A break from sports....to complain about work

As you all know (and when I say all, I mean the four of you that might actually read this regularly) this is where I normally write my thoughts on sports, specifically MSU sports. For the moment, I'm going to use this area to complain about my job...

So, one of my clients a couple weeks ago decided that instead of paying their bills, they'd just file for bankruptcy protection. This actually makes lots of sense as they owe about twice as much as they expect to take in during the next 9 months. They also have an extreme shortage in the cash department and were going to struggle to keep paying their employees. Now they can continue paying their employees, but they get a break on paying their suppliers and such.

In the process of researching bankruptcy issues for other companies in my client's industry, a partner at my firm realized I was working on the issue AND that there was about to be a conference out west that was going to cover handling clients that have recently filed for bankruptcy. I was swamped at work, but when the boss says jump, you really don't have much of an option.

Now here I sit. In the past two days I've spent 4 hours on an airplane and 12 hours in classes. Here's the real question: How I learned anything new? The answer: No. I'm starting to think that this is going to be a meaningless conference. Others here may actually be getting something out of it, but it's covering things that I learned in the first 5 days working with my client back in Detroit.

This would have been a great class to take back this summer when things were really slow at work and I had lots of free time. It also would have prepared me for client's unfortunate situation. Right now though, it's not really the best time to be sitting here bored. I have 5 projects sitting back home waiting for me that I can't do anything about right now. I have to fill in my hours for this week as classroom learning time to get my continuing education credits (a firm and CPA requirement). I'd love to actually go back to my hotel room and do some work related items, but I also have to bill that and we're being lectured right now to avoid working more than 45 hours a week at almost all cost.

So, not only am I away from home, jet lagged, and not sleeping well, I'm also frustrated with the fact that I'm feeling very unproductive. I get back Monday and I'm supposed to take Friday off (because Monday and Thursday count as at least 12 hour days when you could travel time and class time, putting me well over 45 hours this week), but I know next week is a short week because of Thanksgiving. I just feel like I'll never get caught up on things because of this week away.

Oh well, at least the MSU basketball team managed to pull off a win tonight.