Monday, October 24, 2005

Hyper-ventilating

Stick around and make a career out of it, or quit this stupid job and get a different (stupid) job. I have been back and forth approximately twenty-three times since arriving at work this morning.

Hyper-manager is back from his two weeks in Hawaii. You can feel the tension in the group. He hasn’t said anything to me and I can already feel my stress level rising. He’ll find something we did wrong during the past two weeks and go crazy, it’s the exception not the rule, so we’re all just sitting here anticipating a hyper-manager meltdown. Even if we did everything right and he doesn’t go off this apprehension-laden atmosphere is not good for the ol’ ticker.

The senior manager had scheduled a group meeting this morning where he informed us that two higher-ups on the other side of the floor have given their notice and are leaving their custody group within the month. Since our group is the most put-together, smooth-running thing management has ever seen, they’re going to shift senior manager over to the custody group, and leave our group in the care of, you guessed it, hyper-manager.

In addition, the VP of the division just moved his secretary out to the same set of cubes our group is in, so he spends a lot more time hovering around our group than he formerly did. Now, I don’t care much where the VP spends his time, but everyone else around me is acting like spooked deer. They’re jittery and paranoid, they’re snapping at people and hunched in front of their monitors to pre-empt any casual over-the-shoulder reading by the VP. You could copy, collate, and staple the tension in this place into a nice report for a two-hour media presentation on the dynamics of the modern American workplace.

The AVP, meanwhile, is contemplating moving our group to the other side of the floor, you know, for kicks. No one is excited about that prospect, me especially, because it means packing up all the crap in our desks. Instead of filing I basically just stack things on top of other things, so that would mean an end to my paper fortress.

Those are the storm clouds. There is also a bit of a silver lining:

If our senior manager takes over the custody group permanently, then a shift from my current position in this group into a new position in that group becomes much more likely. And, since it is a custody group, it will be way easier than this one. And, since hyper-manager won’t be moving, it will be way easier. And, coincidentally, that is the same group that the pretty girl is now working in – which, actually, would not make it easier, it would just add a new layer of confusion and distraction to my every day life. Which would be great for you, because I know you’re all dying for something interesting to read…What better way to fulfill your cravings than with more deluded stories about the pretty girl?

That is a terrible silver lining.

-t

recommended download:
Kate Earle, Officer

6 comments:

Donny said...

So, what did you think of the concert? And are you in love with Kate Earl too?

I definitely dance to Officer when I'm home alone.

Tom said...

I dance even to it even when I'm on the T and it's stuck in my head. I was this close (thiiiiis close) to asking for her number. They're in Cincinnati this week and then someplace else.

I'm going to write a post about Friday later on...maybe tonight. Keep an eye out.
-t

Donny said...

"then someplace else"? Maybe Wisconsin? I'll ask her for her number for you.

Tom said...

sweet. I also told her about Ben, because he's from Alaska too.

Donny said...

Did you really mention Ben? Because if you did, I will too. Maybe she'll remember and think, "Whoa, I have to meet this Ben guy."

Tom said...

I did, and she asked where he was from, and of course I can't remember, so instead I told her about how he made his own canoe and travelled the alaskan coastline.