Working for ADB, Inc.

Jean Sexton writes:

Many times people want to know what it is like to work for ADB. In my previous job as a librarian, people would ask how many books I got to read each day. Now people want to know what games we play. It is a very different job than people expect.

The main difference between my old job and this one is that I actually have some free time. In my old job I worked full time, but most of my spare time was spent working for ADB. Now I do have time that I spend at home and with my pets. Still I keep an eye on things so that if something starts to go south, I can keep it from going out of control by morning. Many of our staff and regular customers know I am online pretty late and contact me with questions, observations, problems, and sometimes just to say "hi."

One of my jobs is to answer the phone. It is amazing to me how many robot calls we get wanting to loan us money (we don't do that). We get lots of calls asking us to donate money and some of the people can get downright nasty if you refuse. If you are tasked with fundraising and you get the person who answers the phone, please listen to that person. If you are told that the owner doesn't take that sort of call, believe it. Maybe the boss is a softie who cannot say no, so gave orders that the call never go to him. Demanding to be put through won't trump orders from above.

I'm in charge of the blog. We have some important blog posts that rotate through so that new people can find answers to questions without searching the archives. Each week I get a post from Steve Cole that summarizes our activities for the past week. Usually Steven Petrick posts at some point during the week. Steve Cole keeps a running list of thoughts that he sends to me. I try to make sure that something funny gets posted on Friday. And if the Steves have already posted something and there's a "vacant" day, I try to take it on. It's hard for me as I am an editor/proofreader and not really creative.

I take care of our BBS and the FC Forum. Mike West is the moderator on the Forum, but when we get spammed, I need to deal with it. The BBS is fairly well self policing now, but regular maintenance has to be done.

Social media is also my area. Our page on Facebook is quite active and there are fan pages for each of our games. I try to keep an eye on all of those. Sometimes I have helpful information; sometimes I need to scotch a rumor. People know that I lurk on Facebook and sometimes mention me in a comment to make sure I see what is going on.

I handle a lot of things regarding our releases. For PDFs, I handle uploading them to DriveThru RPG and Wargame Vault. I write many of the descriptions. I try to keep the schedule flowing. I also try to get the word out, as I do for our print releases as well. Then those posts need to be monitored in case of questions.

Then there's the proofreading/editing part of my job. Each month we put out two newsletters: Communique and Hailing Frequencies. For Hailing Frequencies, I am responsible for reporting on several sections (Tournaments, Demoes and Cons, and Prime Directive). Then there are our magazines and products that need proofreading/editing as well. I stay busy, no doubt.

This dry recitation doesn't begin to show the joy I have in this job. The Steves tease me, acting as "big brothers." Leanna treats me as her kid sister. Our customers frequently check in on me. I can have my dog at work with me and everyone loves playing with him. (He even has his own chair in my office and beds in several different offices.) I get to make our products better and interact with our customers.

Life is good in my job and I am happy.