I have been very busy this week, trying to take over a project from my departed direct report. On top of my day job.
The Boss has been very busy this week, too. The big “road show” to Executive Management is this week, where everyone talks about status and plans and budgets (past and future). So his boss has been flogging him, and his peers, to get stuff ready.
The Boss comes scooting past the cube I’ve been sitting in this week. It’s right next to his door. Except for one brief meeting Tuesday morning, we’ve probably managed a half-dozen words together.
He comes scooting at high speed past my cube, stops, asks, “So, when you leaving today?”
“Mmmmmabout Noon?” Phrased as a semi-question, in case I was about to hear otherwise.
“Gah,” he says.
Trots off. Comes back in a minute. “I am an idiot.”
“Um …”
“I am a freaking moron. I’d wanted to gather up a bunch of people for this, and Friday is the worst freaking day of the week, and we have the presentation in an hour.”
“Uh …”
“So … here.”
He hands me a little box (of the “Ooh, we like those sizes of packages” Christmas type). The penny drops.
Inside is my 20-year service pin — a very nice gold lapel pin with the company logo and three diamonds around it. Keen.
“Thanks, man. Congratulation. It’s been a real pleasure,” the Boss says. And then there was a Boss-sized hole in the air as he headed off to the next Critical Thing to Do.
Still, it was a pretty keen way to end the week, if you ask me.
Well, it was cool that he understood that it was his fault for not scheduling it all correctly and didn’t try to force you stay longer for just a presentation.
And grats on the 20 years. 😀
Well, if he had said, “Hey, can we do lunch, and I’ll invite some folks along, and can give it to you there,” I’d have probably gone along with it (and left for the airport after lunch), as a career/social kinda thing to do. But he didn’t suggest it (and I didn’t either). 🙂
But, yeah, he’s cool that way. First to admit when he’s messed up (which is not very often).
Technically speaking, I have been working at the Company since August 1994, but I taught a couple of years in-between there, so it’s 20 years Adjusted Service Date. I’ve had four careers at the Company: VM Systems Programmer, PC Tech/xBase programmer/analyst/DBA, IT site manager, Corporate IT Guy. Remarkably enough, I’ve now spent more of my career in Denver than I did in Pasadena, though I come back here often enough to stay “known” to people — and it’s kind of funny/sad that there was just one person here that’s been here long enough for me to have gone over and waved the little service pin at her (in a nice way).