There are some peculiar standards of differences regarding modesty amongst (and obviously within) men and women. In almost any situation (except on beaches in Europe - note - I have never been on a beach in Europe) more women will dress less modestly than men - formal wear, at the office, gym. Like most things I blame it on evolution - men and women have different strategies of projecting sexual attractiveness.
Dude.... You made me cry at my desk. A most excellent sermon.
Thanks! Your own journey and comments on our blogs helped shape a lot of it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by lawyerjoke
And all in one post, too...
Hey, this is the only place I can be efficient. My 1.5-hour M/W/F meeting just turned into a 3-hour fiasco because the Prez crashed it, without telling me first. He then recommended that I do things differently, when I'm trapped by a total lack of authority and trapped by trying to help people and cover for them in their incompetence. Because while we're reviewing cutback scenarios, he'd earlier given me the signal that Director-level people aren't up for review. So I have to do their jobs for them until they can manage. This takes time.
I'm royally pissed off right now.
__________________ Megaloi -- My Blog
"Every society honors its live conformists and its dead troublemakers."
- Mignon McLaughlin
Great Sermon, Red. I listened to it twice actually.
The point about people not 'being ready' to attend church really hit home for me.
__________________
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Walk on
With hope in your heart
And You'll Never Walk Alone
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There's no free lunch, especially when it's served with special sauce (lostdog)
***************************** My Log - PC Plod
My 1.5-hour M/W/F meeting just turned into a 3-hour fiasco because the Prez crashed it, without telling me first. He then recommended that I do things differently, when I'm trapped by a total lack of authority and trapped by trying to help people and cover for them in their incompetence. Because while we're reviewing cutback scenarios, he'd earlier given me the signal that Director-level people aren't up for review. So I have to do their jobs for them until they can manage. This takes time.
I'm royally pissed off right now.
I could totally understand why.
__________________ It all starts with the mind, but the thoughts, the intention aren't enough. Action needs to come next. Dream it, believe it, plan it, execute it, celebrate it. - Wendy
Prez and I pretty much had it out in my office last night:
-- He was frustated that I'm missing some of his deadlines on a couple of pet projects for him. I accepted that and admitted that I was late, and explained why:
1) I'm still doing my own job. Just brought in four more deals this week, plus sent out two proposals for potentially massive contracts on products that our main sales team isn't even working on right now.
2) I'm leading these M/W/F Director's meetings, driving lots of sub-projects in that setting and doing it as the lowest-ranking person in the room. Not easy, but it was the Prez's idea and I'm working longer and harder at this than anyone.
3) I'm individually meeting with each Director to help them with their business plans. "Some are literally starting from ground zero on understanding their own department, and what their people do" -- this was verbatim what I said to the Prez last night, and he agreed. So obviously this situation is retarded, as I'm doing the job of multiple higher-paid people because they're clueless. And he finally confirmed for me that they're staying no matter what, and I'll just have to learn to work with them. So our theme of "total business overhaul" and "everything is being reviewed" only applies to sub-Director people. It's about freaking time I got this answer. I can live with it, but it's been impossible to plan my work for the past two weeks without knowing if some of these managers might be going away. Now I know that the plans will need to include them in the long-term picture.
4) I'm helping the Prez with his pet projects, which are still unclear how they fit into the overall process.
5) He came in and totally undercut me in the M/W/F meeting yesterday, and not only did he fail to meet with me first to find out what we've accomplished so far (plenty) or who'd even been at our previous two meetings (only half the Directors; the rest were out of town), he didn't even tell me he was coming. Just showed up and took over, then said in front of the group that I should be doing it differently. I told him he didn't have any facts or context to make that statement, and he said he appreciated the "constructive criticism". So at least we can bang heads a bit. I've never worked for somebody before who was secure enough to do that.
I reminded him that I was the lowest-ranking guy in the room of these Director's meetings, and even if he wasn't a "stripes" guy who cared about rank, the fact is that our company's past decade was ruled by a culture of stripes. If I made a good point, but a Director disagreed with me, facts and logic were thrown out the window and stripes won. Every time. I reminded the Prez that when he's not in the room, that old culture is still there. It doesn't go away in a month.
He tried to encourage me by reminding me that every time our execs meet, I'm the smartest guy in the room. I guess it's a compliment, but it also reminded me of Enron and shined a light on the fact that my intelligence, experience, and history of results still hasn't gotten a promotion.
He explicitly drew out the job description for my next role and said I'd earned it, but didn't put timeframes around it. All I can say is that it'd better be soon, because my family is bringing me dinner again tonight while I work late, and if I want to work these hours I can do it elsewhere for a lot more money than I'm making now.
In the end, most of this is good stuff -- I just needed a rant. I'm not blind to the fact that many people are hurting right now, and with the economy's suckage my little issues of late hours and potential promotion seem comedic and cold-hearted.
__________________ Megaloi -- My Blog
"Every society honors its live conformists and its dead troublemakers."
- Mignon McLaughlin
Yeah the economy might not be the best, but it doesn't give them license to screw you over either.
As a wife who's had to deal with this shit, an emphatic +1! In the beginning, when there's the hopeful promise of promotion/money/recognition/mo re vaca/etc it's fine. But it gets real old, real quick, and you miss a lot. Many a strong marriage has crumbled because of the sucky job that thinks it owns you.
But regardless, at least you might be getting somewhere. You know, if there's people you think need to go that won't get gone, I could arrange for "something" to happen… *evil eyebrow wag*
On the sad but funny-the-guy-was-such-a-tool note:
FIrst holiday party at Otto's former employer, they handed out awards. One was for "CEO mentality" and was given to a guy who picked up the asshole pres/CEO of the company from the airport rather than make the ass take a cab. He was praised for this. It was great.
Oh, did I mention that while he was picking up asshat, his wife was at the hospital IN LABOR!
*sigh*
I'm just sayin… prolly don't want to do that to redWifey…
RL's trouble will be getting to the Delivery Room in time. I can totally envision that I'll have to call 911 to come and give me a Jack a ride and just have Michael meet us there. It's only like a 15-20 minute drive, but from beginning to end Jack's first contraction to baby being out was 4 hours last time. Every delivery is different, but...
And I don't plan on us crumbling, because Michael still makes good decisions. He could have totally baled on Samantha this morning (and been totally justified) but he didn't. He took her to school like her normal Daddy-takes-me-to-school-Thursday.
I was so so so so so so so so so proud of him yesterday for hanging around to get his chance to rehash the day with the prez. In other times, he'd have taken the slam and been slammed back into his old pattern of self-sabotage. Yesterday, he stood up and said, I'm worth more than what you gave me in that meeting and what you did was unfair. Yeah for the power of one!!
Still working a lot (even on Saturday) but getting better. I've even been home for dinner the past two nights!
The prez and I met for a solid hour today and he's thrilled with the progress of all projects I'm involved in. He said that I'm a natural leader, I'm crucial to the company's recovery, and he finally used the word "promotion" and said he's putting together the details of the package he has in mind for me. He said that as I'm serving the company, the company should reward me -- it's a two-way street.
He also mentioned that during this phase of my life, the reward is more important since there are lots of responsibilities and expenses at home. Later on it will be more about the challenge and the impact on others.
It was weird when he smiled and said that I would be running a company of my own within the next 10 years. I've been hearing this from people for a while now but it really doesn't spark anything in me yet. It's not a formal goal. It's a cliche, but I'm honestly just focused on getting through this current realignment, and on doing a good job this year. The next step is almost impossible to forecast, so I don't spend time on it.
Maybe at some point that will change, I dunno.
Thanks everybody for continuing to read and stick with me. Eventually this too shall pass and I'll return to a more normal worklife, a more full homelife, and my usual gymlife full of short workouts, non-linear progress and better-than-fiction locker room stories.
__________________ Megaloi -- My Blog
"Every society honors its live conformists and its dead troublemakers."
- Mignon McLaughlin
Meetings all day today, and the last one was with the prez, the CEO/founder and the highest-level Director. My promotion was approved and instead of running just one department, I will now be running the combination of two departments plus a company-wide initiative I get to create.
Now that the CEO has approved it, the prez and I get to nail down the title/money goodness.
This promotion may seem weird to some people, given the fact that layoffs are still a part of the picture for others in my company, but my raise is a small expense compared to the new revenue I'll be responsible for bringing in.
__________________ Megaloi -- My Blog
"Every society honors its live conformists and its dead troublemakers."
- Mignon McLaughlin
__________________
"Time and patience are the 2 elements that most people don't include in their plans."
-Alan Aragon
"The scale simply tells you how much the earth loves you on a particular day."
-Ogedei (Keith)
I'm absolutely thrilled for you that your promotion came through.
__________________ It all starts with the mind, but the thoughts, the intention aren't enough. Action needs to come next. Dream it, believe it, plan it, execute it, celebrate it. - Wendy
Human Resources spent about 60 seconds with me today to start exploring titles, and they'll take a first cut at compensation plans. The rest of day was meetings, meetings, meetings.
Got home at a decent hour but I'm just spent right now, mentally. Tomorrow I'm leaving the office early and going on a camping trip with the family (same place as last year, chronicled here)! Really looking forward to it.
__________________ Megaloi -- My Blog
"Every society honors its live conformists and its dead troublemakers."
- Mignon McLaughlin
Exhausted. Camping was fun but I don't have time to report on it.
Will have to keep sprinting until mid-to-late April at the office. On top of that, I'm traveling two straight weekends for family events at the end of April.
In May I plan on sleeping more, having more sex, reading books, spending time with the kids, playing piano again... you know, like being a real person! It'll happen.
In general this is more a "eustress" than a "distress" time, so that's cool.
__________________ Megaloi -- My Blog
"Every society honors its live conformists and its dead troublemakers."
- Mignon McLaughlin
Linear Mode
