatest adventures that the Keating family enjoy together.  While the thought of an 18 hour plane trip from LA to Sydney with a 12 year old boy gives me chills, I'm sure it will all be worth it; every last single "Are we there yet?" and "How much longer?"

Finally, for those of you who are country music fans, have you heard the new Miranda Lambert song, "The House That Built Me"? Even if you don't like country music, you should give this one a listen.  For those of us of a certain age (you know, grown up, but still have at least one parent alive to let us still feel like a kid again), this song will really hit you in the heart.  Last weekend, I went home to my roots to "the house that built me" to hang with the woman who built me, my mom Mary Singer.  It was a fast trip home and I went alone as the never-ending Little League season was still going and Doug stayed home to cheer Sammy playing in the "real" All-Star game for Logan Township.  Of course this meant I missed a 3-run in-the-park homer by my son, as well as seeing him pitch over a dozen strike-outs against a team of kids who appeared to have shaved that morning and probably drove themselves to the game.  Regardless, it was a weekend to be someone's daughter and I'm so glad for it.  We had a steamy day in 100 degree + weather at the Harney VFW Crab Feast.  Now if you aren't from Maryland or don't have redneck roots, you may not know what a "feast" is.  In summer, it's where they throw down the newspaper, break out the tubs of cold beer, and you stand in line with a cardboard box to get your fill of Maryland steamed Blue Crabs, fried chicken, and corn on the cob.  You proceed to eat, gossip and be merry with people who are just salt of the earth.  In winter, it's usually a bit nicer, like a church basement and the "feast" is all the turkey, ham and oysters you can stuff down your gullet.  The biggest fun is watching the blue hairs shove rolls, butter and meat in their purses!!  But again, it's a great way to hang with some of the most hard-working, God-fearing people you could ever meet.  Once they know your family name (or in my case that I am Roger Singer's daughter), they hug and kiss you and you just know that while you may not see these people again for years, they'd be right there to help if times were tough.  What a great day with mom, and what a great reminder of the kind of people from which I come; survivors, loyal and kind.  Rough around the edges, but all heart.

Some Geek Thoughts

First, I must say that I absolutely LOVE Video DownloadHelper http://update.downloadhelper.net/index.html.  It is just a must for those of us who have to do presentations or teach classes.  There is only so much boring Powerpoint that a person can sit through or present from before brains start to go mushy and eyes begin to close.  The app is just an add-on to your browser and when you find a video you like, you simply click the little drop-down menu and choose if you want to download it.  Go ahead and get the paid version because that let's you convert the video to a Windows friendly format (instead of that goofy format YouTube uses and some players don't seem to like).  By spicing up presentations with video, even the most drab presenter can "kick it up a notch" and get a few laughs, or communicate a complex concept quickly and visually.

Most of you know I am an AVID reader.  A fun but informative book that I'm reading right now is "Don't Believe Everything You Think". I'm on chapter 12, so not done yet, but very close.  Because I really am a big "gut-check" "common-sense" kind of girl geek, I often struggle with the conflict of how many times my common sense or gut is just spot on right and how many other times it is just dead wrong.  This book offers great reasons why this is and how you can be more cognizant of it.  Kind of a gut check for the gut or some sense to go with your common sense.  Because I work in a field like IT, specifically in forensics and litigation support, and it is changing so rapidly, sometimes there just is nothing else to go on but your gut or common sense.  I'm all for anything that can help me get better in those areas!

I just got done an incredible call with a brilliant attorney.  She's working on a really scary case with a client where a rogue employee (who also happened to be the system administrator) is in trouble with the law, criminally,  from his last employer, in a white-collar crime sort of way.  I have to say that every time I work with an attorney like her, I just love project management and my team all the more!  This woman gets it.  She knows she is the legal expert and that we are the IT experts, and that together, we can be a powerful force to protect her client in a horrific situation.  She knows what she does best, and she knows what we do best.  In the middle of all that is me.  The Geek/Legal interpreter.  While she and my team speak the same English language, I prefer to think of it as two different dialects - GeekSpeak and Legalese.  Fortunately for the clients of Reclamere, I am fluent in both and I simply love that part of my job.  Owning a business with Bob and Joe is way cool.  Nice perks and a nice car.  But getting to be in the trenches project managing complex e-discovery matters is the absolute coolest thing about my professional life.  It truly is my passion.  I don't care if we have a hundred on our team and 10 locations, I still want to be in the trenches on this stuff!

Well, Sammy comes home today from St. Francis U. volleyball camp.  For 2 days Doug and I have had a glimpse of life when he goes away to college (or military school if the teen years get too much).  I missed him tremendously, but I have to say that the freedom to work late and just live in a purely self-absorbed way for 2 days was pretty nice!  I'm not going to wish away this amazing phase of our life, raising a kid and being crazy busy.  But it was comforting to know that while the empty nest will break my heart, it will only be broken temporarily.  Not too long after, it will be replaced by spa days, working late without guilt, and spur of the moment trips to who knows where!  The 50's are going to be great in their own way and while I'm not in any hurry to live them, I know for a fact that I won't ever dread them either.

The First Post

It feels a bit presumptuous to have a blog. Am I important enough? Will anyone care what I have to say? Despite these misgivings, I will endeavor to post frequently with material that certainly will interest me; however, I'll hopefully interest fellow mothers, professional women, geeks working in e-discovery and forensics and IT security.

Today I'm working on several interesting projects with clients who really are on the ball. These clients are familiar with Judge Sheindlin's decision in Pension Committee and are either working with us diligently in preparedness or actually are facing a matter and want to try to get it right. How refreshing to see things about identification, preservation, and collection of ESI finally being taken seriously in the mid-market.

Additionally, I am trying to get my presentation set for a speaking engagement where I plan to use the statistics on the Deloitte Forensic Survey and my thoughts on the Pension Committee decision as the basis for better communication, training, and funding relative to e-discovery. If we can get IT and Legal to begin working as a TEAM - communicating and supporting each other - then we can begin to see some real changes! It's a very exciting time to be working in this field.