ayfkm

Several years ago, when I was working at company where employees were treated like children and the CEO was a complete jackass, a good friend and colleague of mine (thanks, Kel) shared with me a little secret that helped get me through the tough times.

AYFKM

What acronym could this be? Certainly not from the generation of LOL, BRB, and TTYL. It's true meaning is what gave me pure joy in life during the low periods of my employment at that company-which-should-never-be-named. Also the first time in my career where I realized that you can be subject to emotional abuse in a professional work environment.

Are You F'ing Kidding Me

Since then, it has been a staple in my mental acronym library. And it materializes occasionally when at work I come across something completely atrocious that it deserves the label and filing of AYFKM.

In my last job, I had collected lots of emails from a certain colleague which made it into my AYFKM email folder -- in fact, emails from her were the number one content contributor to the folder. She was the bane of my professional existence, and it got to a point where the highlights of my week would be to see in black and white, something so clearly egregious and career limiting, that I just had to save it for a rainy day, where I could pour through my library of unthinkable emails and have a good laugh.

I was looking through my email folders tonight and I realized that life has been pretty good the last eight months, ever since I left my last job. My AYFKM folder sits there untouched, collecting dust, with nary an email to drop in it.

Still being in the spirit of Thanksgiving, I realize how thankful I am to work where I do, with the great people that I do, and although there are occasional challenging situations, it's not due to personalities in my inner work circle. And while my AYFKM folder sits idle, I'm heartened to see that my Kudos (nice email from nice people) folder is still alive and well. Ain't it grand?