THIS!! Best thing to discover on a Friday after a week from hell – a full day of no meetings and actually getting work done. *GASP* What? I get to get work done?!? I am not sure what I’ll do with myself.
This has been a crazy week. Lots of balls in the air – lots of things to reshuffle and make work because I hate not feeling like progress is not being made on a project. So hate it very much. Now that my co-PM is gone, I am making this my own in true Emmy “Get-Shit-Done” Project Methodology. It involves poking people until they get shit done. Get out the cat-tle prod and herd those cats with zapping if needed. Needless to say, this is going forward quite nicely, thank you.
But damn! Doing this while fighting a cold – a cold I do feel I am winning (thank you Wellness Formula tablets) and other fun things – and yeah, it’s been a long week.
Then last night was not fun. It started in the afternoon when a text from DJ told me she was stressed. She has a project for class to do, needed something from the store, had an hour long babysitting gig, then taekwondo. She gets home after the babysitting gig, then changes. We are walking out the door when I hand her the testing form and money for her test tomorrow. Take a kid who’s mood was anxious but good, and just giving her that form turned it sour. She truly started freaking out. All the way to taekwondo she is trying to convince me to let her not test.
“DJ, remember when I told you three weeks ago that you needed to talk to your instructors and ask they review thing with you between now and then to help?”
She nodded.
“Did you do that?”
She confirms she had not.
“Look, kid, this is just like school – you knew for 3 weeks that the material being taught is going to be on a huge test. Now it’s the night before the test and this is the first time you are saying anything about not understanding the material. And you are saying it’s not your fault yet you are the one not saying anything to indicate you need help. Here is the position you are putting me in as a parent. If I don’t bail you out, you freak out and fail the test tomorrow in hopes that you learn from this experience. If I bail you out, you continue not to ask for help – and you continue to do this to yourself – and you don’t learn anything. My job is to help you become a better person – if I let you not test (again), how is that making you a better person?”
She was in tears when I was done.
Because that is the worst part – she doesn’t do shit like this often. She takes care of things and follows through and does a great job working her ass off to improve. But when she does get stuck – oh, fuck – she does it spectacularly. And on one hand, I want to help her through it, but she won’t accept help in terms of “Moe trying to guide her on what to do” – nope, she digs her heals in, buries her head in the sand hoping we won’t notice – and lands in this situation.
After some more discussion, I understood her concerns – so I made a deal with her. She talks to her instructor before class. She asks for help. And if, after class she is truly unsure of what she needs to do to pass the test, I will let her delay. But she has to take action and work her ass off in class. She accepted the deal – far-from enthusiastically.
The director of the school is a woman who is pretty much the one who deals with the people aspect of it all – the parents, the kids, the scheduling, the billing, etc. She doesn’t teach – she directs and keeps it all going. I asked her if there were any others at DJ’s level testing – and she confirmed there was. Good. She looked at DJ who was still VERY uncomfortable doing what she has to do – and asked what was wrong. DJ told her – they talked – and she said “well, let’s help have the discussion with the head of the school because he’ll be here tonight.” Funny how when you ask for help, you will often find a lifeline.
After class, DJ comes up to me and says “where the form and the money for testing?” I gave it to her – and she turned it in. A huge weight was off her shoulders because, just like Moe said, she knew this crap. Reviewing it confirmed it. She felt more than ready to test now.
And I needed a stiff drink. Because while this was going on, G was dealing with Indigo completely fucking up her evening where she was supposed to go to a Job’s Daughters meeting and got 6 blocks from the place only to realize she forgot her robes. NO meeting for her.
The other milestone this week…..
drumroll please!
I am no longer in IT.
Officially Tuesday – I moved to the Enterprise Project Team in Operations. Basically the team has corporate-wide responsibilities and all. High profile stuff. What a difference a different team makes.
I moved to my new team and location on the top floor of our building.
I have people truly happy for me and my move and happy to have me on their project.
And a team that is small but pretty awesome.
My old boss came up from to escape the crazy that is IT. “Even the sane ones are going crazy, so I came to the calm floor.” We talked for about 30 min. He truly is not understanding the stupid. I even told him he looked tired. He said he was.
God am I happy I made this change.
The last story for today is about my conversation online with a friend. At one point, I almost asked her if she was in the same conversation window as me. Her responses to things were non sequitur in nature. “God I’m tired” was met with “the rain is pretty”. “I’m having Tom Yum Soup – a yummy soup that’s also fun to say” was met with “I need to try Pho”. “My cold is kicking my butt” was met with “cold stresses me out”. I should mention she doesn’t have a cold, she was talking about temperature. Even when I would respond to things appropriately, her response was like “why would you think that?” like she didn’t realize what she had just said. I started wondering if she was on drugs or something with her inability to even follow her own conversation. Finally, out of no where she goes …
“PEOPLE ARE MAKING ME SO NUTTY TODAY- YOU HAVE NO IDEA!!”
I almost feel out of my chair giggling.
Truly.
I leave you with some wisdom for Friday…
