Arontius of Bygelswade

.....It has been an interesting couple of weeks, as evidenced by the utter lack of entries in my Live Journal. :-)

.....Ever since my return from Crane, Indiana, there has been a definite shift in attitude at work. The big boss is still the proverbial seagull manager (an amazingly accurate depiction from TBT of how he operates :-)), but a couple of things have happened that alternately make me a little bemused and a lot scared. :-)

.....The Big Boss called me into his office late last week for my evaluations. Since we're going to a new personnel system, he had to do close out evaluations under the old system for all of his people. I cringed, but resigned myself to a lengthy lecture on 'how I can improve myself'. But, that did not happen. Instead, he sat there for thirty minutes and gave me a wonderful review on everything I've done to support him over the past year. When he handed back my forms every entry was marked as high as he could. OMG! When did the aliens take over his body?! He NEVER gives those kinds of ratings to his people. I was humbled as hell. But only for a couple of hours. Later that afternoon he did another strafing run of a meeting I was running. Managed to make me look like an idiot in no seconds flat and left the room with everyone present fuming. :-)

.....The real change in attitude though has been connected with the level of responsibility I'm being given these days. In the past when the really BIG decisions needed to be made, those involving multi-million dollar contracts or what direction to send hundreds of resources, it was an automatic thing for me to take those really big decisions into the Big Boss' office and let him make the ultimate decision. Lately though whenever I've done that he's turned around and told me to do the research, make the decision and announce it myself. As a Planning Manager I supposedly get paid to make those decisions. Holy Crap! I never realized what a burden that was until I started carrying it. I also never realized just how many times I took those big decisions into his office. For the third time this week yesterday I sat an agonized over an e-mail for over an hour that basically told a bunch of high level people that we needed to pull the plug on a huge job, a job in which we have put in a mega amount of time and money in planning. It made me pucker a little. Definitely gave me a headache.

.....Which was not a good thing just before the Business Meeting. Especially the Business Meeting before June Faire. There is a lot of anxiety this year because of the new site and its lay-out. We gave a hard job to a first time June Faire autocrat, Alis. I'm pulling hard for her. But there are unknowns, even at this stage. A lot of questions left to be answered. Their Excellencies are also anxious. They are naturally concerned for June Faire itself, for the ultimate success of the Barony and all of its people. We're all on the same page in that regard. But we all think just a little differently on how we're going to get from Point A to Point B. Which leads to a little contention. Thankfully we're all good friends. I just have to remind myself periodically that when I start feeling anxious and start finding myself being short with Their Excellencies, I need to stop, take a deep breath, and think through what I'm thinking, what They are saying and then think about what I'm then going to say. It's a lesson. The things you practice at work are not things you necessarily want to practice amongst friends. Sigh! I need to become a multi-billionaire so that I can HIRE a team of people to do June Faire exactly the way *I* want to see it run. :-)

.....If you see Alis, give her a hug, she could use it. Between an anxious set of coronets, an anxious Seneschal, and a rambunctious team, she's got a tough job. Which she is handling well. But she could use all the additional support she can get! :-)

.....Aaron / Arontius.