3 posts tagged “work”
Every now and then we all need a good ego boost. I'm back in the home state for a long weekend, attending a workshop at Yale on Monday.
I needed to get out of the house this afternoon, so I went over to one of the malls. I walked into Williams-Sonoma and who should be working there but my boss's boss from my old insurance company job. As soon as I saw her I remembered someone had emailed me that she works there now. It was SO great to see her! When I left the insurance company I was pretty sure I had everyone's support. But to have Mary come right out and tell me today that I did the right thing by leaving, was just fabulous! We talked about how we miss the people, but not the stress of the job. We agreed that we didn't realize how bad it had been until we left. Though we didn't chat for long, It was so wonderful to be able to talk openly with her about the situation. She worked for the company for most of her 30 year career. At what turned out to be her final performance review, the woman Mary was reporting to told her she didn't have leadership skills. As if! Reviews are given on a scale of 5, with 1 being the best. Mary was given a 4. Unbelievable, though it is a story I have heard many times in the past few years.
I certainly made some very good friends at my old job. It always hurts when I hear how horribly upper management has been treating them over the past few years. By the same token I am always glad to learn of others who are able to find happiness once they leave Asylum Ave (seriously, that is the street we worked on).
I know that a lot of men have trouble with style and fashion, but poor Mr. Humphries is way behind the times. He recently started wearing a shirt that must have been in his closet since the 70s. It is a white shirt with many vertical stripes in a variety of colors. Maybe someday I will be able to capture it with the camera on my cell phone. He wears a tie everyday, and obviously hasn't updated his collection in a while. Several are fraying at the edges, and he has more than one that is goldenrod. I didn't know clothing was produced in that color.
Today Mr. Humphries managed to trump all of his past fashion transgressions. Tartan trousers. Bright, red, wool, tartan trousers. We had the office Christmas party today, and Mr. Humphries pulled out the party pants. Topped with a blue button down and one of the favorite goldenrod ties, Mr. Humphries was a sight to be seen. When I first saw him this morning it was all I could do to resist bursting into laughter.
I have to give him this, however. He provided quite the conversation starter at the party!
We are deaccessioning a few books at work. I have been looking at them for a while, but hadn't found anything that really seemed worth paying for. The other day, however, I found a copy of Make Way for Ducklings, a family favorite. It is from Dec. 1945, the seventh printing. There was also a copy from the sixth printing (Feb. '45), but this one is in better shape. The really neat thing about both copies is that on the page with the copyright there is a note:
In completely unrelated news, I bought myself a new Christmas tree today. I bought one a few years ago, but decided to leave it behind in Ann Arbor. This one is pretty much the same - 3 ft. with little white lights.
It is kind of strange getting ready for Christmas when it is just starting to feel like Halloween. The south is a strange place, that's for sure.
