Scribbles

I usually don't make political statements on this space, but if you happen to share my dislike of the RIAA and constant whining and lobbying to keep their near monopoly and Congress-granted right over obscene profits, then vote with your wallet, all $0.99 worth on iTunes.  This is only for today, so check it out and send them a message.

Less than two weeks left on my project here in Atlanta, just me and my trusty Russian colleague.  Our project leader left for a 2-week vacation in Mexico last Friday.  We’re not mad at him for chilling on the beach while we slave away here, after all he had it planned for ages and the project received an unexpected extension.  In many ways, I prefer it this way because I have the freedom to run things my way.

Last Thursday we held the major meeting of the project, what we call the Steering Committee meeting.  Think of it as finals for consultants.  A group of senior level executives, the CEO, COO, CFO, and all divisional VPs in our case, get together to hear about our progress and our suggestions.  Under this kind of scrutiny, the true personalities of partners, project leaders, and consultants reveal themselves.  Our project leader frantically modified and added content to the presentation according to individual meetings with these executives, trying to satisfy all the constituents ahead of the meeting.  The downside of this is that we don’t do the actual presenting; the client team leader here presents to the committee while we provide the support.  And changing slides 5 minutes before the meeting can make any presenter nervous.  The overwhelming workload leading up
to that meeting drained us for sure.  I counted out of the 16 week nights since February leading up to the meeting, we’ve left the office past 11pm 11 times, 7 of which past midnight.  I have been told that the typical projects here are not as demanding from the work lack-of-life perspective, so this would be an aberration.  My first project would confirm this.  Nonetheless, the non-stop work set us up to expect a bit of slowdown.

Originally we thought the remaining two weeks would run out rather calmly, mostly focusing on hand-off to the client so they can continue to run things smoothly after our departure.  Then the funny thing happened, we find ourselves saddled with additional work.  In the past few weeks in my interactions with clients, I’ve noticed an increased number of remarks on how adept we are at making slides.  Lo and behold, in the past two days we’ve been asked to help work on various presentations to the real higher ups back in the German HQ.  All this on top of our existing tasks.  I suppose it’s natural for the clients who pay the big bucks for our services to expect this, even if it goes beyond the scope of our original project.  And they’ve gotten used to seeing us work at all hours, so they figure dumping more on us shouldn’t be a problem.  The sad truth is we slide monkeys on the lower rung have no real say into this, leaving it to the partners to stick up for us.  In all fairness, we’ve been instructed not to push ourselves too hard for the extra work.  And in full disclosure, I somehow managed to get out of the office at 7:30 last night.  Walking out into the parking lot and seeing a few more cars other than mine, breathing in the fresh air, and the realization of having a full night of my own ahead almost brought a tear to my eye.  Good times.

Sometimes life is a like and Steve Martin and John Candy movie, albeit often without the humor.  Having spent my first winter in New York with next to zero weather disruptions, yesterday I endured the brunt of the late snow storm wacking the city in March.  When I arrived at Atlanta airport at half past six and walked up to the departure billboard, the flights to New York flashed “canceled” across the board.  Not a good feeling.  The woman at the Delta counter was very kind when she heard about my predicament.  At first she suggested routing me through Cincinnati, but quickly nixed that idea when she realized there was only 1 flight out of there to NY, and if that got canceled, I'd be stuck.  She then found me a connection via Washington DC, the nation's capitol.

I hopped on the plane to DC, my first time there.  Needless to say, all flights from there to NY got canceled as well.  Thank goodness for corporate credit cards.  I called Amtrak and booked one of few remaining seats on the train to NY.  From the airport, I took a cab to Union Station.  The weather there was pretty miserable as well, so I couldn't see much of the city.  On the way to the station, I caught the Washington Monument, you know, the big phallic symbol of US world hegemony.  Chauvinistic penii aside, I find the city an interesting place with tons of history, more than compelling enough for me to return for a proper visit.

Riding the Amtrak was another first for me.  (Yes, I am so West Coast, deal with it.)  The train ride turned out to be quite pleasant. There was a power plug in the cabin I sat in, and I was able to get some work done while listening to some tunes.  The bad didn't come until I arrived in Penn Station around 3pm.  One could see why the flights were canceled; snow, rain, sleet, slush all around.  It was dirty, ugly, and down right nasty.  And that didn't help for those waiting in the taxi line for 45 minutes.  Having grown accustomed to Atlanta's 60+ degree weather, shivering in line under freezing rain after the day long travel detour was simply miserable.

In the cab I decided to skip the office, considering I'd only be there for 1-2 hours, and for what, turning in expense reports?  I went straight home, committed to staying there, and opted to call into whatever remaining meetings I had for the rest of the day.  Thank goodness for hot tea and local food delivery.

Total travel time door to door: 10 hours.  Total sleep time: 1 hour on the plane.  Total Steve Martin Ironic/Miserable Moments: 45 minutes.  Total time in the office: 0.

Quite an apt description of all the recent happenings and today in particular.  Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!  Finally feeling the iron grip of work on my life loosening a bit, so I will allow myself to be swept away by college basketball fervor.

Arrived in Atlanta late last night in an attempt to get a leg up on some work since I'll be traveling to Germany on Tuesday for meetings and trainings.  The idea was to get some face time with the client early in the morning, and not deal with wandering into the office at 11 like a zombie, a frequent occurrence after 5am post-weekend alarm clocks.  While that was successful, I'm finding myself a bit moody on this fine Monday.  Despite the glorious sun and warm climate, I'm begging to feel the effects of the heavy workload, including consecutive weekends of traveling for work, encroaching on my mental well-being.

I came to the realization of the level of social interaction I need, as a creature, to feel well.  This has been noticeable when I'm utterly depressed in the team room cranking out slides and spreadsheets, in contrast to some of the utter highs while interacting with clients.  Even the bad interactions turn out entertaining.  For instance, at one meeting after I presented the agenda slide, one VP said in broken English, “I canceled this meeting; I decided not to attend today” (prompting everyone's bewilderment at his presence.)  And then another VP immediately chimed in with “I think this meeting is a fucking waste of time” voiced in a colorful Irish accent.  But I digress, back to the main issue.  Part of the problem is the lack of a social network while traveling.  There are none of the mini social breaks one can take.  For instance, if I feel like ranting about a colleague or my work, I can't find a neutral party to do this over a cup of jo.  But on the road, if I just want a break from the usual set of faces, there's nobody I can call up for a quick lunch break.

I tried to put this in perspective of other professions that require extended hours from their serfs; two came to mind: i-banking and start-ups in general.  Still for those, the local social network is there, and they have more colleagues to interact with.  But I'm not going to just complain, since someone told me that good consultants not only come up with problems, but with solutions.  My idea is to be more aggressive about forcing client interactions (even if it's the bad kind, such as “give me the damn data now!”), and being more extroverted about connecting with people.  For instance, my project leader has daily audiences with the CFO as they meet outside smoking.  While I'm not ready to go down that path, there are options.  Nonetheless, for people such as myself, who rely more on existing infrastructure to network, having to do so takes extra, deliberate effort.  For the true extroverts, this isn't even an issue.

I am looking forward to the end of March, marking the conclusion of my project, my six-month stint in consulting, and hopefully some approved time off.  My colleagues confirmed that our current project workload exceeds that of the average.  And that has been eating into my personal life in a huge way, and making weekends much less productive and fun due to the necessary recuperation.  So by the end of the month, I will receive my first evaluation by the powers above, as well as perform my usual introspective self-review.  I'll definitely share my insights on this forum.  Until then, I will be slaving away and feeling a bit moody on these Garfield Mondays.