Monday, August 11, 2008

Painful...Just Painful

Recently one of my staff sent an email out to the CEO, HR Vice President, me, my boss, my boss' boss and a few other "persons of note." The subject line? "Reflections on 10 years". He was celebrating his 10-year anniversary.


Hello. Can you say, "Please please notice me!" any more obviously?


I have a hard time with this kind of obvious neediness.


But my boss? She totally fell for this. Hook. Line. Sinker. She strolled to his desk and said, "oh wonderful! We'll have to take you to lunch to celebrate."


Ok. I've been with the firm 18 years....and not since my 1st anniversary has anyone (other than the automated employee reward program) noticed nor taken me to lunch. And that is just fine with me.


The lunch has been cancelled twice (by me) due to conflicts, but finally the doomsday arrived and we headed out for our little celebration.


O.K. It got even more painful than the needy little email he sent.

  1. On the way there he asks, "Where are we going?" Upon reply, he gushes "Wow, an upscale restaurant, you guys must really like me."

  2. Once we arrive all three managers at the table ordered soft drinks. He asked, "O.K. if I get some wine?" (I would have said no, my boss answered, "sure!")

  3. THEN he asked, "If it's okay with all of you, I'd like to offer grace with a word of thanks for all of you and our company." Here I said, "No, I'm not comfortable with that." I mean, come on! First off, mixing religion and work is always inappropriate. Second, two of the four of us are Jewish and really not interested in praying to Jesus.

  4. We got past that awkward moment and his wine arrived. At which point he raised his glass and said, "To me!" Could it get any worse, you ask?

  5. Then, he asked about who we thought the next CEO might be...and would he ever be in the running somewhere down the line in his career?

My response should have been, "Keep Praying...." but instead I just kept my mouth shut.


Am I too sensitive to this? Am I too cynical? Or was this really as painful to hear about as it was to experience?

As far as I'm concerned, there is only room for one prayer in the workplace:


6 comments:

KiKi said...

I started to leave a snarky comment, but I think you've conveyed enough snarkiness for the both of us... besides, this left me not even knowing where to begin.

Mayhap the wine will put him to sleep and you won't have to suffer him the rest of the day.

Mister-M said...

Wow... I'm not sure how you managed to make it all the way to the end. I most certainly would have respectfully declined to attend.

Further, permitting alcohol to be consumed on company time not only sent the wrong message, but is an INCREDIBLE liability.

Wow! I mean... wow.

BestOMom1961 said...

Wow...leaves me wondering who that might be. I can only guess. I would have had the same gaggy reaction.

AmyBow said...

OMG. I am really really sorry. Hugs from maternity leave and a lunch date excuse anytime you need it once I return so you don't have to suffer through any more of these.

Jenn @ Juggling Life said...

I used to be heavily involved in Girl Scouting. I could not believe the amount of time and money some people want to spend thanking each other (read: themselves). I so never played--but what where they going to do? Fire me?!

A's Mom said...

You totally had me from the beginning... and then you had to throw the sweet little innocent face of a baby to make me laugh! Thanks I needed that.