Adventures in Management - Finding out the Truth

I had a great laugh last week that I have to share with you.

My manager, J, isn't the sharpest tool in the shed. In fact, some days he just downright drives me nuts. I really want him to go so I can take his place. He's been looking at some other opportunities, and because of that, there has been some churn in the Team's gossip mill going on the past few weeks about what would happen if he did move on to something else.

So last week I was sitting in my cube working when I overheard J. on the next row over talking to one of our project managers (another person who I don't especially trust). "XXX, you have to see this power point I made. You are the queen, I thought you'd appreciate it!" he bubbled over at her. She ooh-ed and ahh-ed over it and finally pronounced, "It's so manly!"

I choked a bit on the diet Coke I was drinking, stifling a laugh.

After he bounced back to his office, floating on the complement, I sent her an IM.

"Manly?? LOL!"

"Yeah, but I'd rather have him for a manager than KK." she wrote back.

I paused. Reread it. Yup, she said that, obviously thinking the IM came from someone else.

"Nice. LOL!" I wrote back, laughing to myself. Honestly, I know she doesn't care for me and what she thinks doesn't change anything.

You could hear the air suck out from that side of the room. The IM box disappeared. Then I heard frantic typing coming from over there.

"OMG, my face is so red! I'm really sorry!" She wrote in a new IM box. There was more, but I don't remember what it said.

"No biggie, XXX. It happens." I laughed over the cube wall. Seriously, it was funny. The downside is that she was holding up my departure to head to happy hour with some girlfriends.

To her credit she came over a few minutes later and sat down to talk about it. She fears for her job if I was her manager, which surprised me. She thought I didn't like her, but I figured she didn't like me. Life is a mirror. What you give is what you get, right? Who knows where that started.

In the end, I still don't trust this person much, but I wouldn't fire her by any means. She's bright, but she does what she can to get what she wants. I see through that and I think she knows it.

Gotta love the IM, huh?

Adventures in Flight - Love in the Air

I love flying Southwest Airlines, not just because I work there, but because you can just interact with some real characters.

I was coming home from a conference in Connecticut on Friday evening. It was a week-long course and I was exhausted from all the learning and of course, the evening adventures as well. When I'm tired, I like to choose a seat near the engines for the sole reason that people are less likely to talk in that area because it tends to be noisier. It was a full flight so there were folks all around us.

As we prepared for landing, the flight attendants made their usual announcement for everyone to put their chairs and trays in the "full and upright position". They breezed through the cabin looking for offenders several times. On one such pass, one of them stopped to ask someone behind me to comply.

From behind me I hear a loud, upper-Midwest accent, "Jack put your chair up. Jack, your chair! She wants you to put your chair up." Obviously the man couldn't hear well because each time, she got louder.

"Jack, push the button!"

I started smiling to myself and the lady next to me was doing the same thing. "It must be longtime love," she said, and that made the situation adorable. I nodded in agreement with a big grin.

We landed and this older couple got even more adorable. I asked her what part of Minnesota she was from (I have dear friends up there and just love the accent.) She smiled and told me that she was actually from Wisconsin. Then with a twinkle in her eye she added with that nasaly twang known in that area of the world, "Kenosha, Wisconsin. Home of Hanes Underwear and Snap-On Tools."

This couple is a widow and widower, I found out later from the passenger who sat next to them on the flight. I assumed they'd been married for years. It turns out, they've been living together "in sin", as she called it, for over 20 years and are still very much in love.

I hope to be that wry and that much in love when I'm in my older years.