well, i slept on it to reflect…

Where to begin… I would love to inform all that I had razzled and dazzled and wooed the North Carolina folks with a tact I didn’t even know I had, receiving a full five minutes of constant praise from the other folks in the room during the call about how damn good I am at placating and manipulating customers to my will. Mac Maclemore, sales guy I actually like, who sat in, barely got a word in on the call. Patrick apologized for what seemed to be a waste of his time asking him to sit in with us, and Mac exclaimed, “Hey, any opportunity to hear Kim work the magic. Just listening to her talk, it’s almost as wonderful as the graphics she makes..”

So, in short, I left that hour and half long phone call with a good attitude, spirits raised, with the bulk of remaining graphics pawned off on the Hawaii team instead of me. I went back to my desk and happily dealt with a few reworks, Lanier revisions, anything they could throw at me, until it came up that some current issues that had broken today were related to ASC3, the new search module Kramer had just implemented this week on all our sites, and I had to make a lengthy list to send to him. Before I made the list, I walked over to see if anyone had already reported those type things, well, because it was nearing five o’clock and I wanted to mention some of the important things to him so he might fix them today instead of Monday. I find him stressed, dreading another late night at work (he’d been putting in 11 hour days this week, working on ASC3), but he was nice to me, as always. I go back and email him. Realize it’s officially my 8 hour mark, and begin to pack up, but think… poor Kramer, he’s NOT used to staying late at work.. he gets here so early.. I should stop by on my way out and offer to go get him some fast food or beer or something since he’s staying late on a Friday. So, I head that way…. to find all the doors closed on the way, lots of voices behind closed doors, the back of engineering is empty…. no James, no Jason, no Kramer, no Anthony, no Rukshanna, no Greg… Billy’s door is shut… there is only Jim Heneger typing away in his office. I find that strange, and walk back to my desk to get my stuff and ask Marc if something is up. He doesn’t know, so I take a walk around the office, checking out customer service, stopping at the break room, get stopped for a few minutes by Horace, then make it back around to my desk, room still empty, Marc on the phone, so I just pick up my stuff and head out.

I’m still in a decent mood. I’m on my way to cheese. I even picked up two generous piles of reworks to work on from home over the weekend. Patrick walks me out, thanking me again for my handling of the conference call, so my head is practically floating off my shoulders with pride. We split, and I walk toward my car…. only to notice I’m being stalked by a gang who had been standing leaned against the brick building on the back side of our parking lot. They are converging on me and my car. It is Jason, Greg, and Anthony… looking serious (despite the bouncy balls they are carrying).

The news: Kramer’s been fired, at 5 PM today. Sarah Stein also felt the swing of the axe today. The worse news: five more people will be going on Monday, and then the whole seven are supposed to be announced to the company via email. Billy, it seems, was in on the decision, though not pleased with it. He informs that the company had a choice of a 5% pay cut across the board, or else firing seven people… any seven… from development, marketing, account management staff only… choices to be made locally by Camp, Hatcher & Billy. Kramer was number one on the chopping block… despite the fact that he is the ONLY one with knowledge of the new search engine that runs all of our websites now, the new search engine that is not fully implemented, and has left a large pile of “fix it” reworks on his desk. The gang, and myself, are stunned. And thinking about who could be next… we are more stunned.

The situation: acct management, bobby, jasonR, deann, carmen, jonathan, patrick, marc, sean, kari. Marketing: Sarah, jeanette, mary. Development: Kramer, Greg, JasonC, Billy, Anthony, Ruks, DavidR, JohnH, JimH, and … well… me. The bold names are exempt from firing. The strikethroughs are gone. Let’s pick five more people out of that list to go.

Let’s not.

In other news… I don’t have anything to compare with the US’s Shock & Awe Campaign, or even FNIS’s Shock & Awe Campaign. All I have to report is a very good cheese night, Wanda included, to make five very loud, laughing girls that stayed until almost 10pm at the restaurant. Stacy brought us wonderful presents, very unexpected, but very much enjoyed. She worries she doesn’t see things that “scream Kim” when she’s out shopping, but I guess she hasn’t realized how easy I am to please yet.

After cheese, we’d been on such a roll talking we decided to keep it up. After a brief stop at the Love Shack, so I could make sure James had dinner, since I know his job is pretty high on the suck-o-meter right now too, we watched Maggie pack up for a trip to see Jimmy (again), then we headed out to the Highlander to meet Paul and chat some more. We didn’t drink a drop, just sat there and ate low-carb chocolates & swiss cake rolls we’d brought, talked and laughed, and then called it a night at barely 1 AM.

*SWARM* *SWARM* SWARM* Oh, how I love Spiderman and His Amazing Friends on Saturday mornings. Sometimes you just gotta turn away from CNN, lest your own funk combined with the surreal ability to watch the war as it happens, drive you down a spiral of funk that doesn’t even let you have the willpower to shower or get dressed…. just vegitate in front of news of the bombs and casualties.

In fact, inspired now, by the knowledge that I know I’ve seen this particular episode before years ago, I want to make breakfast. Maybe I’ll see if JT is awake and take him some breakfast to work, too. Who knows… but I will get things done today. Even the work I brought home. Underlying, there is a nervousness, and realization that i COULD lose my job on Monday, but I have to hope that I wouldn’t have been getting such praise, compliments, & most of all, piles of new assignments, if they were planning to let me go.