Our lovely 2-hour staff meeting starts in 52 minutes. Let’s see what the khaki-count is today…
And although the nebbish does not need to attend (he’s been told in advance by my boss that the meeting really will not pertain to him today), officious little bug-like creature that he is, insists on coming anyway.
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I regret to point out that nebbish is probably attending b/c you are, Didge.
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That may be part of it, but also he seems to have an expanded view of his own importance in general, and likes to be in on as much as he can.
Ok, it’s show time in 3…2…1…
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You know I love this summer school gig, but every single Tuesday in the July heat we have to sit through these endless staff meetings to discuss the students’ progress with their counsellors. I think the program’s heart is in the right place, but some of these young instructors turn it into almost a gossipfest. IMO, if I can’t handle a dozen bright 18-y.o.’s without tattling on them, that’s as much my problem as theirs.
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Well, they managed once again to drag it out for almost the full two hours. Nothing was resolved, no action items assigned, it’s mostly become a two-hour gab fest about things over which they have no control. I did have a moment of panic when one of the managers joked that I was going to be transferred to a new job working for (wait for it…) the nebbish! Monster.com was about to become my second home. It seems now that it was a poor attempt at humor, for which this manager is going to pay dearly….
The khaki count today: Of eight managers in attendance, 4 had khaki-colored pants, one was in black dress slacks, one in light gray slacks, one in navy blue dockers, and and one dark gray.
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I’m crying – and drinking – on your behalf! We don’t have staff meetings, we have “huddles”. Praise the Gods, I am not required to attend.
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huddles? merina, have you been playing for the NFL and keeping it from us?!
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Halleluja, sista! 🙂 Yes yes, drinks all around, and none of that namby-pamby wine cooler stuff. This occasion calls for hard drinkin’.
I may live to regret asking, but what exactly is involved in this ‘huddling’?
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Ha ha ha @ maryj. I’m like Batman – lowly customer service by day, linebacker by night 😀 I don’t know what “huddling” involves, but it sounds like a word dreamt up by some HR idiot somewhere far up the chain who will never have to be a victim of huddling. I do *not* huddle well with others! Just let me do my job, and nobody gets hurt…
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Have either of you guys ever had the pleasure of attending a “quality circle”? It was this annoying fad back in the ’80’s, in which everybody sat around a table and looked at samples of each other’s work, supposedly for the purpose of giving constructive criticsm in a nonjudgmental atmosphere – except that none of the rank & file wanted to say anything rude to one another, and the middle managers just took over, using us a a captive audience while they said snarky things.
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Oh dear god, no, never even heard of that (thankfully). No, I hadn’t yet had the pleasure of having Corporate America and bizarro HR rituals in my life during the 80s. I spent most of that decade in the military, and there was little to no ‘team building’ activity apart from day-to-day activities. They had other evils to inflict on us.
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khakis/dockers/bizness casual – the most unsexy look for men since plaid bermuda shorts and socks w/sandals! How many were wearing short-sleeved dress shirts?
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I don’t believe there were any short-sleeved dress shirts. I think it was mostly polo shirts, and one real dress shirt. Well, it’s Oregon, this is what passes for business attire here. They roll their eyes and cringe at how formal the East Coast is, with ties and suits. 🙂 You can barely get these guys to dress up for their own weddings, and that is not an exaggeration!
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FORMAL JEANS!!! 😉
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Oh right! I think one of them takes them to the cleaners and gets them pressed, those must be his dress jeans 🙄
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They had a ceremony today for the kids who completed the Pre-college summer school program. The dean of the school of arts and sciences – a lovely, educated man – showed up in these blue (dockers? “Khakis?”) and a pale blue shortsleeved dress shirt – I swear before god he looked like a member of the maintenance staff. I guess once you have tenure you can wear whatever you want.
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This is what passes for ‘dressing up’ these days. I once went to the San Francisco Ballet, and saw a woman there in a sweat suit. Not a track suit, I’m talking the old style sweats (if memory serves, it was pink at least), high heels and pearls. Granted, it was SF and people can be a little quirky. It’s nothing to see people in sweats and jeans at the ballet or symphony here in Portland.
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Isn’t part of the fun in going out to something like the ballet…uh…getting all dressed up?
Funny as hell that she added pearls to it!
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I know, how bizarre was that? The only thing I’ve wondered about is maybe she’d just had some kind of surgery and wasn’t able to wear anything more restricting. Maybe pink sweats was the best she could do, I’m willing to give her the benefit of the doubt.
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True confessions: one of my mother’s friends wore a track suit to my wedding. She was a nice woman, and VERY plus-sized, and it’s not like she was in the photos or anything, but still, even my mom sez she can’t guess what the lady was thinking —
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“Quality Circle” sounds more like a Circle of Hell…
We went on a cruise last year, so I took it as an opportunity to dress up. There were 3 formal nights, with descriptions including the words “white tie”. I was there in my corset and opera-length gloves. Others took the phrase “formal attire” to mean “wear your *sparkly* flip-flops” ::face palm::
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Now that you mention it, I think I recall Dante talking about that circle…
Ooo, opera length gloves… that’s pulling out all the stops! LOVE it, good for you!
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The part I don’t get is, people are dressing more and more like slobs, yet going deeper and deeper into credit card debt. If they don’t care what they look like, why not wear stuff that’s already paid for?
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My guess is they’re not racking up the debt on clothing. I was raised by old-skool parents, who, when my sisters and I were children and they took us to NY for vacation, made us all wear dresses the whole time, and always dressed in our nicest clothes to go to church on Sundays (of course, this is going back a number of years). I’m sure your family held to the same standards. I will say I’ve quit dressing up for work, but I am frequently called upon to schlepp boxes down to the shipping dock, and crawl around under desks hooking up computers, and so on.
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Can you get away with stuff like pull-on gauzy skirts and boots? I find that to be sort of a compromise, as I don’t wear suits and pumps any more, but I think it’s important to let the students know that I have some kind of respect for the proceedings, and am not trying to look as though I’m on a peer level with their 18-y.o. asses.
(No flip-flops, ever: I think the people you work w/should only see your toes or belly button if you are in the entertainment/performing arts line of biz)
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Oh sure, this place is nothing if not uber-casual. Flip-flops are not uncommon (the really cheap shower type) and with engineers all over the place, you know shorts and socks with sandals are prevalent. The way I see it, though, if they want me crawling around on the floor hooking up computers and moving equipment around, I’m going to dress like the facilities crew.
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Do you remember when McCaustic decided to affect a bogus French accent, and insisted on pronouncing “flip-flop” as “le flee-flo” ? It still cracks me up just thinking about it…
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Can’t say I do, but I can picture him doing it 🙂
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Staff meetings. *shudder* 2 hour staff meetings. *double shudder* 🙂
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I keep saying that’s two hours of my life I want back every week. As the manager I like says, “It all pays the same.” To which I say, “Yes, but… life is short.”
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I totally agree! Life is too short for staff meetings. I’ve yet in all the years I’ve worked to ever have attended a productive staff meeting!
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They’re an incredible waste of time. They end up being nothing more than a bitch session, nothing ever gets resolved. It’s just an opportunity for the head cheese to hold forth to a captive audience and feel important.
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“It’s just an opportunity for the head cheese to hold forth to a captive audience and feel important.”
seriously, if evey office could eliminate every task and chore that fit the above description, we could all work 30-hour weeks and still be twice as productive.
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I think I’ll lobby my congressman to pass a law about it. Actually, I have it on good authority that back east at HQ meetings are not allowed to exceed 30 minutes. But, I’ve told you about my boss and how much he likes to hear himself talk so not much hope of 30 minute meetings for me. Unless of course I bust out my voodoo doll…
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Let us all know when the next meeting is, and we will synchronize our voodoo dolls – after the first 30 minutes we’ll keep poking them in the butt with a sharp needle, or maybe a hot spoon to add new meaning to the phrase “light a fire under his ass”.
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Hehehehe! I love it. Every Wednesday from 1:00 – 3:00PM PT, although for the next two weeks I’m saved, he goes on vacation starting tomorrow afternoon. YAY!!! 🙂
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