1. Watching You “I’ve been watching you,” Kashif said. He stood up from his desk and walked over to me. “I’ve been watching how you take notes during the day. I need to do that.” I looked down at my spiral notebook and looked up at him and smiled. I was flattered that he noticed. […]
Tag Archives: work
On Cementing My Reputation
Mon, 16 Jul 2012, 08:16 PM (-06:00)
Prelude And then all eyes fell on me. “A joke or an embarrassing story about yourself,” was the rule. An embarrassing story, fine, but you know as well as I that the unwritten expectation there was that it be an entertaining embarrassing story. My embarrassments are many, but their entertainment value is nil. So it […]
Couldn’t Have Planned It Better
Fri, 20 Apr 2012, 06:24 AM (-06:00)
It was difficult to say goodbye. And it was humbling. When I told them, some folks got a serious look on their face as if to imply, Oh what are we going to do? Some folks gasped. Others offered congratulations. They all were supportive and happy for me (at least as far as I could […]
Something Else
Tue, 17 Apr 2012, 07:58 PM (-06:00)
“You’re killing me man” he said as I stood in the doorway of his office. I had submitted my resignation the week before, but it was spring break, and he was out of town. I had dreaded this conversation. This was the profession I always wanted. These were people I had known and respected for […]
Joy of Adjournment
Sat, 19 Nov 2011, 04:06 AM (-06:00)
When he proposed we adjourn, a collective sigh went up. It was late, and we had been stuck in one meeting followed by another. We were happy to be done and ready to go home. I hung up the phone and walked out of the study. Even the dogs were glad. When I appeared in the […]
So Many Words
Tue, 1 Nov 2011, 06:39 PM (-06:00)
We were trying to figure out what to say. What to put into the memo. What was important. And what was not. I was at the whiteboard jotting down ideas, drawing pictures of how our argument should look. She was typing into a laptop and poking holes in my scribbles and sketches, adding points that […]
William
Tue, 1 Nov 2011, 06:26 PM (-06:00)
He has white hair and a long, white beard. If it were Christmas time, it wouldn’t be surprising to see him in a big, red suit. He talks with a friendly drawl: a tone and way of speaking that makes him easy to listen to. Listening to him, you want to be his friend. And he […]
Conjunctions
Fri, 19 Aug 2011, 10:57 PM (-06:00)
He has a way of talking. He goes on and on and on. We all know this. It’s just the way he is, but still it sometimes catches us off guard, and we get trapped. When we’re stuck in a room and he gets started, there’s no way to turn it off. No way to interject. […]
A Telecommuter’s Background Noise
Tue, 22 Mar 2011, 05:05 PM (-06:00)
Years ago I worked on a team with a guy who lived somewhere in North Texas. The company was a big supporter of telecommuting, and he worked from home. Periodically he would come down to see us face-to-face, but most of the time he dialed in remotely. In the spring you could hear the Mockingbirds in his […]
A Long Day’s End
Sun, 2 Jan 2011, 10:54 AM (-06:00)
It’s 5:55 pm, New Year’s Day, just before closing time. Lane 1 Janie’s face periodically twitches as she scans the merchandise. She isn’t moving particularly fast, and then the phone next to her register rings. She picks up the receiver while she totals up the bill. “Yes ma’am. We close at 6:00,” she says and […]