Absurd Exercise

Today I had my appraisal. My manager was made redundant at the beginning of June so the next layer in the managerial layer cake stepped in to evaluate me and my skills and my professional development.

For the purposes of this communication I will refer to my current supervisory type as CM. My nickname for her is probably a bit too rude and politically incorrect to list in full. (Go ahead and make up your own version, it could be fun!)

CM doesn't believe in giving overly high marks in appraisals. She says that they indicate there's 'no room for improvement'. We were able to agree that there's no point in setting me any objectives for the coming year as it's quite likely I won't have a lot of spare time to take on additional tasks.

Its all on record...how ridiculous.

No Shit Sherlock

Today - as a I booked a flurry of couriers and gave directions to people who should have known where they were going anyway, I was asked what seemed to me the most ridiculous question I'd heard in a while. One of the medium cheeses leaned over the desk and with his smarmy smile enquired:

'So where's Imelda these days? Is she on an extended holiday?'

I was, as they say, gobsmacked. I informed him that Imelda's redundancy was made official about three months ago.

Then it was his turn to be gobsmacked. 'What do you mean...? She was with the company for years!'

'I know. Ten years, actually.' I shrugged and gave him my forced smile that tends to make top bods uncomfortable so they move along to bother someone else.

He has the grace to shake his head in amazement. 'I think it was more than ten years, I could have sworn she was with the company for longer than that.'

How strange that it takes that long for some people to notice things.