They say time flies when you’re having fun. And the infamous, anonymous they certainly are not wrong as a very important milestone has managed to sneak up on me: my one-year work anniversary. And this specific anniversary genuinely blows my mind. One year is a long while but also no time at all in the grand scheme of things. When you blink and realize an entire year has passed? Well, I must have been having a ton of fun if that’s how we’re measuring things.
This sudden realization of the rapid passage of time got me thinking: what factors go into a job that can make a year feel like a week and a job feel like so much more?

• A nice facility?
• A mentor to learn from?
• Compensation packages?
• Benefits?
• Perks?

The answer, once discovered, seems blatantly obvious. Life is people. It always, always comes down to the people. By some insane stroke of luck, I seem to have landed myself smack dab in the middle of a group of people that over the year have become some of my closest friends. And subsequently, the work-family that existed before I came has absorbed me and adapted and changed to include newcomers and miss those that have left in the very swift year that has passed.
While you typically can’t choose your co-workers or know how you will get along with your future team when you interview for a job, it’s absolutely, unequivocally necessary to find somewhere you like going every day. It’s important to feel out the place, the people, the general atmosphere of the company you’re considering spending a large, massive, really, portion of your time, day in and day out.
And for those hiring, consider that the facility, compensation, and benefits will get people in the door, but hiring quality people around whom a community, family, can build, gets them to stay a year… or more.
When the stars align and the full package exists under one roof? Well, time just might take flight for you, too.
 

The year has sped by faster than the Reman Runner in her ninth marathon. As she celebrates her one-year work anniversary, Rani reflects on just what about a workplace makes time fly. Comment below or reach out to Rani directly.