May 7, 2002
It's amazing to me after over 8 years of working in government agencies to be working in the corporate world. I am currently in a place that is subservient to lingo. My official title is, "IT Customer Relationship Manager."
Back away while you can. Be afraid and hug your kids. It's an ugly place out here in Corporateland.
I've never met so many people who are so unable to communicate. The language in this world is a whole new dimension in dialect. You don't have goals for projects, you see, because that's part of the scope. You don't actually talk to people, you send emails, gossip incoherently behind their back, and you backstab. By all means sharpen your tongue because you'll need it to cut slice thin.
It's really not that bad. I got invited on Friday to go to lunch with accounting. They really are a sweet group, but they also aren't even vaguely involved in the politics.
As far as I can tell, I have been hired to broker peace between two warring factions by keeping my boss and the boss of the other faction as far away from each other as possible by handling all problems that come up that could actually force them to utter two words to each other.
They met together last week and I felt like I should have had a bucket of ice water available to douse off the scrapping aminals. I actually did kind of intervene in one of those "be that as it may" let's get to business interjections that distracted them from ripping off appendages.
And then, of course, on top of this I'm moving. The landlords have been the complete and total hosebeasts we anticipated. We're not screwing them over and have taken special pains to clean everything spotlessly even though that's not how we received everything. We've spackled, cleaned, and we've had to call the sheriff twice.
She threatened that they'd already hired a lawyer, but for $700 there's no lawyer. That, I am sure is much like the matching flagpole bracket story she told me in the wake of 9-11.
I checked with a lawyer and they can't touch us. Mike and I evaluated everything and the only thing they could come after us for is lightly dinged linoleum under appliances. I don't think he has the front money to deal with it. They're just mad because they spent the deposit already and we won't give them any more.
The view from our new place is amazing. It's really close to our jobs, so it's only a 15-20 minute to work for both of us. And it's not overrun constantly by bullying landlords. It's full of unpacked boxes and my family. And it's home.
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