Life loves to throw those curveballs…

So, after 13 months with Simpli, Brandon has officially put in his notice. He’s leaving for an opportunity in the security field, which is where he wanted to be. There are no hard feelings on either side… I know and understand his motivations, and he told me “I truly enjoyed working for Simpli. I actually enjoyed coming to work every day!”

His last day is Friday, October 7, and he will be missed. (By the way, if you’re a hosting customer, you’ll get an email about this separately, but I’m blogging it now to chew on the more personal side of it.)

I guess I saw this coming. The Simpli sysadmin job is an entry-to-mid-level position. At some point, the person in that job will grow out of it. I expect a similar thing will happen with both Mooneer and Ben at some point — they’ll both want to move on, and we’ll begin a new cycle of hiring. Brandon is really a lot of the “glue” that holds Simpli together, and I won’t argue that the transition will be difficult. However, the key will be making sure our processes are documented so that when a customer says “I want a …!” that we know exactly how to provide them with that. The other big challenge will be making the transition so that if there’s a customer problem or something that needs to be taken care of Right Away, we know how to do it and don’t irritate the customer with unnecessary downtime or delays in answering tickets. The good news is that we did pull off the transition really well when C left, and honestly, even when Brandon came on last year, it went smoothly. Brandon’s role is much more ingrained now than anyone else’s ever has been, which is the part that scares me, but something tells me I’m going to pull this off through sheer determination if nothing else.

With this transition, also, there will be new and interesting things that develop. It is really fun to bring on a new person and watch that person adjust to work habits at Simpli. Since the sysadmin job is pretty autonomous, and can vary widely on a daily basis, there will inevitably be changes in how things are done. That is the part I’m most looking forward to — watching the new person automate tasks that weren’t automated before, or bringing ideas to the table that weren’t there before. New ideas and fresh blood almost always improves the customer experience, and this new person will definitely bring a refreshing perspective to how Simpli is run.

It’s interesting how running a company ebbs and flows. Some weeks I will do little more than answer emails and phone calls, and some weeks I’m in it, running the company 24×7, getting my hands dirty, and realizing it’s 1AM and I still have a lot of work to do! I feel like the balance just shifted — I had been taking it (relatively) easy for the past few weeks, and now it’s going to be “getting my hands dirty” mode for the next 2 or 3 weeks. This might be good, as I’m getting ready to promote some new dedicated server specials anyway. 😉

I’ll update SlashChick.com when I hire Brandon’s replacement. Wish me luck!