Recent posts about Raised Eyebrow

A Workplace that Cares

An article with the title 3 Reasons to Treat Employees Like Family at Inc.com caught my eye last Sunday morning. I've naturally been thinking a lot about the workplace culture at Raised Eyebrow lately (and will probably be blogging about it a bit more) as we're one of five finalists for the Best Employer award at Small Business BC. But really, it's something that's never too far from my mind.

The article was ultimately a bit of a let down; I was hoping for some hard facts or research behind why valuing your employees as you would anyone who is close to you, makes good business sense. Nevertheless, the third point in the author's list, which is summarized simply as "care" really struck a chord with me.

Makers Gonna Make

We've long talked about getting a couch or some kind of lounge area at the office. And now, as we're thirteen years into Raised Eyebrow (though admittedly not all at this location), we've finally done it. 

The interior design was done by Mak Interiors (Amber Kingsnorth) and we're all in love with it.

I'm back!

A year ago today, on a sunny September afternoon, my two amazing babies, Azalea and Ryan, were born at 31 weeks and 3 days gestation.  There is a higher risk of premature labour with twins, but I thought I was being cautious, planning to finish up work at the end of 32 weeks.  However, my body had other plans and those babies wanted out! 

Born after an hour and 39 minute natural birth, both babies were small (4 lbs and 3 lbs 6 ounces) but vigorous.  They spent 38 days at the NICU growing bigger so that we could take them home. 

When we brought them home the really hard work began.  Sleepless days and nights spent feeding, changing and clothing them… it was about 11 months until we had a moment to breath.  Through it all, our family was amazing, spending nearly 5 days a week helping us take care of our growing babes.  And they have grown into two amazing little people.

Moving On

Just about six months ago, I stepped away from Raised Eyebrow on maternity leave. And while I've spent a lot of the past few months doing the prosaic sort of stuff one expects to be doing when caring for a newborn baby, I've also spent some time pondering my next steps, career-wise. And I've decided that it's time for me to move on from my position as Partner here.

I'm not sure what my next move is going to be; after twelve years of co-leading Raised Eyebrow, I feel I need to step out of this role completely before I move into the next one. But there are a number of possibilities churning around in my brain, and my immediate plan is to spend a few months trying on different hats & brushing up on some new skills.

Our Help Manual

The lack of user documentation for open-source projects, like Wordpress and Drupal the two Content Management Systems we develop in most frequently at Raised Eyebrow, is a known issue. While a thriving user base and a good google search can often turn up answers to questions not addressed in documentation for a development team, that's not really a viable solution for end-users, in our case clients who are simply trying to maintain and manage their websites. And, since we build a lot of custom Drupal Modules or Wordpress Plugins to meet our client's specific communications needs, we then become the folks responsible for documentation.