These past two days were our leadership team meeting, which consists of the team leaders giving updates on their teams’ activities and projects, as well as some guest speakers to talk about other parts of the company.
It was very long and sometimes boring but also sometimes interesting. This department is much less bullshitty than my old department. I think there’s an inverse correlation between the amount of bullshit in a department and the amount of money it makes – i.e., the less money it makes, the more bullshit it spouts.
Sales folks are pretty bullshitty too, but in a different way. It’s that overly chummy talk talk talk. In my department, procurement, it’s all about saving money and buying stuff like boxes and renting furniture, and so the bullshit factor is pretty low. Finally, marketing, which spends money like water with no measurable ROI, is the grande dame of bullshit. Marketers love to hear themselves talk, and will argue for the sake of arguing, whether or not it helps the situation. If they’re not in meetings, they feel like they’re not working. My old boss would drag out a meeting to 40 minutes even if the issue was resolved in 10.
Anyway, since my current boss, the department leader’s sort of director of operations, arranged the meeting, I spent a lot of time helping him by working the A/V and passing the mike around when questions came up, like Phil Donahue. I actually like that meeting planning kind of work so I didn’t mind. Also it got my blood flowing – sitting for so long is tough.
So now I don’t feel like doing anything! I do have a couple of tasks to complete, but no big deal.
This weekend at my parents’ was fine. They had a lot of questions for MB about their entertainment center, and he was very patient helping them out, despite the fact that he had actual work to do. At a point, I finally said, “Okay, work time!” and my mom got the idea, but my dad didn’t. Or he didn’t hear. Either way he kept asking questions, even after my mom and I were both like, “Enough! He has to work now!”
My mom will be going with me to West Side Story. Turns out my dad wasn’t interested. Should be fun.
Class tonight, blah. But before class a professor from June’s e-publishing class in London will be speaking so I’ll check that out. This weekend, photo shoot with YP, then class on Sunday. I can’t believe it’s almost April, which means my birthday is approaching and I’ll be another year closer to the big 4-0.
Oy.
Where I work there is a marketing branch as well… they’re a different breed.
Us? We focus on real stuff… like science. :)
Have fun at West Side Story!