Gainfully Employed, and Then Some

Some of you have emailed to ask me if I am actually working, or if I am just on an extended "work vacation" designed to avoid the 2007-2008 winter season.

To all of you, I share a statistic: 153 hours worked between Jan 16 and Jan 31.

So what is it that keeps me occupied all those hours? I'm on a Booz Allen project with the Government of Abu Dhabi. Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates' richest emirate, is in the process of modernizing their entire government, department by department. Booz Allen is assisting in the modernization effort to the tune of 46 million USD in FY08 alone. That kind of profit means an full-stocked office kitchen which I directly blame for a newfound addition to Diet Orange Fanta. It's so great.

I've been staffed on a project with the Justice Department. A team came through last summer to design a new Justice Dept organizational structure and I'm on the follow-up team, assembled to implement said design. Specifically, I'm on the workforce realignment team and I'm charged with identifying all human resource needs for the new organization and making sure that all exisiting employees are transferred into positions in the new organization. Our fearless little team is also supporting the stand-up of supporting human capital/ resource and training systems and programs. It's been extremely challenging and extremely rewarding.

And, as you can see by the sign that was posted last week on the bathroom mirror, this office, like any, is not without its problems: