Thomson Reuters

The Story of The Office Space DVD

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Back when I was doing a more operational support role in New York, many years ago, late nights in the office were a regular thing. We’d be doing maintenance on call centre equipment, phone systems, or routers. Later at Thomson Reuters, it might have been after an incident, a big release, or some other late-night work. The difference from today is that back then you were mainly physically in the office. At Partsearch especially, we had to be on site to plug into things and get the work done. At Redcats, we did plenty of late-night releases and I likely had the DVD with me, though I don’t recall ever actually using it there.

When we worked late, it wasn’t all bad. We’d order dinner, build up for the work, and there was a kind of social element to it. Somewhere along the way, I started keeping a DVD or two in my desk. Yes, actual DVDs. No streaming, no downloads. One of them was always Office Space. It just felt appropriate. Not that the movie was really technical, but it resonated. Every now and then, if we had time to kill, we’d put it on and watch together. It became a kind of techie ritual.

When I moved on to Thomson Reuters, the tradition came with me. Office Space lived in my office alongside my work gear. Eventually, we took it a step further and started planning actual movie nights. It wasn’t tied to late-night activities, we planned the movie nights just for the fun of it. We’d grab a conference room, order snacks, and watch something together. For a few months, this became routine: we would wait for those working the shift to finish at 8pm, then we’d grab dinner and head back to watch a movie. The first one, of course, was always Office Space.

Looking back, it was a fun little ritual that made the grind easier. Nowadays, it wouldn’t work the same way. My laptop doesn’t even have a DVD drive, and everything’s streaming so I do not know were that DVD is now.

17th Workaversary

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Today marks my 17th work anniversary. I haven’t done a retrospective of the numbers involved in a few years, so it felt like time for an update.

It’s still only been three companies: Thomson Reuters, Refinitiv, and now LSEG. Back in my 2022 update, I mentioned I was moving into a new role. Three years later, I’m still in that role. So here’s how the breakdown looks on this workaversary:

8 offices 2 continents 12 managers (4 of them just in the past 3 years) 7 different groups across those 17 years (though the lines blur a bit, since lately I’ve been helping out in a group outside my own)

The most important part isn’t the numbers, though. Even if it can feel a little discouraging to watch people you’ve known and liked move on, I still find the work exciting, the problems worth solving, and the culture a place I want to show up to every day.

The Story of Saying No to Sushi

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The last few years I spent living in New York City and working at Thomson Reuters before moving to England I was part of a team that, for most of my time there, was based in the same office as me. When I first started in NY, that wasn’t the case. I worked in an office where nobody I directly collaborated with was present. Eventually, the team grew, and most of the group ended up in our New York office. Today i am somewhere in the middle with much a the team in London but the people i daily communicate with spread out all over.

Having the team all together brought a lot of positive outcomes. Group meetings were more effective since we were often in person, which was a nice change from the typical phone meetings. One of the best parts was going out for lunch or coffee together. But by the time our lunches became a regular thing, I was trying to be heathier. Going out to eat several times a week didn’t align with my health goals, so I’d often skip lunch outings and opt for a sandwich in the cafeteria instead. However, I made up for it by joining the team for coffee once or twice a day.

The one exception to my lunch rule was sushi. It was relatively healthy, and I enjoyed it. Or it was healthy enough and I rationalised it as being ok. Whenever the team went out for sushi, I would usually join them. Over time, this became a bit of a pattern. I’d ask where they were going for lunch, and if it was anything other than sushi, I’d politely decline and stick to my sandwich. But if it was sushi, I’d think about it and often end up going with them.

That’s when my friend Faisal caught on to my pattern. If I declined to join for lunch, he’d jokingly suggest, “What if we go to sushi?” I’d grumble, and we’d end up at the sushi place. He started doing this more frequently, and I’d tell him they didn’t need to change plans just for me. I really didn’t want them to. But he would insist it was fine because several others loved sushi anyway. So, I’d curse him (playfully, sort of), and off we’d go—rinse and repeat.

It was delicious. Now, my current team is full of great people, and we get along well, but we’re rarely in the same office. Even when we are, it’s so hectic that we don’t have time for lunch outings. In a way, that’s good because I’m not tempted, but I do miss those sushi lunches with my New York team. I did recently get added to a chat group specifically for deciding were to go out for lunch to. I haven’t yet participated but you never know!

6,000 Days

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A totally random useless yet nostalgic data point for today. It has been 6,000 days since I started at Thomson Reuters. I thought the nice round number was cool.

I would never have guessed were that journey would take me, yet here i am a divestiture, and acquisition later in another continent.

Photo taken outside 3 Times Square after i accepted the offer and before i started.

Oh Yeah it’s Been Nine Years (and a Month)

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Today it has been nine years (and a month) of my working at Thomson Reuters. On one hand it does feel like I’ve been here for a long time. On the other hand it’s still challenging to grasp that it’s been eight years. One of the things I’ve learned that’s good about a large company is it changes as well as your role changes so even though it’s been eight years I’m not doing the same thing I was doing when I started in September 2008.

Thomson Reuters for me by the numbers was something I was thinking about in my head the other day. In the eight years that I’ve been lots of things have changed for me. I have managed five different groups. Six if you count the one I had for about a week or so however I don’t. I’ve had six different positions. I’ve gone through four different managers. Funny enough I switched between three of them within a three-month period that started with a voicemail when I was returning from my honeymoon. I have worked out of three different offices as well as working from home however if you really counted out I’ve gone from Office 1, to Office 2, to Office 3, back to Office 2.

On a personal side I have lived in three different apartments. I have dated, got engaged, got married. Oh and I also have two kids within those nine years. In context my life is vastly different than it was on September 8, 2008. On a personal and professional level far better off than where I was. In anti-climactic fashion I realized about a year and a half after it happened that I have been at Reuters longer than any other company.

Note apparently I had a bunch of posts that I wrote last year that were actually submitted as drafts and never public.  This post was one of them.  I updated the metrics on work and the years working at TR however not much else changed in the post.  I missed posting on my anniversary so i am posting on the anniversary and a month.