I was sick as a dog most of last week and all weekend. I think spending three days huffing up hippie dust at Zilker Park caught up with me. It started off as a cold but metastasized into a sinus infection, so I went to the doctor, who told me that my nasal passages deserved a starring role in the Medical Book of Terrifying Disease Photos, somewhere between the entries for shingles and syphillis.
Anyway, all better now.
So I have a new boss at work, and I don't know whether I'm going to be able to get along with this guy. When you communicate with me, I want you to be clear, direct, and to the point. I don't want to have to wade through thickets of academic lingo or business school jargon, just to figure out what the fuck you are trying to tell me. For example:
"Hey Boss, do you know whether project X is approved for next year?"
For most people, this is clearly a question that can be answered with a yes, a no, or an I don't know. But Boss is not most people.
"Well, in terms of the prioritization process, where we are relative to the overall strategic prioritization is that the enterprise level initiatives have been divided into four different buckets of work that are aligned with the framework that the senior team has approved for 2005. So what will happen now is that all the product and practice level project proposals will have to go through a detailed cost-benefit analysis to see if they can be justified or if they negatively impact the P&L. The proposed projects that get through the CBA screen will then be lined up against the strategic domains that we previously identified at the extended leadership team meeting, and then next week..."
BANG! "Sorry, Boss. That was the sound of me beating my fucking brains out rather than listen to you for one more goddamned second."
