Bitterness Part III.

Gordon is off work today-- sick. I hope he is sick for real. He says he has a headache and neck pain. Which could be stress sickeness.

Bitterness. Part II.

The re-org was announced this morning. All is not well. Gordon, the most senior of the new people, is bitter that he doesn't have my job-- I think. It's all hearsay and the stories don't line up.

On Friday, before the official announcement, my boss talked with Gordon about the re-org. My boss says they agreed that Gordon would report to me because Gordon's work is heavily used in one of my projects. Gordon says they agreed that Gordon would get that project and people from me and become a new manager in the process.

Right now I need to listen and not pass judgement. I don't understand how such a misunderstanding could occur. I also need to be careful about what I say to Gordon in private.

It's good that I'm a fresh face that Gordon can't blame for what happened in the past.

It turns out that I have a secret management power and I didn't even know it-- I'm nice and people like to work for me.

My boss and his boss are going to to take advantage of this.

Some of the managers that report ot my boss have a few bitter employees that are threatening to leave. My boss is moving these employees over to me and my team. If I can make the bitter people a little less bitter, convice them to stay just a little bit longer and get a little more work out of them, then every one wins.

I'm not sure how I feel about this. I know that it's my job as a manager to make sure the company gets value from its employees and I don't disagree with that task. It's just that, I can no longer smile and say "Hello!" to someone without thinking "I'm being nice to you so that you will work here longer and harder!"

Steven was over for dinner last night. It was the first time that he's been to our place in over a year.

He recently, regretfully, signed his divorce papers. He still wants to get back together with Vic, but Vic no longer trusts him.

Other than that, we talked about the market and economy. Steven is a real estate agent so he very senstitive to such things. It's going to be a lean year for both Steven and RO.

Bad Genes and Family secrets.

On one side of my family, I have a few married uncles and cousins who never had kids. They didn't want kids they said. With a little disappointment, the rest of the uncles and aunts accepted this. There was no shortage of children anyways-- their brothers had faimilies of 3 to 7 children.

Now my brother wants a baby. He and his wife are having problems conceiving. For answers, they went to a doctor for tests.

The test results are back. It turns out my brother has a bad gene; a gene that makes him sterile. The Doctor also said that about quarter of the relatives on one side of the family should also have this gene, should also be sterile.

My brother now feels closer to the cousins and uncles who don't have kids and is tempted to confide in them.

I'm wondering about myself. Am I shooting blanks? I've never wanted children, so the answer is academic. But still... so much of a mans ego is tied up in his virility.

I had lunch with Steven today. He is adjusting well to single life. The extra freedom has allowed him to work out regularly and now he looks great.

He is a bit lonely though. And his new job has a realestate agent is taking up many hours, so he isn't spending as much time with friends as he wants.

Gossip. Work Gossip.

I don't know why he does this, but occasionally BK will stop by my office and tell me too much information about the powers that be.

It's interesting when his information aligns with other gossip, I end up learning more than he knows.

In this case, a few months back, I heard that the a couple in our division, CE and DE, were having marital problems. CE was having an affair with our VP.

Then, today, I hear that DE is promoted to partner. Many people in the higher ranks are livid. Partners earn seven figures. While DE is a great guy, great isn't good enough to be a partner.

The VP apologized and admitted that DE was promoted too early.

One has to wonder why DE was promoted early. Why would our VP decide to highly reward him?

Hmmmm.

This is why I try not to gossip. One bit of information is innocuous. Two tidbits start a story and end with questions that have obvious, but potentially wrong, answers.

RO and I spent muc of the weekend on LCN and Brewer's boat. It was fun, but, I am not convinced that I don't want to own a boat. I want friends that have boats.

Pleasure boating is mostly about hanging around and drinking. The crowd is a little more successfull than your regular bar crowd-- since you either have to own a boat, or be friends of the boat owner-- however, it's still a heavy drinking crowd.

It may be different if I got a sail boat. That, however, is a life of it's own. I wouldn't have time to work around thouse.

Back to boating. There was a lesbian there who took off her bra and gave it to RO. RO and she danced together.

RO has always wanted to know if I have bi tendances. He convienced the lesbian to cuddle up against me, topless. It didn't do anything for me, althought this lesbian was mid 40's and a smoker.

My day job is going well. For the first time in a long time, I feel caught up, I feel like my team is in control. I want to use this time to stay ahead, but I'm sure someone will notice and give us more work to do.

Not that that would be a bad thing. My boss likes to remind me that anyone can manage a team that's all caught up and under control. Great managers get more done. That means taking on tasks are within your reach, but slightly outside of your grasp.

I took a good walk at lunch and noticed that fall is close. The weather is still very warm, but the sun is low and the shadows are long. It looked late late afternoon even though it was noon.

I think I am officially full of the Internet. For a few weeks now, most everything that I have seen on the internet is either a joke that I saw a few years ago, a rehash of a joke that I saw a few years ago or vacuous opinion.

I can work now without wondering if I'm missing something wonderful.

RO and I spent had a good long weekend. Saturday we a couple of trellis's and benches for the front yard.

We finally used the chop saw that I got RO for his birthday last year. It is a very nice saw. All the cuts were precise. This was the first carpentry project I've ever done that didn't look amature.

Saturday evening Steven had an end-of-summer party.

Sunday RO and I headed over to the sound, to Harstene Island. One of RO's employees owns a cabin over there. We renteded it for the night.

Harstene Island is very quiet. We fished, kayaked, ate, drank and had a few cigars.

Back to work now.