Category: work

The Fools!

About a year ago I put in for a new job at work. It would be a promotion. I’d be the boss of myself, which would be fun, but difficult at staff meetings…what with me ordering myself around like a minion and everything.

Yesterday after a long year of *waiting*, I heard from my boss that they “decided to go another way”. Which means, they hired an external candidate.

I was assured “it’s not you, it’s me” and “we can still be friends” and “I just need to see other employees” and other tried and true breakup lines.

I like my current boss, so it’s a bit sad, but really, I’m ok about it.

I think, maybe, Boss Lady might have done me a favor. The expectations around that job role are a little weird. It’s been vacant for like a year and a half. No one really knows what that job is supposed to do anymore. I even asked my Vice-President when he interviewed me what were his expectations. He had no answer. That concerns me. It’s nigh impossible to do a job when you have NO idea what is expected of you.

In addition, one of my employees worked with this incoming person at another company and didn’t have high marks.

Oh well, I’ve suffered fools in this department before.

Like I said…maybe in the end, this is actually for the best.

Next!

Yipes

Been reading Dilbert for a lot of years in the paper and recently on the website. It’s an every morning “must hit”.

This week it’s been interesting because it looks like Wally is about to be fired.

I found that an odd story twist.

Then while browsing the headlines, I saw this story.

Yikers, fired for posting a Dilbert comic? Geez!

Well, to be fair, given that layoffs were imminent at the guy’s employer, people were probably extra *sensitive*.

But then in his dilbert.blog from back in December, Scott Adams says, “Over the years, a number of people have approached me in public, or e-mailed me, to say they also got fired for posting Dilbert comics on walls. I don’t know how many of those stories, if any, are true.”

Erm. Being a fan of Dilbert, I’ve been known to post a few.

This caused me to vault from my chair and look at my office window.

What’s that, bottom center? A Dilbert comic!

I didn’t even remember which one I posted, but I scanned it hurriedly to see if my understanding Boss Lady would be offended.

Which strip is it, you ask?

This one.

Phew. See? I’m not insulting my boss, I’m insulting my suppliers!

That kind of insulting might just get me promoted if I don’t watch out!!

From the Heart

I wrote up a blog post last night about the Congressional investigation of Roger Clemens and yesterday’s hearings. It’s a good post, and will see the light of day tomorrow, I think.

I’m delaying that one mainly because I took stock of today’s date. And realized my baseball vitriol can last another day.

Today is about love, baby.

So my words will be those of love and gratitude for a very special person.

Someone who has been there from day one, and will be there when I take my last breath. Unfailingly.

Over the years, we’ve had a rocky relationship.

Look, let me just be blunt. I’ve abused this person. Treated her bad. Called her names. Ignored her complaints about pain, hunger or hurt feelings. Pushed her too hard, even when I knew she was insecure. I’ve made her mad. Made her cry. Made her eat cabbage soup or Slim Fast instead of real food. Or starved her. Or made her overeat the point of exhaustion. Didn’t believe in her. Told her she wasn’t talented. Told her she was dumb. Unlovable. Unworthy. Useless.

We’ve had good times too. Trips to fascinating places. She always shows the wild-eyed wonder of a child when visiting somewhere new.

She’s got a great sense of humor. She has a heart built for loving and being loved. She is an artist; sensitive, kind, with emotions that run deep. She looks at the world with a different set of eyes than most, and oddly, can manage to find something good about even seemingly unkind people. She has a knack for finding the human in the heart of even the fiercest person (including the CEO of her own company, one time, in a strange interaction in the cafeteria).

She’s also one hell of a businesswoman when she turns it on. She used to love to turn that part of her on, but lately, it doesn’t matter all that much anymore. Negotiating deals doesn’t provide that natural high. All that arguing is just tiresome.

And she’s struggling with that realization.

She is respected for the work she does for her employer, even though she never gives herself any credit for it. She’ll compliment her employees but forget to thank herself.

She’s always been smart, but as the years go by, she’s becoming more intuitive. Smarts only take you so far. Wits get you across the finish line.

Someday, she may even learn to love herself, at least a little bit.

And the love of a good man has helped her see herself with a new set of eyes. Seeing herself through his eyes, she knows she is lovable, and worthy, and talented, and more.

That same good man makes her want to continue to work really hard to be the best person she can possibly be, because he deserves nothing less.

I admire her tenacity. I just wish she wouldn’t worry so much.

And so today, with as much love as I have, I give the candy hearts and paper flowers to the one who will always be there through thick and thin.

My ownself.

It’s time to treat myself nice. So be it, and so it is.

You have no idea how much hard mental work it’s taken me to get to a place where I could even write this, much less share it publicly.

And so with that, I say Happy Valentine’s Day to all.

May you love yourself as much as you love the people in your life.

"Let me tell you how it will be

There’s one for you, nineteen for me

Cos I’m the taxman, yeah, I’m the taxman”**

Ah yes, it’s that time of year again.

Paid a visit to Mr. Tax Man today. A good man. Conservative. Just what I want in a tax preparer.

I sold a couple shares of stock this year. So Uncle Sam will come whistlin’ through my paycheck before April. Ouch.

I asked Mr. Tax Man if he thought the planned rebates would help stimulate the sagging economy. He said he didn’t see how since the last one didn’t either.

Oh well. All my employees are madly scouring their W2’s to see if they get the rebate. One will miss it by $800. An f-bomb was issued in response. No rebate will be coming my way. *sigh*

So it goes. I remember taxes always made my Dad incredibly tense back in the day. I’m rather happy to give money to a professional to worry about such things. I give him my ragtag pile of documents and he makes magic.

It’s all good.

“If you drive a car, I’ll tax the street
If you try to sit, I’ll tax your seat
If you get too cold, I’ll tax the heat
If you take a walk, I’ll tax your feet”

**with thanks and acknowledgement to The Beatles for writin’ it and Stevie Ray Vaughan for making it move.

They call it stormy Monday…

…but Tuesday’s just as bad.

Or in this case, Monday was a sun soaked cakewalk.

And Tuesday’s a cold, rainy, work crazy, traffic jammed day.

In true proof of the Butterfly Effect, earlier today a BMW cut off a woman in a van, who lost control on rain slick streets, then careened into a tanker truck hauling gasoline causing it to overturn and spilling mass quantities of petrol onto Highway 101.

Thus shutting it down completely.

From the article in SFGate: “‘They don’t want the freeway to blow up under cars driving by,’ said California Highway Patrol Sgt. Paul McCarthy.”

Ah…yeah. That’d be great.

And with this one small act, an impatient driver of a luxury car has jammed up traffic for the entire Bay Area. The drive home on 280 (the “detour”) was really so much fun. Me, my iPod and singing at the top of my lungs. Good times.

…the rest of the song goes….”Wednesday’s worse…and Thursday’s also sad……”

Tis gonna be a long week, methinks.

(with all apologies to T-Bone Walker and his fine blues song)