2.24.2008

"the clique"

Periodically I’ll get the most random person telling me a story or their thoughts at work. I mean a person who I never really carry a conversation with. Today this woman (I say woman, not co-worker because I’ve never worked on any projects with her) stopped me in the hallway to find out my thoughts on the training of Photoshop. I thought it was fine with me considering I already know the basics. Like many conversations, she was the one who had a problem with the training. Then after about five minutes of talking she finally admitted it had nothing about the training – it was about who was leading the training. A group of three girls came up with the idea – the same group of girls this woman doesn’t like. She didn’t really give a reason. She just said she thought they were fake.

I felt kind of bad for this woman because she’s in her 40’s and still hasn’t figured it out yet. For blogging sake, lets call these girls “the clique” (because that’s what they are). You know how there is always that clique that hangs out together. The clique tends to stick with their own crowd. It’s much like high school but it transcends into the workplace. These are the girls that typically go to lunch together, get coffee together, do happy hour together and occasionally do a double date together.

I imagine one day the woman overheard “the clique” talking about going out to lunch or the mall. The clique didn’t invite her. Probably a couple of months later “the clique” finally realized the woman and decided to invite her since she was sitting there by herself. By that time, the woman thought it was a pity invitation so she declined.

I felt bad for the woman. I’ve been there. You keep wondering why they haven’t invited you or why they don’t talk to you. The woman just hasn’t figured out yet. Do you really want to be part of something like that? Not to mention the minute you are in “the clique” and you start sharing your personal life; the next thing you know it’s all around the office. Call me unsociable, or maybe it’s just the fact I was never in “the clique,” but why care? After being rejected all in grade school, it doesn’t faze me. I enjoy being alone, considering I can’t carry an intelligent conversation with half the idiots in this world. In fact, I think its great when you are not the clique because it makes it that much easier when you become their boss.

So there was only one thing I could tell the woman today – just let it go!

2.07.2008

dreaming of Italy...

It’s about a month until I officially go to Italy. People keep asking me if I’m excited, but truthfully I haven’t had much time to think about it between school and this job mess going on.
But apparently on some subconscious level I haven’t forgotten about it. For the second time I had a dream about being in Italy. In this most recent dream, I forgot all of my money. The only thing I had was my credit card. I had no idea what kind of fees came with it. I just knew I could withdraw money from it.

It’s kind of weird because both of the dreams I’ve had, has to do with losing or leaving something here. All I have to say is, I’m going to start making a list. I have a feeling its going to be a headache packing.

2.02.2008

the week of hell...

No, I haven’t fell off the face of this earth. I’ve just been super busy and not necessarily with school. It’s been more or less work.

This past week was like hell. For three months now we’ve known our company would be doing layoffs. So the clock has just been ticking to when they would actually happen.

Well imagine this…you wake up one morning and as you are getting dressed you hear about the 200 layoffs to happen at your job. No big deal right? We’ve known this since November. So I look at a national newspaper to read the story. The story is about cutting job specifically in our division.

I really do like my job, but this was the first time I did not want to go to work. So when I got there everybody had heard about it on their way in except my boss. Around 9 a.m. our CEO posted an announcement. It basically summed up the articles stating they are gong to start laying off people now and forward. Meanwhile, our boss is in a regularly scheduled meeting with her boss. Oh, the thoughts going through our minds.

We immediately saw a pink slip being given to her. She was also being told to let us all go. Well, 10 minutes later she comes back to see us chatting in the hallway. She had no idea about the article. No idea about the announcement. She said the meeting lasted 3 minutes because her boss was out today.

I think this past week was like a nightmare for everybody. There were all of these rumors and so many changes going on. Whenever there was a message left for one of us, we'd be too scared to pick it up because it could be about letting us go. I was already prepared not to pick up the phone if I saw on the caller id the "big boss" was calling.

Therefore all of this has prompted us all to do some major drinking this weekend.