The Week That Ate My Brain.

.....Well, actually, it has been the year that ate my brain. Ever since we came back from the December shut down period we've been frantic with worry. We were informed that we were to be audited by our for-real bosses at NAVSEA. Although it was not called an audit by them. In today's terminology it is called 'Program Review'. By whatever name it is called, it still caused a lot of terror and nervousness on the part of my management. I've had dozens and dozens of meetings. Answered hundreds of datacalls. Given hundreds of status reports. Spent hundreds of hours of time and effort preparing Powerpoint Presentations to codify and explain our current plans.

.....The audit team arrived on Wednesday and we met for our review yesterday and today. I actually raided my closet and dug out my button up white dress shirt and black tie, just for this occasion. The shirt was about three sizes too big for me, a twenty inch neck for when I was at least a hundred pounds heavier than I am now. The black tie was a mottled black skinny tie that screamed '80's, as it was the tie I wore back then when I was trying to emulate the lead singer from Mr. Mister. :-)

.....The tie was not lost upon my breathern at work as I was amazed at how many people asked me if I had raided Boy George's closet for today's wardrobe. :-)

.....The Big Boss (tm) showed his usual flair for leadership. He called me into his office and gutted my plans several times, gave me a page and a half of 'go-dos' and generally what-if'ed my details to death. Demoralization is his method for 'toughening' up his troops. For some reason he seems to think that this style will make his people stronger. I personally disgree with this method, but who am I to question my manager?

.....I'm used to this style, so it didn't unduly unsettle me. But I was definitely nervous going into this. I've been so freakishly busy that I was worried about the details I was never able to fully investigate. I had to trust that my team did the legwork to which they themselves had committed. It was a good lesson for me in that regard, the ability to trust that others will do as they committed.

.....I was actually rather proud of my team. They had done their work thoroughly. We presented a rather sound plan. We proved that we had thought through most of the possible obstacles. Even when issues came up we presented good work arounds. The NAVSEA representatives actually had very little negatives on which to comment.

.....Today's outbrief had most of the Shipyard's Senior Leadership in attendance. NAVSEA presented our plan as sound. They had Action Items for us to complete, but none of the actions were insurmountable at all, and all of them were good ideas so I had no complaints. The middle boss kept wanting to open his mouth and give us additional items, to the point that every time I saw him stir I wanted to wad up some paper and stuff it in his mouth. At one point I actually sat on my hands to keep them from clenching.

.....But the bottom line is that we survived. The efforts of the past five weeks resulted in success. I was given the green light to continue with our project and we happily started spending the millions of dollars shifted into our budget line.

.....The truly scary, alien, John-Carpenter portion of the day happened at the very end when the Big Boss (tm) sudden appeared, as if from The Fog in front of my desk and extended his hand in congratulations. I automatically took it. But I did silently remind myself to NOT wipe the hand off obviously while he was looking. :-) But I was taken off guard. Which I am starting to wonder if he does on purpose. After spending the last couple of days absolutely tearing apart every freakin' detail of my plan he suddenly shows up and congratulates me for doing something well?

.....Freak!

.....Oh, well, now I can relax just a bit. At least for a week or so. I think that I am going to look forward to at least a week or two of actually getting off of work on time for a change. :-)

.....Aaron.