Work was pretty decent today. Not the circus it has become of late with me juggling my own credits as well as reviewing the work of new team members and correcting the mistakes my boss has made and fending off crazy requests. Today was a slow day. Of course that doesn’t mean that there wasn’t anything to do. There’s always something to do! There always has been something to do since I joined a couple of years ago. There were very few dull moments and life was always busy. Not particularly stressful but always busy.
Of course back then it was just me and my namesake - we got along well together for a bit and then managed to alienate each other. Now that I come to think of it, we were pretty similar in a lot of respects and I still am grateful to her for those initial months when her obsessive eye for detail was roving over my work and she used to patiently guide me through various mind numbing projects. Things have changed so much now. She’s gone. Thank god. Our common boss of that era has gone. Thank god for him. I had another boss. And then another. Each with his own pros and cons. The work has improved. I’m more of a professional. I have people who look up to me. I know a lot of people in other offices and we get drunk together and gossip when we meet. I make a lot more money and occassionally I like to believe that what I say actually matters to some people. The project that I worked on, designed and created actually along with E., is taking off. It’s being accepted, it’s being loved and it’s being hated. It’s out there in the world now with its own advocates and opponents. I have more technical experience in this field than probably any research assistant. I also have more people skills now than I did before. I like to believe that to some extent I can read people, sense their apprehensions and judge their true feelings about something.
I like having a team. I did like being alone too when namesake was shifted to another department and all I had for company was boss2. Boss2 didn’t have the time or inclination to review my work or care a shit about what I was doing. So I could always take my own initiative. I think I was very upset when Boss2 was replaced by Boss3 simply because I liked doing my own thing. But now I’m glad that I have Boss3. The way my project has expanded, I wouldn’t have been able to manage without Boss3. And although I hate him at times, Boss3 has been inventive and has improved a lot of things as far as work is concerned. Also he deals with his own boss - BossBoss1. I cannot deal with BossBoss1. He’s simply idiotic and my head spins everytime he talks to me (note how I say "he talks to me"). Some of this is because he’s been left with no power by his boss - SuperBoss. SuperBoss, when I joined, used to be a force to reckon with. He was everywhere, intimidating stuttering employees who would feel their mental abilities shattering all around as he would fix them with his analytical stare. Yes, that’s what his stare is - it’s analytical. Not cold or steely. Well, it is cold but it is so much more than just cold. It’s a look whereby employees know that he’s forming an opinion or judging them. It makes them nervous and they feel guilty about whatever they should be mildly feeling guilty of. Yes, back in those days, SuperBoss was THE Boss. He still is the Boss, just that he’s been promoted and doesn’t have enough time from checking his email to come make his bone-chilling, employee-enuchsizing rounds. Instead he debillitates his immediates subordinates - BossBoss1, BossBoss2,….BossBoss6 - in whom he doesn’t have an ant worth’s amount of confidence. These guys in turn vent their frustrations on SmallTimeBosses like my Boss. My Boss in turn is supposed to be venting his shit on me but fortunately he doesn’t. By some bizarre act of God, he’s actually fairly decent. He does have occassional lapses though but none too bad. I did have problems understanding him initially and hated him to hell but of course, it probably was more the fear of losing autonomy than anything else I guess.
So as I was saying, I like having a team. When P joined, I thought he was BoyWonder and I was Batman. He used to listen to everything I told him, lap up all the advice I gave him and look to me for more work. He was born with a bow on his head. I know it. BoyWonder is all grown up now and is able to handle himself. I feel like a proud parent in a way. BoyWonder even got his own GirlWonder to train. GirlWonder turned out, unfortunately, to be BigBlunder. Boss3 thought that since BigBlunder was older and more experienced, she would be easier for Wonder to train. But things weren’t so wonderful. Blunder, as it turned out, doesn’t listen, cries, gets very frustrated, snaps at BoyW and then makes serious blunders which Boy and Boss ultimately have to undo. *Sigh* Sometimes, it pains me to see that the project that I put so much effort into is going to be carried forward in some way by her. I don’t enjoy having her on board and keep hoping she would change her whiny attitude.
I have my own lil ones to train again. Rather a really little one and one really tall one. LittleBouncer and GentleGiant. But they’ve been easy so far. Except that they aren’t professional yet but I feel they can be moulded towards that.
So it has been getting a little crowded in our team but then there’s just so much work that we don’t feel that there are enough hands. Atleast as of now. But I think there are enough of us and I hope to not see any more new faces anytime soon. I’m keen to see how the project goes with the bunch that we currently have and I get a good feeling. I know the task is huge, people are constantly watching us for failure, praise is rare and brickbats are many. But I still feel we can do it and even do it well.
Cheers!
