May 25, 2016: 

Today was my last official full day in the office for the foreseeable future.  I’m starting my chemotherapy treatments next week (5/31) and at this point I have no idea how much energy I’ll have to work.  The current plan is to work from home as much as I am able to on any given day.  I have to say I truly LOVE my job, my company, and all the people I get to work with on a daily basis!  It is an amazing team of people.  So today was a tough day for me on a few different levels.  It was a day filled with tears at various points throughout the day.

I’m going to give you guys a little background into what I do for Tableau (NYSE: DATA) and try to help you to understand the type of organization this company is from the top down.  First of all I am a Sales Recruiter, so please forgive me if this post sounds like a recruiting add.  I cannot help it because it’s what I do and Tableau is a phenomenal place to work.  I joined Tableau 4 years ago in June of 2012.  The company had recently decided to open a sales and services office in Austin.  Tableau is headquartered in Seattle, WA and at the time they had approximately 500 employees worldwide and about 10-15 in Austin.  I responded to a post on LinkedIn where they had placed an ad looking for a software sales and services recruiter to help build out a team.  At the time I was working for a small coupons and deals site called Offers.com. The company was about 50 people in total.  It was a good place but I missed a faster growth company as well as I wanted to get back to the software space.  I had worked for a previous software company (CallidusCloud: CALD) for 5 years before, so Tableau looked like an awesome opportunity.  That decision to apply changed the course of my life and was the best decision I’ve ever made in my career.

Tableau is a software company and we have one mission: To help people see and understand their data.  It’s a mission that everyone in the organization takes pride in making happen.  The products Tableau develops are outstanding we consistently are listed as leaders in our field across multiple analyst who publish this type of information.  Tableau also provides freaky friendly world-class customer service for every customer from the smallest to the largest companies in the world.  That alone in itself makes one proud to be a part of this company, however, it’s not what truly sets Tableau a part from any other organization I’ve worked for in the past.  What sets Tableau a part is our Culture which comes from each and every person in our company.  Tableau is truly a family and we care about each and every person who works for us.

Me and some of my teammates at Safeco field in Seattle for Tableau’s All-Hands

I work on the recruiting team and we have hands down the best team of recruiters ever assembled.  We’ve grown the company from 500 to 3000+ employees in the 4 years since I joined.  I’ve helped to grow the Austin team from 15 to 240+ team members as well.  If you’ve read my other posts you know that since my initial meeting with a Dr. Jones everything has moved at light speed.  My management team and fellow recruiters jumped in to help take on many of my job functions with little to no warning and not a single complaint.  Everybody has provided me with so much care and support since this has all started.  I have a ton of examples of my team reaching out to me but one quick one I’d like to share was a call I received from our Sr. VP of HR, Brett Thompson.  Brett leads the HR and Recruiting function for Tableau and does an outstanding job for us.  I had to interview with Brett back in 2012 and if you ever want to hear a funny story just ask me about that interview sometime.  He gives me a call on this day and Brett being Brett leads with a joke.  I wont’ tell you guys what he said but it made me smile and laugh.  It was very much-needed and appreciated. HR people tell the best jokes by the way.  Anyway his main reason was to tell me personally how much I meant to the Tableau HR and Recruiting team.  He told me to focus on my health and well-being and not to worry about work.  He said everyone loves me and are pulling for me and they all look forward to me being back soon. (I’m crying again as I write this).  I’ve got numerous examples of my team, other Tableau leaders and co-workers reaching out to me during this time.

Outside The Good Life Barber Shop about to get my head shaved

Knowing I’m going to lose my hair I had decided to schedule an appointment with my barber, Christy, at The Good Life Barbershop.  It’s located a few blocks from my office in downtown  Austin.   The Good Life is a cool place even being in the basement of a building downtown.  The staff is great and the atmosphere is a totally old school style barbershop and I highly recommend it to people.  My wife decided to join me to take some pictures and be with me when I go full on Kojak (this reference dates me but I’m actually too young to have seen 1st run episodes but i did get the reruns).  I had scheduled the appointment for 11:15 am so Jennifer and I could do lunch as well.  Unbeknownst to me, Jennifer had collaborated with some of my buddy’s to surprise me at the appointment.  I once again almost broke down and shed some tears. She had even let the staff at the The Good Life know about the situation. My wife is amazing if you guys haven’t figured that one out.  I want to say thank you to my wife, Kyle, Chris, and Drew for being with me to support me on this day.  My eyes filled with tears as I left the office at the end of this day.  I know they will fill up again on the day I return full-time.

Kyle, Chris, and Drew providing support and ideas for beard styles

Christy taking off what little hair I already had

The guys thought it was funny choosing my beard style

Mr Clean