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Recent News... Just for Pope Gregory... |
2005-03-16 - 9:39 p.m. Aliens without feet, dancing around, getting their way I cannot believe no one laughed at the flaming cow. Hey, give me the snarly alien! Are there more glowsticks? What is this thing? An alien tanning bed and torture device? I want the toy with candy. Today, the pile of space grab-bag toys Isobel provided finally made into my office. I couldn�t imagine why it�s taken a month, then I remembered I was out of the office for three weeks. The grab bag accompanied me from meeting to meeting, getting dumped on the table and pawed through at each stop. Hey, the windup robot is really noisy. Stop playing with it. So? my teammate signed in reply. I�m deaf. Let me stop here and tell you about an unfortunate coincidence. Monday, all my management toddled off to a retreat to learn how to inspire us further. Included in the comedian/motiviational speaker/trainer�s toolbox was to provide cheap and silly instant rewards as levity and distraction. Just before noon, I wound up herding four of my managers (pretend you understand my org chart and play along) together to explain a fire-drill I had to instantly solve. Of course, the problem with the cheery grab bag was I couldn�t get them to stop playing with the toys long enough to take me seriously. Have you ever seen alien puppets debate a complex technical issue? Fifteen minutes of breathless hilarity before I got them focused enough to get really ticked off. That�s when the bendable ones were pressed into service modeling those who had offended and put through an alien torture ritual. We did, eventually, hammer out a compromise, though it cost me not getting lunch until 7 pm. In the end, having come through a trial-by-fire, all parties had grown close to their puppet and felt they had to keep them. I did persuade them to give back the alien torture device. I felt it was best for morale. No wonder Roland thinks I work in a freak show. Just adds to the symmetry of my life, as all my coworkers think I have the most eclectic friends. I mean, no one else in my organization has great friends who buy them cool toys to share. Thanks again, Isobel! I'm now going back to the career-limiting maneuver of drinking fine Irish whisky and answering email. Don't try this at home. � � � 
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