12:55 a.m. - 2003-02-13
What Next
Intriguing dream last night. I was with the British Expeditionery Forces in India. That's the intriguing element because part of the reason my Dad's family chose to leave England to come to North America was that they did not wish the males in their family to serve in the conquest of the rest of the world. Anyway, it appeared that I was travelling with the forces who were providing an escort to one of the Maharajahs' wives on a pilgrimage. There were several elephants far back in the line and it was known that the rani and her attendants were enclosed in the houdahs on the elephants backs. The houdahs looked to be the size of small cabins. At one point the entourage stopped at an ancient temple and the monastery (not the correct term) that served for the night. One of the leaders of the expedition, of some rank,stumbled across two massive gems the size of basketballs. They were already cut in multiple facets - think of those disco lights in the seventies. They were a beautiful shade of iridescent pink, but the dream moderator said they were sapphires and that they were used as the eyes in a very ancient, massive statue of Ganesh located deep in the jungle in the northern part of the country. The officer in question, really struggled between the desire to do the right thing - return them to the statue - or to keep them and so ensure his family's presence in British society. He chose the right thing. I was so proud. Then the dream ended.
A lot of laughter on the train today both coming and going. On the way in, a mom, her daughter and her daughter's friend savouring each others' personality quirks, obvious deep affection and respect for each other. On the way back, four women who must work together, telling tales about their innocence and naughtiness as children and their parents' parenting styles at the time. Full bellied laughter at each misadventure. Then reflections on their own experiences as parents - getting a child "just like you". From some of their comments, it appeared they were about the same age as me and I remembered very similar experiences myself. They had everyone around them chuckling. When the first of the group left at her station one of the other women said "see, now you know why we go P before leaving to catch the train. The woman in question had the best delivery and punch lines I've heard in ages. On the elevators traveling back and forth during the day same thing. This time it is generated by employees in one of the other companys who have about five of the buildings 30+ floors. They are obviously a close knit group who know each other well and who occasionally like to pull practical jokes on each other. If you happen to be travelling with them they just naturally include you in the banter.
Met B first thing this morning. "I understand you had an altercation with the PC yesterday". No, I didn't choose any of what occurred, I just told PC what you had said to me and left it at that. I avoided any further contact with her after that. "Well, yes it has been noted on a number of previous occasions that she has a temper on her and can't control it. I wish I had been clearer in my communications with you yesterday. What I meant to say, was that you should only help the scientists if it is after hours and no one else is on the floor." No, that she never did say, but had encouraged me to help the scientists even in the othe file rooms/libraries that we don't look after when I explained the Friday incident - she even asked me to record the names of people I helped. "In the meantime I've decided that you should only help out if absolutely no one else is around until T gets back, it's just better that way." I just said that it was unfortunate that there was a client for the data room in hearing of the exchange and left it at that.
She'd had a discussion with the PC last night after I'd gone, apparently, that generated this turn around. Now I've raised six sons over more than a quarter century and the one thing I do know is that if you reward temper tantrums and abusive behaviour, not surprisingly you get more of the same and often it becomes more intense over time. Why not, if it works? I e-mailed my liaison at the data management firm and said I didn't know if I really wanted to remain in a situation where a volatile employee is allowed to bully everyone else in a team, but I'd stick it out for now. No response from her so I don't know where I stand now.
It's really frustrating to have finally got an assignment that is both enjoyable and full of learning opportunities, where I could apply a lot of my previous skills just to have it not pan out. Oh well. The PC did come by later in the morning and apologized for her behaviour yesterday admitting she didn't exercise any self control the day before. I accepted the apology and it is nice to know that the company does follow through on their policy of requiring respectful behaviour from all their staff. However, someone with an anger management problem does not change their behaviour in such circumstances if the resulting outcome got them what they wanted.
My computer software was still inoperable and it took the IT people until noon to fix it. I focussed on getting some of the manual tasks done - like all the labelling. Spent the afternoon finishing off the last of the data entry. I should be finished this project tomorrow. We'll see what happens then.
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