2006 last saturday

Saturday, December 30^th. Saddam was executed 1.5 hours ago. Beijing is snowing.

We’ve been here for nearly 3 months already and time goes by so fast… in fact, it seems as if weeks here are shorter: There are some great hidden benefits for being an Israeli expat:

• The week starts on Monday
• Thursday comes a day sooner …
• Friday, while in the office, is Friday (definitely weekend)
• ‘Saturday+Sunday’ weekend is longer than ‘Friday+Saturday’ in Israel where Friday is dedicated to errands

The past month was very dynamic in work. Heavy recruitment efforts are bearing their fruits (we are growing to ~33 next week – 10 new employees). Tremendous pressure to grow even faster is a constant fact. As power distribution in the Chinese office is changing (by far, R&D is now the largest department) I had to handle an ‘attack’ from existing other departments’ managers: while it shook me up a little bit, I’m proud for not escalating: my response to some lengthy-nasty emails was: ‘No Response’. This is perhaps the most annoying thing for those who wrote these emails. Counting to 10 (and more) is perhaps the best advice. Oh yes – and bring negotiation back to ‘interest’. Kudos to Leigh Thompson.